Maple Syrup... who makes their own? Help?

[Organics North]

Our problem has been somehow innoculating some of the syrup with mold spores. It grew icky green islands of mold after awhile. I am going to try making maple sugar this year from some of the sap- we had way too much syrup. (we still have a couple of pint jars in the fridge.)

Hi,
Did you can it while it was hot. If not do that, then no need to keep in the fridg. until you open a jar.

Super simple, get a case of canning jars boil in hot water, pull out pour hot syrup in and screw on the lid. As the cool you will hear "pop" as the jar seals.. It is good to go then no mold no need for a fridg. will keep many many years that way..

Making sugar is fun, we make quite a bit every year. Use it instead of brown sugar. It is a trick, if you do not watch it and move fast it can set up in the pan!
ON

 

[Farmfresh]

A topic that greatly interests me. We tried tapping a maple in my D1's yard several years ago, but the bucket kept "falling" down off of the tap and we kept losing our sap. Then we discovered her dog, a Siberian Husky mix, was waiting until the bucket had sap in it and then knocking it down and drinking it all up!! :/ A dog with a sweet tooth I guess!

I haven't tried since then.

 

[miss_thenorth]

Hwillm, tapping supplies are on sale at TSC this week. Im sure yur TSC in NB is the same as ours in ON.
_________________

I have talked to dh about this, as we have access to a 5 acre bush full of maples, we are going to tap this year too. So, we will be going to TSC to get supplies. I figured we should only get probably supplies for three or four taps. and hubs thinks we should get like 10 or 20. How much sap would an average maple supply duirng the season. In other words, if we tapped 10-20 trees, how much sap would we get?

 

[valmom]

I would get about 2 gallons of sap per tree average. Some days the bucket would be full and overflowing, other days, it would only be half full. Some trees would be great one day and nothing the next- I didn't find it predictable.

I did actually "can" my maple syrup in jars- except for the fancy bottles I bought in the store to put pretty syrup in, and the plastic jars which I washed, but didn't think they would boil. Those plastic ones were the cuplrit- ICK. No plastic this year, just lots of bubble wrap when I ship it to my kids!

 

[lupinfarm]

I did some reading on maple syrup and sap collecting and the recommended size of the tree was I believe 12" in diameter before tapping, I worked at a sugar bush for a spring too so I know how all the sap tapping stuff works BUT we don't actually have any maple trees on our property. We do have a few birch trees and I have heard of Birch syrup, but how do you decide which tree to tap? Birch trees grow in several trunks and I can't remember the last time I saw a birch with it's trunks 12" in diameter or bigger.

 

[Henrietta23]

Found this:
"Any variety of birch tree can be tapped for its sap, although golden and black
have a more distinct "wintergreen" flavor. White paper birches are just as
desirable as the others, and are certainly plentiful around New England.
Using the maple rule-of-thumb, the trees should be at least ten inches in
diameter and additional taps may be added for each five inches of girth, but
you'll be hard-pressed to find many birches that size in our region."

It came from this site:
http://www.theheartofnewengland.com/LifeInNewEngland-Birch-Trees-Tapping.html

 

[hwillm1977]

Hwillm, tapping supplies are on sale at TSC this week. Im sure yur TSC in NB is the same as ours in ON.
_________________

I have talked to dh about this, as we have access to a 5 acre bush full of maples, we are going to tap this year too. So, we will be going to TSC to get supplies. I figured we should only get probably supplies for three or four taps. and hubs thinks we should get like 10 or 20. How much sap would an average maple supply duirng the season. In other words, if we tapped 10-20 trees, how much sap would we get?

Organics North said they tap 40-50 trees and end up with 10-15 GALLONS of syrup... since I'm only looking for a few pints to start with I'm going to stick with maybe 5-10 trees (allowing for my mis-haps)... I found taps on Ebay, 25 for $10.... I have a few food quality 5 gallon buckets so I'm going to try and bury those down in the snow and have the sap run down into those instead of smaller bags or buckets just in case I can't get out there for a few days.

I don't think we have TSC stores here... are they only in Ontario? I tried to go on their website, but it got stuck on the 'choose your store' page.

Thanks for all the great info everyone! I'm really excited to try this now

 

[Organics North]

Hi,
I would suggest a minimum of 15 trees.. More trees is not necessarily more work or more time..... You will need to boil the sap on a regular basis regardless, and if you have too few trees, you will end up with so little syrup, you may ask yourself if it is worth it. Remember roughly 40 gallons of sap to 1 gallon syrup. (And thats with prime sugar maple.) Red maple or birch will require even more sap.

ON

 

[Wifezilla]

We had one huge tree where I lived as a teenager. We got about 5 gallons of sap and ended up with 1 pint of finished syrup. It was still totally worth it

 

[chicken stalker]

I am so excited also. I have a couple sugar maples and 3 huge silver maples. Where is a good place to buy supplies. I would like the traditional buckets and "taps".