As the snow starts melting, the birds start to return and trees start to bud. This is when I turn my attention towards collecting maple sap to make my own syrup. Tapping trees can be fun and rewarding and there’s nothing as sweet as utilizing the sugar that grows in your own backyard.
Sap starts to flow when daytime temps are above freezing and nighttime temps are still below freezing, for us that means anywhere from late February to mid march and well into April depending on the weather. Maple leaves are pretty unmistakable while on the tree but after they fall maples may be a little harder to identify. If you aren’t familiar with the bark and branch patterns maples it’s not a bad idea to put a ribbon around them in the summer/fall so you know which ones to tap in the spring.
I only have four maples on the old farmstead that I rent but it’s still enough to make up a few jars for pancakes and still have some left to give away as gifts. Trees for tapping can range from 6” to 24” in diameter and larger trees can support more than one tap. I usually try to tap my trees 2-3’ feet up and drill on the south side of the tree or directly above or below a large branch because the tree will be sending sugars along the outside arteries. I have also tapped box elders which is a form of maple and my brother in Alaska taps birch trees, both of which have higher moisture ratios than maple.
I like the cast aluminum taps but some people prefer plastic, my neighbor found out that a 30.06 rifle casing drilled out works pretty well too. I Use a 7/16” spur bit to drill a hole into the tree and then pound the tap in with a soft hammer, you can usually hear or feel the thud when the tap bottoms out and the best case is when it starts flowing right away. I like to slip a ½ inch outside diameter piece of tubing over the tap and run it down into a five gallon bucket with a lid. The sap come out of the tree crystal clear and has a sweet taste, many critters enjoy the sweet sap so I bungee the bucket to the tree to keep the winds or critters from knocking it over and the lid prevents; bugs, birds, rain and squirrels from getting into the sap. I keep my buckets clean and only use them for syrup production. Some folks will also use a system with plastic bags which is probably more efficient for tapping many trees and you can even get by with coffee cans and ice cream buckets but I suggest covering them to keep out critters and moisture.
I check on my buckets fairly regularly and when they are full I swap them for another bucket and snap a lid on the full buckets and store them in a cool location like a pole barn in the shade, the sap will stay for weeks if kept cool but if allowed to warm up the clear sap will grow bacteria and turn white and milky.
Once I have enough for a boil I get my equipment ready. I was told that it is possible to boil down your syrup indoors but you’ll probably steam the wallpaper off because you are boiling off a huge amount of water vapor, maples are about 40 to 1 and box elders are probably closer to 60 to 1 sap to syrup. I prefer to boil mine outside over a fire but some people use a propane burners as well. I have a round fire bowl that I put a chuck of catwalk grate over to support my heavy pan. The pan I have is stainless and can hold about 15 gallons of sap. Ideally you want a flat bottomed pan with a large surface area to spread the sap out and make it easier to boil off. Check the weather on the day you boil because it usually takes me 6 to 8 hours to boil down 15-20 gallons of sap depending on the outside temp and how hot your fire is. Sometimes your sap/syrup will boil over and make a mess, this can be prevented by throwing a chuck of butter in the pan. The first boil should evaporate most of the sap and I usually transfer my boiled sap into a 2 gallon stock pot to bring indoors for the secondary boil on my stovetop. I like to strain the sap through cheesecloth or an old t-shirt to remove bigger particulates from the sap. The secondary boil is down on a stove top or on a turkey fryer and takes much less time if the sap is already still hot.
You can tell when the syrup is ready by measuring the temp with a candy thermometer or by holding a spoon up and looking at the drips coming off the spoon but lately I’ve been using a hygrometer to tell me when to pull the syrup. If it’s too light you can always boil it longer, if it’s too dark I think you can add water or I have boiled it further to make caramel or toffee.
Once the syrup is ready it’s time to pour it through an Orlon Filter bag and some prefilters. Hang the bags up and slowly pour the hot syrup through the filters. I catch the syrup in a pyrex cup and pour directly into some sterilized ½ pint jars and place the lids on them, the heat from the cooling syrup usually snaps the lids down and they will keep for a year or more in the cupboard. Clean up all of your equipment but make sure you rinse any excess soap off, dry and store for next year’s harvest.
You may notice some “sand” in the bottom of your jars, this is fairly normal and may be from not filtering enough particulates out, you may also notice crystals forming inside the jar from being overcooked, these crystals can be warmed up and thrown in coffee for a sweetener.
Making syrup is a labor of love and although you can purchase it easily nothing is better than homemade and getting together to boil down sap outside is a great way to say goodbye to winter and welcome the spring. The syrup is always fun to share with friends and family for pancakes and waffles but also makes a great sweetener for cooking veggies or salmon as well.
