This is the first post in a series of posts on how maple syrup is produced. First, on harvesting maple sap.
The maple sap to collect mainly in late winter or early spring, depending on the region, where freezing nights are followed by days of thaw (temperature diurnal and nocturnal positive negative). A notch (in the traditional version) to retrieve the maple water, liquid containing about 2% to 3% sugar. This sugar (mainly sucrose)5 from the roots of the tree. In spring, it mounts under the bark through the xylem, the entire tree in order to provide sufficient energy to boost metabolism.
Maple water (or sap gross) is different from the sap drawn. This, far more loaded with minerals and complex organic molecules, not back by the roots when the metabolism of the tree is revived. The arrival of the sap and its bitter taste marks the end of the harvest of sap.
We do not harvest water from a maple tree whose trunk is less than 20 cm in diameter. The general rule is to wait until 45 years after the planting of a maple tree before starting to harvest its water. However, a sugar maple can live 300 years or more. It can give water every spring for many years.
Later in the season, maple sap is very dark and makes for great grade b maple syrup.
Pure Maple Syrup Drippings 