What's Maple Syrup?
One of my earliest memories is helping my grandfather to tap trees and then collect the maple sap during sugaring season. When I was little there were huge Maple Trees growing on either side of the road. My grandfather explained that the number of buckets that could be hung on a tree depended on the age of the tree and the circumference of the trunk. He would look at a tree and say That's a two bucket tree or that's a three bucket tree. Only the very old, exceptionally large trees with five or six bucket trees.
Come learn about making Maple Syrup. Sing about boiling the sap, do some leaf rubbings and learn how to turn maple syrup into maple candy. It's sugaring time...
How to Tap a Maple Tree
Which Tree is the Maple Tree?
Identify Maple Trees
Photo Credit: Identify Sugar Maple Trees in Autumn
on Flickr, Creative Commons.
Photo Credit: Buckets on the Sugar Maple Tree
on Flickr, Creative Commons.
Can you tell the difference between various types of maple trees? Did you know that there are different kinds?
Many times people go out in the spring to tap a maple tree but can't identify which one is an actual Sugar Maple.
- How to Identify Maple trees
- The drawings of the various maple leaves and their seeds can be turned into a Concentration or Go Fish Game which is fun for the whole family.
red maple
norway maple
sugar maple
silver maple
black maple
Be sure to look carefully at the bark and the shape of the tree without the leaves at that is the way you must identify it in the spring.
The Sap is Running
Drip, Drip Drip...
This very short video brings back the sounds of spring as the sap in the maple trees run out the spicket and drop into the bucket.
It takes 40 gallons of sap to make a gallon of syrup. I wonder how many drops that is?
Sugaring Off in 1856
Boiling Down the Maple Syrup in the 19th Century
American Forest Scene, Maple Sugaring, 1856
Currier & Ives
Buy at AllPosters.com
There is nothing sweeter in the early spring than the smell of sap boiling down to make maple syrup, maple sugar and maple candy.
Farmers all over New England boiled down the sap to provide their families with sugar for the whole year.
As a young child, I helped my grandfather tap trees and when the sap had boiled down enough my grandmother showed me how to stir it to make maple candy just the way the children in this picture did long ago.
My father still make maple syrup each year and we enjoy each and every drop.
Garner Rix made Maple Syrup
Maple Syrup has been made by Generations of Vermonters
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Garner Rix and the Royalton Raid - 1780
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Garner Rix was just 12 when he moved with his father, pregnant mother, two sisters and three brothers from a farm in Connecticut to a log cabin on the banks of the White River, a place that would one day be called Royalton, Vermont. He helped h...
"Bubble bubble bubble bubble bubble goes the pan,
Furnish better music for the season if you can..."
Boiling Down the Sap
- Traditional Maple Syrup "Boil Down"
- Every year in February, Colvin Run Mill in Falls Church, Virginia, holds it's annual Maple Syrup Boil-Down....
Watch the step-by-step process to make maple syrup, from tapping trees in the park for their sap, to boiling it over an open fire.
Maple Sweet
Maple Syrup Song
- Maple Sweet
- The chorus goes:
Bubble bubble bubble bubble bubble goes the pan,
Furnish better music for the season if you can,
See the golden billows,
Watch their ebb and flow,
Sweeter joys indeed we sugarmaker's know...
This song was written by Perrin Batchelder Fisk from Warren, Vt in 1837 - Maple Sweet by P B Fisk
- Discussion about Perrin Batchelder Fisk and the Maple Sweet Song.
- Maple Sweet Lyrics and Coloring Page
- Sing thw Maple Sweet song by Perrin Batchelder Fisk while coloring a picture of pancakes and a sugarhouse.
Maple Syrup Grades
How Much Maple Flavor do you Want?
Photo Credit: Maple Syrup Grades/a>
on Flickr, Creative Commons.
Maple Syrup comes in different intensities from Fancy to Dark Amber. The lighter shades are more delicate in flavor and are traditionally more expensive. The are just what you want when you are looking for sweetness but not the maple flavor.
Dark Amber is like molasses. It has a deep rich flavor that is just right for cooking but may be a little intense for pancakes.
My personal favorite is Amber. It has just the right amount of flavor for pancakes, waffles or vanilla ice cream. Be sure to lick the plate when you are finished.
Brown Family Farm Pure Vermont Maple Syrup, 32-Ounce Jug
Amazon Price: $18.23 (as of 12/28/2009) 
Cooking with Pure Vermont Maple Syrup
Amazon Price: (as of 12/28/2009)
Maple Syrup 64 Oz Now Foods
Amazon Price: $32.01 (as of 12/28/2009)
Is there an alternative to Maple Syrup?
The Great Maple Syrup Debate:
M is for Maple Syrup
M Is For Maple Syrup: A Vermont Alphabet Edition 1. by Cynthia Furlong ReynoldsMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
While I was browsing through a bookshop in Vermont I ran across M Is For Maple Syrup A Vermont Alphabet Edition 1.by Cynthia Furlong Reynolds. Beautifully illustrated with simple text, large print and few words per page, this is an ideal book for story hour, bedtime stories or as a beginning reader. A smaller, non-rhyming text is written for older children.
Learn about the unique flora and fauna of Vermont. L is for Lake Champlain and T is for Hermit Thrush.
View all my reviews >>
M Is For Maple Syrup: A Vermont Alphabet Edition 1. (Discover America State By State. Alphabet Series)
Amazon Price: $12.21 (as of 12/28/2009)
Maple Syrup Coloring Pages
- Maple Syrup Activity Book - Cornell University
- Maple Syrup Activity Book. Twenty four pages of education and activities targeting students in 3rd through 6th grade.
Product Information:
Word puzzles, find the hidden items, identification of various items, mazes, art options and more all are part of the activities all related to maple production and maple products. - New York Printables - New York Coloring Page - Sugar Maple
- New York Printables - New York Coloring Page - Sugar Maple. Print the New York coloring page and color the picture.
- "Welcome to our Sugarhouse" coloring book
- Coloring Book about making Maple Syrup
Who's Twittering about Vermont Maple Syrup?
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- TruckerDesiree
- @fearfuldogs I was in Vermont in the Fall it was great ... Brought some Maple Syrup and Boots to Texas from there
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- Jase11
- That woman smelled like maple syrup. She must be from Vermont.
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- isamuel
- En route to Vermont for snowboarding & maple syrup farming with @Itreuille & family.
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- iamchanelle
- @honeyandjam dried cranberries, toasted walnuts and pure vermont maple syrup. yum.
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- Vermont_Chalet
- RT @TimothyLock: Just bought a quart of homemade Vermont maple syrup...can't get enough! Have it every day at Rye Chalet http://ow.ly/QcDc
Get your Maple Syrup here:
Square Cans of Maple Syrup
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Pancakes, Waffles or Griddlecakes?
What do you pour your Maple Syrup on?
Now that you have learned about Maple Syrup and have sung the Maple Sweet song, flip on over to the Pancake lens to learn the Waffle Song...-
Flip the Pancake and Sing about Waffles
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You can make the best waffles and pancakes with the cast iron griddles and pure Vermont Maple Syrup. To get you in the mood you gotta check out the video "Do you like pancakes?" My daughter drew the cats that keep popping up around the Waffles. So...
Evelyn's Hands-on Learning Blog
Fetching RSS feed... please stand byCome Visit Vermont
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Evelyn's Bed and Breakfast
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Our home in Vermont is a big old Vermont farmhouse and the land that it sits on has been in the family since the town was founded. This historic 1850's Vermont Farmhouse is surrounded by pastures and hundreds of acres of woods, trails and even a wate...
Maple Syrup Messages:
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Reply
- Evelyn_Saenz Evelyn_Saenz Dec 15, 2009 @ 10:44 pm
- I too devoured the Laura Ingles Wilder books. The sugaring off dance was one of my favorite tales. Growing up we also ate sugar on snow and as it started to cook down and cool we stirred it until it made maple candy just like Grandma made in the Little House in the Big Woods..
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Reply
- sparklenz sparklenz Dec 15, 2009 @ 10:35 pm
- As a kid I avidly read Laura Ingalls Wilder's book Little House In The Big Woods and loved her descriptions of maple syrup making back in the 19th century. I looked forward to trying the syrup myself for years, and wasn't disappointed! I think you are really lucky to have the maple tradition as part of your childhood memories :-)
About the Author of this Maple Syrup Lens:
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Evelyn Saenz: Lensography of a Teacher
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My passion is teaching and finding ways to teach children in fun, hands-on, creative ways. The unit studies I make on Squidoo reflect my view that learning should be integrated and no skills should be taught in isolation. I believe that each topic s...
(Maple Syrup Day! is December 17, 2009)
by Evelyn_Saenz
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