Collecting Maple Sap

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These days, in Korea, spring can be felt every afternoon. The collection of sap from mono maple trees began in the southern part of the nation weeks ago. With the weather getting warmer, the sap is now being collected in the central region as well.

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Ice remains unmelted at Mount Seorisan, which is at an altitude of 500 meters. A hole is drilled into a mono maple tree and a pipe is installed. Transparent sap begins to drop. Unlike the previous method of hanging bags on to each tree, a single pipe system is connected to multiple trees to collect the sap at one place. A ten-kilometer pipe was used to connect roughly 1,500 trees.

[Soundbite] Lee Jong-sik(Mono Maple Sap Collector) : "Sap can be polluted with foreign substances when using bags to collect them because the bags must be handled by people. The use of pipes is more hygienic as it requires no human touch."

Rich in calcium, magnesium and minerals, mono maple tree sap is popular as a healthy drink. Mono maple sap used to be produced mainly in the southern part of the nation, such as around Mount Jirisan. But central regions, like Namyangju and Gapyeong in Gyeonggi-do Province, began producing the sap in the mid-1990s. The sap can be collected between late February and late March. During the period, 70,000 liters of mono maple sap are collected in Namyangju alone.

[Soundbite] Lee Ki-seok(Mono Maple Sap Collector) : "We have standards. One hole is punched in trees that are ten to 20 centimeters thick in diameter. Two holes are for trees that are 20 to 30 centimeters thick and three holes for trees that are thicker than 30 centimeters."

The collection of mono maple sap reachesits peak around Gyeongchip, or Day of Awakening From Hibernation. Farmers in Namyangju earn 200 million won annually by selling mono maple sap.