I did it! I made Maple Syrup!

[bluie]

Quote:
How wonderful! I wish I had some sugar maples. Will it work with Norway maples?

 

[Henrietta23]

Thanks Jenna, I'm going to have my DH ask at school. I'm pretty sure someone he works with has done it. Maybe they'll have some extras we can borrow to see what we get!

 

[HorseFeathers]

I have a question about syrup-making:
Can you make some form of it from swamp maples? I'd love to do it but no sugar maples around here, just swampies.

 

[PineBurrowPeeps]

I honestly don't know. I have heard that you can use any maple trees, what is a Swamp Maple? I have never even heard of it before this thread, I think one other person mentioned it earlier here too.

 

[Henrietta23]

From Wikipedia:
"Acer rubrum (Red Maple, also known as Swamp or Soft Maple), is one of the most common and widespread deciduous trees of eastern North America. It ranges from the Lake of the Woods on the border between Ontario and Minnesota, east to Newfoundland, south to near Miami, Florida, and southwest to east Texas. Many of its features, especially its leaves, are quite variable in form. At maturity it often attains a height of around 25 metres (80 ft). It is aptly named as its flowers, petioles, twigs and seeds are all red to varying degrees. Among these features, however, it is best known for its brilliant deep scarlet foliage in autumn.

Over most of its range, red maple is adaptable to a very wide range of site conditions, perhaps more so than any other tree in eastern North America. It can be found growing in swamps, on poor dry soils, and most anywhere in between. Elevation is also not a limiting factor in its range, as it grows well from sea level to about 900 m (3,000 ft). Due to its attractive fall foliage and pleasing form, it is often used as a shade tree for landscapes. It is used commercially on a small scale for maple syrup production as well as for its medium to high quality lumber. It is also the State Tree of Rhode Island."



This description does not match the tree in my front yard which has yellow leaves in the fall, not red. Now I'm really confused!

 

[Henrietta23]

Okay, from what I can tell I may have a silver maple. It will give sap but with less sugar content resulting in a lighter syrup. No reason not to try!

 

[PineBurrowPeeps]

Cool beans! Try it!

 

[miss_jayne]

Jenna! how exciting! now you can whip up one of your award winning pies and throw a big scoop of vanilla ice cream over it, then top with syrup! oh my!

 

[redoak]

We are tapping tomorrow. It's been too cold around here for sap to be flowing yet, but maybe by the end of the week. We put 20 taps in 10 sugar maple trees. Last year we collected about 360 gallons of sap and made 58 pints of syrup.

 

[hoosier]

That is something I have always wanted to try.