| This past March and in the first weeks
of April we, in New England, Eastern Canada and upper New
York state, are blessed with a gift available no where else
in the world: maple
syrup. It is
true that elsewhere Birch trees are tapped and the sap
boiled into syrup used in food such as Birch beer soda.
Yet Sugar Maple trees only grow in this part of the
world. While
other Maple trees contain some sugar, only the Sugar Maple
contains enough to make syrup.
The American Indians taught us how to use the sap and
make the golden liquid. They accomplished this using a large
hollowed out tree trunk pouring the sap into the vessel
added hot rocks to the sap as it gradually evaporated to
form the syrup and sugar.
|
Sugar Maple in
late Autumn |
Forty gallons of sap are needed to make
one gallon of syrup. The
process begins when a hole is drilled into the maple tree; a
spout is forced into the hole allowing the sap to flow into
a bucket or in more modern operations, into plastic tubing.
The sap is then poured into an evaporator tank.
The sap is heated and sent through a maze of baffles
beginning at one end of this large tank to the other end
gradually increasing sugar content to 65% sugar or maple
syrup by the time it reaches the far end and a spigot. The
syrup is then poured off hot into 50 gallon barrels for
later use or into containers for sale. Since
the water content of the sap is so high it is never
something a hobbyist should attempt in the kitchen at home.
I know of such a case where the homeowner
accidentally removed all the wallpaper on the kitchen walls
when making maple sugar in the house. A sugar house is
usually built near the Maple tree grove. Many farmers
still use wood for making maple syrup. Some
use gas or oil fired evaporators. A sugar house in use is
easy enough to spot with it chimney billowing large amounts
of steam.
Many New Englanders favored maple syrup
and sugar as a major source of sweetener in the nineteenth
century. As
white sugar was often produced using slave labor, Yankee New
Englanders with their long history of slavery abolition
movements and under ground railroad safe-houses preferred
maple sugar to white sugar resulting in many recipes using
the delicious syrup. While
white sugar is no longer being produced by slaves, I follow
the tradition of my ancestors and use this syrup often and
all year round. A
note as to how to keep it- put the syrup in the freezer of
your refrigerator. It
contains a natural antifreeze and will remain liquid at very
low temperatures. When
you want to use it simply pour it out of the container.
It pours a little thicker and slower than normally
but can be used immediately.
It will keep well in the freezer for a year or more.
I am including a couple of recipes
which I have often used.
The first is a maple pecan pie.
This pie has all the flavor and more of the
traditional pie yet tastes far less sweet and is to my
tongue more palatable than the Southern pie. The second
recipe is for cornbread.
This recipe is especially healthy because contains
part whole wheat flour and part corn flour. As a side note,
I try to use corn flour which is not “de-germinated”, a
term used for flour which has the nutritious part of the
flour removed. Because
this flour spoils more quickly, I keep this in the freezer
as well.
Maple
Pecan Pie
Corn
Bread
| Another delight of early spring in
New England
are the early wild flowers.
These native plants grow under trees before leaves
have fully formed. The
sunlight reaches the floor of the woodland at this time
inviting a delightful woodland garden to spring up.
These flowers enjoy the damp of early spring as well
and will fade soon after the leaves arrive.
Among those that I have observed are Nodding Trillium
(or Tillium Cernuum). As their name implies, they have three
leaves, three petals and three sepals under the petals.
The flower on this Trillium is on a stem that seems
to be nodding asleep. It
is primarily white with some pink. |
|
| The next one is a green flower called
Jack-in-the-Pulpit (or Arisaema).
It is unusual in color but also shape as the single
green spathe gently curves over a single club shaped spadix.
Someone believed that this looked like a preacher in
the pulpit- hence the name.
While these are protected plants now, the root tubers
were once used as food by the American Indians.
More
on Jack here.. |
|
| This plant is called the Wood Anemone (or Anemome
quinquefolia). This
ancient plant also grows in
Europe
. It does not
have true petals. If
you look under the flower there are no sepals or green leaf
like structures. In
fact the sepals developed into petals.
This plant was once considered dangerous and the
flower of witches. Careful
people stepped around this plant to avoid spells of witches.
|
|
| This last plant is more likely to flower in May.
It is a true orchid and it comes several varieties.
The most familiar and frequent is called Lady Slipper
or Moccasin Flower (Cypripedium Acaule).
This plant is also protected and it is illegal to
move it. This orchid depends upon a certain
fungi on its roots and this is available only in certain
especially acid soils. Generally
the plant will live for a couple of years if moved
and then die from the lack of available fungi.
Lady Slipper is one of our most beautiful woodland
flowers.
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These are just a sample of the many flowers growing
in our woodlands. Here’s wishing you a wonderful spring in what
I believe is one of the most beautiful places to be in
spring-
New England.
http://www.massmaple.org/treeID.html
- this link takes you to more maple syrup recipes and maple
tree identification information.
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