This weekend, we drove to the
Arnot Teaching and Research Forest for Maple Weekend.
Networks of trees are connected by sap lines. The collective network is called the "sugarbush."
We learned about maple sap and forests. Can you identify the trees? (Answers below)
Then we toured the Sugarhouse, where sap was being boiled into maple syrup in a large evaporator.
We tasted a sample of syrup made today in the sugarhouse. I was struck by the buttery notes...which got me thinking of fermentation.
Sequencing studies have explored the microbiota of maple sap. The predominant species are gram-negative rods:
Pseudomonas and
Rahnella. Lactic acid bacteria have also been detected. I wonder if we tasted the by-products of some fermentation in today's maple syrup.
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