Make Your Own Maple Syrup

After watching a Curious George episode about it (we learn everything from George), David and I decided to tap our maple tree for sap. David's family has already been doing this for a few years so if we had questions, we had someone to ask.

I believe our maple is a silver maple. You can identify a maple tree by its grey color and ridges. Depending on the size of the tree, you can use more than one tap but we just used one. You put your tap out when the weather gets above freezing during the day but still below freezing at night, very early spring time. We started two weeks ago (I think) but we were a little late.

We got a regular stainless steel tap from Ace Hardware and hung an empty ice cream pail from it. To insert the tap, you drill a hole about 3 feet from the ground, 2 inches deep, and at an upward slant for best flow. Then put your tap in (tap it in with a hammer) and hang your bucket. Our sap flowed enough that we needed to empty the bucket just about every day. You also don't want your sap to freeze so it's smart to bring it in at night. Store the sap in the fridge and boil down within 7 days of collection.

In the end, we got about 5 gallons, which is more than David's family got. We must have a good tree! Then we started boiling it down. I'm not too informed about the process since I wasn't a big help and David did most of it but I will describe it to my best.

First, bring the sap to a boil in a large pot. It will foam and bubble but we didn't have a problem with it overflowing (surprisingly). As the volume of the sap in the pot decreases, add more in, trying to keep it boiling (but we never were able to). For our 8qt pot, it went down about an inch every 20 minutes. When all the sap has been added to the pot and is boiled down and reaches 220 degrees (we used a candy thermometer), you need to filter it. Another sign of being ready is the bubbles stop popping.

Our filter was a piece of felt between two pieces of flannel that we had clamped onto the top of a smaller pot. Then you continue to boil it until it is the consistency you want. Then we poured it into maple syrup bottles we purchased but you can also can it. It needs to be refrigerated but should last about 6 months.

This morning we made French toast to test it out on and everything was delicious! We are eager to do it again next year and can't wait to tap the trees at our cabin too so we get even more sap.