Native Americans
Pre-contact native peoples, living in the northeastern part of North America, were the first people known to have produced maple syrup and maple sugar. According to their oral traditions, as well as archaeological evidence, maple tree sap was being processed for its sugar content long before Europeans arrived in the region.
The Algonquins recognized the sap as a source of energy and nutrition. At the beginning of the spring thaw, they used stone tools to make V-shaped incisions in the trees, then inserted reeds or concave pieces of bark to run the sap into buckets, which were often made from birch bark. The maple sap, already rich in sugar content and yet not sweet-tasting, was concentrated either by dropping hot cooking stones into the buckets, or by leaving them exposed to the cold temperatures overnight, and disposing of the layer of ice which formed on top.
First Nations and Native Americans also used earthenware cooking pots to boil the maple sap. They heated it over simple fires protected only by a roof of tree branches.
Colonial to modern times
A 19th-century illustration, "Sugar-Making Among the Indians in the North" (note the use of metal containers, introduced as a result of European contact)
In the early stages of European colonization, in north-eastern North America, native peoples showed the arriving colonists how to tap (into) the trunks of certain types of maple tree during the end-of-winter/early-spring thaw, harvest the sap, and boil it to evaporate some of the water, concentrating the sugar content within the remaining liquid, and altering its taste somewhat, by heat-caramelizing some of the sugars. This activity quickly became an integral part of colonial life. Well before the beginning of the 1700s, European settlers and fur traders, as well as Native Americans, were intensively involved in the industry. During the 17th and 18th centuries, processed maple sap was a major source of concentrated sugar, in both liquid and crystallized-solid form. The Europeans revised the processing methods somewhat, with their access to more advanced technologies; particularly in metallurgy, toolmaking, and the use of domesticated animals. Typically, maple sugaring parties began to operate at the start of the spring thaw in regions of woodland known to contain sufficiently large numbers of maples, concentrated within a reasonable range of transportation to justify the effort. They first bored holes in the trunks of the maples, usually more than one hole per large tree, inserted home-made (usually carved wooden) spouts into the holes, and then hung a wooden bucket from the protruding end of each spout to collect the sap. The buckets were commonly made by cutting bucket-sized cylindrical segments from an appropriately large tree-trunk and then hollowing out each segment's core from one end of the cylinder, creating a seamless watertight container. Sap slowly filled the buckets, drop by drop. Periodically, members of the sugaring party returned to retrieve the sap new era detriot tigers hats that had accumulated. It was then either transferred to larger holding vessels ( barrels, large pots, or hollowed-out wooden logs) often mounted on sledges or wagons pulled by draft animals or it was carried in buckets, or similarly convenient containers. The sap-collection buckets were returned to the spouts mounted on the trees, and the process was repeated for as long as the flow of sap remained "sweet". The specific weather conditions of the late-winter/early-spring "thaw" period were, and still are, critical in determining the length of the "sugaring" season. As the weather continues to warm, a maple tree's normal early spring biological process eventually alters the taste of the sap, making it unpalatable. Depending on conditions, a sugaring party could spend several days to several weeks engaged in these activities. The boiling process was time consuming. The harvested sap was transported back to the party's base camp, where it was then poured into large, (almost always) metal vessels and boiled to achieve the desired consistency. The sap was usually processed at a central collection point, either over a fire built out in the open, or inside a shelter built for that purpose. To protect themselves from the weather conditions of the very early spring, sugaring parties built a small camp. Often, whole families moved into the woods together to collect and boil the sap producing both maple syrup and maple sugar.
By the 1850s, the "sugar shack" or "sugarhouse" (the outdoor shack or building used to boil down the sap) arrived as we know it today. The settlers had refined the methods for collecting the sap. The sap was transported using large barrels pulled by horses or oxen and brought to the sugar shack for processing. At this time, maple sugar was the only sugar available as other types of sugar were hard to find and expensive and was called "country sugar". Production methods have been streamlined since colonial days, yet remain basically the same. Sap must first be collected and boiled down carefully to obtain pure syrup without chemical agents or preservatives.
Early maple syrup was made by boiling approximately forty gallons (160?l) of sap over an open fire until one gallon (4?l) of syrup was obtained.
This process underwent little change over the first two hundred years of recorded maple syrup making. Around the time of the American Civil War, syrup makers started using new era detriot tigers hats a large flat sheet metal pan as it was more efficient for boiling than a heavy rounded iron kettle which let much of the heated air slide past.
Virtually all syrup makers in the past were self-sufficient dairy farmers who made both syrup and sugar for their own use and for extra income. The process continued to evolve as a result of the innovations developed in their work. In 1864, a Canadian borrowed some design ideas from sorghum evaporators and put a series of baffles in the flat pans to channel the boiling sap. In 1872 a Vermonter developed an evaporator with two pans and a metal arch or firebox which greatly decreased boiling time. Seventeen years later, in 1889, another Canadian bent the tin that formed the bottom of a pan into a series of flues which increased the heated surface area of the pan and again decreased boiling time.
The technology remained the same until the 1960s, when it was no longer a self sufficient enterprise with large families as farm hands. Because syrup making was so labor intensive, farmers could no longer afford to hire the large crews it took to gather all the buckets and haul the sap to the evaporator house. During the energy crunch of the 1970s, syrup makers responded with another surge of technological breakthroughs. Tubing systems, which had been experimented with since the early part of the century were perfected and the sap came directly from the tree to the evaporator house. Vacuum pumps were added to the tubing systems. Pre-heaters were developed to recycle heat lost in the steam. Reverse-osmosis machines were developed to take a portion of water out of the sap before it was boiled. Several producers even obtained surplus desalinization machines from the U.S. Navy and used them to take a portion of water out of the sap prior to boiling.
The technological developments continue. Improvements in tubing, new filtering techniques, "supercharged" preheaters, and better storage containers have been developed. Research continues on pest control and improved woodlot management. In 2009, the University of Vermont unveiled a new type of tap which prevents backflow of sap into the tree, reducing bacterial
Production
Maple syrup production is centered in northeastern North America, and is commonly associated with Quebec in Canada; however, given the correct weather conditions, it can be made wherever maple trees grow. Usually, the maple species used are the sugar maple (Acer saccharum) and the black maple (Acer nigrum), because of a high sugar content in the sap of roughly two percent. A maple syrup production farm is called a "sugar bush" or "the sugarwoods". Sap is often boiled in a "sugar house" (also known as a "sugar shack" or cabane sucre), a building which is louvered at the top to vent the steam from the boiling sap.
Canada makes more than 80 percent of the world's maple syrup, producing about 26.5 million litres in 2005. The vast majority of this comes from Quebec: the province is by far the world's largest producer, with about 75 percent of the world production (24.66 million litres in 2005). Production in Quebec is controlled through a supply-management system, with producers receiving quota allotments from the Fdration des producteurs acricoles du Qubec. The province also maintains it own "strategic reserves" of maple syrup, which reached its highest point in 2004, when it totalled 60 million pounds, or 17.03 million litres.
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