Word: syruped
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When you think of maple syrup, whose 2009 season is just now wrapping up, the first image that pops into your mind is probably a huge tree trunk with a few metal buckets strapped on. Maybe you picture workhorses slogging through the snow, a sleigh laden with tree sap in tow. Maybe there's a little wooden shack with a chimney emitting a plume of steam. What you might not picture are the dollar signs many are seeing around this surging agricultural commodity - maple syrup producers are celebrating high yields and record retail prices this year. (See the photo essay...
...takes about 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of maple syrup because sap is about 98% water. Sugar makers boiled off most of the water over a wood fire - what they were left with was brown sweet syrup. Some sugar makers heated the sap further, turning it into crystallized sugar. Over time, the industry evolved enough that companies from Quebec to Vermont produced ready-made "evaporators," essentially giant frying pans with fire boxes built underneath...
...quaint as this image is and as marketable - check out the old-timey drawings on the sides of plastic maple syrup jugs - this is not the face of modern maple syrup making...
...natural foods movement has picked up steam in recent years, maple syrup has become, along with honey, an increasingly attractive alternative to processed cane sugar. If you're wondering where Aunt Jemima or Log Cabin syrup fit into this picture - these common table products are not real maple syrup. The tagline for Log Cabin, which is made with sugar, is "Authentic Maple Tasting Syrup for over 120 years." This careful wording is intentional and crafted to avoid false advertising claims. (Most brands of maple-flavored pancake toppings are made with corn syrup...
...actual maple syrup industry has grown some 10% in each of the past four years - and no, maple syrup it not just for flapjacks. These days, some maple syrup devotees use the liquid sweetener as a substitute for sugar in everything from cakes to stir fry. And let's not forget the Master Cleanse diet - more accurately a fast - in which people eat nothing for days on end, subsisting only on a drink made of water, lemon juice, cayenne pepper and maple syrup...