Did you know that it takes 50 gallons of maple sap to make 1 gallon of pure maple syrup?

It’s no wonder that real maple syrup is so expensive.

Growing up, my cousins and I used to always visit our grandparent woods to hike, explore and watch how maple syrup was made.  They own a large wooded property  a few miles from their house in Chautauqua, New York that they lent to a maple syrup maker.  The woods are all “tapped” for gathering sap to be boiled into syrup in the sugar house and it is fun to see how it all happened.

We have yet to take Anna to “the woods” but we did take a field trip this week and see how maple syrup is made.  Outside of the Cleveland area, there are lot of farms and woods that people use to gather maple sap and make syrup.  A maple syrup farm is actually called Sugar Bush or Sugar Woods. I have always grown up with real syrup and knowing exactly how it’s made and it was funny to me that a lot of people weren’t exposed to it before.  When our mom’s group planned an outing to a local sugar house, I quickly signed us up.

Anna was very excited because she couldn’t believe we were going somewhere to eat syrup and candy.

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The sugar house we went to is in the center of a little town about 20 minutes from here (Burton, Ohio).  We went on a day they were actually making the syrup so it was fun to see how it all happens.

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We learned about the different colors of syrup, from light amber to dar amber and between.

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And we gathered lots of new facts about how hot the sap is boiled and how long it takes to turn to syrup.

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After the demonstration, we got to sample the syrup, maple cream candy and maple sugar candy.  All were excellent.

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Then it was time for a picnic lunch.

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And one more maple treat before heading home.

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If you live in the Cleveland area, check out Burton Maple Log Cabin.  You can stop in for a visit or call to find out when they are making syrup!