Who are the mysterious local sappers setting up a sugar shack in the city? We counted six taps in trees along Allan between Windsor and Harvard. Milk jugs were attached and sap was-a-flowing.
So who did this? We knocked on several doors and one nice lady who didn’t want to be identified said off-handedly, “oh, that’s the kids next door. I don’t know if they know what kind of trees they are,” she mock whispered to me, “but I don’t mind either way.”
If they start boiling it off next door, would you ask for some, I asked. “No!” she said emphatically, with a laugh.
Are there any amateur arborists out there? Are these trees sugar maples? We can’t tell. More to come as we tap into this latest locavore caper.
This article appears in Mar 26 – Apr 1, 2009.
Hard to tell by looking at the bark only – but mature sugar maples have large scales usually (2-10 cm) and kind of cling to the tree and look all flaky. Could be Norway maples… ask the lady if the tree had black spot problem this past year. That would make it a Norway. Otherwise, red maple are a common tree in NS. So, to answer your question… not sure what that tree is.
It doesn’t have to be a sugar maple to produce maple syrup. Red maples are frequently tapped in areas where sugar maples aren’t common.