And , yes , we do mean “ literally . ”
But , before pay off into the physics of it , let ’s take a instant to imagine what a maple sirup farm today look like . marvelous maple , snowy wood — pretty much an idyllic New England setting . A recent scientific find , however , mean that forests of matured Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree could be replace by fields of obtuse saplings , much like the wrangle crop of Big Ag . No longer would maple sirup be a merchandise of the wilderness . No longer would it have to endure by the rhythms of nature .
So back to the “ upside down ” part for how it all works . AsLaura Sorkin writes in Modern Farmer , two scientists from the University of Vermont ( where else ? ) scandalize theaudience at the Lake Erie Maple Expolast October with their announcement that sap can flux up from the roots of a maple sapling . In direct contrast , when you bug a mature tree diagram , sap flows down from the jacket crown to the basis .
countermand the flow of sap involve a bit of engineering , namely vacuums and lopping off the tops of saplings . When vacuity tubes were attached to crownless sapling — you may see a few pic atModern Farmer — the plant kept producing sap , far more than the sapling themselves held . The researcher hypothesized that the sapling must be pull wet from its root , “ like a sugar - filled wheat stuck in the ground , ” as theUniversity of Vermont put it .
And an acre of topless , vacuum - draw saplings could be ten times as productive as a traditional forest . Maple farms of the time to come would not only be much smaller , but there ’s also no reason they would demand to be in a Vermont forest — or any of the other places that traditionally produce maple sirup .
The sapling could also be more resilient to climate change and cuss . The flow of sap isalways strung-out on freeze - thaw cycles , but modest saplings require less freezing than ripe trees . The invasive Asiatic longhorn mallet , usually a nuisance for sugarbushes , leave behind the sapling alone . Reversing the menses of sap could really revolutionize the maple syrup industry — saving it or destroy it count on your scene .
Maple tree diagram sap collected with plastic tube . C’m on , you did n’t really recall anyone still used metallic element pails , did you ? course credit : Alexandralaw1977 / Shutterstock
The changes are n’t here — yet . The necessary equipment is n’t commercially available , so scale up still presents a challenge , but the investigator have applied for a patent .
In the futurity , though , it is not so hard to imagine that there could be a stack more option in the syrup gangway . There ’ll still be cheap Aunt Jemima ’s and fancy genuine Vermont maple syrup , but there ’ll also be all the stuff in between : grow and vacuumed , perhaps , in the northern midwest .
And , as is abundantly clear from our current nutrient trends , we are deeply confiscate to the romantic notions of intellectual nourishment — to white forests and tartan - shirt woodworker . Surely a savvy vender will be selling artisanal , organic , mitt - tapped , slow - roasted , gluten - devoid , GMO - devoid , maple sirup whose savor is So Much Better than that sapling stuff . [ Modern Farmer ]
chair range : Goodmood Photo / Shutterstock
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