Maple Syrup

This is posted late, but better late than never. This was my year to make maple syrup. Now that I'm retired, I have the time to walk through our little woods, and tap the maple trees for syrup. Since we really only need a little bit, it doesn't have to be such a huge project as some people go through, but it does, as always, take 40 to 50 gallons of sap to cook down to one gallon of syrup. So you have to gather a lot, no matter how much you plan to make.

We keep changing the system each year, to make it easier for us to do the work. Jim carved sumac branches into spiles years ago, and we hung our rinsed out, recycled milk jugs on them to catch the sap as it came dripping out of the trees.

We can tap any maple tree that measures more than 6" in diameter, and there are a lot of those around here. This year, knowing that I didn't need a lot of syrup, and not feeling too ambitious, I just drilled 7 taps, and walked the trail twice a day to collect the yummy drippings. I bought plastic tubing, forced it onto the end of the spiles, tied a light nylon line around the tree, added an s hook to hang the jug from, and put the end of the tube into the jugs. That way, there were far fewer bugs in the sap than in previous years. Of course, we strain it before we put it on to cook, but it's nice to have it clean in the first place.I spent one day working with our outside stove to cook the sap down, and just about froze. It was a really cold day. Then I got smart. I put big shallow roasting pans on the top of the wood stove on the back porch and just kept them filled with sap. As it cooked down, I added more.

It was a lot more comfortable job on the back porch than running all the way outside all the time, and I could get lots more done in the house at the same time too. The house was dry and needed the humidity, and when it got too steamy on the back porch, I just opened the windows and let it vent for a while.

In the end, this year we got 6 cups of delicious, thick syrup, and it'll be delicious on pancakes and waffles when the family comes out for our annual family breakfast soon. Becky will make waffles, and we'll add sausages, and juice, and toppings made from our fresh blueberries and peaches last year, along with our precious maple syrup. It'll be great.

We've already used it to flavor a pot of baked beans and to sweeten a delicious dessert of peaches and crepes. How wonderful to have a place where we can create something so delicious with what we've got going right here in our own back yard.