Maple Surple

Roses are red

Violets are purple

Sugar is sweet

So is maple surple.

Anyway, a long story for 2 pints of syrup.

I had to move all of our firewood away from the south wall of our garage because I have to 'install' (read, DIG) a drainage ditch/culvert/trench. The water along the E/NE wall is making moss grow on the radio shack (don't ask about the radio shack. I lost in the vote to get rid of it). So - moved the firewood. As I was finishing the second day of hauling and tossing, I noticed the maple nearby was dripping. I knew the sap was running, but it's always good to have that affirmation

If you've never had plain sap, it's one of those 100 things to see/do before you die. Wonderful! So, I started wiping up the drops from cleaner pieces of wood (anything not dirt) and tasting. WOW is it sweet! I've had sap before, but none this sweet straight from the tree. I had Dad try it and he thought the same thing. So, I said to him - find me a tap and I'll make some syrup.

Never mind I've not made it before and that it's very late in the season. While I was moving the wood, I had been thinking I would try it next year. Well, what's a year among friends, right?

He trotted right off to find one. It took him an hour, but he found one! And while he was gone, I was online searching out exactly how to do this thing, tapping a maple tree. First off, the hole they suggest you drill is PUNY. 5/16. Right! I had to up it to about 7/16 because the tap just wouldn't even start. But, with it that little bit bigger, I was able to coax it in without splitting the tree.

I got a gallon in 4 hours. Wow! Fast! It has slowed considerably since then. Now I might get a gallon in about 8 hours. But, that's ok. I've already exceeded my hopes of how much syrup I'd get.

The set up now isn't nearly as picturesque as it used to be - the slightly beat up bucket hanging under the tap, with the sounds of the drips quietly coming from inside. It's a plastic bag. Ew. But, effective. And bungy cords. Where has the beauty gone in our lives? Sigh. But, again, effective.

All of the sites I looked at said the ratio is 40:1. You need 40 ounces of sap to get 1 ounce of syrup, 40 gallons to get 1 gallon, etc. They also said the average tap would yield 4-10 gallons of sap before drying up. So I figured if I could get 5 gallons of sap, I'd be a happy camper. It is a full month into the season and I have no clue how much difference that makes in the volume or how long a tap lasts.

So, I've been boiling a gallon of sap at a time on top of our kitchen stove. You know how they show piles of steam just rolling off like fog? Not with a mere spit of a gallon. It's like you're making spaghetti for a couple of hours. That's not much steam at all. So, I boil it down from a gallon to a cup. I thought I'd do this until I was finished collecting sap, and then boil down all of it at once.

Well, I didn't feel like having that many jars of partial syrup/sap around. So last night, I took my 2 pints of boiled down and started to boil it down again. I had only collected around 3.5 gallons, so figured I'd be lucky to get a cup of syrup from the 2 pints. When it was finished, I had 1 pint plus 3 ounces. I knew the sap was sweet, but holy crow! That's a significant difference from the average.

And considering this maple is a hybrid - it's not a red maple and not a sugar maple - I figured it would take more boiling. So maybe I've got something here in this hybrid! I'll know next year when I try this again.

I'm probably going to pull the tap tomorrow after the morning collection. I've got enough for us and now I know it's not some hocus pocus years of trial and error thing that you only master after 20 years. I have 4 maples on the property I can tap, plus 2 on the neighbor's property. Plus, there are 2 box elders that I can tap as well. And I may next year. It's said they aren't as sweet and don't have as much of the quintessential mapleness to them. Mom hates maple, so she might like it. We'll see.

It's been fun! And not hot or sweaty or steamy. I'm pretty happy with it. And it tastes wonderful! WOW.

This is a picture from last fall - early September. It's the tree on the right with no leaves on it. It's a strange beast - it's always done that. It changes from top to bottom - as does another on the property, but it changes early and loses them as soon as they change color. The others hold the leaves for far longer.