| Vol.
I, No. 6 | Sugaring
/ Spring Equinox | Mar.
16th, 2001 |
Farm
& Garden
On the Farm / News & Views
Sugaring
Special: The Maple Pages . Sugaring
Special
DownStreet's
Maple Pages  | Sap
Bucket & Lid |
.
This
month, DownStreet is pleased to present our Sugaring Special ... DownStreet
's Maple Pages
To celebrate Sugaring Season here in
Addison & southern Chittenden counties, we're providing lots of info, as
well as links, to all things sugaring. ... . What
You'll Find This Issue on ... DownStreet's
Maple Pages Click on any of the Maple Pages titles below to jump to
that page. ... Maple
Facts | | +
Traditionally, a maple was considered ready to tap when at least 10"
across, at which point it could take a single tap. It generally
takes about 40 years to reach this size. ... Another 5"
growth and it could take a 2nd tap, etc., up to a max of 4 taps for the
largest trees. + Newer and
more conservative guidelines suggest waiting until the tree is 12" in
diameter, with a 2nd tap, and no more, at 18". +
Sugar maples can easily live to be more than 200 years old, and can reach
sizes of more than 30" in diameter and 100' in height. +
The standard hole is tapped with a 7/16" bit, 2"-2 1/2"
deep. + Tapping too
early, or failing to slant the tap hole up about 10-
degrees, can cause
'dry hole' from the build-up of micro- organisms around the tap hole,
stopping sap flow. +
Each tap will yield about 10 gallons of sap in an average season. +
Jones' Rule of 86 says: It takes 86 gallons of sap at 1%
sugar to make a gallon of syrup. ... +
The sugar content of the sap of sugar maple runs about 2.0% - 2.5%, but
can get as high as 3%. Therefore, at an average of 2.25%, it takes
about 38 gallons of sap from these trees to make a gallon of syrup. +
Red maple, while capable of producing good syrup, has a sugar content of
roughly 0.5% less than sugar maple, as well as a shorter season.
Therefore, at an average of 1.75%, it takes more than 49 gallons of sap
from a red maple to make a gallon of syrup. +
It takes an average of 1 cord of wood to produce 25 gallons of maple
syrup. + When's that
boiling sap ready to be called syrup? In the old days, that call was
part of the sugarmaker's art. ... Nowadays, thermometers have
taken over, so that sap drawn off as syrup when the boiling point is 7.1
degrees F. above the boiling point of water. | | SOURCES:
Vermont Maple Promotion Board; Vermont Maple Sugar Makers Assoc.; North
American Maple Syrup Producers Manual, Ohio St. Univ. |
- Maple
Sugarhouses Open to the Public
This page
appears in our Out
& About section and lists more than a dozen sugarhouses in Addison
& southern Chittenden counties which invite the public to come and see
sugar-making up close and personal. From Orwell, Leicester &
Cornwall, up through Shelburne, Williston & Richmond ... and lots of
stops in between ... you can sample the sugar, the sights, and the wonderful
hospitality of any of these sugarhouses.
. - Vermont
Maple Producers & Sellers
This page appears
in our Business
& Finance section and includes the names, addresses, phone numbers,
and web sites or e-mail addresses for producers and sellers in our
neighborhood -- in Addison & southern Chittenden counties -- from whom
you can buy maple syrup and maple products.
.. - A
Bit of Maple History ... and How-To
This page appears in our Learning
& Ed. section, and takes you on brief historical tour of maple
syrup, as well as providing some links to how-to articles on-line for
"backyard sugarin'." ...
. - Recipes
with Maple
In this month's Links
to Food & Dining On-Line, we take you on a web tour of maple recipes
from around Vermont. The list includes old stand-by's like maple candy
and maple cream. But there are also some we're almost sure you never
dreamed of. ...
. - Health
Facts About Maple Syrup
In this month's Vital
Signs, we take a look at some of the vitamins and minerals found in
maple syrup. ... Check it out. ...
. - Maple
Syrup, Made in Vermont
In an effort to demonstrate the
dimensions of the Vermont Maple industry in the State, this page appears in
our Politics
& Gov't section. It provides some facts & figures about
the Vermont Maple Industry, including:
.- Northeast
Maple Syrup Production figures for 1994-2000
- State of Vermont
Grades & Standards for Maple Syrup, set forth by the Dept. of Ag and
the Vermont Maple Sugar Makers Assoc., plus ...
- More Maple Facts
& Figures
- Lines
to Maple Sugaring Info
This is our Links to Farm & Garden
On-Line page, which this month provides resources for the maple farm
operation, including a complete on-line version of the North American Maple
Syrup Producers Manual, Bulletin 856-96, out of Ohio State Univ. ...
. - A
Livable Wage? Some Stats on the Cost
of Production
& Income from Sugaring
As part of our on-going series on A
Livable Wage, we thought we'd take a side-road this month to look at the
costs and income associated with running a sugaring operation here in
Vermont. ... The results seem to suggest what most of us already
know in general -- that running a family farm is not the most lucrative
business around. ...
. - Vermont
Farm Show 2001
Maple Products
Contest Winners
While we ran the full
list of the winners of the Vermont Farm Show 2001 contests in last
month's issue, it seemed only right that, for our special Maple Pages, we'd
include once again the winners in the maple syrup and maple products
categories. ...
.
We hope
you enjoy touring DownStreet's Maple Pages. Meanwhile ... Sweet
Dreams!. . *******
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a feature for our Farm & Garden section, don't hesitate to let us
know. Simply e-mail us at farmgarden@downstreetmagazine.com.
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section, or throughout the magazine, please visit our Advertising
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*******..
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