Our Banana Walnut Wheat Pancakes are ready for a drizzle of maple syrup!
Did you know that maple syrup contains calcium, potassium, iron and other vitamins? Keep reading to learn more and celebrate National Maple Syrup Day with pancakes tomorrow at Gunther Toody’s!
A maple tree being tapped.
What would pancakes (or hotcakes as we call them at Gunther Toody’s) be without maple syrup? Not nearly as tasty, right? December 17th is National Maple Syrup Day and we can’t think of a better way to celebrate than with an order of our delicious hotcakes. Here are some fun facts about maple syrup to get you in the mood for breakfast.
- 75% of the world’s maple syrup is produced in Quebec, Canada. In the U.S. New York and the New England states also produce a large amount.
- It takes 40 GALLONS of raw sap to make 1 gallon of maple syrup.
- “Sugaring season,” when sap is harvested and made into syrup, only lasts for about six weeks in late winter and early spring.
- The building where the sap is boiled down to syrup is called the “sugar shack.”
- The Sugar Maple is the best tree for producing syrup.
- The tree must be 10 inches in diameter and 40 years old before it can be tapped to collect sap.
- Once a tree has been tapped, that same hole can’t be used again. Trees have a natural healing process called “walling-off” that prevents a hole from being used a second time. The tree can be tapped again, but in a new spot.
- Tapping a maple tree does not harm it and some have been tapped for more than a century.
- Maple syrup has more calcium than milk (per unit volume) and more potassium than bananas (per unit weight). It also contains manganese, magnesium, phosphorous, and iron, as well as several vitamins. How about that for a healthy breakfast!
Source: http://www.braingle.com/trivia/1631/maple-syrup.html