“When Pope Francis came to Quebec last summer, he repeated that it was the Aboriginal peoples who discovered maple syrup. Obviously, it was not the pope who found that on his own! Everyone repeats that, everywhere. But I think, like many people who are interested in the history of maple products, that the reality is more complicated,” says Réjean Bilodeau. A maple syrup producer, he is preparing to inaugurate this spring a small maple museum, his great passion for decades.
From the IXe century, reports a university study published in the Proceedings of the Botanical Society of Poland, several European peoples had knowledge of the sweet virtues of the sap. “The birch was often nicked. By reducing the sap, they obtained a kind of molasses. This is still done in several countries. It tastes the devil in my opinion! »
This millennial practice has remained alive in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltic countries. It is reinvested today in several European countries.
Castle water
At the Château de Chambord, south-west of Paris, we have revived this practice which, we explain on the spot, dates from the Middle Ages. About 700 trees are tapped each year, say the operators.
The birch water harvests at the château are carried out using Quebec equipment manufactured by the CDL company. Thanks to tubes, the birch sap is taken at the onset of spring, for two or three weeks, between the months of February and March.
Birch water is sold pure, for its supposed “draining and purifying properties for the body” or as “table water”. A production, also modest, is also found on the side of the Pyrenees.
The CDL company, based in Saint-Lazare-de-Bellechasse, has been producing and selling sugar bush equipment in Europe since 2020. It intends to take advantage of the birch water market.
“You’d be surprised to taste that,” explains Martin Chabot of CDL. It’s a really special taste, provided it’s well harvested, well done. […] It’s a bit like bottling our maple sap to sell it. » Birch water is still less sweet.
“Harvesting birch water has been around since around the year 1000. In Eastern countries, such as Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia, production remained. And it comes back to France, but also to Belgium. Finland has the strongest market. For us, there is a big market to develop there. There is also a maple sap harvest that is done in Europe. »
The birch was often notched. By reducing the sap, they obtained a kind of molasses. This is still done in several countries. It tastes the devil in my opinion!
A single liter of birch water is sold for around 10 euros. Forty times more expensive than the value of maple sap. “It’s certain that if we were able to sell maple sap like birch sap in Quebec, that would be great! The interest is lacking. “It’s partly a question of marketing. Buying birch water for 10 euros at the Château de Chambord is not like buying maple water for $10 at the local convenience store in the village. »
A few European producers equipped by CDL produce syrup from Norway maple. “The taste is different. It is an artisanal production. I just came back from Latvia. I went to see a producer who works with our evaporators”, tells the Duty Martin Chabot.
For now, no one is thinking of getting into the production of birch water in North America! For Réjean Bilodeau, nothing could surpass the delicacy and enchantment of sugar maple products. The image of the sugar shack is not for nothing so strong for Quebecers. “Yes, it’s the image of Quebec,” does not hesitate to claim Gaétan Nolet, owner of one of the oldest cabins still in operation in the country.
American influence
Maple syrup is mainly produced in Quebec, Vermont and also a little on the Ontario side. “But the fact remains that tapping trees is a knowledge that was shared by many peoples of the earth, and for a long time,” says Réjean Bilodeau. “It’s not wanting to take anything away from anyone to see that. Especially not to aboriginal people. They’ve been robbed and looted and expropriated enough as it is! They certainly knew about maple sap. They knew very well all the virtues of the country’s plants, including the properties of maple sap. But I don’t think anyone made maple sugar before Michel Sarrazin (1659-1734) became interested in the ways of transforming this sugar water that the Aboriginal peoples introduced him to. »
To make sugar with that, thinks Bilodeau, important technical means were needed. And also a great desire to produce a sweet product. “We’ve tried making maple sugar with hot rocks thrown into clay pots, in all sorts of other ways as well. It does not work ! You have to face the facts: something else was needed. »
Syrup and hard sugar, produced from maple sap, are not the result of a simple combination of Aboriginal consciousness with colonial technical means. “Often, we say that the sugars come from here, in Quebec. That’s not entirely accurate either. Everything that allows us to do it today on a large scale first came to us from the United States. »
In the south, the evaporators necessary for the production of cane sugar were known. “That’s what was adapted by the Americans for sugar bushes. The evaporators replaced the simple iron cauldron, which was in use in Quebec. »
In the 19the century, the sugar shack, as it is represented in the popular imagination, does not yet exist. Maple producers crowd around outdoor fires above which are suspended iron cauldrons. Rare photographs by Alexander Henderson, presented at the McCord Museum until April, clearly show the reality of sugar factories around 1870 in the Eastern Townships. The evaporators, placed inside huts dedicated to this sugar production, do not yet exist.
“The evaporators first came from the United States, as the demand for sugar increased,” says Réjean Bilodeau. The same goes for metal torches. “The wooden torches didn’t last. In the United States, they had the means to produce iron. That, too, comes to us from the United States. »
hard as a rock
The country’s sugar is a product that was initially undervalued, consumed by the working classes. It is much less valued than fine sugars, such as molasses, imported from the West Indies.
This lack of public appetite for maple products is also often due to the poor quality of the products. “Just before tapping time, many producers went to buy all the white sugar available at the general store… They bought it by the pocket, by the hundreds of pounds, then they poured it into their cauldrons! Of course, the production of maple sugar was more abundant that way. And it cost less to produce…
“For years, rocks were also found in the sugar blocks! Rock is even cheaper to produce than sugar! says the colorful Réjean Bilodeau. These stories of adulterated maple products have become rarer, even though the entire agri-food industry continues to be hit, from time to time, by the activity of counterfeiters.
Honey and maples
It is to an agronomist, Cyrille Vaillancourt, follower of the cooperative system and pillar, in the wake of Alphonse Desjardins, of the Caisses populaires, that maple producers owe the valuation of their production, maintains Réjean Bilodeau.
After the First World War, when Cyrille Vaillancourt began to take an interest in maple sugar, nothing was organized. “The product was sold in the United States for three cents a pound. Vaillancourt went to see George Karry, the king of maple in the United States. The Cary company is known for having popularized, throughout the United States, a small glass container now associated with maple syrup.
Karry bought Quebec maple products at low prices to resell them to American tobacco manufacturers. They used it to flavor their products. “For tobacco, it didn’t really matter whether the product was good or not…”
Cyrille Vaillancourt will negotiate better conditions for Quebec producers, while ensuring higher quality standards. “Thanks to him, the price of the pound rose quickly to 12 cents. »
It is also to Cyrille Vaillancourt that we owe Citadelle, the producers’ cooperative. “Why the name Citadel? Because from his office in Quebec, he could see the old citadel! »
Did this man, who believed in the power of cooperation, have a particularly sweet tooth? In any case, it brought together beekeepers, like maple syrup producers, within an all-Quebec cooperative.