It is Maple Sugar Time!

Let the Festivals begin!

Maple sugar is a traditional sweetener in the northeastern United States and Canada, prepared from the sap of the sugar maple tree.

Maple sugar is what remains after the sap of the sugar maple is boiled for longer than is needed to create maple syrup or maple taffy. Once almost all the water has been boiled off, all that is left is a solid sugar. By composition, this sugar is about 90% sucrose, the remainder consisting of variable amounts of glucose and fructose. This is usually sold in pressed blocks or as a translucent candy. It is difficult to create as the sugar easily burns and thus requires considerable skill.

Maple sugar was the preferred form of maple by First Nations/Native American peoples as the sugar could easily be transported and lasted a long time. It is called “ziinzibaakwad” by the Anishinaabeg Nation. Blessing of the Bay, the second ocean-going merchant ship built in the English colonies, carried maple sugar from the Massachusetts Bay Colony to New Amsterdam as early as 1631.

(Source: Wikipedia; photo credit: Sugar maple trees in fall, treeinpot.com; Maple tree with buckets, southernmostmaple.com; Maple sugar candy, vtmapleproducts.com; sugar maple tree illustration, survival-gear-guide.com)