First time Maple Tappers!

[Rosalind]

Well, how bout that. I thought it would be harder. I didn't have time to get to the store for buckets before DH had to get to work, so I made him drill the holes before he left (I am not supposed to touch the Sacred Power Tools

) and put soup pots under the taps. I kinda futzed around the house and then went to the store for buckets. Took about 2 1/2 hours between drilling holes and getting back from the store. In that time, I got 3 gallons of sap, so I started boiling.

I overcooked it, now it's like hard candy:

Added some hot water back to it, and now I've got homemade pancake syrup for tomorrow morning. And it is AWESOME!

 

[painter chick]

This is my 2nd year tapping our trees, I spent all last year getting ready to tap again and have been waiting all winter!

I only had small buckets last year and made 2 gallons of syrup. I purchased a pressure canner which couldn't be used on our glass top stove so I ended up getting a 3 burner propane cooker, that is now in our garage. So my set up is pretty good this year. We had taps but I know our local feed store has them, clean and dry carefully at the end of the year or they might rust.

I boiled on the stove with the vent running full blast non-stop last year so boiling in the garage is going to be quite a treat this year! I used my 2 big stock pots using 1 to preheat and the other for the boiling and it shouldn't do anything to your pots unless you don't watch and burn the syrup.

I have 6-5 gallon buckets up this year, I recommend covering your buckets otherwise you have to filter out all the bark and bugs, also if it freezes over night I pull off the ice on top because your just getting rid of water and the sugar won't freeze and is still in the bottom of the bucket (it cuts down on your boiling)

There is wonderful info out on the web and if you look around you should be able to find all the details, I worried about not having a hydrometer(?) but my syrup was wonderful by just watching very closely (and tasting) I also didn't have any filters so I just let it set overnight in a glass picture and let the minerals settle then poured off the clear syrup the next morning.

Hoping for over 3 gallons this year! Good luck to all who give it a try, I love serving syrup I've collected and boiled myself. This year I'm going to try and make some maple sugar if I get enough finished syrup.

 

[MichiganWoods]

Mmmmm. Looks yummy, Rosalind! Congrats on your first batch!!

painter chick, thankfully my setup is air tight. I only had one or two specks of tree bark in the whole 3ish gallons, and that occurred when I was transferring the sap from the jugs to my collection bucket. I did get some cheese cloth to use for straining though. Thanks for the tip on the ice! I didn't realize that. That's awesome.


Convinced my husband to let me transform our storage shed into a boiling house so we can tap all of our maples and have a big production of it next year!

 

[painter chick]

Go for it! At $47 a gallon I won't pay for syrup ever again!

And enjoy those pancakes or waffles in the morning!

 

[redhen]

we are taking a walk in our woods tomorrow to see what we have for trees...i cant wait to try this!

 

[valmom]

I got almost 5 gallons of sap yesterday- I boiled a lot of it last night and it is back on the stove this morning. Who knew it would be this easy? I think I am going to Agway and see if they have those wool filters for the finished syrup- it does have a cloudy look as it is turning gold.

SO is now thinking we need a sugar house on the property this year so we can do more next year

 

[2manyhats]

Very cool, but my DH would kill me if I added one more hobby to my busy schedule.

 

[PineBurrowPeeps]

I just found this thread!!!!


YAY!!!!!!

I'm so happy that I've inspired someone to do something, I don't think I have ever have before!

Great job guys!

I'm boiling more tomorrow

 

[Henrietta23]

Hey guys! I've got a question I hope one of you can answer. I took about a cup of our sap (we've collected about 7 gallons in two days!) and boiled it down just to taste. It turned the right color and consistency, it was sweet and taste like maple syrup, but there was a sharp after taste, almost like black pepper. any thoughts? Could it be the type of maple? Not boiled long enough ( I was rushing just to get a taste)? I hope I didn't tap this tree for nothing!

 

[The Chicken Lady]

You can only make syrup from a sugar maple, I believe.