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Maple Sugaring in Michigan

Do you know what product Michigan is the seventh largest producer of?

If you answered maple syrup, you're correct.

Vermont makes the most, though. Last year, it produced over 1 million 140 gallons. Maple sugaring is the process used to make syrup.

During the winter, the starch settles in a tree's roots. In the spring, it rises up through the tree and small holes are drilled into its bark to get the sap.

The drilled holes are called taps. It takes about 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of maple syrup because sap is 98% water.

Maple sugaring began in the northeast when Native Americans showed the colonists how to tap the trees after the winter thaw.

The trees that have an abundance of sap are the sugar maple, red maple or black maple.

Maples start to produce the sap when they are between 30 and 40 years old. They can be tapped up until they are 100.

Because March is maple sugaring month, take the family to a Huron Clinton Metro Park to see how the sap is tapped and boiled into the delicious syrup that tops our pancakes! Some programs include a pancake breakfast.

Click on here for participating parks.

Content provided by Oakland University

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