I remember as a child eating sugar on snow. It was so good almost like a "taffy". we would scoop up the snow (no yellow snow allowed) and an adult would then pour the golden amber syrup over the snow. We then would take a fork and twirl the sugar snow around it and chow down the gold!
It was the Vermon Maple Festival this last weekend where many sugar houses participate in open houses so visitors can see how sap turns into profitable maple syrup. No, it does not come out of the trees that way.. It is a long process of boiling the water out of the sap that is taken from the trees by a spout that is drivin into the tree. The sap is clear looking like water, and tastes very bitter. It still amazes me even after all these years the wonder of nature and the syrup we get from these trees!
In the older days, buckets with little "v" lids were used to catch the sap after the tap was drilled and placed. Now in more modern days, the people who collect the sap have tubing that is run from tree to tree and collected into a large vat beside a road for easy collecting to take back to the sugar house.
This is why Vermonters take pride in their maple trees... the same ones that offer up such vivid colors in the fall offer up some very delicious syrup in the spring.
The snow that we get this time of year we call "sugar snow". It is usually very heavy and doesn't last long. It makes for good snow to pour the syrup over and also good conditions for making syrup as the days get warmer and the nights are still cold... the sap begins to run in the trees.
Here is a link for a more detailed story.
