with? There is something very special
about maple trees too—the yummy maple
syrup that comes from them!”
Grandmother said with a smile.
“Really? That’s where we get maple
syrup? How does that happen?” Lucie
asked, shuffling her feet along the path and
scattering leaves left and right.
“When I was young we tapped the trees
on our farm every fall. My father, that
would be your great-grandfather, would
put a special metal spout into the trunk of
the maple tree. A bucket would hang below
the spout and the watery sap from the tree
would trickle out and fall into the bucket.
Drip by drip the buckets would fill up with
sap,” Grandmother explained.
“Then what did you do? Were the
buckets heavy?” Lucie asked.
“Oh, yes! The buckets were too heavy
for me to lift. My older brothers and father
would make rounds and pour the maple sap
into large, clean milk containers so they
could carry the containers back to the barn.
We had a large, flat, metal tub that we
boiled the sap in. A big fire would be lit and
the sap boiled until it reached a thick
syrupy stage. Then it was cooled, put into
clean canning jars, and stored on the pantry
shelves,” Grandmother explained, reaching
out to push a stray branch away from their
path to allow them to continue on their way.
“Did you make a lot of maple syrup?
What did you do with all of it?” Lucie
asked, looking a little puzzled with the idea
of making syrup since they always bought
it at the store.
“We would end up with several gallons
of syrup each year. It takes about forty
gallons of maple sap to get one gallon of
maple syrup. Forty gallons is about how
much water is in the bathtub when you take
a bath at night, Lucie,” Grandmother
explained, and Lucie laughed. “So think of
a full bathtub of watery maple sap and
boiling all that sap until you have one
gallon left that would fit in a milk
container! That is a lot of boiling!”
Grandmother said, shaking her head,
remembering the long days of maple
sugaring.
“How does it turn into syrup then?”
Lucie asked.
“Maple syrup is the result of large
amounts of water leaving the boiling sap as
steam. The leftover sap becomes thickened
as the water leaves, and the natural sugar
content found in the sap becomes concentrated. That’s when it becomes syrup.”
“You must have eaten a lot of pancakes
when you were little!” Lucie said slowly,
thinking of gallons of maple syrup sitting
on pantry shelves and stacks and stacks of
hot pancakes. Her face must have shown
her complete awe at the thought, because
Grandmother began laughing and
couldn’t stop.
When Grandmother was finally able to
calm down enough and stop laughing, she
took a few moments to catch her breath
before speaking again. “Actually, there are
so many ways to use maple syrup that we
always ran out before spring was over! You
can use maple syrup in baked beans, as a
glaze for ham, in apple pies, and we even
made fudge out of maple syrup too. But
my favorite thing to make with maple
syrup was maple candy. I haven’t had any
real honest-to-goodness maple candy in a
very long time . . . ,” Grandmother said
slowly. The memory of the sugary maple
treat melting in her mouth came back with
perfect clarity.
“Lucie,” Grandmother said suddenly,
leaning over and holding Lucie’s arms so
she could look at Lucie’s face, “let’s make
maple candy when we get home! I’ll teach
you how. Every child should have a taste of
real maple candy; it’s a true American
treat! And one day when you’re a grandmother like me, you can teach your grandchildren how to make maple candy too.
Would you like to make maple candy
today, Lucie?” Grandmother asked.
Lucie jumped up and down, clapping
her hands. “Yes . . . yes . . . yes!” she said
excitedly. “That sounds like fun!”
Grandmother and Lucie continued their
walk, pointing out interesting things to each
other. They stopped to watch a squirrel
burying a nut and to examine an abandoned
bird’s nest that had fallen to the ground.
Grandmother would point out God’s hand
in everything that they saw, felt, and heard,
and Lucie would smile, soaking up
Grandmother’s wisdom and her love for the
nature God had created. And through it all,
Lucie would alternate between holding
Grandmother’s hand and running ahead to
pounce on piles of fallen leaves.
At one point Lucie suddenly stopped
and straightened up. Then she stood
perfectly still with her eyes getting bigger
and bigger. Because Lucie had been
holding Grandmother’s hand, this made
Grandmother come to a stop too. When
Grandmother turned around, Lucie’s eyes
were filled with gleeful surprise as she
To make
Grandmother’s
maple candy©
• Cook 2 cups of pure maple syrup
in a saucepan over medium heat
until it reaches 240 degrees on a
candy thermometer (in some
elevations you may need to reach
280 degrees).
• Remove from heat and allow to
cool to 200 degrees. Lightly oil
your candy molds while you wait.
•Stir constantly until syrup
becomes sugary. This happens
very quickly, so be prepared to
pour into molds as soon as the
maple begins to harden. (You also
can pour it into a small, shallow
bowl or other dish. Once the
candy hardens, you can turn the
bowl or dish upside down, allow
the candy to slide out, and then
cut it into small pieces.)
• Pour the sugary syrup into molds
(something about the size of your
thumb).
• When the candy is cool, you can
remove it from the molds.
• There is the option of adding
chopped nuts when the temperature reaches 240 degrees. Stir in
and allow the mixture to cool to
200 degrees and follow the directions. If you add nuts, the coolness of the nuts will cause the
maple candy to cool quicker.
