Maple Syrup

Maple syrup is a very sweet liquid sweetener, made by harvesting the sap from maple trees and boiling it down to a syrup. As continued boiling removes even more water, it turns into that nice, creamy maple sugar candy, and eventually into granules. It has it's own unique flavor that is well-known and well-loved.

Maple syrup and sugar has a very high glycermic index and will make your blood sugar jump. So if you are diabetic or on a low-glycermic diet, stay away from maple syrup. It's fine for anyone else who wants a very low-processed natural sweetener.

Early March is maple sugaring time. As days grow warmer, but nights are still cold, the sap begins to rise as the trees expand and contract with the alternating heat and cold. The sweet sap of the Sugar Maple tree is simply boiled down into syrup, just as the Native Americans did. They taught the Pilgrims and early settlers throughout New England how to tap trees and make maple syrup, and it was the primary sweetener used in America until cane sugar began to be imported from the West Indies in the mid 1800s.