I love seeing the metal buckets and blue bags hanging on trees around town this time of year! Those bag are the symbol of two things I love dearly: Spring + Maple Syrup!
I’ve noticed that these buckets and bags have been multiplying in recent years! I hope the trend continues, because maple sugaring is such a simple way to forage your own food, reduce your carbon footprint, add nutrients to your sweetener- all while adding another homesteading skill to your list. Bonus: there’s very little that can go wrong, it just takes some time.
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Drill In!
The process is easier than you think, and I’ve got some tips on how to make maple sugaring smooth like Sunday morning (pancakes).
Tool Time
A Spile (#1) gets ‘tapped’ into the tree, and brings the sap outside so you can collect it. There are a few different ways to collect sap, but for most backyard enthusiasts, sap sacks or buckets are the way to go. We use these 3 part sack system. You wrap the blue bags (#2) around the collars (#3) and slide into the holder (#4). There’s a hole in holder that fits tight to the notch in the spile. Once you get the sap sacks on, be sure to tug down to make sure the bags are nice and tight (I’ve had one bag get full and work its way off, lesson learned after one bag!) Some people have a hose running right from the spile to a closed bucket, but for us these sap sacks work great.
Here’s a Link to my favorite Maple Sugaring tools on my Amazon page!
The only ‘modification’ we’ve had to make is because of the squirrels… one year they must have gotten a taste of the sap, and wanted more, so they chewed a hole in the bottom corner of a sack! Saddest sap collection morning ever. So, we took a page from the squirrel vs. bird feeder wars and used coconut oil on the outside bottom ridge of the bag to sprinkle cayenne pepper onto- they never bothered the bags again 😉
Tips and Tricks
We’ve been tapping our maple tree for 9 years now, learning something new each season. Mostly, each sap run is SO DIFFERENT, and that is definitely part of what makes it so fun!
Some things we’ve figured out so far:
- Each tree is different, our tree gets her juices flowing later than most- a true late bloomer
- We are wood-fire lovers and will forever boil sap with a wood fire source
- Wood ash in your sap doesn’t affect the final flavor …much
- Straining sap through cheesecloth , or a ‘maple sap filter’
helps keep the final product clear
- Our one big old Maple tree with two taps in it is *almost* yields enough syrup for our family of four for an entire year.
But by far the coolest and trickiest thing about Maple sugaring we’ve learned so far is how to condense maple sap without ALL the boiling…
Freeze Maple Sap Before Boiling
Using the “Freeze then Fire” Technique
We collect the sap in sacks and pour that off into 5 gallon buckets then use our chest freezer (or just leave it outside if its dropping below freezing) to freeze overnight or longer. After freezing, we transfer the frozen sap to a ‘draining bucket’ (another 5 gallon bucket with holes drilled in the bottom) and let that sit at room temperature until about a third of it has melted. The melted portion has dripped through to the bottom bucket, (usually ready by evening if we take it out in the morning) that’s the precious sugary portion.
Toss the still frozen ice outside and put the condensed sap back in the freezer for a repeat freeze-thaw cycle, this time keeping the first half of the melted liquid. The result should be a liquid that has increased from 1-3% sugar to 5-16% sugar. Meaning a MUCH shorter boil time!
Tip: I use a wine cork screw to screw into the frozen sap and lift it out of the bucket!
Sweet Success
I love this method because it allows us to hold large amounts of sap all together even if the weather gets too warm to keep it outside. It also helps with sap flow starts and stops and not loose any sap to getting too warm for too long. *You’ll know your sap has turned if it starts to look cloudy, this happens if the sap is held above 40 F for very long. We had to toss two full buckets our first year, it was heartbreaking!
Tap those Trees!
Yes, you can tap other trees besides Maple trees.
All Maple trees have the potential for syrup, with Sugar Maples coming in with the highest sugar content in aw sap- 2.0%. Our Silver Maple is estimated to have about 1.7% sugar content. Other native Midwest trees that can be tapped include box elder and paper birch. There are lots of trees that can be tapped depending on where you are, here’s the LINK to the best list I’ve found so far.
I’ll also throw out there that apartment and condo dwellers can ask their associations if they can tap trees on the land surrounding their spaces- How about a Spring Syrup Social to bring us out of hibernation! 😊
Why So Sappy?
Basically, it is the freeze thaw cycle that gets the tree’s internal pressure pumping. Specifically, according to Botanics in the Kitchen article
“Three primary processes can cause xylem sap to flow: transpiration, root pressure and stem pressure.“ Umm, have I mentioned I love nature lately?!
Time to Gear Up
Lots of places have equipment for collecting sap, ranging from your simple taps, brackets and bags to buckets and tubing galore. My online pick is Tap My Trees. Locally, Fleet Farm and Egg|Plant Urban Farm Supply have got you covered. Egg|Plant has great staff that will talk you through any specific questions!
And here’s a Link to my favorite Maple Sugaring tools on my Amazon page where you can find what I use.
We love our maple sap for so many reasons… Pancakes taste better and my Crunchiest Granola Recipe wouldn’t be the same (or as cost effective) without homemade maple syrup. We also bake with it often, and use it to sweeten tea. And there are so many other trace elements and benefits to be found in that bottle of liquid sugar.
Burn Baby Burn
But first you do have to boil the heck out of it! Making syrup from sap means condensing sap in a ratio of about 40:1. That means it takes 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup. Like I said, lots of boiling! We started with a very rudimentary set up (it looks ridiculous in the photo, but it worked for us. We burn wood that would otherwise sit around rotting, and we put basically no money into the blocks or stand (we use old shelving standards for cross pieces). It is not the most efficient way to do things, but it is the way that makes us happy, and the kids LOVE keeping the fire going!
We always finish off boiling the sap down inside on the stovetop. We go by a consistency and temperature reading from a candy thermometer. You want to aim for 7 degrees above boiling, so we shoot for 219F.
Professionals will tell you it is not syrup unless you can tell the brix (sugar content) is at 66%. But I’m simply too cheap to buy a hydrometer, and my taste buds thoroughly enjoy anything close to 66% sugar content in my maple syrup. I do store mine in the freezer, and it sometimes freezes a little… also a sign of less than perfect sugar content. Again, my taste buds never complain and it stays fresh a full year out.
Sweet Homestead Skill
My advice with maple sugaring is to start small, because once you collect it you have to boil it 😉 Kind of like with all things homesteading, talking with someone who has done this before if you have questions along the way helps you take that first step. And I’m all about taking that first step; whether it’s drilling into your first tree or digging into your first garden. Ask away if you have any questions, another great online community is the Facebook Group: Minnesota Maple Syrup Makers, just ask to join if you’re interested. This is a fun process, but it does take time to boil all that sap down!
Drill In,
Michelle
