Tree Syrup :)

How cool is that to think that a humble tree can produce such an amazing botanical delicacy.

That is so cool and fun that you can actually work with a TREE to procure such a divine sweet substance. I am envious! I would love to try harvesting Maple syrup someday.

I have always preferred the purity of Maple syrup as sweetener especially since it is a ‘WHOLE’ native product that cannot even be closely compared to store bought pancake syrups that usually have a base of High Fructose Corn Syrup and a whole slew of other synthetic chemical ingredients.

Since I am on a Nature’s goodness rant here, I felt it would be interesting to share and point out that true/pure Maple syrup is actually an amazing botanical medicine compound and another way Nature’s apothecary provides us with naturally sweet flavors that can be good for us as opposed to refined, diluted and bleached sugar that can cause a lot of complications for our human nutritional physiology.

Pure Maple Syrup Contains Beneficial Compounds Pharmacy Researcher Finds

From the article:

During his maple syrup research, Seeram and his research team found phenolics, the beneficial class of anti-oxidant compounds also found in berries. "We speculated that the sugar maple is wounded when it is tapped for its sap, and that it secretes phenolics as a defense mechanism." Seeram said the sap probably has low concentrations of these native phenolics. "But when you boil the sap down, there could be higher levels because syrup is a highly concentrated liquid. Plus, the natural plant bioactives could remain intact or undergo process-induced chemical changes during the heating process resulting in further-derived bioactive compounds." The biomedical scientist said such early research is exciting because many people would not associate such a sugary product with healthy biological properties.

It is also interesting to note that those pagan North American Native populations were the cultures that introduced the westerners to the art and science of ‘Wild-Crafting’ plant foods like Maple Syrup. There is a lot we can learn from how the Native cultures on the North American continent were connected to their environment. It always makes me wonder how these wonderful Pagans discovered that they could actually obtain Maple Syrup from trees in the first place... :)

History of Maple Syrup:

Perhaps a more believable story is that of the Indian woman named Moqua. The story was recounted in the April 1896 issue of The Atlantic Monthly by Vermonter Rowland E. Robinson. The story goes that Moqua was cooking a prime cut of moose for her husband, the hunter Woksis. However, Moqua became preoccupied with her quill-work and let the pot boil dry. Realizing she did not have time to melt some snow she used some maple sap she had been saving for a beverage. Woksis was so impressed with the meal he broke the pot so he could lick the last of the “goo” from the pot shards. Yet another legend states that a chief removed his tomahawk from the trunk of a sugar maple tree, where he had thrown it the night before. As the sun got higher, the sap began to drip from the gash in the tree. The Chief's wife tasted it and discovered that it didn't taste bad, so she used it to cook the meat (though another version says that the pot was left under a broken sugar maple branch and the sap dripped into it). Later when the meat was cooked, the sap boiled down to a syrup. The irresistibly sweet scent and taste of the maple meat so delighted the Chief that he named it Sinzibuckwud—a word meaning “drawn from trees.” This became the word used most often by Native Americans when referring to maple syrup.

More on Maple Syrup [Thanks Wikipedia!]

Forgive me for this long winded mini-dissertation on this wonderful addition to our medicinal nutritional and gastronomic enjoyment, but reading about healthy native botanical foods gets me excited. Plus, I am recently relearning how to consider about food products that are sucrose/fructose/glucose based in order to mediate some health issues due to elevated blood glucose levels and I now have to be careful about my sweet taste indulgences, so it is especially nice knowing that if I do want a sweet flavor once in awhile, Maple Syrup is a preferred substance!

Also, to the O.P., I do hope you share your further journey of exploring and producing Maple Syrup as it would be interesting to read and learn more about your show and tell process! :)