The Maple Syrup Run

Finally the weather has warmed up enough that the maple trees are running with sap, and we can begin collecting sap to make maple syrup. Most people are familiar with the process, you drill a hole in the tree, hammer in a spile (an enclosed trough about 2 inches long) and put up a bucket. Over the last couple of days, we put 50 buckets up. We need a lot of buckets up because it takes 40 buckets of sap to make 1 bucket of syrup - and we like a lot of syrup. The sap doesn't run all the time, only when the weather is ideal, when it goes below 10oC at night and up to 8oC or so in the day. At times the sap wont run on a rainy day, or if the wind is too cold. Theres all sorts of factors that contribute. We've found that we get sap earlier by tapping on the south side of the tree, but the north side still will run after the south side has stopped. Either way, its a joyful thing when the sap starts running. Its a SURE sign that spring is coming - its the official thaw-out. Because we don't have the best set up for boiling the sap into syrup, we save our sap in (clean) garbage cans until we have time to boil it. We usually collect during the week and boil on the weekend. Boiling takes a long time, especially when youre boiling down 100-200 litres of sap. We have 2 wood stoves set up that get real hot on top, then we have one stove for heating the sap and one that's a more 'serious' boiler. We use shallow pans no more than 4 inches high (that never get that full). As the sap level goes down on the boiler, we add warm sap from the warmer, then fill the warmer up again with cold sap. The first year we boiled on the BBQ, and did things the hard way. We had a deep pot and we were always adding ice cold sap to the boiling water and that slowed down the process a LOT. If you want to make maple syrup, don't do it that way! When we've worked through most of our sap and want to finish off for the day (which ends up being late at night), we empty the contents of the boiler pan into smaller pots, bring them in the house and finish them on the stove. That way we can control the temperature and prevent it from burning. We store our finished product in mason jars and keep them in the freezer. Although the maple syrup run is starting late this year, if the weather only warms up slowly, we can get as much as a month of collecting. We know when its time to take our buckets and spiles down when the sap starts getting bitter and stops running altogether. The holes that we drill in the trees are small and grow back in within a year or two. Tapping trees does no damage to the tree if you tap them properly. We tap about 4' high off the ground, only one tap if the tree is more than 2' across, don't tap a tree less that 9" across etc. Its best to do some research before you start tapping, just so your familiar with whats best. Nothing is more rewarding than being able to enjoy the fruit of your labour, all year round!