How Sweet it is to Have a Maple Tree!

So we tried a new adventure this week in the Dell; we went out and tapped our maple tree! Now for you experienced people out there, we know it was a bit late to start but, we were given a tap and thought we would give it a try and see what happens. The ideal time to start harvesting your sap is from mid February-mid March. You are looking for warm days (above 40 degrees) and freezing nights to make the sap flow.

I really didn't realize that you could make maple syrup from the sap of any maple tree, I always thought it was just sugar maples. They say the sweetness is best in a sugar and black maples and less sweet in the silver and red maples. I also didn't know how simple it was to cook it down, all we used was our electric roaster! Let me tell you though the syrup we made tastes just as good as the stuff you can buy and we harvested it right from our front yard and all it takes is a few easy steps.

Things you will need:

• An electric drill or hand drill
• A metal tap or hose barb and 3/8th non-toxic tubing
• Hammer or wrench
• 5 gal bucket with the lid
• 20 quart roaster

First you need to find a good large maple tree and drill a hole 3/8th inch for a metal tap and 1/2 inch for hose barb, 2 1/2 inches into the tree at a 45 degree angle.

Then insert your tap and gently hammer it in till secure or use wench to screw in the hose barb.

You can hang a bucket off the tap if you are using a metal one or twist tubing on the barb and direct into the hole in the top of the bucket. Use Duck Tape to close off the hole so rain and bugs do not get in your sap. 

Now you just let your sap collect. We were getting about 2 gallons a day so depending on what size tree or bucket you may need to check on your sap throughout the day. Your tree needs to be 12-20" for one tap, 21-27" for 2 taps and more than 27" for 3 taps.

I put my first 3 gallons of sap in the roaster and set it on 400 during the day with the lid off and 300 at night adding more sap as it came out of the tree.You do not want the sap to boil just steam and evaporate.

It took me 3 days to cook it down till it was brown and came off my stir spoon slowly like a syrup.
Then I strained it through cheese cloth and filled up my mason jars!

It takes 40 gal of sap to make one gallon of maple syrup so since we started late we only made a little less than one quart, but I am excited it worked and can't wait till next season to make some.
                                                                  The Farmer in the Dell