Frankly, I like birch beer. Maybe I should try birch syrup from a different batch.
OK, but why would anybody use the “fancy” grade now? Why not just use ordinary sugar if you don’t want maple taste?
6-7 years ago I lived on a farm in southern New York that had loads of old sugar maples. I tapped them and made syrup 2 winters.
I don’t think my ratio was that high; the first time I did it I collected about 60 gallons (I mostly filled a 55-gallon food-grade drum I bought, plus whatever was collected on boiling day). I’m sure I got at least 7 or 8 quarts out of that. Because I only had a few trees (and had a full-time job off the property), I saved 3 or 4 days’ worth of sap; I think it starts to ferment if you hold onto it for too long.
The weather is the unpredictable part. The 3rd winter I didn’t even try because the weather warmed up so quickly.
A good trick if you don’t want to invest in much equipment is a gallon spring-water bottle – cut a little hole and it will hang on the spile, but nothing can fall in. They fall off the tree sometimes, though. And it looks stupid.
If you keep a-boilin’ it, you’ll get burnt sugar! Once the sap began to darken and looked like it would fit in a big stewpot (3 gallons or so), I brought it in and finished the boiling on the stove, where it could be watched. I didn’t have wallpaper. After 12 hours of looking like boiling water, it thickens REALLY fast.
Did you ever take the hot syrup outside and pour it on top of the snow? You get lumps of maple taffy!
Yes, I’m another who used to help make the stuff. I volunteered at a community sugarbush for some years when I lived in Ontario; we tapped trees, ran sap lines, and boiled it up in the sugar shack. Of course, we were making syrup that was meant to be bottled and sold, but taking some outside to make maple taffy was a fun little diversion.
The one thing I can cook is pancakes, even if they DO look funny. Used to make them for my wife-to-be when we were students in Hawaii. She’d never tried them before. Loves them. You can find pancake mix here, and I always use REAL maple syrup, even though it’s quite costly. Most of the stuff on the shelves in Thailand is cheaper “maple-flavored syrup,” labelled as such in English. The Thais don’t know the difference and so more often than not opt for that. I insist on my Log Cabin. It’s the real deal.
Do you mean that it is naturally found growing only in North America?
Because there are several areas in Europe, for example, that have a similar climate. I’d think that the sugar maple tree would grow fine there, too, if you planted some.
Or is there some reason that this tree will only grow in North America?
The Log Cabin syrup I’m familiar with is not true maple syrup, but rather inexpensive ‘maple flavored syrup’ like Aunt Jemima or Mrs. Butterworth. Does that company make maple syrup 
From Amazon.com the ingredients of Log Cabin Syrup are:
By comparison, Trader Joe’s 100% Pure Maple Syrup (2007 Harvest, Grade B) doesn’t list its ingredients. I assume that that means it’s 100% syrup. It costs $8.99 for a 740 ml (25 fluid oz) bottle.
EDIT: Too slow trying to find TJ’s ingredients…
Log Cabin and Mrs. Butterworth’s are the same company.
Apparently they recently started selling actual maple syrup as well as the faux stuff:
http://www.pinnaclefoodscorp.com/public/brands/log-cabin.htm
So I’ve been laboring under an illusion all this time? It says “syrup” on the label, whereas the cheaper stuff all say “maple-flavored syrup.” Oh well, I’ve tried the cheaper stuff, and it’s very weak. That’s what I get for not being a cook, but it will have to do.
I HAVE seen some small jars of maple syrup straight from Canada in this one particular Western grocery that caters to diplomats and other wealthy foreigners, but Zounds! That stuff is astronomical here. we’re talking maybe US$20 for a very small jar. I already pay about $8.50 for Log Cabin.
Siam Sam: I’d offer to send you a bottle of the TJ’s stuff, but it’s got to weigh two or three pounds – plus packaging. That would probably put it in the price range of the Canadian stuff you can get there. (TJ’s syrup is a product of Canada.)
Thanks, but Customs would probably hit it with the same sort of duty that makes it so expensive in the store here.
Two or three pounds?? When I say “tiny jars” of the stuff in that store here, we’re talking a few ounces. :eek:
Well, it’s in a glass bottle. That adds weight. It’s 25 fluid ounces. It’s about as viscous as engine oil. What’s that? About 7 pounds per gallon? So the syrup must weigh around one and a third pounds. No idea what the glass weighs.
As inexpensive as Thailand is in SO many ways, Western foodstuffs are generally considered luxuries that only rich farangs could possibly want and so price it accordingly, duty or no duty. You would not believe how much peanut butter costs here; I keep telling Thais this is what poor people in the US often live on.
Well, Sam, if you refuse to pay that much yourself, have somebody get you a jar of maple syrup for your birthday–the real “real thing” is simply incomparable to cheap “pancake syrup.”
I feel really stupid for asking this, but exactly where in NOWA?
I may be one of the few, iwakura43, but I actually prefer the taste and texture of Log Cabin/Mrs. Butterworths over pure maple syrup. I’ve tried several of the the expensive ones from Canada as well as a friend’s home made syrup and they just don’t measure up to good old maple flavored high fructose corn syrup!
Guessing northern Washington state??
:eek: :eek: :eek:
When we don’t get it for free from family members/friends who own/know someone who owns a sugar shack, I think the most we’ve paid for 500mL of syrup, in cans, is about 5$ CDN. I used to be amazed in Southern Ontario (Hamilton/Niagara region) when a similar volume was going for 10$+, but then again, it did always seem to come in a pretty maple-leaf shaped glass bottle. Clearly the packaging matters way more than the product!
Speaking of syrup, I think we are running low. I have to see what I can do about that!
IANAB (I Am Not A Botanist) but my understanding is that sugar maples are pretty temperamental (if such a word can be applied to a tree). They are very sensitive to minor changes in soil conditions and climate.