Syrup

[Torondor the Builder]

So at the end of my first winter, the one thing I’m super low on is fruit nutrition.  I’m at 0.   So in discussing jam making with several friends, they confirmed that sugar was an ingredient.  But i was giving the forums a look and while several people mentioned sugar cane, I wondered if there was a simpler solution:  maple syrup.  We already have pine trees with leaking logs with resin, why not the same with maple trees with logs leaking sap?  The sap could either qualify as sugar directly or go through cooking or processing of some sort to convert it to sugar.  It could then be used for making jam just as honey is.  A bung could be crafted from two sticks and a knife that could be left in the log (“leaking maple log tapped”).  Then bowls or buckets could be used to gather the sap.

That’s my thought.  Next winter I need more fruit in my diet...

Thanks for reading,

Torondor

[David Taylor]

To improve chances of this happening the existing mechanic could be reused as is, just with syrup on natural maple trees. After you have some then, yes perhaps some process is required to turn it into honey. I don't know anything about maple syrup or how suitable it is for making jam.

[Torondor the Builder]

Well maple syrup cannot be turned into honey.  But basically maple syrup is the sugary sap of several kinds of maple tree that is heated to remove excess water, thus concentrating the sugar in it as maple syrup.  My thought was that you could use it just as they use honey: as the “liquid” sugar medium for the jams.  Maple syrup could be used similarly based on the current game mechanic (I’m not sure how often honey was used for jam in antiquity, everyone modern that I know of uses refined sugar.  *shrug*.
 

I just liked the idea of being able to preserve more fruit nutrition as jams in the game early on even without having to rely upon finding bees and honey.  And yet using the “maple log leaking sap” to ensure that, like resin, it’s not too easily obtainable.

Torondor 

[David Taylor]

If honey is used for making jam then it seems maple syrup could be a substitute.

Does it make bees redundant? The beeswax is obv good for lanterns still.

If the current resin/pinetree mechanism was reused to get syrup and the jam recipe modified to include syrup as well as honey and berries it seems like it would be relatively simple.

Adding a new collection mechanism would add more dev/artist work. Reusing the resin one might feel too 'samey'. I'd probably still reuse if I were doing it.

[City Builder]

Dang, we've been leaving the maple trees alone thinking they woulds eventually produce sap or maple syrup.