We’ve been on hiatus due to colder temperatures. All my collected sap is frozen solid, but my barrels are also nearly full. We may have problems now that it’s warming up again.
One of my grandsons’ dad taps the trees on and near his cabin, so the boy has learned how to make syrup. Takes a lot of sap for a gallon of syrup.
Ideally, 40 gallons of sap for 1 of syrup, for maples and walnut trees. It takes about 100 gallons of birch sap for a gallon of birch syrup.
Ouch. Good luck with that.
I’ll have to make an excuse to head your way as the event I was hoping to attend been cancelled because the Milwaukee Mile is being repaved this spring.
It wasn’t as solid as I thought, and I was able to throw out some chunks and get yesterday’s sap in. It looks like today will be a boil day.
First taste is free, huh?!
I’m now enjoying a wondrous hiatus in the sap flowage, as temperatures have stayed above freezing the last 2 days. With over 4 gallons of syrup produced so far, I’m quite content to give it a rest. I’ve been passing out half pint samples of the product to friends and neighbors to get rid of the stuff.
But predictions are for ideal sap flowage again in less than 2 days, with the forecast for continued ideal sap weather for at least a week after that. Damn . . .
If I weren’t in the process of packing up my home, I’d swing by just for a tour of your process. But I am under a deadline, so I must ignore spring. And on this snowy day, it’s easier to focus on indoor chores.
I was thinking this is like reading something from a completely different country for me and wondering if my neighbors would let me tap their cottonwood tree to try to make syrup, since I’ve never seen a maple tree around here with a big enough trunk. Then I saw this article from last year: Is maple syrup the new green chile in New Mexico?
For now, I’m just keeping a nervous eye on my cherry tree, which is showing every sign of blossoming any day, a week before our average last freeze.
Well, it probably won’t ever be a big thing in New Mexico, there are certainly parts of the state that get cold enough in winter or at least some winters.
The winter weather in the northern half of the state would do it most years, but I suspect maple trees wouldn’t thrive in the summer. People persist in trying to grow things that need a lot of water here. The process is fascinating,
but I’m content to buy my syrup and settle for growing chile!
Yes, I should have clarified that I know water availability has a great effect on sap quantity and quality. And so does water quality. Save it for the lovely chilies.
I’m happily not getting much sap at the moment, not much to show. Otherwise I’d be delighted to yammer on about how I tap and make syrup.
Yesterday I did take all my collected walnut sap and turned it into about 2/3 of a cup of walnut syrup though.
A cold snap has put me on hiatus now, but I’ve well over 4 gallons of syrup stored up, and that’s after having gifted a good gallon of the stuff to various folks, and consumed some on pancakes and waffles and oat groats at home.
Anti-foaming agents have made the whole process so much easier; one drop in 3 gallons of sap, and no more boil-overs! Where was this stuff previously? I was only aware of it being available for commercial producers until I saw a 1 oz bottle on sale at Farm & Fleet (strange that Fleet Farm didn’t carry it). Life changing!
Still haven’t figured out what to do with a half cup of maple sugar I ended up with from 2022. Maple flavored coffee doesn’t suit me.
I use maple sugar cut with regular granulated sugar for flavoring fruit salads, whipped cream, and so on. Could go into the mushroom jerky marinade instead of/along with the maple syrup, too.
Tomorrow is the first day of Maple Weekend (the first of two) here in upstate NY! I shall be sniffing sap in the sugaring sheds!
Maple sugar can be used the same way as brown sugar, if maple flavoring is also appropriate.
That sounds fantastic!
It is indeed! See recent thread for details:
Thank you @Kimstu