The Ark's Maple Syrup
The History of Maple Syrup It is not entirely certain when maple syrup was originally discovered, but some maple syrup lore believes that the Native American Indians discovered "sinzibuckwud", an Algonquin word meaning "drawn from wood", prior to recorded history. Since these early Indians didn't have the pots and technology to concentrate the sap to the degree of todays maple syrup, they consumed the sap at much lighter sugar concentrations. They would use a hatchet to cut a V-groove into a maple tree into which they would insert a reed or piece of bark. The sap would drip down the reed into a birch bark bucket. They would concentrate the sap either using hot rocks dropped into the bucket or by throwing away the ice that would form on the sap overnight. It was the incoming Europeans who learned of the process from the Indians and further concentrated the syrup through boiling in large iron kettles. But with a boil down ratio of 40 gallons of sap to 1 gallon of syrup this was a very time and labour intensive process. The first step of progress was made during the Civil War and the advent of the tin can. Producers learned that a long, shallow tin tray evaporated the sap much faster than a large volume kettle. The next development came around 1864 when maple syrup producers learned from the producers of molasses that the product boiled down faster yet with the addition of baffles to the tray. Just prior to 1890 a firebox with arch and multiple pans was developed and not much has changed in the evaporating process since that time. Prior to 1970 though, all the sap was collected from trees using spiles and buckets. Again, another very labour intensive process. Tubing delivery systems were then introduced and a few years later vacuum systems were added to increase the yield from the trees. The most recent development has been the use of reverse osmosis machines to remove much of the water from the sap before it is even introduced to the fire.
History of Maple Syrup Production at The Ark Back in university (1990) I created a list of "50 Things I Want To Do Before I Die". I believe now this would be referred to as a Bucket List... Well on that list I had "Make my own maple syrup". In 2003 Monique and I purchased 164 acres of land and an abandoned sawmill in Quebec. As it happens 60-70% of the trees on our property are maple trees. So, in 2008, once the sawmill had been turned into a somewhat liveable shelter, I bought a small 2'x6' evaporator with all the additional necessities and niceties from a small hobby maple syrup producer who was retiring to life in a mobile home. In 2009, I tapped 12 trees right in my backyard and boiled the sap down in my new evaporator pan over my backyard firepit. This was a slow process and produced an interesting final product given all the leaves that kept getting blown into the pan. But it was fun nonetheless and the syrup was definitely tasty. Over the summer of 2009 I built a 12'x16' sugar shack in the lowest part of the valley about 600m from the house. I moved the evaporator and all the equipment back there and in the spring of 2010 I tapped and bucketed 80 trees. That winter I tore the meniscus in my right knee and collecting all the sap in the deep snow was quite the ordeal. So I developed a collection and tubing system to streamline the process. I installed one bin at the top of the hill into which I could dump all the buckets of sap. A one inch pipe ran down the hill delivering the sap to a 50 gallon drum at the shack. I had a similar collection bin midway down the hill. I would then use a small mechanical pony pump to tranfer the sap up into my holding tanks. From there the sap was delivered to my evaporator for boiling. Even with my filling stations, collecting all that sap from buckets on very hilly, snowy terrain was very labour intensive. And boiling the sap in my small, inefficient evaporator was very time consuming. So I figured that if I had a tubing system and a bigger, better evaporator I could produce 3 or 4 times as much syrup with the same amount of work! I knew I had at least 2000 potential maple trees for tapping and expected to expand in the next few years. But when I told my plan to the retailer from whom I purchased all of my bottles he told me that he was selling his 4'x16' evaporator with steam hood, preheater, and blower fan THAT YEAR! He was selling this system for half of what one could cost new. What should I do? What could I do???? I had to buy it! The only problem was that despite the discounted price, it was way more money than I had access to. But I did the math and realized that the evaporator would pay for itself after 2 or 3 years of maple syrup production. So I decided to borrow against the equity in our home. The bank said there would be no problem with that but I wanted to finish installing the ensuite bathroom before we had the house reevaluated. It took me a couple of months to finish that job and when I did the bank said that they now required my 2009 tax notice of assessments. My accountant already had my return so I wasn't concerned. But the tax deadline came and went and our taxes return still hadn't been prepared. Week after week I called my accountant and always received the same response. My tax return would be ready "this Friday". Months later that Friday finally arrived and our taxes were finally submitted in mid October. We received our Notice of Assessments in mid November. From there, the bank took their sweet time pushing all the paperwork through and our funds weren't released until mid January. I could finally take possession of my 2 ton evaporator but had to figure how I was going to get it back to the shack through all the snow. During much of this work I felt like a frosty Inca building a pyramid. The work was arduous and as sap season was imminent I still had lots of work to do. The firebox needed to be bricked and mortared, the chimneys needed to be installed, and all the tubing had to be put in place. But two days after the sap began to run I had the evaporator fully installed and 50 taps in place. As the days progressed I added more lines and finished the season with 270 taps inserted. The only problem was that I still didn't have ANY dry firewood! So I still had to find dry, dead standing trees, cut them down and haul them back to the shack to be split and fed into the evaporator. This was certainly one labourious season. For the spring of 2012 I expect to have 600 taps in place and at least 20 cords of dry firewood at the ready. Next spring "should" be more fun and less work than this year!
Why The Ark's Maple Syrup is Better than Store Bought Maple syrup is produced by concentrating the sugar found in maple sap. But although concentrating the sugar will obviously make the liquid thicker and sweeter, the maple flavour and colour comes from the carmelization of the sugar that occurs with cooking. On average, it takes 43 gallons of maple sap to produce 1 gallon of maple sugar. I have heard that there is a "Rule of 86". This Rule states that you take the number 86 and divide by the Brix (the percentage of sugar in the sap) that comes out of the tree. So if the sap exits the tree with a Brix of 2.1, I divide 86 by 2.1 to learn that it will take 40.9 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup. Obviously it's going to take a long time and a lot of firewood to boil off 39+ gallons of sap water. To expedite this process commercial producers use a process referred to as reverse osmosis. With reverse osmosis, the sap is pushed through a series of membranes which traps the sugar and pushes the water out. It is possible for these machines to increase the concentration of the sugar from 2 to 16 Brix. But what does this mean and how significant is this increase? Let's assume we start with 2 pounds of sugar in 100 gallons of sap for a 2% sugar percentage. To get to a 4% concentration we need to remove 50 gallons (or half) of the water to give us 2 pounds of sugar in 50 gallons of water. To get to 10% we need to remove an additional 30 gallons of water, 2 pounds in 20 gallons. To get to 15% we need to remove a further 7 gallons, 2 pounds in 13 gallons. The final Brix of maple syrup should be between 66.5 and 67.5 Brix. If it is too low the syrup will feel too watery, and if it is too high sugar granules will form in the bottom of the bottle. This means our final product will be 3 gallons of syrup with 2 pounds of sugar. Using reverse osmosis to get the syrup to 15 Brix, only 10 gallons of water needs to be boiled off. Whereas using the traditional boiling methods here at the Ark, I need to boil off 97 gallons! Obviously, my syrup needs to be boiled 10x as long as those producers who produce their syrup with their RO machines dialed up up to 16%. The whole time my syrup is boiling/cooking it is carmelizing, producing more and more flavour and a darker and darker colour. Marketing has convinced the buyer that a lighter coloured maple syrup is a better maple syrup. And of course they would convince you of this, as the less time they have to boil the syrup, the less work it is for them. And the less time they cook the syrup, the lighter the syrup becomes. People who have tasted my syrup or the syrup produced by other "traditional" producers can't believe the intensity of the flavour they're experiencing. Additionally, the commercial producers use evaporators that are oil fired. So again, the longer they need to boil, the more it costs them to produce their syrup. And with the increasing cost of oil, the less cooking they have to do, the more money they save. So not only does The Ark's Maple Syrup taste better, we're also more environmentally friendly. Unlike oil, we fire our evaporator with firewood, a renewable resource. To keep our forest healthy we need to manage it. This involves removing deadfall, keeping the forest density in check, and removing less desirable tree species. So our evaporator here at the Ark is actually working to keep our forest healthy. Just click on the "Contact Us" link on the menu to the left if you want to reserve your maple syrup.
The Ark's Maple Syrup Prices 250 ml - $6
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