Syruping Educational programs

[mol1jb]

Hey all,

Part of our operation includes a good number of educational programs throughout the year. I like the programs to be as authentic as possible but it is hard to keep sap around for the year to show the boiling process. We have some frozen in a deep freeze but after that runs out I need some ideas. One idea I had was to water down some finished syrup to get a sap like liquid to use in a boiling demonstration. We use an old smaller evaporator so I don't need a ton of liquid to boil. Anyone done something like this?

Thanks,

[minehart gap]

What about maple sugar? It can be reconstituted into syrup so I would think that if you made a mixture of 98% water and 2% sugar it may be very similar to sap. Not sure but I would think that you will need to use destilled water if you want to actually make syrup. This is all just a guess.

[Haynes Forest Products]

I think because your demonstrating to the general public you need to be very careful to clarify this is not how real maple syrup is made. Because the process is the actual Caramelization of the sugars during the boiling process having diluted syrup that already went thru the process be a problem? I don't think your going to end up with the best of product when your done.

Being very careful to explain that your using sugar water as a demonstration prop only dilute cane sugar to a 4% solution and boil that and dispose of it in it entirety so people don't walk around with a fake product. If the intent is to show how the equipment works during the actual process I don't see any harm. I wouldn't allow anyone to take pictures of you making the solution.

[mol1jb]

I think because your demonstrating to the general public you need to be very careful to clarify this is not how real maple syrup is made. Because the process is the actual Caramelization of the sugars during the boiling process having diluted syrup that already went thru the process be a problem? I don't think your going to end up with the best of product when your done.

Being very careful to explain that your using sugar water as a demonstration prop only dilute cane sugar to a 4% solution and boil that and dispose of it in it entirety so people don't walk around with a fake product. If the intent is to show how the equipment works during the actual process I don't see any harm. I wouldn't allow anyone to take pictures of you making the solution.

Thanks for the response. Most of our educational programs in the off season are for school aged children and we are not actually making a finished product but just showing them the process from start to finish. Any sampling we do is from finished syrup made in the past season.

[maple flats]

When we have an open house and the sap is not running, we just use water. Surprisingly it will actually produce a maple aroma unless you are doing it on a new evaporator. Enough maple gets caught in seams and folds to give it a maple small. I would be sure to tell them that it is just water however.