Dakota Gardener: Birch-cicles and maple syrup

I saw a curious sight on my drive to work the other day.

A lone icicle was hanging from a branch on a maple tree. I smiled and chuckled briefly when I saw that large, solitary crystal of frozen water.

Conditions have to be just right to produce an icicle on a tree. Sap must leak out of a wound in the branch, but the air temperature has to be cold enough to freeze that sap before it drips to the ground. The previous night, conditions were perfect.

I've noticed icicles on birch trees in the past. They're amazing. Some type of wound is always associated with a birch-cicle. Once, I saw an entire birch stump covered in ice that formed from sap that came from its freshly cut surface.

Amazing.

We're also in the middle of maple syrup season right now. It's a very narrow window. Nighttime temperatures must be below freezing and daytime temperatures have to be above freezing. That's pretty specific. If it's too warm at night or too cold during the day, the sap just won't flow.

In North Dakota, I've met quite a few people who make maple syrup from boxelder trees. Yes, boxelders are maples. Maple syrup is usually produced from sugar maple trees; their sap is about 2% to 6% sugar. Boxelders have a lower sugar content but syrup can still be made.

Finished maple syrup is about 67% sugar. Concentrating that sugar, turning sap into syrup is traditionally done by boiling the excess water away.

The ratio of sap to syrup is about 45 to 1. That's a lot of boiling. If you have the inclination to make maple syrup and the time to boil all that water away, it can be a lot of fun and there's a great reward at the end of it all.

When I was a kid, we combined forces with the neighbors to produce maple syrup in their small woodlot. I don't remember how much syrup our efforts yielded but it was a great way to keep nine kids busy and out of trouble.

Staff at Fort Stevenson State Park have been making maple syrup every spring for several years. The 2022 Maple Sugaring Day is on Saturday, April 9. Sounds like a fun time!

Birch-cicles and maple syrup signal that in-between time. It's spring . . . almost! The sap is flowing but buds aren't opening yet. Trees are breaking out of dormancy but not completely. When will spring arrive?

O.A. Stevens, a professor of botany at what was then called North Dakota Agricultural College, began a very simple study back in 1910. Every spring, he would walk around campus and north Fargo, recording his observations on the first flowers of spring. It wasn't just tulips or hyacinths though. He observed trees, shrubs and even grasses.

He made these observations until 1961 – more than 50 years! What an amazing study.

For boxelder, the earliest that Stevens saw flowers was on April 1. The year was 1910. On average, he didn't see those flowers until a bit over three weeks later, on April 24.

What will this year hold? I wish I knew. I can say one thing with certainty though. That sweet maple syrup will be delicious!