The sugar maple is the Vermont state tree. The leaves on the sugar maple turn red and yellow in the fall. These trees add to Vermont’s beautiful fall foliage. This is also the tree that produces the sap for making maple syrup and maple sugar.
For hundreds of years, people have gathered the sap in the early spring. The sap is boiled to remove the water. In the past, most of the sap was used to make maple sugar. Now a lot of the sap is used to make maple syrup.
Thinking about History
Why do you think Vermonters made more maple sugar than maple syrup 150 years ago? Which was easier to cook with? Which was easier to keep from spoiling?
|It's Sugaring Time (PDF)|
|Read about making maple sugar in the 1910s in The Night the Bells Rang|