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E6 Maple Syrup 101 · Two Tools, No Clue

• Jey & Anna: Welcome to the Two Tools No Clue podcast. I'm Anna. And I'm Jeiden. And today we have no clue about maple syrup. I love maple syrup. Do you need a whole sugar shack to make your own? We have no clue, but we'll find out together. But first, what's going on on the homestead? Well, today we're recording this on February 1st. Yep. And is my grandma's 78th birthday today. She is going strong. She doesn't look a day over 60. No, she doesn't. The gene pool is great. Sicilian. Yep. Sicilian grandma. Happy birthday. Yeah. It's also the full moon tonight. And there are no clouds out there for once. So we can actually see it. It's streaming in through the clouds out there. beautiful. And then last but not least, we went to our local food co-op. Got some wheat berries. Yes, and we're gonna attempt to make our own flour Yeah, we're really excited. Well, I'm definitely really excited to do that. Yeah That'll be a patreon episode. It will be well, it'll be a podcast episode But if you want to see us attempt to do it, that'll be on patreon. Yeah. Yeah subscribe like and subscribe. Yeah for sure ⁓ Alright So Just to get this started, want to say I feel like I have a tiny bit more knowledge than the average person I feel like about maple syrup, just because I've grown up in New England, born and raised in New England. you've had that just natural New Hampshire maple syrup. Exactly. was going to sugar shacks on field trips from like five years old up until like 14 years old. I think that's really funny that no matter where you live in New England, that happens to you. Yeah. They bring you to a maple sugar shack and they tell you how dangerous it is. And you're like, the first time you do it, you're like, what? In kindergarten, you're like, pretty much. It's like a rite of passage. This is dangerous. It's really fun, though. Yeah, it is. It's really cool. See how it's always got you you get to taste every step of the way which is yeah, it's my favorite part incredible maple candies for life. ⁓ Well speaking of tasting it every step of the way I recently heard on one of the podcasts I listened to that there's like a common misconception out there that Maple syrup just comes straight out of the tree as syrup like with the brown thick flavor and texture that we know and love just straight out of the tree. But that's not the case. Man, I love people. So when you tap a tree, the sap that comes out is a thin, clear, watery consistency. And it tastes like just a tiny hint of sugar. Fun fact, this is called maple sap or maple water. And you can actually buy it in a can to consume as a beverage on Amazon. I'll put a link to that in the show notes. I think we're gonna get some. Yeah, just to try it. We will also be trying that probably on a patreon episode. Yeah, I would like to do a patreon episode where we are tapping our own maple syrup and while drinking a can of maple water. Everything in one. Sounds amazing. Can't wait. Stay tuned. Stay tuned. Yeah, but anyway, it's not until the sap is boiled down that it becomes the maple syrup that we love. So the history of maple syrup. he in here still? No, he's outside. Do you hear our producer Larry? He's begging to get in. Larry wants to be in here so badly. Poor little guy. Well, indigenous North Americans, mainly the indigenous people who inhabited the area that is now Quebec, were the first to make sugar and syrup from maple tree sap. There you go. All right, Canada, I see you. One source said that in hunger, they would cut the bark off of maple trees and eat the cambium. which is the edible part of the inner bark. ⁓ This actually led to the discovery of the sweet sap when it started to ooze out of the cuts in the tree. I guess when winters were tough, because right around maple season, February to mid April, that's really dire winter time. 100%. Food supplies are running low. So it would make sense that they would be in such desperation that they're peeling the bark off of the trees. I'm going to discover it that way. I hope I never get. that desperate, but good to know. Yeah, it's edible. Yeah. So whenever I think of maple syrup, I think of sugar maples and red maple trees. Yeah. But you can also tap black and silver maples, box elders, birch, walnut, sycamores and ironwood trees. So bizarre. Yeah. The sugar content of each tree sap determines how much syrup will be created. OK. So indigenous people were able to create maple sugar from the sap by taking red hot stones from a fire and dropping them into a thick wooden bucket full of until was completely boiled down. Wow. Right? It was actually more common for them to make maple sugar than syrup for a few reasons. They used maple sugar as a general of like we use salt today. ⁓ my gosh. Yeah. What an amazing world. I know, right? We should bring that back. Replace salt with maple sugar? Sign me up. Are you serious? ⁓ it was incredibly valuable and easy to transport. So it sometimes uses currency. Huh, OK. And you could easily make syrup again by just adding water to it. So it was easiest to transport as a sugar. That's incredible. So smart. Early methods of gathering sap included hollowing out a split log to make a sort of trough, folded sheets of bark, usually birch bark because it's so malleable, or wooden buckets set straight on the ground. ⁓ They would puncture the tree's bark with an axe or other sharp object and insert a small flat piece of wood to direct the sap into their containers. Kind of similar to what happens today. Yeah. Kind of reminds me of like a reed. Yeah. In a flute. Like a clarinet reed? Yeah. For some reason. exactly what Just shoving it right up in there. Oh, so I didn't really play the clarinet. It's just like I never played the clarinet. It's a reed, but I feel like it's maybe bigger. Yeah, I played the recorder. Hot cross buns. feel like we're all forced to do that one point. Yeah, the recorder. You've seen my recorder that I got from my elementary school. ⁓ yeah. Where is that? Where'd that go? It is in the container, like underneath my desk. I love that you know exactly where it is. you never know when you're going to need a recorder. Are you kidding me? Very true. Sorry. ⁓ was ready to move on, but you were gonna say... You wanted to say more about your recorder. ⁓ just gave me a hard time about it. Sorry. ⁓ When Europeans came, they brought iron kettles, which changed the whole maple game. The kettles made boiling sap evenly much easier and made the finished product a lot cleaner. You weren't getting bits of big forest in there. And no wood reeds. Yeah, exactly. Well, no, they were still using the wood, the little pieces of wood around this time. It was just the boiling process. OK, no wooden buckets. Yeah, was still the handmade troughs and stuff like that. Handmade wooden buckets, if there were wooden buckets, I feel like. So it's not until the 1800s that we start to see the tubular wooden sap spouts, specifically made for tapping. Oh, interesting. The ones that are drilled into trees. The first ones must have been really good. The wooden ones? Yeah, I like it took a while for them to be like, need to upgrade this. Yeah. Almost like a while, 1800s, not until then were they like tubular. Yeah. Huh. That's a good point. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Exactly. So large flat rectangular iron sheets called flat pans also replaced the iron kettles during this time. This advancement was incredibly important because it allowed for a larger surface area to be exposed to the heat, creating a more rapid and controlled boil. In the 1860s and 70s, cast iron and tin sap spouts were introduced as well as metal sap pails. We're getting going. Yep. The flat pan was also enhanced at this time, greatly improving sap boiling technology. The explanations I found were complicated. I didn't fully understand. So I'm just going to read this verbatim. We're going to get into some maple math. Yeah, pretty much. This is straight from the source. We're not messing around here. So the International Maple Syrup Institute, yep, explained, quote, the evaporator and arch in which a series of connected dividers or interior channels were added to the flat pan permitted the continuous flow of sap from the raw stage to nearly finished syrup. In addition, flues or baffles were added to the bottom of the pan, further increasing the surface area, allowing one to process sap rapidly and with greater control. Fancy. I was going to try to put that into my own words and I was like, no, I don't know what's happening here. It sounds like a lengthy, but the International Maple Syrup Institute does know what they're know what they're talking about. Very interesting. So all of that fancy boiling equipment wasn't cheap, obviously. So sugar makers go there. Sorry. Huh? I want to go there. Go where? The Maple Institute? Yes. ⁓ yeah, I wonder where it is. didn't really look it I bet it's in Quebec, to be honest with you. I hope so. Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you. That was a really lagged thought that I just That's okay. All of that fancy boiling equipment wasn't cheap and sugar makers wanted to keep their investments and their workers out of the elements. So sugar shacks began to be built around this time. ⁓ okay. This thing called sugar parties also began. to celebrate the start of the spring season, but it also sounds like city folk who moved from the country and missed maple season would return to experience the nostalgia. And I feel like as a left the countryside to go to the big city. Yeah, I miss maple syrup. I miss the production. I wanna go home. That's ⁓ of cute And I can imagine as the people still in the country who are hard at work making the maple syrup, you're like, can you get out of the way? Yeah Feel like that still happens today if you think about it that is true like my field trips Yeah, there's poor people working there and you just small children are walking around I feel like it's not as bad as foliage season. I mean if you go to exit three off a 91 any weekend in the fall even just at that country store alone you'll see all the cars from like Rhode Island and Connecticut and you're like what are you doing ⁓ you know where you are right they're enjoying themselves yeah I ⁓ Maple sugar was still the most desired end product because it was used as an overall general sweetener until the end of the 1800s. It was much cheaper and much easier to obtain than cane sugar. It wasn't until cane sugar became much more affordable in the late 1800s due to advancements in technology, bringing the prices down that maple syrup became more popular than maple sugar. So put that into perspective, just how much the tides have shifted since then. Now, a 10 pound bag of organic cane sugar is $14.80 on ⁓ while a one pound bag of organic Vermont maple sugar is $22.95. So A 10 pound bag is worth $229.50. Versus $14.80. Which is incredible for them. If you think about it. Right. Because that's like the first. Well, actually, I don't know if that's one of the first steps of making it. But by the sounds of it, just from what you've told me already, it's easier to make it. Well, it was easier to transport it. ⁓ Make it you have to like boil all the way down I'll get to the stuff called sugar sand which is kind of like sediment in ⁓ I'll get to that. Is sugar sand edible? I cannot wait. Yeah. So by the 1920s, it was almost exclusively syrup being sold because I didn't even really know about maple sugar. Me either. I'm like, what have we been doing? than like the maple candies. Obviously, that's like a type of a form of compacted maple sugar. I feel like. Yeah. Yeah. Condensed. I don't know. Don't don't quote me on that So the next big advancement in maple technology wasn't until the ⁓ 1950s when the hanging began to be replaced by plastic tubes and vacuum pumps Directly connecting the trees to their collection things interesting okay Quote here we go with another quote quote cuz I was like no way quote, reverse osmosis technology was introduced to reduce the energy requirements and speed up the process of concentrating sap, end quote. So fun fact, in 1951, a 26 ounce or 750 milliliter can of Quebec maple syrup was invented. and began to appear grocery store shelves. ⁓ 1951 is when it started to ⁓ come into the stores. ⁓ The 1950s. ⁓ went without syrup until the ⁓ 1950s. Well, I like you had to know someone or like a farmer's market. It wasn't like commercialized until then. Yikes Yeah. So the original imagery on those cans was designed by a contest winner, and I'm gonna butcher her name, I apologize. Emiliana St. Cyr Brunelle. Sounds good to me. Around 1954 Dominion and Grimm one of the longest continually operating maple syrup evaporator and equipment companies in Canada Adopted and standardized the design which became the dominant commercial brand identity. ⁓ Still today. Yep Allegedly the famous imagery of the 540 milliliter can is still around today was designed by Quebec artist and co-founder of Dominion and Grimm Sylvia Le Brun. And I bet you've seen these cans because when I saw a picture Cans? yeah, they're cans of maple syrup. I have seen those cans. We should buy it. for those listening it's like a bean can but it's maple syrup and there's a red barn in the background covered in snow and it's like a like a snowy forest scene behind it and there's pails on this tree up front and then ⁓ There's a big bold block of red that says pure maple syrup, 540 milliliters. I'm sure you've seen it. I have seen it. Yeah. It's very iconic in order to create some kind of uniformity for sale and marketing the United States and Canada came together to create quality standards and a grading system between syrups ⁓ it's mostly Quebec and Vermont Okay, so they they joined forces so they wouldn't be constantly fighting each other on the standards and stuff like that I'm glad they were able to communicate I know, right? Back in the good old days. So here we go again. Vermontmaple.org said. Quote, maple syrup is measured by hydrometer or refractometer to ensure the density or measure of sugar content is within a narrow band of 66.9 and 68.9 brix. This is important to keep maple syrup shelf stable and to prevent sugar crystallization within the liquid syrup. End quote. Woo. Wow. Yeah. So Brix is a measurement of the percentage of sucrose by weight dissolved in a sugar water solution. So basically Brix is the standard unit of measurement used to quantify sugar content. one degree Brix equals 1 % sugar by weight. Do with that information what you will. I love Brick content. There are four color classes when grating maple syrup. Golden, amber, dark, and very dark. The color and taste of the syrup grows darker and more intense depending how late in the season it's collected Grades reflect flavor, not quality. flavor and sugar content or just flavor? Probably sugar content as well. Like the longer, the sweeter probably like everything else. Yeah. So golden amber syrups are considered grade A due to their clarity, density, and absence of quote flavors. dark and very dark syrups are considered grade B but like I said this doesn't make them inferior to grade A just means they have a stronger flavor and slightly different sap composition due to being harvested later in the season it doesn't say anything about it being sweeter so now I'm intrigued now I need to know well stronger flavor so maybe that has to do with sweetness So fun fact, there's quite a few fun facts in here. I love it. In 2010 they discovered a polyphenol, polyphenol considered beneficial to human health and maple syrup that isn't found anywhere else in nature. Isn't that cool? So they named it Quebecol. Quebec was OL at the end. Quebecol because Quebec accounts for 75 to 80 % of the world's maple syrup production. That is insane. Little old Vermont can never keep up. Sorry Vermont, your claim to maple syrup is no longer Quebec. Yeah, get this. Did you know that Quebec has a global strategic reserve of maple syrup? It's used if and when the year's production isn't enough to go around to ensure the world will always have a steady supply of maple syrup. They do not mess around. That is incredible. What kind of priority is that? Right. This also keeps prices steady. So they can't inflate. Okay. I love you. Yeah. Believe it or not, this reserve was the subject of a Heist that took place in 2011 and 2012. Are you going to tell us about this heist? Oh yeah, I am. So my notes are a little long this week. They're like 10 pages just with this information. So I'm going to be telling you guys about this heist in next week's minisode! I cannot wait. I'm so excited. Sounds incredible. Oh my goodness. My favorite podcasts to listen to are True Crime. And I never thought in a million years when we started a homesteading and like home ownership do it yourself podcast that I'd be able to cover a true crime on my very own podcast. Leave it to Anna to be able to find herself. A true crime episode for her homesteading edition. job. So early too. Only episode six? Are you kidding me? It makes me excited for what's to come. Yeah, I'm excited to hear all about it. What, dirt are we going to dig up? But I will say again, it wasn't me. This is another fun fact, but I didn't write fun fact in my notes because I feel like there's more to come. But fun fact, Thomas Jefferson made several attempts to grow a quote, sugar bush in Monticello, Minnesota, but never succeeded. ⁓ sorry, Minnesota. You don't get any maple syrup. Sorry. attempts were made to establish a maple industry in Europe, ⁓ efforts also failed. Sorry, Europe. The trees grew okay, but the sap wasn't very sweet. It's just a New England thing. Get over it. But I think, it depends where you are to make the sap. Like I said before, you could you can tap all those different trees and they all have different flavor profiles. So maybe they just need to find their own tree to tap. Like I said, only in New England. Yeah. So sad. The best maple sap is created when there are warm sunny days followed by below freezing nights for a prolonged period of time, which brings us into how to make our own maple syrup. Are you ready? I'm excited. So New England's maple syrup season runs from mid February to April. But as I mentioned earlier, you can make syrup out of more than just maple tree sap. Like I literally just said that. Yeah, that is still kind of crazy. So I was thinking like depending on what those trees are, maybe I could do another episode on trees that you can tap out West. Trees that grow out West that you can tap for syrup. aren't maple trees Interesting You get a tap you get a tap. Yeah, and it doesn't care what kind of tree you are She'll tap you. Yeah I'd tap that So the majority of the information that I'm about to tell you I got from a website called the cropsite.com And as always it'll be linked in the show notes Things you need to collect and boil down your own maple syrup so for tapping you need spiles aka taps And they have little hook attached for hanging buckets on that's what you want You want to drill with a drill bit that matches the size of your spile? That's so that's usually going to be 5/16 or 7/16 inch That sounds like a crucial part. guys. Just from experience. Especially if you're not damaging the tree, you want to make sure that it all lines up. You need food grade buckets or tubing, depending on which way you want to go. I don't plan on us having a whole maple syrup operation, so we're going to do the bucket route. Yeah, I don't even quite understand how the tubing works. either I don't even understand how it hooks on to the spile it ⁓ it have like little Shoots out or something in the tube Maybe little spigots that are just attached to the tube or something. Yeah seems very complicated. Yeah, there's a vacuum system. No, thank you. Yeah gravity Never rely on gravity ⁓ And how did deer walk through there? aren't you kind of constricting them from walking through an area? Probably. Or do they know better and they just duck under it? I think they just duck under it. I don't know. So you also need lids for buckets to keep rain and debris out. A hammer. Hammer in your spiles. Water and a diluted bleach solution for sanitizing your tools. At first I was like, yikes, bleach. But then I looked it up and you so you want to avoid using soaps and detergents because they'll leave behind a residue. ⁓ taste it in your syrup. That's no good. Soapy syrup. No Thank you. And then technically all you really need for is a large pot and a thermometer. And I guess like a or something. I guess maybe stirring is involved. Yeah, kind of. Yeah. The trees you choose to tap should be at least 10 inches in diameter. Trees over 20 inches in diameter can handle two taps and trees 27 inches or larger can handle three taps. Wow. Taps should be placed on the sunny side of a tree, either above a large root or under a big branch. You want to drill a hole that is 1.5 to 2 inches deep at a slight upward angle. That makes sense. So that it pours down the way. Yeah, gravity. So like this, Like this. We're just poking the air. The graph says we're going up. We're trending up. We're trending up. You want to move where you're drilling each year either six inches horizontally or 12 inches vertically to avoid harming the tree ⁓ Tap the spile into the hole with the hammer until it fits snug and you want to do that gently but firmly just hang your bucket or attach your ⁓ The more the weather fluctuates from freezing nights to warm days, the more sap will be produced. On the best days, one tap can produce up to a gallon of sap. Wow! But remember, you need 40 gallons of sap to produce one gallon of maple syrup, so you need 40 days worth of sap for one gallon. And that's good days. How many gallons do you think fits in... Like our The metal one, yeah, like three. Yeah, I'd say so. So we would be making not that much maple syrup at a time. No. when it comes to boiling down the sap, it's best to do it outside. ⁓ the steam coating your walls with sticky evaporated water, which I didn't even think about. Thank God I did this research before we were just like, gungho, boiling sap in our kitchen for hours on end. Why is everything sticky? I can't breathe. ⁓ my God. ⁓ man, it's giving me flashbacks to making the candles for the first time. Jesus. poured that shit down the sink not knowing anything we have no clue guys were two tools with no clue We blocked up those pipes so hard. Yeah, that was a day project for me You said it was satisfying though. It was once I figured out what the hell was going on So want to bring your sap to a consistent boil and you're keeping keep your eye on it as it becomes more concentrated. ⁓ here we go this is what I was telling you about earlier. Any foam or sediment will rise to the top as the sap boils and you want to use a skimmer or a cheesecloth to remove it all. The sediment is a natural forming lovingly called sugar sand. And so if you like to be zero waste like me, I'm always trying to figure out how to use my scraps Some people use the sugar sand for sweetening granola bars baked goods or sugared nuts It can be used as a soil amendment for calcium and magnesium in your garden You can use it in soap making as a natural exfoliant And it can also be fed to livestock to potentially promote health and reduce antibiotic use Interesting. Yeah. Which that last part I'm, I don't know about. That seems a little far-fetched. Giving it to animals? To reduce antibiotic use? Yeah. I mean, you never know when things break down. Syrup is ready when the temperature reaches 219 degrees Fahrenheit or 103.8 degrees Celsius. At this temperature, the syrup sugar content is around 66 % right where you want it. 66%. Yup. Very precise. 66 to 67 % technically is what I saw. A 1 % variance. Do not mess it up. Do not mess it up. Do not. Do not. So all that's left after all that is to filter it one more time and then you can start bottling it into sterilized jars. unopened syrup kept in a cool dark place can be good for up to a year or you can freeze it and keep it indefinitely. ⁓ And I saw that it doesn't freeze solid. It just kind of becomes thicker. So don't be concerned if you're freezing your maple syrup and you're like, it's not rock hard. not much water left in it once it gets... Right. interesting okay cool that it can be frozen still yeah that's pretty cool so this last section here is kind of just like a condensed fun facts so will tapping hurt the tree? if you're drilling correctly moving your drilling locations appropriately each season tapping gently and following the appropriate guidelines then the short answer is no When the sap stops flowing or buds start forming, remove the spiles immediately to allow the tree to heal. The tree can easily seal off the damage of the drill and heal itself, so there's no need to plug the holes. Okay, I was gonna ask that. Maple syrup is obviously gluten-free and vegan, but did you know it's also low FODMAP according to the Monash University? I quit every other food except for maple syrup. Jey's been on his own low FODMAP journey. It's horrible. Yeah, maybe he'll talk about that one day. Maybe. Yeah, now's not the time. Many pancake syrups and imitations are made with corn syrup, artificial flavors, preservatives, and colorings. So here's my last fun fact. It wasn't until 2005 that scientists found minerals like calcium, magnesium, and zinc. as well as antioxidants in 100 % pure maple syrup that they believe may improve brain health and lower cholesterol. I'm taking a shot of maple syrup every day. It's still 66 % sugar and will wreck your teeth if you do that. But yeah, there are benefits to it. Well, okay. It's better. feel like now it really makes me feel better. I do not like putting sugar in my coffee, I would much rather it be maple syrup. I've always been that way. now I feel better about it because it's healthier. Yeah, that's very true. It's be definitely healthier than white cane sugar. Right. You'd think. Well, that was a lot of fun. ⁓ I ⁓ am super grateful for all that information. Now I feel so much better about my maple syrup Yes. I cannot wait to hear about the maple syrup heist. Yes. I also would like to know again, it was not me. Are you sure? I have an alibi. Where were you in 2011 through 2012? doing probably not my homework at Keene State College. Sure, we'll see, we'll know who the suspects are. Am I one of them? You'll find out next week. I can't wait. Until then, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube @TwoToolsNoCluePodcast, on TikTok @TwoToolsNoClue. Subscribe to our patreon at patreon.com/twotoolsnoclue ⁓ and email us your ⁓ Any ideas that you want us to cover ⁓ at twotoolsnocluepodcast@gmail.com woop woop done. Thank you. I'm getting better at that guys. Yeah slowly but surely we're making progress Alright, well until next week everybody. We love you. We love you. Bye bye. Bye.