Tapping Maple Tree Questions. Advise Needed.

[Joel_BC]

I am planning on tapping 10 maple trees in my yard this year. This will be my very first year of doing this and I have no idea how to tell which type of maple tree to the next. When I process the sap and make it into maple syrup, does it matter if I mix together sap from different types of maple trees? And also, what is the best way to store the maple syrup? And what is the best way to store the sap (before I process it)?

Thanks in advance.

Mix away. Some people mix in birch and other trees from that family.

Store the syrup in 1/2 pt jars.

You can't store the sap for long. Get to work on it ASAP. Daily is best.

You seem to know your stuff about maple syrup, K1. Where are you located?

(On a completely different track: have you got any DIY projects going these days?)

 

[Boogity]

Sunny and the 5 egg layers - you don't tell us where you live but I have a feeling that you had better get busy. The maple sap is flowing full steam ahead in our neck of the woods. We have had very cold night time temperatures and over the past two weeks we have had some slightly warm days. That's usually the key to a good sap flow. Making Maple syrup requires somewhat of a commitment to spend the hours needed at the time it's needed. The time to mark your trees is summertime. Yes you can mix sap from different trees but the Sugar Maple has the highest percentage of sugar and will require less processing to get the correct sugar content. You will also quickly recognize the need for special equipment. A fire box with precessing pan on top - many folks call this an "arch", lots of good, hot, dry firewood, a hydrometer, and there are many other items to make sugaring more enjoyable and productive. Of course you can boil a pot of sap on the stove in the kitchen and get three or four ounces of syrup but I do not recommend it. The steam and the sticky residue will get on everything in the house and you may be disappointed at the small amount of syrup you finally get. If you're just trying to do it with the kids for fun I would recommend that you do it outdoors on a turkey fryer burner. Boil the sap until the temperature is 7F above the boiling temperature for your elevation. It's usually 209F. Or when the syrup gets to 66.9% when measured with a hydrometer. Since the sap cannot be stored very long you have to stay with it until your syrup is finished.

I have been sugaring on a hobby basis for about 8 or 9 years. Last year I collected 196 gallons of sap from 21 of our Sugar Maple trees. I put up a little over two gallons of syrup. In my opinion it's much more work than fun and this may be my last year.

Good luck and have fun.

 

[Emerald]

there are a few things I can add from sugaring with my family- always tap the trees on the sunniest side of the tree-if there is ice in the bucket in the morning pull it out and toss it(or like us kids did.. eat it to quench the thirst of dumping buckets on 80 acres of trees) and when the sap starts to go cloudy on ya-the sugar run is done. I was told that best days for sap run were when the weather got warm and sunny or rainy during the day but down cold freezing at night. I remember the first time as teens we got to stay up all night tending the evaporator to give my Uncle a break. Kind of a rite of passage. the mice running when you first got the fire started under the evaporator pan and the wood stove that first day and of course the first meal of hot pancakes with that first batch comes hot out of the pan! and making gallons of it into the maple candy to sell at the big Vermontville syrup festival and for us to eat the rest of the year.
Also find a nice tight flour sack cloth and wash it in boiling water and strain that hot syrup thru before putting in the jars/bottles.. you have to remove the "sand" grit from the minerals being boiled down.
I grew up with real maple syrup and gagged when I went to stay with friends over night and they had store bought "maple syrup" I thought for sure that there was something wrong with that thick stuff..
I just bought a few spiles this year to show my granddaughter how we did it as the farm is now passed to a different line of my uncles family and well his family does all the tubing and converted it all to natural gas/ or propane. Grand daughter watched a Curious George about making real maple syrup and that stuck in her head so we are gonna give it a go this year. I did let her have some of the syrup from Uncles grove of trees as I can still buy it from his brother. She told me that it was good but not like syrup she was used to not thick at all. But sweeter..