By: Madison Walker

In Somerset County, Pennsylvania, one of the local delicacies produced is luscious maple syrup and various maple products. To produce these sweet treats, the bitter sugar water from a pure maple tree must be transformed into pure maple syrup. Developing maple syrup has became a continuing a tradition, but has changed over the many years of production.

The process of extracting and producing maple syrup includes several steps. First, the sap needs to be drawn from a sugar maple tree and collected. The sap is then boiled to eliminate the water content to produce pure maple syrup. After this, the syrup is taken through filtration to eliminate any impurities. Finally, the pure maple syrup is used to create many different sweet treats. While these steps remain the same, the techniques of each have changed throughout the years.

In the year 1664, American Indians discovered that extracting water from a sugar maple tree, and boiling it down would produce a sweet syrup. They sliced a cut into a tree with a knife at a slope, making a 2 ½ inch long gash. Then a knife or a wood chip was placed into the tree to extract the sap from the tree. To collect the sugary sap, a water collector was placed at the base of the tree, usually created by a hollowed out tree or a basket.

The hole that is cut into the tree is called a taphole. Knives originally were used to produce the cut, but advancements in technology developed hand augers, which now have transitioned to power drills.

Throughout the years, new types of tools were developed as maple producers continued looking for advancements in maple production. Spiles were created to replace the wood chip inserted into the tap hole. Spiles are cast iron tubes inserted into a tap hole of a sugar maple to extract sugar water more efficiently than the wood.

Maple producers today use plastic spiles attached to polyethylene tubing that have been developed to lessen the amount of time for collection and contamination. Obtaining sugar water is done automatically today, by using vacuum pumps or simply gravity to corral the water into a holding tank.

People continued to find new and advanced ways to collect the maple sugar water, and created wooden buckets as early as 1748, but not everyone accepted this new technology. Eventually, tin buckets, commonly known as “keelers” in Somerset County, were introduced and the old wooden buckets would soon become obsolete.

Once people started using tin buckets, they noticed that new issues arose. Debris, leaves, and bugs would fall into the water, contaminating it. Tin covers were created to lessen the amount of impurities needed to be removed before the maple syrup process would be completed. These covers would allow leaves, dirt, and bugs to fall onto the cover and have no effect on the sugar water under it.  

Boiling the maple sugar water down to syrup has had several different techniques as well. In the mid 1700’s, a series of 25-gallon kettle pots were hung above fires, and sap was dipped into one kettle to the next until the water settled into maple syrup. Iron ladles were used to transfer the sap. Maple producers also used skimmers to remove the foam from atop the boiling water, which is still used today.

Sugar water was originally boiled outdoors, but eventually maple producers transitioned to boiling in shacks, where they used large pans to finish the process.

They created these structures to keep the wood dry and keep the water out of the weather, since this process took several days to complete. Large sugar shacks have been created where they house the now more productive evaporators.  

Evaporators have been developed by major maple producers to lessen the amount of time that's needed to produce the tasty syrup. This machine is an open pan over a heat source, and as the maple sap begins to boil, the steam escapes and the sap becomes more concentrated. Separating the water from the potential syrup is essential for production, and boiling the sap allows steam to be released, removing most of the water content.

When sap is first taken from the tree, the sugar content is a total of 2- 2.5%. Evaporators are capable of taking that sap and giving it 65% sugar content after the process is completed.

The question that most people wonder about maple syrup production is ‘When does the sugar water turn to the consistency of syrup?’ Producers that used the old kettles had to watch the water carefully, and when the sugar water would form numerous bubbles, it was time to take the syrup away from the heat. If the syrup would form bubbles and was unnoticed, it would boil over. Maple producers developed a tactic to control this issue. They would suspend pork fat or bacon over the foaming syrup, and once it would touch the pork fat, it would quickly suspend back away from the pork fat. Thanks to the evaporator, producers know when sap has reached the point of syrup. Once the syrup reaches approximately 219.5 degrees in the evaporator, the sap has officially turned into syrup and notifies the operator with an alarm.

After the sap has officially turned into syrup, the syrup is pushed through several filter machines to remove any harmful sediment, and is tested to make sure it matches the maple syrup requirements of color and sugar content. As long as the syrup reaches requirements, the syrup is packed into containers to be sold or used for maple products.

Developing maple syrup cannot be done just any time of the year. It has to be done when weather is at its finest for the trees, usually in late February and to mid March. Cold nights and warm days are ideal weather for maple production, because this is when sap flows the most in a sugar maple tree. Pressure is highest during periods when temperature rises above freezing, and this pressure pushes the sap out of the tree where there is an opening or tap hole.

Many maple products are produced commercially from the Somerset County area. Maple syrup, sugar cakes, sposta, maple cotton candy are just some of the delicious treats made from the sweet syrup.

Production of maple products takes extensive time and effort to develop perfect amber syrup. Thanks to the maple producers in Somerset County and others in the surrounding areas, more and more people are able to buy all sorts of tasty treats. So next time you dig into a pile syrup drenched flapjacks, remember how a little maple tree and its sap was able to make that delicious syrup.