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Dangerous Getaway is set in Elgin, New Brunswick. Situated in the Caledonia Highlands within the Appalachian Mountain range, it is an area known not only for its beauty, but also for its prodigious maple sugar production.
And while the unforgettable adventure experienced by Rhone Alexander and Grace Upton in Elgin has nothing to do with sugar making, those gorgeous highlands still bring to mind the delicious pleasure of maple syrup given its vast stands of sugar maple trees. Nature at its most beautiful and productive best.
Actually, trees are perhaps what New Brunswick, Canada does best considering that eighty-five percent of the province is covered in them (globalforestwatch.org 2020). According to www2.gnb.ca, New Brunswick’s vast forests contain over twenty species of trees, “which is remarkably diverse among Canadian forests given the province’s small size.” Of that number nearly 70% (as represented by tree volume) are softwood trees (conifers) – the remaining species being hardwood (deciduous). Included in that number is the sugar maple with its luxuriant shade-producing crown, one of the most important hardwood species in the province.
The maple itself is no one trick pony, in fact there are 150 species of maple trees. As Canada.ca points out, of those 150 species, only ten are native to Canada: “the sugar, black, bigleaf, silver, red, mountain, striped, Douglas, vine and Manitoba maples.”
Not surprisingly the maple sugar tree is the most well known of all the species of maple trees. Interestingly, Canada’s arboreal emblem is of course the famous maple leaf — it’s even on our flag, although that image is actually a generic mock up of all Canada’s maple species.
The sugar maple is valued for it’s fine lumber (arboristhalifax.ca). “For hardness, strength, beauty and longevity, sugar maple surpasses all other species. Its wood is highly valued by furniture builders.”
However chief among its winning attributes
is its delicious sap from which is made maple syrup, and while there are
certainly other places in the world that also produce maple syrup, New
Brunswick remains a key player. Says tourismnewbrunswick.ca: “Maple syrup has a long
history in our province, and New Brunswick is now the second largest maple
producer in Canada (third in the world), with a production of over four million
kilograms (eight million, eight hundred thousand pounds) of maple syrup per
year, some of it exported to 35 countries.
“During the season (late winter into
spring), one tree can produce about 40 litres (just over ten gallons) of
sap, which equals one litre (0.264 liquid gallon) of maple syrup.”
When the sap is running, sugar shacks (camps) and
sugar farms are a favourite destination for delicious maple-themed cooking and
treats. As well they offer family fun activities like making candy and
witnessing the entire maple syrup making process in motion.
While writing this piece I just had to treat myself to
pancakes with butter, drowned in maple syrup, pictured above, because writing
about it made me hungry. In a sugar camp the standard fare would be flapjacks
with butter and maple syrup, maple-flavoured sausages, and warm baked beans
sweetened with maple sugar.
According to albertcountymuseum.com: “The Mi'kMaq were the first to harvest maple syrup in this
area. To extract the syrup from the maple trees, the natives would cut an
upward slash in the tree and place a reed or sliver of wood in the cut.
The sap would run up the tree, get stopped by the reed then follow the reed out
and drip into a birch bark cassa. The cassas would also be used to
evaporate the sap down to make syrup. They would heat rocks in a fire
then place the cassa on the hot rocks to heat the liquid inside. It was a
long process but eventually enough of the water would evaporate away leaving a
delicious sweet syrup.
“When the French and then
subsequently the English settled in the area, natives taught them how to
extract maple syrup and use it as food. The first commercial production
of maple syrup in Albert County was in the early 1840’s by the Colpitts family.
In their first year of production they gathered enough sap to produce 6200
pounds of maple sugar. All the sap was gathered in birch bark
cassas! The annual output of maple sugar from the Parish of Elgin was
approximately 80,000 pounds. (1851 Census data.) It takes 40
gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup. It takes one gallon of syrup
to make 8 pounds of Maple Sugar. When you do the math that means that
400,000 gallons of sap were collected to make the 80,000 pounds of sugar.”
Again, according to albertcountymuseum.com, the cassas
were replaced with tin in the 1800’s. But since ordinary tin rusts, that too
was replaced with English tin. Of course the lead welding and lining in the
English tin cans were problematic, so that was eventually replaced with galvanized
metal developed in the 1900’s. Lids for these receptacles followed shortly
after. The sap collected in the cans was poured into larger buckets; the
buckets emptied into a gathering tank sitting on a horse-drawn sled. Filters
removed any twigs or debris — the tank shaped to prevent splashing out of the
top opening during transport over uneven snowy terrain.
Today, for the most part sap cans are used by
hobbyists. For large operations sap (accessed through inserted spouts) is
collected by plastic tubing systems connected to trees and conveyed either by
vacuum or good old-fashioned gravity directly to a central collection point into
storage tanks. The sap is then transferred to an
evaporator, the sap flowing through the pipe to boil in a large vat. As the
water in the sap evaporates, more tree sap is allowed to flow in as it
continues to boil down, and is subsequently moved to a smaller vat. The process
continues in the smaller vat until the sap reaches the required density and is
ready to be bottled.
Another rendering method is by
way of a cauldron over an open fire.
Once the syrup is complete it can
be further boiled down to make maple candy or maple sugar. The good news is
that all of the aforementioned, including the making of syrup, can also be
accomplished on a much smaller scale in a large pan on a cook stove.
Additional
tools of the trade include: (Again from albertcountymuseum.com) a maple sugar
masher because “when making maple sugar it naturally wants to form lumps”; one
and two pound maple sugar moulds, and wooden paddles used to work the maple
sugar into the desired moulds. The site also points out that maple sugar and
maple cream are actually the same thing, because “when rationing of sugar was
introduced in Canada during WW II sugar camps decided to change the name from
sugar to cream so that it would not be subject to rationing.”
Says
tourismnewbrunswick.ca: “Whether drizzled over pancakes, added to a smoothie,
frozen into candy, or used in a cocktail, maple syrup is a distinctively
delicious way to add some sweetness.”
Highly versatile, maple
syrup can be used in a plethora of culinary dishes, both sweet and savoury, as
well as standing nicely on its own. Maple candy, ice cream and gelato are
perennial favourites, as are baked goods, and caramelizes and glazes for just
about everything, including roasted nuts. You can even drink it — from
sweeteners in coffees and teas to actual maple tea itself. There’s also a
variety of maple beers, wines and spirits. You can also drink the sap right out
of the tree!
It’s easy to make maple candy once the syrup reaches a
specific boil temperature. Simply take the prepared syrup outside and pour it
on snow. It’s basically the same principal as making fudge, when the candy has
reached the desired consistency on the snow, this one-of-a-kind late
winter/early spring treat is ready to enjoy.
Needless
to say, New Brunswick loves its maple syrup. We practically swim in the stuff –
and you can never get enough. So for the ultimate maple experience, grow a tree (or several),
tap a tree (or several) and create your own supply. Just try it, you’ll be back
for more. In fact there’s a store that specializes in maple products not ten
miles from where I’m writing this. Think I’ll drop by later this afternoon.
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