Last year, our spiels drained into open buckets subject to the elements and critters. This year, we ordered 5 new spiels with hoses. At first, I was annoyed that Bob wanted to do this. I'm the cheapest person I know and I saw this as waste since we had 6 perfectly good spiels and our tapping operation was just fine. I can see now the folly of my ways. Instead of the sap water brimming with leaves, twigs, floating dead bugs, it is pure. I should've gotten on board with this sooner since I am not a fan of proteins that are not cheese, eggs, chicken, beef or fish. You guessed it, I'm never going to be that person that relishes the idea of fried grasshoppers or chocolate coated worms.
So here are some facts for making your own syrup. Did you know that you can tap trees other than just maple? You may not get the same taste, but it will still be good. Some tapping varieties are box elder, walnut, birch, sycamore, poplar and hickory. However, not all saps are created equal--some may be a tad bitter, some will take more sap to make the same amount you would get from a maple tree and the list goes on.
It's an easy process to tap a tree. First, it has to be the right time of year. The best sap flows when temperatures are below freezing at night and warming up to above 40 degrees during the day. Find a tree that is between 10 and 20 inches in diameter. Drill a hole about 2 inches into the tree with a drill bit that is the same size as your spiel. Tap the spiel gently into the tree with a rubber mallet. Hang your bucket off the spiel and wait for it to fill. It may take a while. It probably won't flow like it did in the Hunger Games—when they drove the spiel into the tree, sap miraculously poured out. It may take a few days depending on the tree. Don't be discouraged that it takes 50 to 60 gallons of sap to make a gallon of syrup--it's worth it. Once you have a good amount, put it on the stove and boil it down. If you have endless amounts of energy (like the heat from a wood stove) or someone else pays your gas/electric/propane bill for your kitchen stove, you're in luck. I happen to heat with a wood stove and I'm unapologetic about having the opportunity to make syrup when I can--there has to be some pay off to having to shove wood into that metal monster day and night 5 months of the year.
Anyway, once you have your syrup--enjoy. I put it on pretty much everything--wheat bread dough, cereal, ice cream . . . and today, I drizzled it over my pot roast. No, there is no such thing as too much maple syrup.
Take care, All.
We added our Rain Water Collection book to Amazon
recently. You won’t learn how to tap
maple trees here, but it will discuss the ins and outs of rainwater collection.
