Friends of Tracy Library

Local Speakers Series – 2025

Dr. Damian Costello presented a brief history of maple syrup, which is produced only in the northeastern United States, and in eastern Canada (which produces the most syrup) where colder temperatures are favorable for syrup. Maple trees further south produce more tannin making the sap unpalatable. His presentation introduced an indigenous perspective, beginning with native peoples producing syrup themselves, though we don’t know today how they were able to boil sap down into syrup (40 gallons of sap for each 1 gallon of syrup on average) since they didn’t have pots in which to boil it. His talk discussed the relationship between the maple trees, the land, and the people, and how one cannot plant a maple tree that they will tap for syrup; it is for your descendants when the tree has grown large enough to tap. It is a promise to the future and emphasizes the need for conservation and for continuity, one generation to the next. Indigenous lore tells us that toward the end of a hard winter, when food supplies ran low, maples gave their “blood” so others could survive, that it is a “gift they want to give us.”