Maple Syrup Festival Polishchuk T.R. School №2035

Do you know what a maple leaf is? Of course, it is on Canadian flag. Maple leaves come from maple trees and one particular kind of maple-the sugar maple-gives Canadians their favourite sweet: maple syrup. Canadians like it so much that they even have special celebrations in honour of this sweet drink.

The tastiest time of the year. At the beginning of spring, when the days are warm but the nights are still cold, sugar maples start to produce sap, or tree water. If you collect the sap and then boil it for a long time, you will get maple syrup.

Both products are delicious, but you must be patient: it takes hours to go from 40 litres of sap to one litre of syrup!

A little history. The boiling of sap to make maple syrup and maple sugar is one of the oldest traditions in Canada. It was inherited from the native people of North America who gave the white settlers their first taste of maple sugar and taught them how to make it.

Sweet facts. Maple sap flows best on still, sunny days. The boiling of maple syrup is 7 degrees above the boiling point of water. Pure maple syrup has no far and proteins and is a good source of 3 essential elements-calcium, iron and thiamine. Canada supplies 80% of the worlds maple syrup.

No one knows how Native Americans discovered the sweet maple sap. But it was one of the most important of their foods. They boiled it to make syrup. But most often they cooked it down until it was almost dry, so it could be easily stored. A supply of maple sugar saved them from starvation when hunters returned empty-handed.

Celebrations.

Today, there are maple syrup festivals all over Canada. They usually start at the beginning of March and last from three to six weeks. During the festival you can see sap coming from trees and help cook syrup in a «sugarhouse». You can listen to live music and take part in funny contests. And you can eat lots of delicious maple products.

Pancake Recipe 100 grams of flour a pinch of salt 2 eggs 200 ml milk with 75 ml water 2 tablespoons of melted butter or oil a little oil for trying the pancakes a cup of maple syrup.

The end.