Posted on 04/21/2022 5:29:41 PM PDT by xp38
The wintry weather lingering in parts of Canada has yielded an expected gift: More maple syrup.
Output in Quebec, the world’s largest producer of the sticky breakfast staple, is now poised to rise in 2022 as cool spring temperatures allow farmers to tap trees for a longer period, said Pierre Rhéaume, spokesman for Quebec Maple Syrup Producers, which is a government-sanctioned agency that sets prices and production for most of the world’s syrup.
Farmers are still harvesting in some northern parts of the province, with some gathering record amounts, he said.
The so-called sugaring season typically occurs between late February and the end of April, because tree sap is flows when daytime temperatures alternate between freezing and thawing.
Last year, warm weather cut the harvest short, resulting in a syrup deficit. In order to meet demand, Quebec had to drain nearly 50 million pounds of syrup from its strategic reserve, about half its stockpile and the most since 2008.”
Slow spring = more sap.
Ideal syrup weather is warm days, cold nights. The sap rises and falls with the temperature. Once it rises and stays up long enough to reach the buds on the tips of the branches, the chemistry changes and the sap goes bad for syrup purposes, and that ends the season.
As a boy, I used to help gather sap on my grandfathers farm. That was when they used to hang buckets from the trees. You would trudge through the snow and pour the sap into a big tank on a sledge. The men would boil down the sap in big boilers, cook hotdogs in the syrup and drink whiskey deep in to the night as they watch over the syrup. I can still smell the firewood and the maple syrup.
Like Biden with oil, its what Trudeau sells to improve his polling numbers.
Climate change is good for breakfast
A most interesting memory. Thanks. I love the syrup but it acts like a laxative to me. Probably because I don’t eat it very often. It is the best. Real honey is pretty good too. Again, thanks for the story.
Not only is there a maple syrup reserve, there was a famous heist about ten years ago in which nearly 10,000 barrels were stolen:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Canadian_Maple_Syrup_Heist
I can remember when I was a lad, in the south, they had
taps and buckets in pine trees to collect turpentine.
“...wintry weather lingering in parts of Canada...”
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But, but, but ... what about global warming?
Quebec? Spit!
Nice memory! Did they give you your first sip of whisky? Maybe a tad added to a spoonful of syrup?
My dad used to cure my hiccups with some drops of whiskey in a spoonful of granulated sugar!
Strategic Reserve? Looks to me that it is a better idea to use the barrels for storage rather than a large tank up on the hill.
https://www.history.com/news/the-great-molasses-flood-of-1919
I want some maple syrup and waffles now.
Quit spitting in the maple syrup please.
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