Maple Syrup (long)

Balrog

Active Member
Sep 17, 2008
700
97
28
Des Moines
Okay. It may not make your list of things to do before you die, but if you have never tasted real maple syrup you have got to give it a try.
I was thinking that there are people we all know that have "everything" and are difficult to buy for, for Christmas. Pure maple syrup might be the answer.
When I was a little feller, my dad took me to a sugar maple farm or bush, as it is called, up near Castalia Iowa, to spend a week working with the proprietor and his son Dale. I was around thirteen at the time, and remember that this was the hardest I had ever worked in my life. The pails that hang from the spiggots are the four gallon size and typically you carry two to the horse drawn vat. The vat is eventually emptied into a holding area where below is a huge oven repeatedly stocked with timber to keep the fire hot and constant. The sap goes through many gates as it is cooked going from clear to light gold to a beautiful amber. And the consistency changes as the color changes.
So, after stomping around in the boot sucking mud for a week, and emptying untold hundreds of pails of sap to be cooked down, I finally had the opportunity to try some syrup that I had actually helped make. It is wonderful. Even the raw sap takes good. Something akin to sugar water, but sweeter.
Anyway, if anyone is interested in calling them to order any product, please PM me and I will get you a phone number.
 

d4cy

Member
Oct 19, 2006
152
7
18
Ames
Small world, I know Dale and family pretty well! Great people, but I've never had their maple syrup!
 

josh777

Active Member
Apr 13, 2006
738
33
28
asking in all seriousness...what's the difference between this syrup and what you get with store bought maple syrup?
 

balken

Well-Known Member
Apr 14, 2006
2,744
345
83
Okay. It may not make your list of things to do before you die, but if you have never tasted real maple syrup you have got to give it a try.
I was thinking that there are people we all know that have "everything" and are difficult to buy for, for Christmas. Pure maple syrup might be the answer.
When I was a little feller, my dad took me to a sugar maple farm or bush, as it is called, up near Castalia Iowa, to spend a week working with the proprietor and his son Dale. I was around thirteen at the time, and remember that this was the hardest I had ever worked in my life. The pails that hang from the spiggots are the four gallon size and typically you carry two to the horse drawn vat. The vat is eventually emptied into a holding area where below is a huge oven repeatedly stocked with timber to keep the fire hot and constant. The sap goes through many gates as it is cooked going from clear to light gold to a beautiful amber. And the consistency changes as the color changes.
So, after stomping around in the boot sucking mud for a week, and emptying untold hundreds of pails of sap to be cooked down, I finally had the opportunity to try some syrup that I had actually helped make. It is wonderful. Even the raw sap takes good. Something akin to sugar water, but sweeter.
Anyway, if anyone is interested in calling them to order any product, please PM me and I will get you a phone number.

I have heard this from some former colleagues in New England. Like a lot of things, the familiar commercial product and the real thing are not in the same league. Even OJ tastes 10X better in Florida.
 

Balrog

Active Member
Sep 17, 2008
700
97
28
Des Moines
asking in all seriousness...what's the difference between this syrup and what you get with store bought maple syrup?
Wow!! Well,.... I think Balken is pretty much right on the button.
I think if I had to describe it, it would be like the difference between whole milk and skim milk or 2%. The taste is just so pure. It is like liquid sugar, if you will. The sap has about 2.5-3.0 percent sugar content and the syrup, after it has been continuously boiled for days, eventually becomes about 70 percent pure sugar. It takes something like 10 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup, and there is nothing else added to the product that I am aware of. Nothing. I hope that helps. Thanks.
 

chadm

Giving it a go
Apr 11, 2006
15,418
1,333
113
Midwest
Wow!! Well,.... I think Balken is pretty much right on the button.
I think if I had to describe it, it would be like the difference between whole milk and skim milk or 2%. The taste is just so pure. It is like liquid sugar, if you will. The sap has about 2.5-3.0 percent sugar content and the syrup, after it has been continuously boiled for days, eventually becomes about 70 percent pure sugar. It takes something like 10 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup, and there is nothing else added to the product that I am aware of. Nothing. I hope that helps. Thanks.

I think it is closer to a 40/1 ratio.
 

Balrog

Active Member
Sep 17, 2008
700
97
28
Des Moines
I think it is closer to a 40/1 ratio.

No wonder I was so tired!!!! I think you should edit my post and make it correct.:yes: Thank you.

Edit: I just researched this and Chadm is correct, it is 40/1. None-the-less it takes a lot of sap, boiled down, to make pure maple syrup!
 
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NobodyBeatsCy

Well-Known Member
Apr 17, 2008
3,750
633
113
Clive, IA
When I was in Vancouver last week, I walked by a shop that sold nothing but maple syrup. One kind was actually a blend of maple syrup and Grand Marnier. Looked interesting but sadly, I could not go in. I was enjoying a fine Cuban cigar instead!
 

Ciclone

Well-Known Member
May 5, 2008
3,317
201
63
Clive
Take this stuff to the Maple Syrup board for crying out loud.

Just kidding. I always get pure maple syrup at Costco or Hy-Vee. Not sure if it's quite as good as what you had, but it's much better than regular syrup. And I believe it's supposed to be healthier for you than the imitation ones made with refined sugars. But you definitely pay more for it.
 

cyclonewino

Active Member
Apr 11, 2006
338
137
43
People are so accustomed to dark syrup most maple syrup in the store is also fairly dark (lower quality). 5o years ago it wouldn't have graded high enough to be sold. Grade A is light amber color.

Tapped a few trees and made some several years ago - on a kitchen stove. The old cliche of "a watched pot nover boils" never made maple syrup, had all four burners going for eight hours to boil down 10 gal of sap to 2 quarts of syrup. Good thing the vents worked.
 

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