Our family has been producing maple syrup on our farm since the 1840's. Our mature trees (100-200 years old) are healthy and some have been tapped every year since then. Maple syrup is a sustainable product that is considered "liquid gold"! Click on a below category for more information: 

MAKING MAPLE SYRUP AT HOME

TAPPING & COLLECTION 

CLEANING & MORE CLEANING

EVAPORATION 

FILTERING AND PACKAGING

GRADING AND LABELING 

NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION

Fulton's Pancake House and Sugar Bush is federally inspected and is now certified in the new "Seal of Quality" program. This program for Ontario producers has created standardized guidelines for the production of maple syrup. 

TAPPING & COLLECTION
We have 4000 taps on 3000 trees at Fulton's. Many of our trees are undertapped or have not been tapped since the January 1998 ice storm .. Our trees lost many branches from the ice storm as a result of the weight of the ice. This reduced tapping will continue until experts can determine a new safe tapping guideline.

At Fulton's we tap the majority of our trees using plastic tubing. We still use some aluminum buckets and spouts. The work begins in November when we begin re-stringing the lines from tree to tree at waist height. Each roll of tubing is put on the same stand of trees every year. We have approximately 325rolls of tubing (or lines as we call them), each approximately 150 feet (45 meters) long to connect 10-15 trees. It takes our bush gang on snowshoes two weeks to string all the rolls in our 400 acre (160 hectare) maple bush. They wrap the end of the line around the tree to keep it from falling down. A spout in the end of each line holds it up after the trees are tapped in February and early March.

We call these rolls of tubing lateral lines and they are 5/16" (0.7 cm) in diameter. These small lines are connected to larger lines called mainlines. A vacuum system is used to move the sap through the tubing. This gentle suction does not draw the sap out of the trees. It just helps to move the sap from the smaller lines, into the mainlines and eventually into the sugar camp.

Tapping is done in late February or early March, when temperatures reach the freezing point. Holes are drilled about 1 meter (3-4 feet) above the ground with a power tapping drill. The holes are 1 1/4" (3.5 cm) deep and about 7/16" (1 cm) in diameter. A plastic spout connected to a"dropline" is inserted in the hole. The dropline is simply a short piece of tubing (about 30cm / 1 foot long) with a spout on one end. It is connected to the lateral line at the other end. New holes are drilled each year and seal over,much like a scab. Tapping does not hurt the tree provided the following guidelines for Ontario producers are met:
 

Only trees 25 cm (10") in diameter or larger are tapped. (1 hole each year) These trees are at least 40 years old!

Larger trees may have additional taps (up to 4) depending on size. At Fulton's our policy is to undertap our trees to ensure their future health.

Tapholes are at least 10cm (4") from the previous year's tapholes. 

CLEANING and more CLEANING
At the end of the spring maple season, all the pipeline is taken down and rolled back up into rolls. The pipeline is then taken to the sugar camp where each roll (we have about 325 rolls) is cleaned.

All the t' connectors are capped (where the droplines connect) and one end is attached to water line and the other is attached to vacuum to draw the water through under pressure. Any dirt inside is loosened with a mallet. The lines are then hung inside the sugar camp for the summer, fall and early winter. The droplines (about 3500) are soaked until clean and also stored in the sugar camp. All the equipment is cleaned (as well as almost daily during the season) and stored until the next spring. This takes almost 3 weeks of work. We try to have most of the work finished by the time the black flies arrive en masse!

EVAPORATION
Maple syrup is produced on days when the sap flows from the tree. Temperatures below freezing at night and above freezing during the day are required to make the sap flow. (approximately -2 to -8 degrees Celsius at night and +2 to +8 degrees during the day). Sap is produced in the summer by the leaves and stored in the roots over the winter. As the days warm, the sap rises in the tree. We require at least one thousand of gallons of sap before we can begin boiling since it takes 35 to 40 gallons of maple sap to make 1 gallon of maple syrup. 

Sap is approximately 97% water and looks just like water. The remaining 3 % is natural sugar. By comparison maple syrup (the end product) is at least 66% sugar and 34% water. The maple sap is transformed into maple syrup by evaporation. At Fulton's we also use a reverse osmosis machine which concentrates the maple sap by forcing it through a semi-permeable membrane at high pressure. This concentrated maple sap still looks like water but is approximately 11% sugar. This machine acts like a giant filter, and does not change the quality of the maple syrup.

The evaporator is made of stainless steel and is heated by oil. We regulate the flow of maple sap that continuously enters the evaporator. Water in the sap evaporates causing the steam that is associated with all sugarbushes. When the boiling point of the maple sap (now syrup) reaches 4 degrees C above the boiling point of water (219 degrees F.), the syrup has reached the required sugar content. Maple syrup is then filtered and packaged. 

FILTERING AND PACKAGING
Maple syrup contains not only water and sugar but minerals. These minerals are concentrated when the sap is boiled and appear as a sediment called "sugar sand". When the hot maple syrup flows from the evaporator through the paper filter, this sugar sand remains on top. It simply looks like a fine cream coloured sand (and tastes as such!). If this sugar sand is not filtered out, it settles harmlessly to the bottom of containers of maple syrup.   The hot maple syrup is then pumped  through a machine called a filter press.  A series of  paper thin filters trap the sugar sand and the maple syrup then continues to the canning tank.

Maple syrup is packed hot at 180 degrees Farhenheit. Our canning tank is encased in a heated water jacket, that maintains a constant temperature. Glass and tin containers are filled by hand then labeled and graded. 

GRADING AND LABELING
Maple syrup must be labeled with the name & address of the producer, volume of maple syrup, and grade. The grade of maple syrup refers to the colour and flavour. All maple syrup must be the same density of 66.5 % Brix. (sugar content) In Ontario we have 4 grades of maple syrup sold to consumers:

Extra light - very light colour and very delicate maple flavour - used in making maple products (sugar candies, maple butter etc.) Light - golden coloured with delicate flavour - multi-use  Medium - brown coloured with rich maple flavour - multi-use  Amber - dark brown in colour with a strong flavour - wonderful for baking, many people even enjoy it on pancakes (not shown) Make sure you purchase maple syrup labelled "100% Pure Maple Syrup".  At Fulton's all our syrup is 100% pure!

We have no control over which grades we produce. When the syrup has reached the proper sugar content (density) we fill a sample bottle and determine the colour using a device called a SPECTROPHOTOMETER which measures the percentage of light that passes through the syrup. Extra Light syrup has a light transmission of at least 75%. We can also take fill a sample bottle with the fresh maple syrup, hold it to the light and compare it to bottles with each grade colour. The grade to which it appears closest in colour is the grade it receives. Personal preferences dictate which grade to buy, no one grade is better than another. At Fulton's we serve Light or Medium on our pancakes while we use Amber for all our cooking and baking.

NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION
Maple syrup caloric value is 50 calories per tablespoon, compared to corn syrup 60, honey 64, brown sugar 51, white sugar 46 and molasses 45. . In pure filtered maple syrup the main minerals present are: calcium, potassium, magnesium, phosphorus and iron. Trace amounts of vitamins are present mainly B2, riboflavin, B5 (pantothenic acid), B6 (pyridoxine), niacin, biotin and folic acid. Trace amounts of amino acids, the building blocks of protein are also present. (With information from the Proctor Research Farm, U of Vermont.)