Happy 50th Anniversary Earth Day!
Known around these parts as the first harvest of the season, the maple season is short and sweet, but definitely welcomed, adored and enjoys as a 100% taste of Nova Scoita.
Although today, Earth Day April 22, 2020, many harvesters have wrapped up their tapping season by now, we wanted to celebrate and acknowledge our partnering Maple Producers of Nova Scotia.
Earlier this month our CEO and owner, Glynn Williams and John Stapleton our GM at Authentic Seacoast Company, visited the sugar woods (maintaining social distance) of Kevin McCormick and his son Brad, to pick up another batch of freshly harvested maple syrup. Their location in Rodney, Nova Scotia has been part of the maple harvesting tradition for 6 generations.
Following his visit, as always impressed with the operation and magic of Mom Nature, Glynn offered the following:
The sap fresh from the maple tree, at 1.5%-2.0% sugar, is concentrated using RO filters to 15%-18% sugar, and then further concentrated using this huge evaporator to 66% sugar. The syrup is then filtered then packaged hot in stainless steel barrels, which we then process, package and distribute at Acadian Maple.
There is considerable variance each day in the sap colour depending upon weather and other environmental conditions as you can see in the samples from each batch. Early in the season, the syrup is lighter (this sap is used in confectionary products) and as the season matures, the syrup goes to amber, then dark. Very dark syrup is used in the food processing industry. Amber is typically preferred at retail here at Acadian Maple.
The McCormicks tap about 40,000 trees on their 450 acre maple bush. It takes about a month to get all of the tubing and plumbing organized. There is one tap per tree. There is a lot of snow shoeing involved in the maple bush getting the gear ready for the run.
The sap runs for just about 24 days.
Then it is about another month to take the plumbing apart and sanitize everything.
It is a lot of work to make maple syrup in just those 3-4 weeks. But it’s worth it.
Sweet right?!
From all of us here at Authentic Seacoast Company and Acadian Maple, THANK YOU for choosing 100% Nova Scotia maple syrup and supporting our local, responsibly harvested maple.
Hope you'll get out today, and at least once a day every day to be 'in' nature. We invite you to connect with our friends at the Ecology Action Centre for their Earth Day 'virtual' events as well. See detail here.
