jHow Maple Syrup is Made

On Sunday, February 24, my husband and I went to the Green Lane Nature Center in the beautiful Upper Perkiomen Valley to learn how to make maple syrup and identify the sugar maple trees in winter. Our guide Ruth told us how to recognize the bare trees. First, look for branches that are symmetrical, that is directly opposite from each other on a larger branch. Other trees have staggered branches. They should have small brown buds on the ends of the branches. Trees need to be at least 12 inches in diameter to tap. Use a hand drill with a 7/16's inch bit and drill your hole on an angle about 2-3 feet above the ground. Go into the tree about 3 inches. The angle allows the sap to drip more easily into the bucket. Then a spile or spout is tapped into the hole with a mallet. Attach a bucket to the hook on the spout and let it catch the sap as it drips into the bucket. In our area the tree tapping will last about 3 weeks. The hole you make with your drill will close up on its own in about 2 years; It does not damage the tree in any way. Temperatures in the 40's or 50's during the day and below freezing at night are what is needed to make the sap 'run'.

The sap that slowly drips out is clear, it looks like water. Ruth told us that we could taste a drop on our finger. It tasted like water that was ever so slightly sweetened. The sap is about 90% water. When you have collected all the sap, and by the way you need to tap 43 trees to make one gallon of maple syrup, You heat it to the boiling point to boil off all of the water. This takes about 5-6 hours. You can do this outside over an open fire in a large pot or buy a commercial evaporator. Many places in the New England area sell all the supplies you need. These are available on line and can be shipped to your door. Here is a tip that I learned, never boil the water off inside your kitchen. All the steam is sticky and it will stick to every surface in your kitchen.

That is why commercial producers in New England have a sugar house. Director of the nature center,Kevin Crilley, told us that he had visited a sugar house and the mop and bucket were the most used pieces of equipment in the whole operation. The floor was so sticky your shoes stuck to the boards when you tried to walk. After 95% of the water is evaporated, you can finish the process inside, even in your kitchen. You need a thermometer and a hydrometer to help you know when the syrup is finished cooking and ready to bottle.The hydrometer measures the sugar content, which must be 67 1/3% to sell the syrup. When the temperature reaches 219.7 F it is maple syrup. Any hotter than this and it quickly turns into maple sugar. We tasted the finished product and it is very sweet; a little goes a long way. Did you know that the imitation maple syrup products that we buy in the store have very little or no maple syrup in them at all. They are truly artificially flavored and colored. The pure maple syrup is expensive $8-$15 for a small bottle, but I would rather pay that price for a truly natural product and know what I am ingesting.

Other people must have felt the same way as we did because the class we took was very full. 3 different times for classes were offered and each class was broken up into 2-3 groups. They tried keep the groups small so that every body could fit around a tree and see the tapping process. Our group had about 25 people in it, this was a bit larger than the ideal. There were lots of children present and they seemed to enjoy the informative session, as well. The nature park offers many classes like this to get you in touch with our natural surroundings and ways to utilize nature. I feel the tide is turning back to people being self-sustainable and they need to feel safe about the food products we eat and feed our children. Also, with the way grocery prices are rising any thing you can grow yourself or produce yourself is worth the time and effort you put into it. My husband and I have a few maple trees on forested land we have purchased in the northeast mountain region of PA and thought we might give maple tree tapping a try. It sure could be a fun experiment.