The sap maple, of course. (and a few other tree varieties.)
After the arctic blast, we had nice thaw with daily temperatures above freezing, and nights below. Which around here means it’s maple sugaring time. For the last 7 or 8 years I’ve been tapping one huge tree next to my house, to get anywhere from a couple quarts to nearly a gallon of maple syrup. This year the Mrs. and I decided to double production.
So yesterday we put our usual 3 taps in our usual huge maple, with another 3 in the even bigger one in the back yard. And just for kicks, we added 2 taps to the walnut tree out front. Walnut syrup is a thing and we decided we’d try to produce some.
We have dozens and dozens of birch trees on our property, but I am NOT going to make birch syrup. That requires 100 gallons of sap per 1 gallon of syrup (as opposed to 40 for maple/walnut/sycamore et al) and that’s too much work.
Next comes the endless boiling. Our operation is too small for a “sugar shack” so we do all that in the kitchen. Time to haul out the filters, boiling pots, finishing pans, hydrometer, mason jars, etc.
Yesterday I also realized that with all the money I’ve invested in this hobby, I could have purchased a HELL of a lot of maple syrup. But then I wouldn’t be dining on and gifting MY maple syrup. And I’d just be spending more time on my butt in front of the computer.
A neighbor of ours makes a batch every 3-5 years. With our permission he uses trees on our property, and gifts us a small bottle of syrup as a thank you. We treasure that syrup.
He now has bees. We purchased some of his honey ($18 for a one pound jar). It’s delicious.
I have to say, the worked described doesn’t make this sound like a hobby for me but hey I like to work on old wooden boats, so we all have our different time sinks.
The homemade maple syrup though sounds great. I’m green with envy.
One of these years you should stop the boil early. Aim for about 1.08-1.06 sg and you’ll get 8-10% abv once it ferments out. Maple brandy is really good but of course it would be illegal for me to recommend that step.
Well, I went ahead and did a test run on the first day’s collection of maple sap, about 5 gallons. It produced a bit over a cup’s worth of the darkest looking syrup I’ve ever produced. It was pretty tasty while still hot, we’ll see what it’s like when it cools.
The walnut tree’s not putting out a lot of sap yet, maybe a half gallon so far. I’ll refrigerate that and not turn it into walnut syrup until I have about a week’s worth of the stuff.
I’ll skip the making of alcoholic products from the sap, neither the Mrs. nor I drink, so no point really. I wouldn’t know good from bad.
This year I also started using the bag system instead of the tubing/bucket system for half my taps. I’ve got to say it sure is more convenient than fooling with the tubing, making sure buckets are properly situated on the ground, and that the connectors are all secure. I think I’ll invest in more bag holders. Set the tap, hang the bag on it, pour into a bucket when full, hang the bag back up. Easy! So easy I’m eyeing 3 other maples I’d planned to leave untapped. I’m definitely falling into the ‘if some is good, more is better!’ mindset.
We have a river birch in our yard. A few years ago, there was an ice storm which broke off a decent-sized branch about twenty feet up. We also had a huge amount of rain.
The tree ‘bled’ from that broken branch - a more or less constant stream of water leaking from the break. We found out that the capillary system of the tree was pumping all that excess water up into the tree, and the break was allowing some of it out. The water was slightly sweet. Not sure what that would be like if one cared to boil it out.
A tree’s probably a better filter than an advanced sewer filtration plant. And a lot of your food is grown right in the dirt that’s been mixed with stuff from septic fields, you know.
26 taps. About 6 gallons of sap so far. We use family heirloom buckets and spiles, but are thinking of adding a line system to expand.
Boil on an open pan over a wood fire in the driveway. It’s good incentive to get outside when it’s too melty for winter sports but not yet warm enough to just want to be outside.
And now I’ve purchased some pectic enzyme solution to use in the walnut sap, in case I get enough sap to make walnut syrup, because I just found out walnut syrup will get all jellied out and impossible to process without a vacuum system unless I treat the sap first.
This hobby is getting more costly. But it was fun seeing the first batch of sap turn into syrup, and share the maple candy goo from the bottom of the boiling pan with the Mrs.
@tofor what do you do with your syrup? Ever tap trees other than maple?
That was the big question the first year we made it. So we made Saturday morning pancake or waffle day every week, and of course we gave some away.
Never tapped anything else. I’ve really wanted to do birch, but from what I read that should really be black birch, and I live too far south for them to grow. I’ve thought about tapping some white birch just to see what happens, but by the end of maple season I’m usually too burnt out to bother. Also, the birch sap is apparently pretty sensitive to burning and you can’t just boil it with abandon, so it might not work out for my open-pan-over-a-fire method anyway.
OK, 10 days into the season and I’ve now got a gallon of nice dark tasty maple syrup, plus a pint of walnut syrup. I treated the walnut sap with pectic enzymes so it didn’t turn into walnut jelly, and got a lovely deep golden product there, which is quite sweet and mellow and nutty and very different from maple syrup. I hope I can get another pint or two of it before the season’s over.
Sap production really dropped off in the last 36 hours, when temperatures shot up during the day into the upper 40’s and the nights stayed warm, above freezing. But hopefully that’ll reverse tomorrow when it’s supposed to dip below freezing overnight. Meanwhile I won’t mind a day or two where I’m not boiling boiling boiling.
I’ve got 5 maples tapped now, but 90% of the sap comes from my two huge ancient workhorses, each of which has been giving up to 5 gallons of sap on a good day.
Fresh sap is quite tasty too, I must say. The Mrs. and I plan to one day host a dinner party featuring items from our land: Honey, Maple syrup, apple products, ramps, raspberries, venison taken from our woods, salmon from Lake Michigan, maybe a turkey or pheasant. The beverage would be chilled maple sap! The wild rice and cranberries would have to come from the northern part of the state, though.
I’m jealous. I have 26 taps and so far have only collected about 15 gallons of sap. Enough for about a quart and a half of syrup.
I’m hobbled by the fact that my trees are small, the weather has not been cooperating (too cold) and most of my trees are red maples, not sugar maples.
My two best trees are a red maple and a silver maple respectively. I have chosen to not tap my Japanese maple since it’s tiny thing and would give only a few oz of sap if I were lucky.
Further updates as events warrant. Gotta try some walnut syrup on my oat groats this coming weekend!
