Wait, did you forget to give me maple syrup.

Muffins with maple syrup. pexels

In fact, maple syrup is more than just a small part of American pancakes. In Canada, maple syrup is considered a national treasure, and it's also known as "liquid gold.

Maple syrup is not only sweet and tasty, but also rich in vitamins and amino acids and other nutrients, and has a high nutritional value, which is good for health; in addition, compared to other sugars, maple syrup is also lower in calories, so it is not too much of a burden on the body when consumed.

So how is maple syrup made? And where does it come from?

Chiseling the trunk of a maple sugar tree to collect the sap, and sweet syrup took over the table

As early as the 17th century, the Indians, who inhabited the North American continent, began to consume maple syrup.

In the Indian language, maple sugar is called "Sinzibuckwud", meaning "Drawn from the wood" (Drawn from the wood ). In the spring, they would cut open or hole a sugar maple to collect the sap from the trunk and steam it to evaporate the excess water and make what we know as maple syrup.

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The main component of maple syrup is sucrose, but maple sap contains glucose, organic salts, amino acids, enzymes, and other organic substances. Maple syrup tastes like a different flavor, not only because it comes from different tree species and regions, but also because of the different proportions of these ingredients.

So how is this sweet maple sap formed?

The maple sap is extruded from the maple tree at night when it freezes and thaws during the day

The xylem is responsible for transporting water and minerals, and the phloem is responsible for transporting nutrients, unlike the common perception of the xylem as a plant transporting tissue. This maple sap, which contains sucrose, is derived from the sap of the xylem of the maple tree.

On the North American continent, the alternation between winter and spring is characterized by a large temperature difference between morning and evening, with warm days alternating periodically with freezing nights, when the moisture in the maple tree is in a freeze-thaw cycle, constantly freezing, thawing, and then freezing again.

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When midnight arrives and the ambient temperature drops, the moisture in the xylem of the maple tree freezes in the cold and forms ice; during the day, the temperature gradually rises, and the ice that formed during the night melts, which in turn causes the gases in the trunk to expand, exerting a pressure on the outer walls, which pushes the maple sap from the roots to the top of the stem, and then leaves the trunk through the nearest exit. Therefore, when collecting sap from a sugar maple tree, you can get more than three times the normal yield of maple sap if you put pressure on the sugar maple tree!

Not all maples can be used to make syrup. Of the many types of maple trees, the sugar maple, red maple, and black maple are the most commonly used for making maple syrup, and their trunks and branches contain an average of 2 to 3% sugar; in the case of the sugar maple, for example, the sugar content of the sap is mostly 2 to 3%, and the sap of the trees with a higher sugar content can reach 5 to 6% or even 10%.

What are the factors that affect the yield and sweetness of maple syrup?

Another factor that affects the sugar content of maple sap, in addition to differences between tree species, depends on how much sugar the maple tree stores during the winter. The sugar in maple sap comes mainly from nutrients stored in the roots during the fall and winter. Maple trees drop their leaves and reserve nutrients in the fall, and then break down the nutrients in the spring to provide them to the new buds.

Shade-tolerant trees like maples tend to store more sugar in the winter. With enough sunlight, water, and nutrients, maples can continue to photosynthesize and produce more sugar. This sugar production is much greater than the amount needed for growth, so that the tree can maintain its basic needs in the barren hours of shade.

In addition, the flow of maple sap through the trunk is affected by the difference in temperature between the nighttime freeze and the daytime thaw. For maple syrup producers, sunny days are good days to collect maple sap, so the difference in temperature between the highest and lowest temperatures in March and April affects maple sap production.

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Weather is not the only factor that affects maple sap production, and recent research suggests that the amount of maple seed dispersal plays an important role in predicting maple syrup production.

The research team collected maple syrup yields and total seed content of sugar maple trees at 28 sites in Vermont over the past 17 years, and found that when maple seed production exploded, maple syrup yields declined in every other year, so it's clear that maple syrup yields decrease as sugar maple seed production increases.

The sugars contained in the sap of the maple tree, as well as the nutrients needed by the seeds, are synthesized from the carbohydrates in the maple tree, so the amount of maple sugar the tree is able to produce decreases dramatically as it produces a large number of seeds.

While maple seed production clearly affects maple syrup production, the effect of weather on maple sap cannot be underestimated. Therefore, if seed yield, weather, and temperature are all taken into account together, it may be possible to more accurately predict next year's maple syrup yield ro!

By the way, maple trees like it cold, and too much heat can have a knock-on effect on their growth and maple syrup production. While enjoying the delicious taste of maple syrup, don't forget to take care of the earth and slow down the rate of global warming together.