Sixth Grade
Worksheets
Making Maple Syrup
The aroma of pancakes baking on the griddle can be a scent from heaven and a sign of a sweet breakfast to come, UNLESS, as you sit down for your first mouth-watering bite, you realize you're out of maple syrup. There are many toppings that people put on pancakes, but maple syrup tops the list.
Where does most of America's maple syrup come from? The leading producer of maple syrup in the United States is the state of Vermont. Each year Vermont produces between one and two million gallons of maple syrup. Worldwide, though, Quebec, Canada, dominates maple syrup production. Quebec accounts for about 70% of all the maple syrup produced worldwide. The source of this tasty treat is the collected sap of maple trees.
When the early colonists landed in America, Native Americans took the colonists under their wing and showed them such things as how to plant corn and how to make maple syrup. The natives used the sap as a source of energy, much like honey. They used primitive stone tools to carve V shapes into the sugar maple trees during late winter. They used concave pieces of bark or sturdy reeds to collect the dripping sap in birch bark buckets. The sap was heated and condensed by dropping hot stones into the sap. The natives also boiled the sap over an open fire in earthenware pots.
