P3008 Photograph, Gelatin Silver: Boys at a Sugar Bush

One black and white gelatin silver photograph depicting nine boys at a sugar bush, two boys are seated on a tree stump in the foreground. The other boys are standing next to trees with sap buckets on them. An inscription is handwritten on the back in black ink “Tapping the maple trees”.

As the weather starts to warm up and we are leaving behind the deep chill of winter, the maple trees begin to awake from their winter slumber.  During the winter the maple trees store starch in their trunks and roots, which is then converted into sugar in the late winter and early spring and rises in the maple tree’s sap. The sap is collected by drilling holes in the trunks of the trees and then inserting metal spouts to direct the flow of sap into a container.

Once the sap is collected it is boiled to reduce the water content and produce a more concentrated syrup. The syrup is graded based on density and translucency according to a grading system revised by the Canadian Food Inspection.

There are four colour classes:

(1) Golden, Delicate Taste

(2) Amber, Rich Taste

(3) Dark, Robust Taste

(4) Very Dark, Strong Taste.  

In Canada the syrup must be boiled down to at least 66% sugar and be created exclusively from a concentration of maple sap. The province of Quebec produces approximately 75% of the world’s maple syrup.

This spring come to the BYTOWN MUSEUM to enjoy some of the marvelous maple products available in the Boutique; including the new maple fudge, maple cookies and the sweet smelling maple candles.