Where is syrup from

Stainless steel pans sit atop an arch, or firebox, where either oil or wood creates an intense fire. As the water in the sap evaporates, the sap thickens. Even though it looks like the finished product it will still need to be filtered, adjusted for density and graded for flavor and color. Sugar makers that burn wood, stay busy splitting and stacking wood. Make sure to include maple in your holiday gift giving. Sugar making requires ideal weather conditions from Mother Nature and as the climate continues to change, maple sap harvesting is highly sensitive to temperature changes of only a few degrees as well as unusual temperature volatility.

Today, most commercial operations use plastic taps and plastic tubing so the sap can flow to a central location. The sap is evaporated in large, flat pans that are heated with wood, gas or electricity. The best days for sap collection are days where the temperature is above freezing during the day and below freezing at night prior to bud formation.

Sign up for our Newsletter! Mobile Newsletter banner close. Mobile Newsletter chat close. Mobile Newsletter chat dots. Mobile Newsletter chat avatar. Mobile Newsletter chat subscribe. After filtering, the syrup is bottled and is ready for sale or ready for a fresh pile of warm pancakes. The length of the sugaring season is totally dependent upon the weather.

It may last only a few weeks, or as long as six or eight weeks. As the days become increasingly warmer, and the nights rarely get below freezing, the buds on the branches of the maple trees begin to swell, marking the end of the season.

Chemical changes take place within the tree as baby leaves begin to form within the buds. At this time the sap is no longer suitable for boiling down into syrup. Sugarmakers know it is now time to clean up all the buckets, spouts, tanks, and miles of tubing with plenty of hot water so that the equipment can be put into storage and ready for the next winter.

MMPA is a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation and promotion of maple sugaring in Massachusetts. The beginning of the season There is no set time when a sugarmaker must tap the trees.

Temperatures are not as extreme as earlier in the winter. Streams run with melting snow and icicles drip faster. Crows can be heard announcing the not-too-distant arrival of spring. The sugar content ranges from one to four percent.

Sweeter sap is favored because less water will have to be evaporated to make maple syrup. The sap must be evaporated as soon as possible because the freshest sap makes the best quality syrup.

The sap is collected from each tree by workers using large gathering pails. These pails are dumped into the gathering tank, which is then taken to a large sap storage tank at the sugarhouse, where it will soon be boiled down into pure maple syrup. If the tubing system is being used, the sap drips from the taphole, through the spout, and into a network of plastic tubing.

Wood, oil, gas, wood chips or wood pellets are burned at the front end, and the flames are drawn along the underside of the pan, heating and boiling the sap as they travel towards the rear. You just have to kind of fine-tune the process and know how to do it a little bit differently from maple syrup— the different processes, temperatures, times that will make them successful— which is what the UNH study is trying to do, is kind of get some best practices together to help more people get into this.

Annie, thanks so much for joining me. I appreciate it. All rights reserved. Science Friday transcripts are produced on a tight deadline by 3Play Media. Kathleen Davis is a producer at Science Friday, which means she spends the week brainstorming, researching, and writing, typically in that order.

John Dankosky works with the radio team to create our weekly show, and is helping to build our State of Science Reporting Network. He and his wife have four cats, thousands of bees, and a yoga studio in the sleepy Northwest hills of Connecticut.

As a key ingredient in everything from asphalt to microchips, scientists are trying to make sand extraction more ecologically friendly.

Science Friday. Latest Episode. Sap flow sensors gather data from a beech tree in Lee. Beech sap steams down into syrup in a pot in Lee. Sap lines connect beech trees in Lee as part of the UNH research. Subscribe to our preview newsletter. Segment Guests Annie Ropeik. More From Guest. Segment Transcript. Thanks for having me. Meet the Producers and Host Kathleen Davis. John Dankosky.