We tapped our maple tree!

[Henrietta23]

It isn't a sugar maple but I read that it would have sap, just not quite as sweet. So we went for it. I got taps from someone on Ebay and DH got large coffee cans from the kitchen at school. We've got two hanging from the huge tree in the front yard. As soon as he drilled into the tree the sap started dripping! We might not get more than 1/4 cup of actual syrup but it will be fun trying. I can't believe we've never thought to try this before.

 

[justusnak]

Thats great! I wish I were brave anough to try that. We have LOTS of sugar maples all over our property. The leaves smell sooo sweet when crushed. I just have NO IDEA how to "tap" a tree..or how to make syrup!

 

[sylvie]

How fun!
My first buckets were the plastic gallon milk containers with handles. My first spiles were hollowed out Sumac twigs. My first Maples were Red Maples. My first syrup was so good. I had to strain the syrup because it had a high silica grit content that wasn't so great on the pancakes, lol.
It will settle to the bottom, too.

My Naturopathic doctor recommends using maple syrup for sweetening over honey or Stevia, for what it's worth.

ETA: If you decide to boil it down in your kitchen it will produce huge amounts of moisture. I used my outdoor grill when my wallpaper began failing. I learn the hard stupid way.

 

[Henrietta23]

I wonder if you read a book I got from the library yesterday. It describes using sumac for spiles! And warns about wallpaper! We haven't got any wallpaper but I did wonder if I could use the grill!
We tapped the trees around 5pm today and got home from church at 8:30 to find exactly 1/2 gallon of sap. Now that will boil down to 1.6 ounces or even less since this isn't a sugar maple but still, that's 3.5 hours!
I did an online search and got simple directions for how to actually drill into the tree and bid on some spiles on Ebay. My husband drilled a hole near the top of large cans from the kitchen at school so they could hang from the hook on the spiles. We put two in and covered them with aluminum foil. The sap start dripping immediately. I'd say don't be afraid-just try it!

 

[TanksHill]

Wow, that is so cool!!!!!

 

[hoosier]

How exciting - keep us posted on your progress!

 

[Henrietta23]

The coffee cans overflowed during the day. We've got more than 2 gallons of sap in 24 hours not counting what we lost. We need to find bigger conainers to collect in when we're not home to empty the cans frequently.

 

[TanksHill]

I read a book once, they used tubing on the tap and ran it to one central line then down to a huge container/ vat thing. I am sot sure if it was actual, but maybe you could use a tube to a 5 gallon bucket. Glad to hear things are going well. g

 

[Henrietta23]

Someone on BYC jsut posted a picture of this. SHe has tubing going into a large tea jug. We'll come up with something! I don't want to waste any of this!

 

[sylvie]

I had a thread on here about getting free tubing for Maple tapping:

http://www.sufficientself.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=1556