Last spring we didn't tap any trees, first because we didn't know which ones were Sugar Maples, and second we didn't have our wood stove yet. This spring, we decided it was worth a shot after speaking to my 93 year old grandma who recalled that when she was young her father always tapped the tree in front of their house and put the sap over the wood stove in the house. What a brilliant idea: make syrup, use the sap evaporation process as a humidifier at the same time, and save the energy cost on top of that, because the fire is going anyways to heat the house. Just brilliant.
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| We had so much maple water flowing that we drank it just like that |
So we decided to tap some trees. Apparently Norway Maples aren't very good at making decent syrup, so we had to learn to differentiate the bark of Norways from potential Sugar Maples (or Silver or Red, which look a lot alike in the winter). Turns out its really easy to tell them apart, and most of our Maples are Norway Maples, bummer! But we did find a few old Maples that would fit the bill of a potential Sugar (or Silver or Red), so I tapped them.
Yum!
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| Our big production, slowly evaporating on top of the wood stove |
Even with only two taps, and probably a few days into the maple season, we managed to make at least two liters of syrup, not bad.
The snow is all gone, and the taps are out now... such a special time of year: the announcement of the beginning of spring. The signal that life is returning to the plant world, that everything is waking up from a long and restful winter sleep. I am so happy and thankful the result is so sweet :)
Be well.
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