Big Leaf Maple Syrup

April 26, 2020 5:46 PM

Native to the west coast of North America, the big leaf maple (called such as its leaves can be almost a foot wide) has always been talked about as being able to produce maple syrup from its sap. For the first time, it's being studied if it's possible to commercialize big maple syrup in the Pacific Northwest (Seattle Times, use incognito mode if you have to). There's already one company able to make 500 gallons a year (NPR). Perhaps, you'd like to buy some at $3/ounce?
posted by ShooBoo (9 comments total)

Perhaps, you'd like to buy some at $3/ounce?

Perhaps not.
posted by Greg_Ace at 6:03 PM on April 26, 2020 [4 favorites]

Theres also kleekhoot gold. In production since 2015 in Hupacasath first nation. Maybe not available in the US?
posted by chapps at 6:25 PM on April 26, 2020 [2 favorites]

We had a huge norway maple here in Portland, OR. We tried tapping it, but it didn't give us maple syrup.
posted by aniola at 7:07 PM on April 26, 2020

I have neighbors who tap big leafs. Not the same flavor as East Coast maple syrup but clearly more like it than birch syrup.
posted by clew at 7:12 PM on April 26, 2020

Rhode Island has tiny little maple groves producing gallons and gallons... I mean, just a dozen or so trees in the backyard tapped in early March are worth a sugar shack. Sugar maples are insanely productive, and the little helicopter seeds get everywhere. I wish the west coast luck, but man.
posted by Slap*Happy at 7:25 PM on April 26, 2020

There's a town just south of Seattle (past Renton) named Maple Valley that has trees with leaves that are out of a science fiction movie. The big old Maples are just huge trees, solid, ent like with aspirations of sequoia-hood. But not a lot of sap, I mean you could make Clydesdale butter I suppose but not in volume and probably not with much flavor.
posted by sammyo at 8:39 PM on April 26, 2020 [1 favorite]

By coincidence I was today reading Euell Gibbons (58 years ago) wishing he could get his spiles into a bigleaf maple!

@aniola, he said about Norway maple among other species:

I have made sirup from the Sugar Maple, the Red Maple, the Silver Maple, the Norway Maple, the Planetree Maple, and the Box-Elder or Ash-Leaf Maple, boiling the sap down separately for each species. A panel of tasters was not able to detect any difference in the finished products. Nor did I discover any really significant differences between the various species in amount of sap produced or in its sugar content. These last two qualities vary widely from tree to tree within the same species and this makes for wide overlapping between the species. That is, a good Norway maple will be a much better sugar producer than a poor sugar maple, and this same relationship holds good for all the other varieties.

And any individual tree varies by season and weather, at least a Vermonter will certainly tell you how in great local detail.
posted by away for regrooving at 10:01 PM on April 26, 2020 [2 favorites]

Then again, there's always birch syrup.
posted by fairmettle at 11:57 PM on April 26, 2020 [3 favorites]

As someone who's tried broadleaf maple syrup, it tastes amazing. Like regular maple syrup with butter on top.
posted by Quackles at 5:40 PM on April 27, 2020