| Hello everyone. |
| Today we're going to look at another natural food product |
| and that's maple syrup. |
| What is this exactly? |
| Well, maple syrup looks rather like clear honey, |
| but it's not made by bees; |
| it's produced from the plant fluid, or sap, inside the maple tree |
| and that makes maple syrup a very natural product. |
| Maple syrup is a thick, golden, sweet-tasting liquid |
| that can be bought in bottles or jars |
| and poured onto food such as waffles and ice cream |
| or used in the baking of cakes and pastries. |
| It contains no preservatives or added ingredients, |
| and it provides a healthy alternative to refined sugar. |
| Let's just talk a bit about the maple tree itself, |
| which is where maple syrup comes from. |
| So, there are many species of maple tree, |
| and they'll grow without fertilizer in areas where there's plenty of moisture in the soil. |
| However, they'll only do this if another important criterion is fulfilled, |
| which is that they must have full or partial sun exposure during the day and very cool nights, |
| and I'll talk more about that in a minute. |
| There are only certain parts of the world that provide all these conditions: |
| one is Canada, |
| and by that, I mean all parts of Canada, |
| and the other is the north-eastern states of North America. |
| In these areas, the climate suits the trees perfectly. |
| In fact, Canada produces over two-thirds of the world's maple syrup, |
| which is why the five-pointed maple leaf is a Canadian symbol |
| and has featured on the flag since 1964. |
| So how did maple syrup production begin? |
| Well, long before Europeans settled in these parts of the world, |
| the indigenous communities had started producing maple sugar. |
| They bored holes in the trunks of maple trees |
| and used containers made of tree bark to collect the liquid sap as it poured out. |
| As they were unable to keep the liquid for any length of time, |
| they didn't have storage facilities in those days, |
| they boiled the liquid by placing pieces of rock that had become scorching hot from the sun into the sap. |
| They did this until it turned into sugar, |
| and they were then able to use this to sweeten their food and drinks. |
| Since that time, improvements have been made to the process, |
| but it has changed very little overall. |
| So let's look at the production of maple syrup today. |
| Clearly, the maple forests are a valuable resource in many Canadian and North American communities. |
| The trees have to be well looked after |
| and they cannot be used to make syrup until the trunks reach a diameter of around 25 centimetres. |
| This can take anything up to 40 years. |
| As I've already mentioned, |
| maple trees need the right conditions to grow and also to produce sap. |
| Why is this? |
| Well, what happens is that during a cold night, |
| the tree absorbs water from the soil, |
| and that rises through the tree's vascular system. |
| But then in the warmer daytime, |
| the change in temperature causes the water to be pushed back down to the bottom of the tree. |
| This continual movement, up and down, |
| leads to the formation of the sap needed for maple syrup production. |
| When the tree is ready, |
| it can be tapped and this involves drilling a small hole into the trunk |
| and inserting a tube into it that ends in a bucket. |
| The trees can often take several taps, |
| though the workers take care not to cause any damage to the healthy growth of the tree itself. |
| The sap that comes out of the trees consists of 98% water |
| and 2% sugar and other nutrients. |
| It has to be boiled so that much of that water evaporates, |
| and this process has to take place immediately, using what are called evaporators. |
| These are basically extremely large pans, |
| the sap is poured into these, |
| a fire is built and the pans are then heated until the sap boils. |
| As it does this, the water evaporates, and the syrup begins to form. |
| The evaporation process creates large quantities of steam, |
| and the sap becomes thicker and denser, and, at just the right moment, |
| when the sap is thick enough to be called maple syrup, |
| the worker removes it from the heat. |
| After this process, something called 'sugar sand' has to be filtered out |
| as this builds up during the boiling and gives the syrup a cloudy appearance and a slightly gritty taste. |
| Once this has been done, |
| the syrup is ready to be packaged so that it can be used for a whole variety of products. |
| It takes 40 litres of sap to produce one litre of maple syrup |
| so you can get an idea of how much is needed! |
| So that's the basic process... |