If you know me at all, you know that I’m an absolute fan of pure maple syrup. I can’t tell you the last time I had “pancake syrup” when it wasn’t forced on me by restaurants serving up sub-quality breakfast condiments.
Growing up in Upstate NY it was always easy to get locally sourced bottles. I would end up buying some for my dad every year for Christmas during college. It was a win-win gift if we’re being honest.
Moving to Colorado and now Minnesota, I’ve been suffering in the land of “people who don’t know what pure maple syrup is except that it might only come from Canada or Vermont”. Let me tell you, Canadian maple syrup is not nearly as good as NY. I’ll begrudgingly give Vermont a nod, though I still prefer my childhood favorite. I’ve had folks mail me syrup while I’ve been in exile because my need is so great.
When we first moved to Minnesota, I had to try several of the “pure maple syrup” brands at the local grocery stores. A few were incredibly disappointing, but I’ve settled on one that I enjoy (when I’m out of my NY stuff) which comes from the St. Croix area of Minnesota-Wisconsin. But given my impressions of Minnesota before moving here, I’ve been surprised to learn that maple syrup isn’t a big thing. No pop up sugar shacks selling pancakes during the season.
Thankfully, there’s a great state park system ready to educate folks like me!
Each during during the syrup season, several of the state parks in Minnesota hold weekend classes where you can learn how to tap trees and they teach you more about the history of maple syrup along the way. We went to Whitewater State Park in Altura.
What I didn’t realize is that only a small part of southern Minnesota has the right climate to have sugar maples – if you go just a little further west or north into the state, you end up in prairie. That’s part of the reason there isn’t more of an economy for it in the state.
There’s only a limited amount of time during the spring when you can tap maple trees. The temperatures need to get below freezing at night and above freezing during the day in order for the sap to get flowing.
The park ranger started by teaching us how to identify maple trees without their leaves. After that, the ranger worked with a group of 15 of us to tap a tree and start to collect the sap! It was fun to collaborate on it. After that, we collected from buckets that were already in the woods and he went over the procedure for boiling the sap into syrup and the differences between color and flavor of the various quality grades. The whole point of the class was to show how easy it is to tap your own trees and make your own syrup. While we don’t have land to do that, it was really enjoyable to learn how the process works.
We ended the session by asking the ranger why there might be flavor differences between NY and MN maple syrup. He said that the quality of the syrup in the grocery store wouldn’t be as high as you’d get by purchasing directly from a processor, and that the variation in the trees could also have an impact.
Even if you don’t have trees to tap, I’d encourage you to spend the time visiting a state park to learn more about this process! It’s very family friendly, and this is a terrific time of year to get outside!
You can find more information on the program and parks that host it here.
Adventures in Gopherland 