not far from the tree

Scattered around the city right now are a dozen or so trees, lovingly tapped to collect their bountiful sap. We’d Tap That has been Not Far From the Tree’s pilot project in urban maple syrup production! But as the weather heats up, the sap stops flowing….which means it’s time to make maple syrup!

With the beautiful, spring-like weather we’ve been experiencing lately, there’s no mistake that maple syrup season is upon us. It takes warm days and cold nights like this to get the sap flowing. The warmth of the sun helps draw the sap up the trunk, invigorating the tree with new energy for bud growth and leaf development. The sap is full of sugar (remember that Biology class on photosynthesis?) and so if the tree is willing to share some of its sweet sap we can enjoy a very tasty and local source of sugar – from right here in the city!

A couple of weeks ago, the Toronto Star and Toronto Life reported that the City had some concerns with what we are doing. It has since been made clear that what we are doing has been approved by the City. (Hooray!) We have shown that our plans are thoughtful, well-researched, and are being executed out of respect for the particular circumstances of urban trees.

[What the City has expressed concern with, it should be noted, is of tapping trees that are on City property (including many front yards) and that are sugar maples (a species of maple that does not fare well under urban stresses, as opposed to Norway maples which we are tapping). There is also concern that people with no previous experience or training in how to properly tap trees would do so and damage trees in the process.]

So in case you were asking, the answer is: Yes, we’d tap that! In fact, we’ve already tapped a number of trees! Our pilot syrup in the city program is fully underway. More on that soon, stay tuned to the blog over the next week for updates. We’ll also soon be releasing info on the maple syrup tasting that will result from our sap collection. (You don’t have to wait to celebrate, though, you can get your own We’d Tap That t-shirt now!)

While you’re patiently waiting for an update, why not try out one of Foodland Ontario’s maple syrup recipes? Or share a maple syrup story that you have in the comments. Or go for a walk outside and think of the intricate workings of the trees around you, flowing with sap and preparing to bust out their summer fashions!

Carole Ferrari, owner of The Bus, has been kind enough to pass along her recipe for the Apple Squares she made at the year end party.

I used the recipe this weekend. My apologizes, my squares don’t look as professional as Carole’s but regardless the recipe is delicious!

This truly is a tasty treat!!

Enjoy!

Apple Square Recipe:

To make 24 large squares.

There are four layers to the apple squares: crumble, apple sauce, sliced apples, and more crumble. Not Far From The Tree’s apple sauce is absolutely delicious. This apple sauce recipe is a little different, but also quite delicious!

Crumble:

2 cups rolled oats

2 cups flour, spelt, whole wheat or all-purpose, whichever you prefer

2 cups sugar

1 cup of melted butter, or oil

Apple Sauce:

15 or so red or pink skinned apples, a variety of species is nice, washed and roughly chopped small, skin on

2 tspns cinnamon

an inch of ginger, microplaned or minced

1/2 cup of honey

1/3 cup of water

Sliced Apple:

6 apples, pink or red skinned, finely sliced. A mandoline is helpful

The juice of half a lemon

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees

To Make the crumble:

In a bowl, mix all the crumble ingredients together thoroughly, rubbing the mixture through with your hands. Set aside.

To Make the apple sauce:

Put all of the ingredients for the apple sauce in a pot and cook on high heat for about 5 minutes, stiring every few minutes or so. Then lower the temperature and continue to cook until the apples are cooked through, about another 15 minutes. Cook the apples until the skin is soft and the colour of the skin has stained the apple sauce pink. Don’t cook the applesauce too much more at this point as it is going to be cooked again in the oven as part of the square.

If you haven’t sliced the apples yet do it now while the apple sauce is cooking.

To Assemble:

Sprinkle about an inch-worth of crumble over the bottom of a 12×18 inch pan. Press down on the crumble with your hand to level and firm up the crumble.

Spread an inch-worth of apple sauce on top of the crumble. Be careful not to lift the crumble as you spread the apple sauce. To avoid doing this use the edge of a spoon to gently spread the apple sauce around until it is evenly distributed.

Lay the apple slices on top of the apple sauce over lapping them as you cover the pan. Sprinkle lemon juice on the apple slices.

Spread more crumble over top of the apple slices, but only half as much as on the bottom. Press this down gently with your hand. Bake for 30-45 minutes, until the top of the crumble is gold.

Not Far From The Tree’s latest endeavour is one that has taken a great deal of research, care, and attention to embark upon. The seed for maple syrup tapping in the city was planted about a year ago when I spotted a neighbour’s tree that had been tapped. This led me to find out about maple syrup projects in other cities like Halifax and Brooklyn. Community maple tapping projects also exist, such as the project through Groundwork Somerville just outside of Boston.

And as we’ve spread word about doing this in Toronto, we’ve learned that we’re not the first to tap maple trees in this city. Trees have been tapped and syrup harvested at the Humber Arboretum. We’re looking forward to continuing this tradition, given the proper precautions.

Indeed, there are plenty of precautions to take! Tapping trees is not a venture to be taken lightly as what we do directly impacts decades-old, living trees that make up our urban forest. Our organizing team for this pilot program – whose expertise comes from fields such as forestry, food security, and community development, along with a team of advisors with commercial and recreational experience in tapping maple trees – has been working hard to ensure that the trees are treated with utmost respect. This is especially important in an urban setting where trees are already under many stresses (e.g., poor soil, drought, development, invasive pests). To be clear about our process, here are a few questions we’ve raised in our research:

What do we hope to achieve with this program?

We’d Tap That allows us an opportunity to animate the urban forest in a very engaging way. When Torontonians hear of harvesting syrup right here in the city, they gain new perspective on the breadth of what our urban trees can offer us. It transforms a tree into something that offers us rich, sweet food from its inner physiology. It provides an opportunity for us to teach about the urban forest, including its many stresses, strengths, and resilience. We hope that each person who gets involved takes something different away from the process, but that each gains renewed respect for the trees around us. By telling the story of tapping for syrup we are also telling the story of the maple trees themselves. When people consider that the trees provide many benefits – including food – we are more likely to provide individual trees with care and respect.

Can all maple trees in Toronto be safely tapped?

No. Many urban trees are under various stresses due to city conditions (e.g., soil compaction from heavy traffic, dehydration from road salt, poor previous pruning, etc.). We are not interested in tapping trees that are already facing these stresses as it will be harder for the tree to heal the tapping wound and recover from the loss of sap.

Is it safe to tap healthy trees?

Provided the tree is healthy and growing visorously to begin with, tapping a maple tree results in minimal disturbance to the tree. When a tree is tapped to extract a portion of sap, it is done by creating a drill hole into the tree’s phloem. The spile is inserted into this hole for the sap to be extracted and is removed before spring arrives – the most vigorous healing time for a tree. The small wound of the drill hole is sealed off by vigorous responsive wound wood. Tapping the tree in late winter, as has been done in the tradition of maple syrup harvesting, is good timing as it gives the tree time to heal its wounds at the beginning of the spring season so that it remains healthy in its production of buds and leaves.

The key point to make note of, however, is that healthy trees face only minimal disturbance when tapped to make maple syrup, and so care must be taken to ensure that only trees in good health and that are growing vigorously are tapped.

In regards to extracting the sap, here is an excerpt from the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs’ website on the maple syrup industry:

“In a manner analogous to a blood sample taken from a healthy person, the removal of sap from a tree will not harm it, provided that proper tapping guidelines are followed. This includes avoiding the tapping of small trees and controlling the number of taps per tree. Less taps should be used if the trees are under stress (i.e. insect defilation, severe ice storm damage, etc.).”

How will we ensure proper tapping techniques are used?

A small group of specially-trained Not Far From The Tree volunteers will be the ones doing the tapping. Their training will include a lesson in tree physiology and a tree tapping demonstration before they work in small teams to tap the 8-10 trees that we will pilot this year. Volunteers have already come forward for these positions and we are in the process of developing the training program. In addition, we do not intend to tap the same tree two years in a row.

What makes a maple tree a good candidate to be tapped?

There are several factors we’re looking for before we choose that a tree will be tapped. First, we are looking for trees that are on private property where the homeowner has given his or her permission for the tree to be tapped. (Some trees are deceptive as they appear to be on private property but are technically on City land.) For the pilot program we are limiting tree candidated to Norway maple trees, not sugar maples as are usually used in maple syrup harvesting (see below). Then we must assess the tree to make sure it is in good health and growing vigorously, that the tree itself is in good condition and able to withstand any urban stresses. Next, we look to see if the tree is large enough (at least a foot in diameter) for one or two holes to be tapped. We must also consider the logistics of getting the sap to our sugaring-off, so location is an important consideration. If the tree passes all of these tests, then we will consider it to be one of the 8-10 trees that we use in our pilot program this year. Of those that pass, only the healthiest trees will be chosen.

What varieties of maple tree will we be tapping?

Not Far From The Tree is only looking for Norway maples. In the maple syrup industry, sugar maples are the ideal tree to tap. They have the highest sugar content of maples and produce a very delicious syrup when their sap is boiled down. In the city, however, the native sugar maples are more susceptible to urban stresses. Norway maples, on the other hand, are an adundant species in Toronto that fare very well under urban stresses and that also produce a sugary sap that can be boiled down to make syrup. While sugar maple is boiled down to a 40-1 ratio to produce syrup, Norway maples have a lower sugar content and therefore require being boiled down to a 60-1 ratio, yet the syrup they produce is equally delicious. Given this, Not Far From The Tree is looking to tap 5-10 Norway maples and no sugar maples in our pilot program.

Is it ok to tap trees on City property, specifically with sugar maples on Parks property?

(Note: Not Far From The Tree is only looking to tap trees on City property, only on private property with homeowners’ permission. We are inquiring with the City for their thoughts on how best to use this program as an opportunity to educate about the urban forest.) When we asked the City of Toronto what their official stance was on tapping trees on City property, the Parks, Forestry, and Recreation department issued this response:

“The City of Toronto does not permit the tapping of sugar maple trees in our Parks. City of Toronto Municipal Code, Chapter 608, Parks, prohibits any activity that would injure a tree, located in a City park.

Not Far From The Tree’s year-end party was the first time I had seen or heard of ‘The Local Café’. When I arrived at the party I mused on the sight of a small school bus parked outside figuring it belonged to a local resident. It wasn’t until I was outside grinding apples for apple cider that I noticed people walking to and from the bus carrying trays of food.

PAUSING FOR A SPECIAL ANNOUNCMENT:

I have been given special permission by the owner, operator and chef extraordinaire Carole Ferrari, to announce that The Local Café will be changing its name to …. ‘THE BUS’ !

Ok back to the story….

I walked over and was amazed to see a full kitchen in full swing. The Bus, or rather Carole and her crew, were inside cooking up a storm! Throughout the night I noticed its many visitors. People were obviously curious to see this ‘moveable’ feast at work.

I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Carole to discuss how she came up with the idea for The Bus, and her take on cooking with Not Far From The Tree’s very own applesauce.

The Bus was originally Carole’s answer to filling a void in Toronto’s street food culture; the void being healthy, affordable street fare. The idea was good timing considering Toronto was stepping up its support for healthy street food with its “a la cart” program. However Carole found her niche outside the street vendor market.

Determined to support and expand access to local food, Carole decided the best way to learn how to deliver food to people on the go was to set up shop at farmers’ markets. Farmers’ markets allowed her to experiment with food and create relationships with local producers. She started to build relationships and food networks that allow her to source produce right from the people growing it. Plus, she has tapped into some urban agriculture sources, accessing herbs and tomatoes from gardens – even trading her specialty granola for produce. The closer Carole can get to where the food is grown, the better!

Now, not only is she working at farmers’ markets selling delicious baked goods, she’s also catering festivals and events. This brings us to the year-end party and our applesauce. As I’m sure most of you remember, she made an incredible apple crumble. Working with the applesauce, she describes it as a beautiful chunky sauce. She reflects on how pretty the apples looked, having enough leftover to sprinkle finely sliced pieces on top of the crumble. The slices delicately showed off the apples, while subtly highlighting the reason for our celebration…RESIDENTIAL FRUIT!

She would love to be able to use more of the fruit grown in the city, remarking that Not Far From The Tree is a ‘really special project’.

I for one will not hesitate if I get the chance to get my hands on some more apple crumble, however Carole is now contemplating pear crumble! Either way – I’ll take it!

Last Monday I arrived early for a tour of The Stop’s Green Barn. My tour guide, greenhouse coordinator Lord Abbey, hadn’t come in yet.  Another employee greeted me, inviting me to make myself comfortable and wander around. It wasn’t hard to do; The Stop’s space is very inviting. I poked around checking out the books, gazing out the window at the melting ice rink, looking in at the kitchen.

But peering through the doors that lead into the greenhouse is what really stopped me in my tracks. It was hard to look away. Looking through those glass doors was like looking into another world. When Lord arrived he gracefully introduced himself and led me through the doors.

Walking into the greenhouse is like being transported to the tropics. It’s warm, the air is moist, and the landscape (food) is a lush green. There are avocados growing in one corner, cassava in the other, and…oh yeah - oranges, grapefruits and lemons!

Yup, a little piece of paradise (minus a beach), hiding out in Toronto’s Hillcrest neighbourhood. Ok maybe not hiding, it’s a pretty big greenhouse, but still not a place I had visited. Although my first visit will definitely not be my last, more like the first of many.

Lord Abbey is the greenhouse coordinator and has extensive knowledge and experience working with plants.  He holds a PhD in Plant Science, is a Professional Agrologist registered with the Ontario Institute of Agrologists, has conducted research in plant eco-physiology at the Crops Research Institute in Ghana, and further research in the UK. This guy knows plants! And now he’s sharing his knowledge with the The Stop community.

When the greenhouse started, green crops were the primary focus. About a year and a half ago, that changed a bit.  Lord decided he wanted to experiment with fruit trees. So he did. He began with what he knew. He had experience growing blood oranges, ruby red grapefruit, and meyer lemons; all fruit he likes! It’s probably safe to say they are fruits everyone likes. They are also the fruits that travel many miles to reach our tables. Well, now they’re being grown in Toronto, and they are growing well!

So how, I asked, did this happen?

Grafted seedlings originally came from Humber Nurseries. Grafting is a technique by which one plant is selected for its stock and another selected for its fruit. A mature bud is taken from the fruit plant and fused with the stock. The technique is used to help accelerate growth and production. Once the bud and the stock have fused, the bud should start to produce leaves.

The seedlings have performed extremely well in the greenhouse. They are now approximately 3 to 4 feet tall, and are producing anywhere from 8 to 18 individual fruits.

With the success of these trees, Lord has been able to start his own set of seedlings grown from the seeds of the mature fruit. From here he and his volunteers will perform their own grafting experiments. There are interesting possibilities. One idea is to graft one or two different fruits to the same stock, possibly creating an orange lemon tree.

Seeing these trees and hearing about the possibilities was/is amazing. The kids in The Stop’s after-school programs are already cooking with the ripened fruit, and there is more production in the works. Papaya is next, and hopefully – fingers crossed – a cocoa tree will be planted down the road (there are permissions needed to grow cocoa). In the meantime we can dream that one day in the not too distant future the greenhouse will be offering up its very own brand of chocolate!

Throughout the winter months, I find oatmeal to be one of the loveliest breakfast dishes. It’s warm, hearty, and delicious. The greatest pleasure of this winter morning meal is to add a few tastes of summer into the mix.

When the first summer pears were ready last year, I set some aside to make into pear sauce. I didn’t add any sugar as they were sweet enough on their own, but I did throw in a little bit of cinnamon and ginger to spice up the flavour. Then, taking a cue from a friend who made her own pear pucks, I froze the sauce in ice cube trays. This makes individual portions that are perfect for dropping in oatmeal. Once they’re frozen, I transfer them to freezer bags so that I can have my ice trays back.

The other taste of summer I have stored away in my freezer is serviceberries. Harvested from my recently-planted frontyard tree, these little berries (similar in size and shape to blueberries) freeze really well. Sprinkled atop my oatmeal, they add a nice fruity flavour and a splash of colour.

The final touch in preparing my morning oatmeal is to add some maple syrup. This year it’s stuff I bought at the grocery store but with the launch of our latest program, who knows what I’ll be using next year?

I also froze some pear sauce directly in freezer bags so that I could use medium-sized portions for baking. Lately I’ve been using them to make jae steele’s oatmeal raisin muffins (minus the raisins, but with lots of other goodies that I’ve found in the cupboard).

Tags: baking, cooking, maple syrup, pears, serviceberries, winter

Think the urban forest can only feed us in the summer time? Think again! Not From From The Tree is pleased to announce a new project we’re launching this winter:

We’d Tap That!
Syrup in the City

Tags: maple syrup, We'd Tap That!

Ok Ok…so I’m entering the preserving season a little late, but I decided I could rationalize it by saying I’m preparing myself for next year.  With this logic, I’m really just a keener getting super excited to start picking fruit again.

Last night I prepared my first jar of apple jelly.  I meticulously followed the Old-Fashioned Apple Jelly recipe and canning instructions from the Bernardin “Complete Book of Home Preserving”, an excellent book for beginners.  I didn’t think it would take that long (25 minutes as suggested in the book).  Not bad, I thought.  I could easily get this done tonight and sneak in another episode of ‘The Wire’ (HBO’s highly addictive Baltimore cop show, indeed).

Right…. it took 25 minutes once my apple juice and sugar mixture reached a hard boil, but it took about 25 – 30 minutes to get to that stage.   Regardless, it was worth it in the end.  I learned how to make jelly!  I also learned that I should have used tart apples, not ‘Empire’ apples.  The Bernardin recipe calls for 3 cups of sugar to every 4 cups of apple juice.  When paired with a sweet apple like Empire, this makes for a very sweet treat.   Live and learn.   I think the trick to making good jelly is experimentation and persistence.

Getting Started:  Gotta get the juice!
I started with 16 apples.  Cut off the tops and bottoms.  Quartered them, leaving the core and peel.  I placed them in a large stainless steal pot, and covered the apples with water, approximately 1 cup of water per 1lb of apples.  I then brought it to a boil and mashed the apples once soft.  When the apples were sufficiently softened and mashed (I waited until they had turned a light brownish colour) I strained the mixture using a strainer and ‘a lot’ of cheesecloth.  The result was apple juice (pg. 107).

Ready to get cookin!
The Bernardin’s recipe is as follows from page 120 of the book:

• 4 cups of apple juice
• 2 tbsp of lemon juice
• 3 cups of sugar

This recipe produced exactly one 500mL jar of jelly.

The process is to combine all ingredients in a stainless steal pot and bring to a boil.  The sugar dissolves quickly; it is important to stir frequently.

Eventually it reached a hard boil, meaning it was boiling and creating some foam.  I continued to stir and frequently conducted a gel test.   Learning the gel test is really what made this venture successful.

Gel Test:
Dip a cold spoon in the mixture after it has been at a hard boil for approximately 25 minutes.  Horizontally lift the spoon and allow the mixture to drip off.  At first it will drip quickly but will soon slow and you will see two drops dripping off the spoon.  Once those two drops join together, the gel stage has been reached (see pg. 21 for a more detailed account).  Once the mixture has reached this point, you’re ready to can.

After preparing the jars, funnel the mixture into the jars.   Bernardin’s suggests taking a spatula and lightly stirring the mixture to release any air bubbles that could impede the sealing process.

Then attach the lid and screw top and submerge jars in a large stainless steal pot (make shift canner) filled with water.  Make sure the bottoms of the jars are lifted off the bottom of the pot.  I just used a pasta pot.

Bring the water to a boil and process for ten minutes.  After ten minutes I turned off the heat and left the jar for another 5 minutes.  Ta Da! , my first jar of apple jelly (super sweet apple jelly).

Note:  I read a couple of recipes that had added cinnamon, or curry.  Once you get the basics down, I think experimenting with flavours is the next step to really making the jelly your own.

For the complete recipe and instructions take a look at Bernardin’s “Complete Book of Home Preserving”.  The Old-Fashioned Apple Jelly recipe is on pg. 120.  Instructions for Apple Juice are on pg. 107.  Further instructions for preparing jars and canning are on pgs. 409 – 420.  Gel Test pg. 21

Enjoy! Let us know how it goes, or if you know of other recipes and ingredients that have helped you perfect apple jelly!

Just before the holidays I had the opportunity to visit Wychwood Open Door, one of Not Far From The Tree’s partner organizations in Ward 21.  Wychwood Open Door’s mission “is to reduce social isolation, boost nutrition and help develop life skills among homeless and socially isolated people.”  One key component of the program is to serve three full meals every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  During the harvest season Not Far From The Tree provides fresh fruit to the program’s participants.

It was a very memorable experience and an honour to meet and chat with volunteers and participants.  I was invited to stay for lunch and enjoy some of the amazing food being served up.  The Open Door program is truly open to everyone.  Some of the volunteers and participants travel across the city to meet with friends, receive home-cooked nutritious meals, and enjoy some company.

Some of the stories I heard over lunch were difficult tales of what it means to be homeless in Toronto, while others were uplifting stories that inspired hope.  What was more than apparent was the need for community and for people to feel a true sense of belonging.  The coordinators, volunteers, and participants have accomplished that sense of community.  Wychwood Open Door is a place that brings together people and organizations from the neighbourhood and beyond.  It is a place that creates partnerships, not just to help its own cause, but also to help other organizations and groups.  The neighbourhood fruit, and the community building inherent in Not Far From The Tree’s work, has made our project a welcome partner to the Open Door’s longstanding work.

Wychwood Open Door Trivia Night!

If you would like to learn more about Wychwood Open Door and meet some of the folks, the organization is hosting a Trivia Night fundraiser at the Wychwood Barns on February 6^th, 2010.

The Event:

“Compete with your friends and neighbours in six rounds of family-friendly pop culture trivia to see who has the biggest brain. CBC’s Kevin Sylvester will emcee the evening while a different local celebrity calls each round of trivia. Prizes will be awarded to the top teams, and everyone will enjoy live music, a cash bar, snacks and a silent art auction.”

To purchase tickets or read more about the evening please visit:

www.wychwoodopendoor.org