![]() ![]() You’ll taste the caramel, taste the maple.”ĭevin Day, McLeod’s son, said the family business used connections forged through its rabbit sales to introduce its syrup to chefs across the Northwest, including those at top dining outlets such as Canlis and Tarsan i Jane. “What I bottle today is going to have a really buttery, have a hint of vanilla to it. “The flavors are a lot more intense,” said McLeod, in comparison with the East Coast product. They have partnered also with a commercial syrup producer to gather data at his facility. The researchers spent about $40,000 to outfit Pack Forest for production and testing. The researchers plan to study four sites in Western Washington, gather data on factors like when and where sap is readily produced, the best methods to collect it, and under what conditions maple trees yield more sap and higher concentrations of sugars. “We’re focused on collecting information to give to forest owners who are interested in this possibility as a source of revenue to help support their forest farms,” said Kent Wheiler, a UW associate professor and director of the Center for International Trade in Forest Products (CINTRAFOR). Department of Agriculture, are trying to answer. That’s the question Ettl and other researchers at UW, which received a $500,000 grant through the U.S. Ultimately, it’s a longer and less predictable season and some believe the trees produce a sap less concentrated with sugar than their East Coast brethren.Ĭould these trees support a Northwest industry? Elevation and microclimates also play a role in sap production. When temperatures warm above freezing, water moves back into cells - creating a pressure gradient that pulls additional water, along with sugars and minerals, from the trees’ roots.īack East, in places such as Vermont and Quebec so identified with maple syrup, sugar maple trees flow with sap as winter turns to spring and temperatures seesaw above and below freezing.įor bigleaf maples in the temperate Northwest, freezes and thaws are less consistent and more reliant on weather’s whims. In cold weather, living cells dehydrate, so they don’t freeze and burst, Ettl said. Scientists don’t fully understand the complex processes that drive sap flow.īut the basics are these: Maple trees manage water content during freezes and thaws. Turns out, it just takes the right timing and temperature swings. ![]() “It’s been a long-held myth you can’t produce syrup from bigleaf maple,” said Kevin Zobrist, a Washington State University professor and extension forester. Long ago, someone - no one can say exactly who - started a nasty rumor. If Washington landowners can produce a liquid this delicious from bigleaf maples, which many consider a weed best to eradicate, the UW team reasons it will provide incentive enough to keep these beneficial trees on the landscape. The finished product offers flavors more rich and layered than anything found in the supermarket.Īs Ettl and his UW colleagues collect reams of data, they hope their work could grow an industry that boosts margins for small landowners, prevents the conversion of forest land for development and nourishes a more diverse forest. The sap is destined for a 500-gallon tank, then for transport by pickup truck to a nearby processing facility, a “sugar shack.” There, it will be reduced into a dark amber syrup with notes of bourbon, caramel and vanilla. Ettl, who oversees Pack Forest, is helping lead UW’s latest experiment to produce maple syrup from these trees. Sap drains through the tubes from clumps of bigleaf maples in Pack Forest, a 4,300-acre experimental forest owned and operated by the UW since the 1920s. “It’s either forest graffiti, or it’s an art project,” said Greg Ettl, a University of Washington forest ecologist. The bright colors contrast with the usual earth tones found in these forested foothills of Mount Rainier. The blue and green tubes, which sometimes flow with liquid, weave around maple trees and traverse the hillside, interconnected, like a tiny highway system. EATONVILLE, PIERCE COUNTY - Neon lines stretch across a forest thick with sword ferns, zigzagging across the landscape at about waist level. ![]()
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