After years of ignoring/cursing the maples around my home, I finally put one of them to use, collecting 6.25 gallons of sap and boiling it down to get 2.5 cups of rather nice maple syrup. I was amazed at how easy it was, frankly. Sort of fun, too.
And delicious on my morning oat groats, too.
Any other maple syrup makers out there?
I’m considering tapping my walnut tree now . . .
Haven’t done it myself, but have visited many “sugaring huts” (There’s one at the nature preserve here in my town). The impression I get is that you have to boil off a LOT of water, and this is what takes all the time.
So how long did it take you? And how did you do it – did you do all 6 1/4 gallons at once? If so, how? Did you rig up a galvanized tub over a fire outside?
Or did you do it a gallon at a time over your stove inside?
Or what?
A neighbor asked our permission to tap our trees. He specified that he would only place one tap per tree, etc, etc precautions. As a thank you he gave us a bottle, which we’ve been treating like liquid gold. Delicious!!
We used to tap a few trees around our house and make maybe a quart or two a year. My sister has a fairly large (for two people) operation and makes a few gallons a year. They’re moving and probably won’t have a sugaring operation at the new place. I guess we’ll have to buy from now on.
It’s generally about a 30 to 40:1 ratio. That is, 30 or 40 gallons of sap to one gallon of syrup, depending on the sap (which I think depends on the weather, but I don’t know that much about it).
I have a couple silver maples in front which I understand that you can make syrup from (with a somewhat different taste than sugar maples) but I’m convinced I’ll somehow screw it up and have a dead tree in my yard. The window’s passed for this year anyway,
My kids went on a school field trip to a sugaring place, and were given tastes of both sugar maple and silver maple syrup. They said the two were very similar.
I just put two taps with tubing into the one huuuge tree in my south front yard, collected the drippings in one big covered bucket daily, boiled them down in the kitchen (the fan vent running took care of the moisture), filtered it using my aeropress once it got down to 90% of the reduction I wanted, finished reducing it, and added it to the collecting jar over about 2 weeks. Easy peasy. Collect, boil, filter, boil, save, serve.
Any species of maple will produce a maple syrup, it’s all high in sugar and has a variant on the distinct maple flavor. (This per my friend who does this commercially on his trees, and has a ‘sugar shack’ to do the main boiling). And maples are pretty hardy, they don’t flinch at a few taps in them.
I haven’t done it myself, but I spent an afternoon at a friend’s house a few weeks ago watching them do it. They’re doing a ton at a time, and it’s pretty much a whole-day outside project. I’m glad there are dedicated individuals who will spend their weekends doing such things, but it’s not for me. I’m happy to buy it though!
Very cool! I’m glad you got enough yield to feel accomplished.
I’m jealous.
And hungry.
We were just talking about doing this. I have a potentially dumb question, though - the steam that boils off, is it 100% water, or can it carry off some residual stickiness that will gum up the vents?
“Oh boy, groat cakes again! Heavy on the 30-weight, mom!”
-Peorgie Tirebiter
Seems to be 100% water, our vent was NOT sticky. I checked, having heard rumors of said stickiness myself.
I’m using the pressure cooker to make 'em now, toasting 'em ahead of time (15-20 minutes in the toaster oven at 325) then cooking at high pressure for 20 minutes. 1 cup of water (plus a skosh more) per half cup of toasted oat groats.
My spouse (born and raised in Sitka, AK) ran a birch sugarline up in the Mat-Su Valley for a number of years … made Birch Syrup, Birch Candies, Cameron’s Special Sauce (which I have the last bottle of – I can’t bear to use it!) …
I DO prefer maple, but no maples here on our property in Maine.
But there are plenty of local makers & vendors in this State. I will have to buy some more soon … mmmmm, buckwheat pancakes with real butter and REAL maple syrup! And maybe some local wild blueberries thrown in and around 
I’ve got tons of birch trees back in my woods, and I briefly contemplated tapping them. They’re running now, as I understand it.
But they’re all at least a 1/4 mile trek away, unlike my handy maples, not conveniently located in my yard. And the ratio of birch sap to birch syrup is 100:1 instead of maple’s 40:1.
And the last time I tried birch syrup, it tasted like a sweetened tree to me.
Sycamore is supposed to be nice, but I don’t have any sycamore trees. 
Looking around on the internet leads me to believe that the Official Motto of the Sap Aficionado is “I’d tap that!”
the weedy tree box elder, a maple, has sugary sap that can be tapped.
Here in the Deep South we cook spuds in molten pine sap.
Your syrup sounds marginally better.
That’s great! I remember the first time I got to eat a pear off a tree out front of the house. I’m drinking beer I made with hops from my garden.
Enjoy!
I thought you were kidding until I googled it. Interesting . . .