The basic process of tapping maple trees to collect the sap and boiling it down to make maple syrup and sugar has been around for centuries!

The Native Americans were the first to recognize the sap as a source of energy and nutrition. They would make V-shaped incisions in the trees, then would insert reeds or concave pieces of bark to run the sap into buckets made from birch bark.

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

In the early days of colonization, it was Canada’s First Nations peoples who showed French settlers how to tap the trunk of a tree just the right moment of Spring, harvest the sap and boil it to evaporate some of the water.

This custom quickly became an integral part of colony life and during the 17th and 18th centuries, syrup was a major source of high quality pure sugar.

Later, however, they would learn to bore holes in the trees and hang their buckets on home-made spouts.