Joel_BC
Super Self-Sufficient
Likewise.k15n1 said:
We have maples on our place, but most are the naturally occurring Douglas maple (a soft maple), and some clumps of it grow wild here. Weve also got several types of selected, ornamental species, including a couple of Japanese maples, that we planted. We have only one sugar-maple type, a tree we bought as a two-year-old sapling and planted about 18 years ago. Man, did I pamper that tree! Especially in about its first eight years or so. Its about a foot across at the base now where the diameter started out at about an inch and a quarter, when I brought it home from the nursery!
I tapped the tree for the first time in late-winter last year. I took a very limited amount of sap over a few days' time, as the tree is still young. The tree has only really started to spread its limbs and be a good shade tree in the last few years... I guess Im still protective of its wellbeing. The small amount of syrup we got when I slowly "boiled" it down was really just about the fun of having some from the tree we planted. Mmm-mmm, it tasted good!
But, cheepo, short story long... I don't know anything about where you could find good maple syrup cheap.
