Time for Something Sweet

It is worth noting that the honeybee is not native to North America. While there are numerous native bees that are ultimately more important to us, none of them are honey producers and none produce as many other bee products as the European honeybee. Sugarcane, another natural sugar source, didn't even arrive in South America until the 1540s. I won't even get into corn syrup.

So what was a poor Native American to do without these major sources of sweeteners? Tap maple trees, of course!

Taking a lesson from before colonization of the New World, I decided to make some of my own maple syrup this winter. My bees were dead and left me little honey, but this winter in Maryland caused great sap flow and I ended up bringing home 5-gallons of red maple sap to boil down to sugar.  That's really all you need to do!  Strain out the bugs and boil it down.

5-gallons of sap . . .

. . . boiled down . . .

. . . to two of these containers.

The syrup was quite good and I used it for pancakes, priming beer bottles, and as a sweetener in my coffee. The most important thing I learned is this is not a project for an apartment unless you want to turn it into a sauna for the day. Most folks start the process outside over a fire.