GREAT OUTDOORS: Maple syrup is nature's sweetest wild edible

While no longer necessary for our daily survival, there are a variety of wild edibles that appear each spring in the fields and woods that attract locavore harvesters, including ramps, morel mushrooms, asparagus and other free treats. On the other hand, in order to feed their families, early colonists relied upon hunting woodland birds from passenger pigeons to turkeys; waterfowl and shore birds; mammals ranging in size from squirrels to elk, bears, moose and bison; fish, clams, and other seafood; fruit, berries and nuts; greens and fungi. This is the busy season for those who collect maple sap as a hobby or supplemental occupation to produce delicious and valuable maple products. Unlike the simple process of filling a collection bag with the aforementioned edible wild plants, production of maple syrup is much more involved. Native Americans are credited with showing colonists in the early 1600s how to collect sap from sugar maples to make sweet syrup and sugar. The collection process still begins with the installation of 1 to 3 taps that are pounded into maple trees to capture sap. While other maple species can be used, sugar maple sap is the sweetest. The best days to collect sap are when daytime temperatures rise into the 40s after dropping below freezing overnight. This causes the sap to expand and contract with the changing temperatures, like mercury in a thermometer. Most hobbyists still use buckets, but many commercial or larger collectors now rely on tubing where the sap travels into holding tanks. It would be great if finished maple syrup flowed from the trees, but instead it takes 35-45 gallons of raw sap to create each gallon. One of the Native American's methods was to drop heated rocks into sap amassed in hollow logs. A manner still used is to heat the sap in a large flat pan over a stove or open flame. Commercial producers who deal with larger volumes often use evaporators to obtain the proper syrup consistency. Although the sap is sterile until it exits the tree, it picks up microbes that increasingly affects the flavor of the syrup as daytime temperatures rise. Once temperatures in the 50s begin regularly occurring and buds coincidentally begin appearing, the sap will begin to develop an undesirable flavor and lingering aftertaste, known as "buddy," marking the end of the marketable collection season. The taste of the finished syrup is also unique from each region and the color and flavor is also tweaked with additional heating. Until the 1800s, most of the sap was used to make maple sugar, used as a sweetening ingredient before processed sugar cane become the predominant source of granular sugar. Since the Civil War, most maple sap has been used for syrup production. Canada produces 71% of North America's maple syrup -- more than 8 million gallons annually. As evidence of maples being such a part of its identity, a maple leaf is featured on their national flag. Quebec leads all Canadian provinces and U.S. states by a wide margin, producing approximately 91% of its nation's maple exports and about 10 times the amount of second-place Vermont. Ontario, British Columbia, New York, Maine, New Brunswick, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania round out the top 10. Other than within the top few, respective production is weather dependent, so there is some juggling of the second-tier province and state annual rankings. Back in 1840, Ohio was the leading producer of maple syrup in our country, according to the U.S. Agricultural Census. The Ohio Maple Producers Association reports that Ohio's 900 producers currently make about 100,000 gallons of syrup worth nearly $5 million annually. There were more than two dozen maple festivals scheduled this winter in Northeast Ohio, the state's primary region for commercial maple syrup production. Some of them occurred last weekend with others about to occur. The 91st Geauga County Maple Festival is scheduled for April 21-24. For additional information about this and other maple festivals, see Tourism Ohio's site at: ohio.org/festivals-and-events/maple-sugaring-weekends.