Picture a cold, bright day in February. Temperatures rise above freezing during the day but dip below freezing at night, a sure sign to maple sugarers that it’s time to tap the trees!
The sap of a sugar maple tree (Acer saccharum) is 98 percent water and 2 percent sugar—and it is that 2 percent that will yield a delicious sweetener. It takes 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup, and it is simply by boiling the sap to remove water and thus concentrate the sugar that makes maple syrup.
Here's how that delicious maple syrup makes it from tree sap to the sweet breakfast ambrosia on your plate!
