Maple Syrup

History on Maple Syrup

• Native Americans were the first to discover 'sinzibuckwud', the Algonquin (a Native American tribe) word for maple syrup, meaning literally 'drawn from wood'.

The Native Americans were the first to recognize the sap as a source of energy and nutrition.

• The Algonquin called maple sugar sinsibuckwud. The Ojibway said sheesheegummavvis, meaning "sap flows fast." The Cree called the maple tree sisibaskwattick. The Anishinabe of Minnesota called it aninaatig ahfiwaagamizigan (maple syrup).

• It was drunk as a sweet drink or used in cooking.

• When the first European settlers arrived, the Indians traded maple sugar with them and eventually taught the settlers the secrets of the maple sugaring process.

It is possible that maple-cured bacon began with this process.

• The first white settlers and fur traders introduced wooden buckets to the process, as well as iron and copper kettles.

• It was, reportedly, a French missionary who was the first settler to make maple syrup in 1690.

• Other Europeans added their own technologies to the process. They bored holes in the maple trunks and inserted wooden or metal spouts.

• Was a major source of high quality pure sugar.

• Maple Sugar production was especially important due to the fact that other types of sugar were hard to find and expensive.

• Early maple syrup was made by boiling 40 gallons of sap over an open fire until you had one gallon of syrup.

• Virtually all syrup makers in the past were self sufficient dairy farmers who made syrup and sugar during the off season of the farm for their own use and for extra income.
  

• Any sugar maple with a trunk diameter of 12 inches or more can be "tapped" for making syrup. It takes thirty years for a maple tree to grow to that size.

• Maple syrup is only produced in North America, since Europe does not have the proper weather conditions conducive to producing meaningful amounts of sap.
  

Benefits of Maple Syrup

• Maple syrup, as an excellent source of manganese and a good source of zinc, which can be sweet for your health.

• Maple Syrup Contains Manganese.

• Acting as an antioxidant, has other functions that can decrease the progression of atherosclerosis.

• Benefits Your Immune Systems

• It helps lessen inflammation, thus supporting healing.

• Maple syrup may help to support reproductive health and provides special benefits for men.

• Maple syrup is not a commonly allergenic food and is not known to contain measurable amounts of goitrogens, oxalates, or purines.

• Using maple syrup which contains fewer calories and a higher concentration of minerals than honey.

• One tiny ounce of maple syrup can supply us with up to 22% of our daily amount of this mineral.

• The zinc content of maple syrup acts as an antioxidant to help prevent damage caused by cholesterol and other fats.

• Helps prevent damage to the heart.

• Defense against cancer-causing free radicals.
  
• can lead to reduced growth, a scaly rash called dermatitis.

• Other nutrients found in maple syrup, albeit in small amounts, are calcium, potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, iron, vitamin B5, vitamin B6, riboflavin, niacin, biotin, folic acid, and amino acids.

Resourses:

http://www.canadianmaplesyrup.com/maplehistory.html

http://www.maplegrove.com/maple-syrup-story.asp

http://www.maplemuseum.com/indians-and-early-maple-sugaring-process

http://vermontpuremaplesyrup.com/vt/?tabid=97

http://www.puremapleproducts.com/health_benefits_maple_syrup.html

http://food-facts.suite101.com/article.cfm/health_benefits_of_maple_syrup