The sweetest signs of spring. Some interesting facts about Maple 🍁 Did you know...

1. It takes about 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of finished maple syrup ...Most trees only yield between 10 and 15 gallons sap in a season, so producing syrup is definitely a labor-intensive process. (But it’s totally worth it…)

2. A tree takes about 40 years before it’s big enough to tap. Maple syrup is a long-term investment.

3. A quarter-cup of maple syrup is high in minerals. It contains 100 percent of your recommended daily allowance of manganese! as well as 37 percent of riboflavin, 18 percent of zinc, 7 percent of magnesium, and 5 percent of calcium and potassium. Plus, the antioxidant levels are comparable to a banana or a serving of broccoli.

4. Running sap is all about physics. As sugar maples grow, they convert starch into sugar. This sugar mixes with water absorbed by the trees’ roots. When temperatures start to climb in the spring, the water-sugar mixture expands, forcing its way from the roots up through the tree.

5. Did you know there are 128 species of Maple around the World? Only 3 of them are used in Maple Syrup production...The Sugar Maple, The Black Maple, and Red Maple due to their highest sugar content.