Making Maple Syrup

Making Maple Syrup

Making Maple Syrup
Reading Level

	edHelper's suggested reading level:	grades 6 to 8
	Flesch-Kincaid grade level:	8.63

Vocabulary

	challenging words:		earthenware, further, technological, producer, dripping, concave, better, heated, mouth-watering, leading, directly, commonly, primitive, during, shack, vacuum
	content words:		United States, Native Americans, New York

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Making Maple Syrup
By Joyce Furstenau

¹     The aroma of pancakes sizzling on the griddle can be a scent from heaven, UNLESS, as you sit down for your first mouth-watering bite, you realize you're out of maple syrup. Other toppings can make those pancakes melt in your mouth, but maple syrup tops the list.

²     Where does most of America's maple syrup come from? The short answer would be "Vermont." Actually, Quebec, Canada, produces by far the most maple syrup worldwide, but the leading producer in the United States is the state of Vermont. In 2009, the state of Vermont produced 920,000 gallons of maple syrup. The syrup used for this tasty treat comes from the collected sap of sugar maple trees.

³     When the early colonists landed in America, Native Americans took the colonists under their wing and showed them such things as how to plant corn and how to make maple syrup. The natives used the sap as a source of energy, much like honey. They used primitive stone tools to carve V shapes into the sugar maple trees during late winter. They used concave pieces of bark or sturdy reeds to collect the dripping sap in birch bark buckets. The sap was heated and condensed by dropping hot stones into the sap. The natives also boiled the sap over an open fire in earthenware pots.

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