Student Questions from Westbrook

[MapleTeacher]

Hi, everyone!

I'm a fifth grade teacher in Westbrook, Maine. Last year, I won a grant through my district that let me purchase taps, buckets, and a few other accessories for maple tapping. With those, I worked with my students (mostly city kids) to go through the whole process, from tree identification to maple syrup. We ended up saving about 50 gallons of sap for a gallon of hard-earned syrup, with a few ounces going to each student. We ended with our own "Maple Day" in school, where each group showed a project that they had been working on throughout the maple season. It was a fantastic experience, and I'm looking to duplicate it this year with a new class. That's where this site comes in!

I thought that I might start this thread as a place where I could post student questions about the maple process. I'd imagine that hearing from experts would be thrilling, especially if it was a question that was out of my league!

Thank you, in advance, for helping if you're able to! As someone who has only taught himself the basics through reading, I appreciate these kinds of message boards.

Good luck this year!

MapleTeacher

[morningstarfarm]

Welcome aboard..looking forward to the season throughyour students eyes...

[sugarman3]

welcome,got 50 yrs making syrup,gladly try to answer any student questions

[Haynes Forest Products]

Mapleteacher welcome to the site. OK boys lets activate spell check were being watched. Every year as the season progresses in Door County Wisconsin The small town of Sevastopol middle school takes a field trips out the my buddies farm for the afternoon. The shop teacher there used to tap trees around the school that has woods behind it and boil the syrup at his home. They tour the woods on hay wagon pulled by tractor and, the saw mill and tour the sugar house. They do snacks and Ice cream with syrup on it. Once it catches on it will be their favorite part of spring.

[buckeye gold]

Ask away and you will get good solid answers here. No question is too small or stupid, believe me someone planning on going into sugaring as a hobby or business has already asked the stupid questions. Your students won't come up with anything we haven't already seen. when I started this site was a God-send and I asked plenty of stupid questions, but the fine producers here raised my learning curve exponentially. I think most producers here will be delighted to help the kids.

[ennismaple]

Always happy to help educate (and learn) about maple syrup production! Fire away with the questions.

[BRL]

Welcome MapleTeacher!

[mudr]

Mapleteacher welcome to the site. OK boys lets activate spell check since we're being watched. Every year as the season progresses in Door County, Wisconsin, the Sevastopol Middle School takes a field trip out to my buddy's farm for the afternoon. The shop teacher there used to tap trees around the school that has woods behind it and boil the syrup at his home. They tour the woods on a hay wagon pulled by tractor, and tour the saw mill and the sugar house. They eat snacks and ice cream with syrup on it. Once it catches on it will be their favorite part of spring.


Haynes- You said "spell check on". I took the liberty and tweaked some of the grammar, too. I think more work is needed, though. B-

:lol: :cool:

[MapleTeacher]

Thanks, everybody!

We kicked off today with a very general overview of the process, and they had a million questions. I'll weed through them and post every now and then! I appreciate the welcoming atmosphere!

Also, no spellchecking from me, if you don't watch mine. ;-) Just interested in the knowledge!

Take care,
MapleTeacher

[Chickenman]

Ask away. I may be speaking for many others here but I know the people on this forum enjoy helping others. I work at an elementary school and work with the kids building blue bird houses, an exercise rowing machine and what ever else the want/need built. Its fun seeing things through their eyes sometimes. We are all learning something.

[gmcooper]

Welcome aboard MapleTeacher! We are only about 15 minutes from your school. We will do what ever we can to help out. We also host a number of school trips each year. Unfortunately I am not on here every day but check in a few times per week.
Mark

[Haynes Forest Products]

Mapleteacher Why not allow each student to ask a question with their name attached. You will find that every question has more than one answer and should be followed up by the student. My late brothers friend told me if you asked Mike "what time it is he would show you how to build a clock" That about sums up how most of us feel about this sport. Let the youngins ask away in their own words

[MapleTeacher]

Well, here they are! I know the answers to most of 'em, but I somehow resisted answering them on the first day! I love that they're curious. Feel free to take one or two at a time. I didn't take their names, but these questions are 100% theirs. Looking forward to sharing your knowledge with the kids!

Questions
How long does it take to boil?
How does the tree make the sap that goes into the spout?
Does the tree run out of sap?
What happens when the tree dies?
How long does the whole maple process take? How long with just one tree?
What is the sap? What is it made of?
Can you have multiple taps in one tree?
How does it change color to brown?
Can we get our own syrup? (I'll answer that - yes, the plan is to give a bit of syrup to each student after the boil)
How do you know if it’s a maple tree?
How did Mr. MapleTeacher learn this? From who? When did you want to learn? (you don't have to answer that, haha)
Are we killing the tree by tapping it?
How much syrup will we get?
When will we do maple stuff in school?
When you plant a maple, does it have sap in it?
How much sap is there in one tree?
Why are we doing this unit?
Do all trees have sap? If so, can we make syrup out of them?
Who were the first people/person to make maple syrup? Who got good at it?
Can you make other maple products?
Can maple syrup be used as medicine?


Thanks, everyone!

MapleTeacher

[psparr]

When boiling a good rule of thumb is 1 gallon of evaporation per square ft. of surface area.

Second question look here.
http://maple.dnr.cornell.edu/produc/sapflow.htm

What happens when the tree dies:
We cut it down and use it to boil sap.

You can put multiple taps in one tree. But the recommendation is one tap per tree 8" DBH. "I'll let you look that one up. Then 2 taps at say 16 "DBH.
A side note to the tapping guidelines. If there's a tree you plan on culling, you could put as many taps as you could fit.

The color mostly comes from the caramelization of the sugars.

Maple and ash trees are the only trees in the US that have opposing branches. Which is noticeable at the buds of the tree. And somewhat in the branches.

You are not killing the tree. Some trees have been tapped for generations.
Here's a picture of a cross section of a maple tree that was tapped for years. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170125/cb514c1e8962f913dcd9d47fc058b495.jpg

[psparr]

You'll get far less syrup than you hope for.
Here's a little reading about sugar content of sap and expected returns. http://www.uvm.edu/~pmrc/jones.pdf

When will we do this maple stuff in school:
When the days are around 40 degrees and the nights are around 20 degrees.
Every maple has sap. It's how it transfers nutrients necessary to grow.

You can make syrup from walnut and birch as well.

Don't know if they were the first, but Native Americans boiled sap and made sugar cakes that were easy to store and transport.

Can maple syrup be used as medicine?:

Not sure about that, but time spent outdoors and not burning you hard fought syrup bounty is definitely good for the soul.

[Zucker Lager]

Who were the first people/person to make maple syrup? Who got good at it?

The town that we live in is called "Sugar Camp" Its in north central Wisconsin. The town got its name from the native people who came here every year to take sap from the trees and boil it to make sugar. Some stories that I've heard tells about very early native people cutting slashes in the trees with sharp rocks, instead of tapping them, and collecting the sap in birch bark baskets then dropping hot rocks into the sap to boil it down. They traded the sugar that they didn't use for other things that they needed with other native tribes and later on with the early settlers. Jay

[stewardsdairy]

How long does it take to boil? It depends on the size of the evaporator and the heat of the fire as well as various other conditions. My evaporator that has a steam away and deep flues boils about 250 gallons per hour.


What happens when the tree dies? You don't tap it anymore- it becomes home for wildlife such as insects, squirrels and birds. or firewood

How long does the whole maple process take? How long with just one tree?- I boil sap most times on the day it is produced by the tree if not the day after. Most of my sap goes from tree to bottle in less than 24 hours

What is the sap? What is it made of?- Mostly water, about 2% sugar, and various other natural chemicals and minerals

Can you have multiple taps in one tree?- yes on vacuum the most taps I put on large trees is two, Most of my trees only have one

How does it change color to brown?- heat caramelizes the sugars color of syrup varies from bacterial action on sap and boiling time

How do you know if it’s a maple tree?- by the bark

How did Mr. MapleTeacher learn this? From who? When did you want to learn? (you don't have to answer that, haha)- learned by watching others, asking questions, reading books- North American Maple Producers Manual?- should get a copy, internet

Are we killing the tree by tapping it?- no

How much syrup will we get?- per tree it depends on a lot of factors. Biggest factor in my opinion is the length of the season and the weather during the season

When you plant a maple, does it have sap in it?- yes. There is some cool information on harvesting sap from saplings

How much sap is there in one tree? -Every tree is different and can vary from year to year, tap to tap. We are not taking all of the sap from a tree. The larger the tree, the more sap it would contain, but you wouldn't necessarily get more sap from a bigger tree than a small one.

Why are we doing this unit?- to learn tradition, appreciate hard work, learn about nature/tree ID, learn about density and boiling point elevation, get sweet rewards, get outside, communicate with others...

Do all trees have sap? If so, can we make syrup out of them?- some other types of trees do have sap that makes good syrup but not as great as maple!

Who were the first people/person to make maple syrup? Who got good at it?- Native Americans, Modern techniques are making it more efficient all the time

Can you make other maple products?- Lots! Maple peanuts is my favorite, as well as cream, candy, cotton candy, lolipops...

Can maple syrup be used as medicine?- I usually lose about 15 pounds while working hard January- April so its great medicine for me!

[lpakiz]

Maple teacher,
One question that was asked would be of great interest to almost every student.
"How much syrup will we get."
The general rule of thumb for gravity systems (pails or tubing into buckets) is one quart of finished syrup per tap, per year. This would be roughly 10 gallons of sap (40 quarts) per tap, per year.
If your students are studying formulas, the formula is:
(Percent sugar) X (Gallons of sap) divided by 87. (Answer will be in gallons)
Sugar percentage will vary widely, from less 1% to more than 4.5%, altho around 2% to 2.2% is common.

[Thomas Maxwell Hume]

Welcome: I am also located in Westbrook, and my wife is your school's food service manager Sally. I am getting ready to tap 60 or more taps starting today

[MapleTeacher]

Fantastic, everyone! Thanks for the great answers.

Tom, your wife is crucial to our success! She shares her limited freezer space until we have our boil! Couldn't do it without her!

I'm sure more questions will pop up. Until then, thank you all so much!

MapleTeacher

[ennismaple]

To answer the various questions regarding tree health and how much sap it has:

The tree draws water out of the ground through its roots so as long as there is moisture in the ground and the weather it right (freezing nights, warm days) the sap will run for days or weeks. We've had seasons as short at 10 days from start to finish and as long as 40 days.

Since the tree can draw as much water from the ground as it needs, what we need to consider is how much starch (sugar) are we taking from the tree. If we tap properly, only tapping 10" diameter or bigger trees and only adding a 2nd tap to trees bigger than 20", we as sugarmakers get around 2% of the total sugar the tree has inside.

Will the tree die? The picture below is of me as a little boy (around 1978) standing beside a tree my grandfather and my great grandfather had been tapping for 30+ years. 39 years later my children are still tapping that same tree! That means some of our trees have been tapped for over 70 years.

[MapleTeacher]

To answer the various questions regarding tree health and how much sap it has:

The tree draws water out of the ground through its roots so as long as there is moisture in the ground and the weather it right (freezing nights, warm days) the sap will run for days or weeks. We've had seasons as short at 10 days from start to finish and as long as 40 days.

Since the tree can draw as much water from the ground as it needs, what we need to consider is how much starch (sugar) are we taking from the tree. If we tap properly, only tapping 10" diameter or bigger trees and only adding a 2nd tap to trees bigger than 20", we as sugarmakers get around 2% of the total sugar the tree has inside.

Will the tree die? The picture below is of me as a little boy (around 1978) standing beside a tree my grandfather and my great grandfather had been tapping for 30+ years. 39 years later my children are still tapping that same tree! That means some of our trees have been tapped for over 70 years.

I'll show that to the kiddos! Thanks for sharing the picture!