In 2020, a young boy named Owen decided to turn his love of breakfast foods into a new holiday that we call Maple Mornings. Every year on September 1st, people around the world are invited to relax with their friends and family to savor the most important meal of the day - all day!
There are many ways to celebrate Maple Mornings, but here are a few traditions that have caught on:
How do you celebrate Maple Mornings? Let us know by tweeting with the #maplemornings hashtag!
Expand your mind as well as your tummy on Maple Mornings with these fun facts related to maple syrup!
Maple syrup can be made from any species of maple tree. Trees that can be tapped include: sugar, black, red and silver maple and box elder trees. Of all the maples, the highest concentration of sugar is found in the sap of the sugar maple. Generally the ratio of sap to syrup for the sugar maple is 40 to 1 (40 gallons of sap yields one gallon of syrup). Other species of maple have lower concentrations of sugar in their sap. For example; it may require 60 gallons of box elder sap to produce one gallon of syrup.
According to fossil records, maple trees are actually quite ancient. They date back to at least 100 million years ago, if not even older. These trees were growing when dinosaurs roamed the Earth! Of course, not every species of maple tree survived from that time. But maples belonging to the family Aceraceae existed back then and still today.
A maple tree must be 30 years old before it can have its sap extracted and made into syrup. It takes somewhere between 40 and 50 gallons of maple sap to produce just 1 gallon of syrup. The process of harvesting sap for syrup does not harm the tree.
Syrup isn't the only commercial good that maple trees make! Charcoal from maple trees is required in order to make Tennessee whiskey, using the Lincoln County Process. This process is used when making almost all Tennessee whiskey.
Some of the most iconic fall foliage is a result of the maple's red, orange, and yellow autumn foliage. Sugar maple trees are the favorites for fall foliage, attracting people primarily to New England and eastern Canada. In Japan, there is a custom called momijigari that specifically celebrates the changing of the maple's leaves.
More and more alarm bells are being raised about the loss of honeybees. Without bees to pollinate, it will be much harder to feed the world! Maple trees are an important source of pollen early in the spring for honey bees waking up from their hibernation. If you want to support your local bees, plant some maple trees!
Share the Breakfast Love!
Are you living your best Maple Mornings life? Post about it on Instagram using the #maplemornings hashtag, and your post may be featured here!
Post your picture-perfect pancake panache proudly!