Maple Syrup Industry News

 

2012 Sap is now on Tap

 

By TARA BOWIE Sentinel-Review

SWEABURG— The maple syrup industry isn’t in a sticky situation, it’s in a wait and see situation – like every other year, local syrup veteran Bob Jakeman said.

It’s true trees were tapped about a month earlier than usual at the Jakeman sugar bush just outside of Sweaburg, but at this point, the fourth-generation syrup maker isn’t making any predictions on production.

“Everything depends on the weather. It’s an early start, but there’s no reason why we can’t have a bumper crop,” he said Tuesday at his Maple Syrup Gift Shop.

This year trees were tapped Feb. 3, but Jakeman can recall other seasons when the sap started to flow around the same time.

“In the early ‘80s our rule was anytime after the 10th of February. But we haven’t had winters like that in the last 10 to 15 years,” he said.

Jakeman said the trees are in an optimal condition to produce. Now, he’s just waiting on Mother Nature to deliver.

Last year’s wet and warm summer meant the trees grew a lot, allowing sugar to be stored in the stems.

Now he’s hoping for cold nights and warm days to maximize on the potential.

“Our best runs are on days when there’s been a frost at night and then it gets up around 3, 4, 5 C but it’s overcast. It’s nice if the sun comes out and gets the frost out quickly and then the cloud comes in,” he said. “If we get those fluffy snowflakes come down and melt right away, that’s the absolute best condition. You can go out and watch the buckets on the tree, and the sap is running almost steady on days like that.”

Some sugar bush owners have pointed to a lack of snow this winter as a threat, but Jakeman said the lack of snow isn’t posing a problem for his family’s bush at this time.

“Snow keeps frost from going deep into the roots. If the roots freeze, it doesn’t allow water to get through, but we’re not having a deep frost problems at this point,” he said. “It’s really a weather window we’re looking at. Not too cold, not too warm.”

The family uses both the tap and bucket style of collection.

At this point, there are about 650 taps out on the trees, and enough sap has been collected that a full day’s boiling has already taken place. Buckets are just starting to be put out.

“It’s all up to weather now. We’ll just have to wait and find out what’s going to happen,” he said.

Regardless of when the season starts and stops or how much is made, the annual pancake house breakfasts start the first weekend of March and will run until April.

_________________________________________________________________________

Maple syrup has been the subject of lots of good press lately as well. It happens that maple syrup is not only good tasting but good for you as well, containing over 40 antioxidants. The world has awakened to its benefits, fostering weight loss diets, new beverages, dressings, a host of new uses that pick up on the healthy aspects of a purely natural organic source of sugar, right from Canada’s pristine forests.

Maple syrup marketing trends in Canada is healthy domestically, with a whole new generation discovering maple syrup along with its benefits. The visit to the sugar bush for a pancake experience has become the tradition, especially in Ontario & Quebec. Where else can you take a family of 6 to a brunch for a unique experience for under $30.00? They sample the food make their maple syrup purchase and spread the word. This is how 75% of Ontario’s maple syrup is marketed and what has made Jakeman’s famous.

Jakeman’s are one of the few Ontario Producers of maple syrup that have taken their products into other markets. We chose travel tourism early as we saw our products picked up by travelers visiting Canada from abroad. This market is presently under pressure from the recession in regards to motor traffic, but shows surprising strength in duty paid and duty free airport shops.

Visit our Maple Syrup Store and shop on-line today and try our delicious Maple Syrup products!
_________________________________________________________________________

Maple Syrup Enters the Knowledge Economy

 

MONTREAL, Feb. 8, 2012 /CNW Telbec

The research and data collected by the Federation over the past seven years have refocused the maple industry around innovation and the utilization of gastronomic and scientific research findings and new technologies as drivers of long-term economic growth.

The all-natural quality and virtues of maple products have long been known anecdotally. Now they have been documented. For centuries aboriginal peoples used maple sap as a tonic. Then from the Franciscan Récollet Chrestien Leclercq in 1676 to botanist Peter Kalm in 1749 and Duhamel du Monceau in his 1756 work Chymie, pharmacie et métallurgie published by the French Academy of Sciences, many would describe maple's pharmacological uses. In fact, the University of Michigan's Native American Ethnobotany Database catalogues the authors, sources and information that refer to maple, whether as a healthy sugar, good for the lungs, an expectorant, used to cure stomach ailments, etc. Closer to home, Jacques Rousseau (1905-1970), scientist, writer, presenter, professor and head of the Montreal Botanical Garden, wrote that: "coureurs des bois would drink infusions of sugar maple bark (taken from the side of the tree exposed to the sun) to boost their endurance."

It was developed using the results of preliminary research obtained starting in 2006. The results have exceeded the expectations of the entire industry: "Maple's unique flavour, its versatility in not only culinary applications but many others, and its bioactive compounds such as polyphenol antioxidants make it one of the world's great products with an endless potential to surprise us," affirmed the president of the Federation, Mr. Serge Beaulieu.

Last spring, the discovery by Navindra Seeram, a researcher at the University of Rhode Island, that of the 54 antioxidants present in maple syrup, five were compounds identified for the first time in nature, unique to maple.

The studies continue and since last fall they have successfully generated several different types of patented extracts, including sugarless maple extract. This extract is a concentrate of bioactive molecules in maple that could be integrated into value added products, such as cosmetics and natural health products.