Maple Syruping Programs Are in Full Swing

March and April are the prime months for maple syruping. All that is required are maple trees, alternating freezing and thawing temperatures, some tree tapping, and finally boiling the collected sap to make the maple syrup.

If you live in the northern tier of the United States or in one of four Canadian provinces, you can take advantage of the many activities and programs that go along with the process called "maple syruping." It's "sappy" but fun!

"Maple syruping" is the name for the process that takes place when maple trees are tapped for their sap, which is then boiled down into a concentrated maple syrup.

Maple sap runs best when daytime temperatures are in the high 30s to mid-40s and overnight temperatures are below freezing. This cycle of above-freezing days and below-freezing nights needs to continue for several days, although nature occasionally has been known to provide a good run under less perfect conditions.

Sometimes sap flows as early as January or as late as May, but in my home state of Minnesota, sap usually runs from about March 15 to April 20.

Today, maple syrup is produced in fourteen northern states and four Canadian provinces. In the United States, Vermont, New York, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania have the largest maple syrup production. The Canadian province of Quebec produces approximately seventy percent of all maple syrup in the world.

The trees that can be tapped

Maple syrup can be made from any species of maple tree. Trees that can be tapped include: sugar, black, red and silver maple and box elder trees. Of all the maples, the highest concentration of sugar is found in the sap of the sugar maple.

This is the equipment you need to make maple syrup:

Drill (brace) with 7/16" or 3/8" drill bit
Hammer
Collection containers - plastic buckets, milk jugs, and coffee cans work well
Large boiling pan (preferably low and broad)
Candy thermometer
Wool felt or cheesecloth filter material
Spiles or tapping spouts (Spiles can be purchased or made from 1/2 " wooden dowels cut to 3 " lengths. Drill a 1/8 " hole through the center of each dowel and taper at one end so the spile will fit snugly into the tree tap hole. A notch should be made on the top of the wide end of the spile to support the sap collection container.)

Two good sources for the process of tapping the trees and processing the sap into syrup are:

(Minnesota DNR): How To Tap and Make Maple Syrup
(MN U of M Extension Service): Homemade Maple Syrup, Minnesota Maple Series

It takes a lot of sap to make a little maple syrup. Generally the ratio of sap to syrup for the sugar maple is 40 to 1 (40 gallons of sap yields one gallon of syrup). Other species of maple have lower concentrations of sugar in their sap. For example; it may require 60 gallons of box elder sap to produce one gallon of syrup.

There are many programs throughout the various states and Canadian provinces to introduce people to the fun of maple syruping. Visit your state's DNR website for some starter ideas.

Watch for festival events, also. One such festival will be the 45^th Vermont Maple Festival which will take place April 15, 16, 17, 2011 in St. Albans, Vermont.

Also by R.C.: Some articles that provide details on maple syruping programs in Minnesota:

Maple Syruping Programs in Three Rivers Parks District (MN)
Maple Syrup Tours at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum (March 26 - 27, 2011)
Maple Syruping at Fort Snelling State Park (MN) in March, 2011
Maple Syruping in Minnesota: State Park Events Begin 3/12/11

Sources:
http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/naturalresources/DD1067.html#2
http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/state_parks/maple_syruping.html
http://files.dnr.state.mn.us/destinations/state_parks/maplesyrup_how.pdf
http://www.vtmaplefestival.org/
http://rcjohnsonwriter.com/