School teacher Judy Andrews helps Ellaun Williams (center)
and Brittany McCain of St. Louis gather sap from the trees.

School for Blind kids help
make real maple syrup

Kids from the Missouri School for the Blind got a taste of how to make real maple syrup. That's a process that starts with gathering sap from maple trees.

(For more information about how you could make maple syrup, see sidebar below.)

Several of the kids already knew about maple syrup making. They'd read "Little House" books by Missouri author Laura Ingalls Wilder. One of her stories dealt with making maple syrup during days on the American frontier.

But, this time, the kids learned about maple syrup making first hand. They took a field trip last month to the Rockwood Reservation in west St. Louis County.

February is the ideal month for collecting maple sap in Missouri. The warm days and cool nights start sap flowing upward from the roots to the limbs. It's the sugar in the sap that provides food so the limbs can grow leaves for the new season.

The kids went into the woods to gather sap that had been dripping into buckets overnight. They poured the thin sap into a special gas-fired cooker. There, water is boiling off to concentrate the sugar into syrup.

Then, came the fun part. The kids gave newly-made syrup a taste test on waffles.

Many of them thought the real maple syrup was sweeter than syrup they had at home. That syrup usually is made from corn syrup with artificial maple flavoring added.

Ten-year-old Skily Smith of Webster Groves said the real maple syrup "tasted better; it seemed sweeter."

Skily Smith

Ellaun Williams

But, nine-year-old Ellaun Williams of St. Louis said, "I don't think I could make the syrup by myself. But, it looked like fun."

Keri Lanning teaches the maple-syrup class at the Rockwood Reservation. She explained that making syrup requires a lot of work. The sap that comes from the maple trees has only 2% sugar content. It needs to be cooked for a long time to concentrate the sugar. .

It takes 40 gallons of sap to make just one gallon of real maple syrup.

She also told the kids about an old Indian fable about why the maple sap now only contains a little bit of sugar.

The old fable says maple trees originally had sap that was thick and sweet as syrup without any cooking. It also flowed all year long. But, the Indian God found the Indians would just break off a tree limb, lay on the ground and let the sweet sap drip into their mouths.

The God saw that the Indians were getting fat and lazy. He wanted them to be thin and active. So, he forced lots of extra water into the maple trees.

That made the sap thin like it is now. The thinner sap didn't even have much of a sugary taste anymore. The God also made sure the sap only flowed during February.

Fourteen-year-old Amanda Stogsdill of Hillsboro was asked if she thought the Indian story was true. She said, "It kinda, sorta could have been true." But, she was also one who had learned about maple syrup making from one of Wilder's "Little House" stories.

Amanda Stogsdill

Kurt Elliot

Twelve-year-old Kurt Elliott of St. Louis was another kid who thought the concentrated maple syrup was good. "It's way much better than the syrup I get at home," he said.

Before going into the woods, Keri Lanning explained how the sap gathering works.

First, she said sap is only gathered from older maple trees. Those would be trees that were at least 10 inches in diameter. That would mean the tree was about 30 years old.

She said only older trees should be tapped. That's because young trees need all the sap they make to grow. You can hurt these small trees by tapping them.

She used a comparison of humans giving blood to help others who are sick. She said kids can't give blood because they need all they have for their own growth. But, adults have enough blood that donating a pint doesn't hurt them.

To collect the sap, you drill a hole into the tree trunk. The hole is about two inches deep. Then, you stick a wooden or metal spigot into the hole. By hanging a bucket on the spigot, you can collect the sap one drip at a time.

Lanning said you have to be sure you put a cover on the bucket or forest animals might come and drink the sap. They like the sugar too, she said.

After the kids gathered the sap, they went to the evaporator. This one was gas-fueled. They got close so they could smell the steam as the water was boiled off. Ellaun Williams said she like the smell of the steam.

But, the kids liked the taste of the fully-cooked syrup much better.

Quorey Jenkins of Herman tastes the finished syrup on a waffle

 

Places to find information about making maple syrup Instructor Keri Lanning gave out printed material with more about maple syruping. This information included companies that sell equipment to do your own backyard maple-syrup making. Here are some websites you can access about maple syruping: www.massmaple.org www.ivic.qc.ca/abriweb www.com-site.com/cedarvale www.spruceharbor.com/commun~1/kitchen/maple www.tourcanada.com/msyrup www.goshen.edu/merrylea/sugar/maple Some companies that sell maple syruping equipment listed were: Richards Maple Products 545 Water St. Chardon, OH 44024 Tel: 800-352-4025. Sugar Bush Supplies 2611 Okemos Rd. Mason, MI 48854 Tel: (517) 349-5185 G.H. Grimm P.O. Box 13 Rutland, VT 05702 Tel: (802) 775-5411 Schumbach Maple, Inc. 7288 Haynes Hollow Rd. West Falls, NY 48854 Tel: (716) 652-8189 A couple recent books about maple syruping are: "Sweet Maple: Life, Lore & Recipes from the Sugarbush," by James Lawrence and Martin Tux, (Chapters Publishing, Shelburne, TV, 1993. "Ininatig's Gift of Sugar," by Laura W. Wittstock, (Lerner Publications, Inc., Minneapolis, MN, 1993.