7th Generation - Making Sugar

Sugar Bush

Many people find Michigan pure Maple Syrup to be the finest and tastiest in the world. Try some today. We're sure you'll agree!

Sap flow in maple trees will not occur every day throughout the tapping season. It occurs when a rapid warming trend in early to midmorning follows a cool night. Thus, the amount of sap produced varies from day to day. Normally, a single taphole produces from a quart to a gallon of sap per flow period, with a seasonal accumulation of 10 to 12 gallons per taphole likely.

Ziibaakdoke - collecting the sap

Ziibaakwad - maple sugar

Ziibaakdaaboo- maple sap

Facts:

The production of pure maple syrup is the oldest agricultural enterprise in the U.S.
In an average year, each taphole will produce about 10 gals of maple sap, enough for about a quart of pure maple syrup.
A maple tree needs to be about 40 years old before it will be large enough to tap for syrup production.
The maple season in Michigan starts in February in the southern counties and runs well into April in the Upper Peninsula.
Maple sap is boiled to remove the water and comcentrate the sugars in a process called evaporation.

THE LEGEND OF MAPLE SYRUP

The Native Americans were the first people to make maple syrup, which can be expected, since they were the first inhabitants of North America, and this is the only part of the world in which Maple syrup can be made. If you think about everything that is needed to make a maple syrup, the proper season, the proper tree, it makes you wonder how anyone ever thought to try it.

The following is a Native American Legend about how the first maple syrup was made.

One day in early spring, an Indian chief came home from a long day of hunting and stuck his tomahawk in one of the trees outside of his longhouse, as he did everynight. Now, being that maple trees are very abundant in his area, this happened to be a maple.

The next morning the chief woke and left for another hunt, taking his tomahawk from the tree. It just happened that there was a bowl, directly under the gash made by the chief's tomahawk. As the warm spring sun shone on the maple tree, the sap began to run out of the gash, down the truck and dripped into the bowl. As evening approached, the chief's daughter decided to use this "water". As the dinner boiled, the "water", which was actually maple sap, had boiled down to the first maple syrup. With a little experimenting, the chief and his daughter discovered how and when to make this new all natural sweetner. From that point on, maple syrup became an important part of the Native American's diet.

AAbizikaawin School learns the traditional way for boiling sap
Milton Pelcer describes the process of making maple syrup