The scoop on syrup

The following fast facts are from the Ontario Maple Syrup Producers’ Association’s website: 1. Maple syrup is often referred to as the first agricultural crop of the year. 2. There are more than 128 species of maple trees, but maple syrup is primarily made from the sap of sugar, red and black maples. 3. The basic process of tapping trees to collect the sap and then boiling it down to make maple syrup and sugar is centuries old. 4. Although the flavour of pure maple syrup has not changed, how the sap is collected has. Pails have been replaced with a plastic pipeline which runs from tree to tree, and then to the processing area. 5. In Ontario, maple syrup is produced commercially wherever maples are found: from the southern tip of the province to Thunder Bay in the northwest. With a production level of close to a million litres per year. 6. It takes approximately 40 litres of maple sap to make one litre of maple syrup. 7. The sap, which comes out of the tree with a sugar content of approximately two per cent, is boiled until it reaches between 66 and 67.5 per cent sugar content. 8. Maple syrup is a completely natural product with no additives. It is chock full of minerals and plant proteins.