NUTRITIONAL & FUN FACTS ABOUT MAPLE TREES/SYRUP:
Cutting refined sugar out of our diets is a huge step towards achieving optimal health. That does not mean, by any stretch, that we should have to go through life without the indulgence of something sweet! Maple syrup, for instance, is a natural sweetener that both satisfies your sweet tooth and provides a number of vitamins and minerals in your diet. Minerals found in maple syrup include: zinc, iron, magnesium, phosphorous and potassium; high levels of vitamins include: thiamin, riboflavin, niacin and B6. Together, these vitamins and minerals provide antioxidant fighting nutrients to your body. Zinc has been known to protect against heart diseases, benefit male reproductive health (specifically the prostate) and improve immune response. Manganese also plays an important role in immune health - reducing the number of white blood cells in the body. I always say that I stand behind every ingredient I use in my cooking...for those who thought I was bending the rules with maple syrup, here's your proof! It's a good day when you realize something that sweet is actually healthy (in moderation!)
Did You Know? Fun facts about maple trees/syrup:
- Maple trees are migrating north due to increasing nighttime temperatures, they have moved 90 meters since 1964.
- It takes 40 gallons of maple sap to make 1 gallon of maple syrup
- It takes a maple tree 40 years to grow big enough to be tapped for it's sap
- Maple syrup can grow mold, if it does, you can skim off the mold and re-heat it to make it good as new!
- When maple sap comes out of a tree, it looks exactly like water
DIFFICULTIES FACING Maple Syrup (& maple Sugar):
I grew up in the Northeast where maple trees have always been a part of the landscape. When we were young, we would look forward to watching the leaves change from bright green to sharp orange, amber and yellow. The maple trees are tapped for their clear, sticky sap and then that sap is boiled down a number of times until it becomes that gorgeous syrup we all love to pour over out sunday morning pancakes.
Due to the increasing temperatures each year, maple trees are less able to survive in the climate of the Northeast and maple purveyors are forced to abandon their craft or seek more northern properties. Cultivating sap depends on specific climate conditions - freezing at night and warmth during the day (the typical...or what used to be typical) spring days of Northeast North America. Seasons are becoming shorter and maple trees are migrating north up the mountains and away from the unfavorable temperatures and conditions. Predictions indicate that by 2100 the maple industry will be wiped out entirely. In the 1950s/60s, 80% or the world's maple syrup came from the US, 20% from Canada. Today it's the exact opposite. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data show temperatures in the Northeastern US have increased as much as 2.8 degrees since 1971 and continue to rise.
Who wants a world without maple syrup cascading over fluffy pancakes?
GIVE WHERE YOU TAKE GIVING:
What is happening to combat these serious and timely issues? Technological improvements have offset some of the losses affecting American sugar maples to date - namely the creation of more efficient tools are able to extract more sap from a tree than 20 years ago. Although these are helpful solutions for the purveyors of maple syrup, it is not a solution to the overreaching problem that changing temperatures are having on this and many other crops.
What are we doing?
We are donating a part of profits from all of our products to organizations dedicated to protecting all of our ‘endangered’ food sources.
*MORE TO COME ON HOW WE WILL BE SUPPORTING SUSTAINABILITY OF MAPLE TREES/SYRUP*