Table of Contents
- Edible Uses of Sugar Maple
- Making Maple Syrup
- Medicinal Uses of Sugar Maple
- Alternative Uses of “Hard Maple”
- Growing Acer Saccharum
Sugar maple (Acer saccharum) is a Ontario staple. I’m not sure you’re going to come across another edible and medicinal plant quite as “Canadian” as this!
My sugar maples are young and mostly line the road-side of my property. Thankfully there is one on my property that’s large enough for a tap.
Everyone is doing it. Almost every friend or acquaintance has tapped, or tap their trees each year. Some even have built “sugar shacks” devoted to the process. For many, it’s a cottage country “side hustle”.
Multiple wellwishers bring sap and syrup gifts to my door as spring heralds. I guess it’s our end of the winter version of leaving zucchini on your neighbor’s porch.
Edible Uses of Sugar Maple
The simplest edible use of sugar maple is to tap the tree after the first spring melt that flows, and drink the clear sap fresh (some boil it first to pasteurize, but I never have). The sap can also be used to make tea or coffee, or in place of water in recipes if a little sweetness is complimentary.
Of course, you can boil the sap down to maple syrup, or down farther for maple sugar. Some of my favorite uses of maple syrup are to candy sizzling bacon or drizzle on ice cream, and I’ve even tried said bacon on ice cream (FYI the vanilla was too overwhelming). The possibilities are endless.
Maple sap can also be fermented into vinegar, wine or liqueur.
You can also collect the winged seeds before fully ripe, in the summertime. Soak and remove the wings to retrieve the seeds, boil, drain, and season the seeds. Then roast 10-15 min.
Like most common trees, the inner bark has been used to make flour. Likely again a starvation food. But it sounds more promising than, say, inner white pine bark.
The Sap Is High in Calcium, B Vitamins, Phosphorus, and Enzymes
Making Maple Syrup
In Ojibwe, zhiiwaagamizigan means maple sap. Sap, maple syrup, sugar. It’s up the hierarchy with wild rice and corn as traditional main staples this neck of Turtle Island. (Haliburton area was more of a coniferous hunting ground not long ago, but Rice Lake isn’t far away.)
In the vicinity of mid-march, for about a month-long, we can tap our sugar maple trees in Ontario. From the first spring melt where the water is flowing until spring buds swell. When the nights are freezing and days are warming.
The first run is considered the best by some. It’s said a sign of a good sugar season is when early winter has less snow cover allowing the ground to freeze deeply, with deep snow cover following later.
Tapping Sugar Maple Trees
Large trees can hold 2-3 taps. My tree is barely large enough to tap, so we’ll do 1. I did the least bush thing possible and ran to Home Hardware. No carving a tap out of wood, no making a birchbark vessel for the sap. Maybe another time!
I drilled a slightly angled uphill hole into the trunk about 11mm or 7/16ths of an inch and going about 2 1/2 inches deep, being careful not to split the wood. I cleaned it out with a stick so that the sawdust wouldn’t clog my tap. Then I drove a cast iron tap into it. Drip, drip.
Boiling Sap Into Maple Syrup
Originally, I was going to use a rocket stove outside to boil. If boiled inside on a stove the walls around it will get sticky. An outright bonfire would be quicker, however, which is the way Robin does it. And thankfully he did collect sap again this year and boil it down. (Continuing to add sap until it’s about 4C/7F above boiling and has reduced to a sweet maple syrup brown.) And why was it a break that Robin made some?
Because I couldn’t. I got at most a gallon per day from my meager one-tap. By the time I was getting close to the 5 gallons I was aiming to boil, it would get cloudy – which means bacterial overgrowth. If I had the room to store it in my fridge it should have worked out. But I had to store it outside.
I tried twice and tossed my 5-gallon bucket twice. Fortunately, I used a lot of the fresh sap for making tea and coffee, and there’s still a nice crystal clear liter of it in my fridge. But out the window goes the idea that I’ll be able to make it all on my own from my lot anytime soon. Some year soon I will have 2 trees that can take 1 tap each. Maybe, maybe, if I make room in my fridge I will get to boil the duo’s sap down to maple syrup.
It’s still a win! I finally tapped a tree on my own property! I can’t wait to try different trees! Poplar sap anyone?
Medicinal Uses of Sugar Maple
Sugar maple is primarily said to support these body systems:
- Digestive
- Integumentary
Medicinal tags include Astringent and Diuretic. See Medicinal tag key for more information.
Common usage includes boiled leaves and inner bark for a liver tonic. And the usual astringent inner bark uses for skin and gargling.
I think sugar maple’s best medicine is the joy it brings to us after a long winter. It’s one of the first signals that we’re about to be released from the blistery cold. And who isn’t cheered up by sweets?
Alternative Uses of “Hard Maple”
Maple lumber has many uses but it in my cabin it’s main use is being some of the best firewood out there, burning hot and long.
There were maples cut in our logging heyday that they couldn’t transport. These were burned. They added water to the ashes, drained off the leached liquid into pots and boiled it down. The resulting residue became the potash industry. It was used for soap and more but went out of vogue.
Growing Acer Saccharum
While I couldn’t get the last featured plant, white pine, growing in my shady lot, the sugar maple loves it here. They are very shade tolerant – they can handle just 4 hours of sun.
The leaves are loaded with minerals that enrich the forest floor and reduce acidity. A sugar maple forest is an excellent site for wildflowers like trillium to pop up from under thick fallen leaf cover first thing in the springtime.
There are other maples native to Haliburton too: striped, red, silver, mountain, Manitoba, black and Freeman’s.
WARNINGS
And the Usual Cautions:
1) Most medicinal herbs, if edible, are meant to be eaten in moderation, even sparingly. Some require extra preparation. Tannins are toxic if consumed in excess. Before taking any new supplements, you should consult with a healthcare professional.
2) A vast amount of these herbs are diuretic. (See the Medicinal tags above to check if this featured herb is one of them!) Diuretics are generally safe, but they can be risky for people with other medical conditions or who take certain medications. Please consult your doctor if you have any health conditions.
3) People can be allergic or sensitive to nearly any plant; try new herbs one at a time at your own risk. For instance, saponins commonly cause stomach upset.
4) For serious medicinal use, I must recommend receiving a diagnosis and working with a reputed health care provider. I generally do not post specific treatments and dosages because I think that is best between you and your health care provider, and ideally monitored.
5) Anyone pregnant, nursing, or taking prescription drugs should talk to a health care professional before adding new food items to their diet.
6) Many plants have look-a-likes, and sometimes they are poisonous.
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REFERENCES
My new favourite foraging book is Sam Thayer’s Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants: of Eastern and Central North America (The Sam Thayer’s Field Guides) Paperback – June 1, 2023 and this plant IS featured as one of the edible wild plants in this area. I highly recommend this guide for your bookshelves!
Acer saccharum Marshall – Database of Vascular Plants of Canada (VASCAN)
How Indians Use Wild Plants for Food, Medicine & Crafts (Native American)
An Eclectic Guide to Trees East of the Rockies
Edible and Medicinal Plants of Canada
Indian Herbalogy of North America: The Definitive Guide to Native Medicinal Plants and Their Uses
Field Guide to North American Edible Wild Plants (Out of Print)
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