maine maple syrup facts, maine honey facts-Spring Break Maple & Honey

MAPLE SYRUP FACTS

A maple tree is about 40 years old before it can be tapped.
Maple sap is diluted starches made the summer before and turned to sugars by chemical reactions inside the tree when the ground thaws in the spring.
Maple productions is sustainable indefinitely on properly managed woods. Some sugar maples have been in production for over 100 years and still going strong.
Maple sap only flows for 6-8 weeks in the late winter and early spring.
Maple sap is a sterile liquid that provides the tree with nutrients prior to buds opening and leaf appearance.
Somerset County, Maine is the largest maple syrup producing county in the USA.

HONEY FACTS

25% of the honeybee population vanished in 2007. Scientists call the problem Colony Collapse Disease (CCD). No one cause has been determined yet, several have been identified, primary stress on the colony, pesticide exposure, poor nutrition, Varroa mites or something else that allows visitors to take advantage of a weakened host.
2035 is the year that the world's population of honeybees will cease to exist if they continue to decline at the present rate.
Honeybees pollinate 100 different crops in the U.S.. Apples, almonds, avocados, blueberries, broccoli, carrots and cauliflower are just a few crops that will suffer without bees.
Haagen-Dazs is donating a portion of their sales of VANILLA HONEY BEE ice cream to research CCD and sustainable pollination research.
Honeybees add $15 million in value to staples such as nuts, fruits and vegetables.
California's almond crop requires 1.3 million colonies of bees, this is roughly 1/2 of all honeybees in the U.S..

BASKETRY FACTS

Basketry is one of the oldest and most widespread American Indian arts.
Basket makers use a wide variety of native plants, ranging from grasses, canes to black ash trees.
Preparation of materials include soaking, splitting, dying, pounding, sun bleaching, drying, steaming, boiling, cooking over fires and oven baking.
Plaiting (weaving), twining, and coiling are the three general techniques used in basketry.

MAINE MAPLE SYRUP, MAINE HONEY, MAINE MADE BASKET FACTS

MEMBERS OF MAINE ORGANIC FARMERS AND GARDENERS ASSOCIATION (MOFGA)