We have took on another project this year. My eldest son William, my dad, and I will be collecting and boiling down sugar maple sap to try our hand at homemade maple syrup.
We have tapped 5 trees so far and will be tapping at least that many more soon. With the warm 45'F days and freezing nights, the sap is flowing pretty well.
For any of you that havn't heard of where maple syrup comes from, heres a simple web definition for you.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Maple syrup is a syrup usually made from the xylem sap of sugar maple, red maple, or black maple trees, although it can also be made from other maple species such as the bigleaf maple. In cold climates, these trees store starch in their trunks and roots before the winter; the starch is then converted to sugar that rises in the sap in the spring. Maple trees can be tapped by boring holes into their trunks and collecting the exuded sap. The sap is processed by heating to evaporate much of the water, leaving the concentrated syrup."
"Maple syrup is a syrup usually made from the xylem sap of sugar maple, red maple, or black maple trees, although it can also be made from other maple species such as the bigleaf maple. In cold climates, these trees store starch in their trunks and roots before the winter; the starch is then converted to sugar that rises in the sap in the spring. Maple trees can be tapped by boring holes into their trunks and collecting the exuded sap. The sap is processed by heating to evaporate much of the water, leaving the concentrated syrup."
I will post updates when we have collected enough maple sap to boil down into syrup. Ive been told it takes about 35 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup. So thats gonna take a bit of time.
Early spring for sap in Wisconsin too. In your picture it looks like your flow exceeds capacity. Could try same fitting with plastic tubing going to a 5 gal bucket. A lady here used IV connections from the local hospital! Could also place 2 taps in a tree this size if you wanted. Partially freezing the raw sap will concentrate the sugar content so that you will only have to boil 25 gallons to get your gallon of syrup. Good science experiment. Good tasting fun.
ReplyDelete@ Dick, Thanks for the ideas. I think most of our sap leakage is due to need for better tapping skills. We are first timers at this. Im going to try and be a bit more careful with the next set of taps.
ReplyDeleteThe sap freeze idea is a good one. It does make sense I guess.Does it really only remove the water that way? Id hate to loose much of the sugar content. But it would be great not to have to boil for as long.
Having fun with it so far.