The final result to all this work is a bottle of fresh maple syrup ready to pour all over your hot blueberry pancakes. YUM- YUM
Welcome to our maple tree tapping page. Aside from the 4 seasons this is the most favorite time of year, watching the temperatures to see when we can start putting in our taps. There are alot of larger maple syrup producers around our state as well as in others, but here we're just a small redneck operation.
I've done maple tree tapping for a few years now and never get tired of the work, as the end result is so delicious. Theres nothing like a fresh batch of blueberry pancakes with freshly made maple syrup. I've yet to make some maple sugar candy which is also delicious but that will come in due time. With our syrup,we keep all that we make except what we give out to family and close friends and if its a good year we can keep everyone supplied for the year till time for the next new spring batch. Below are pictures I've taken, to show how its done. Usually we have a bigger boiler system going but this year it seemed lots easier and more efficient to use our turkey fryer base, with a nice big pan we found at an antique shop.
First you get plastic lines which come in either green or blue to protect the sap from the sun. Next you drill a hole in the tree with a 7/16" bit drilling 1 1/2" deep, (be sure your on the south side of the tree when putting in taps.) then put in your tap with the hose line attached. Grab yourself a 5 gallon bucket drilling a 7/16" hole in the top side of it, and insert the other end of your hose line. Make sure you have covers on your buckets so that you have just sap and not rainwater mixed in. (It will take longer to boil off if mixed with water)
We usually tap close to 20 maple trees when we tap, though we have many more maples then that. Bigger maple syrup tappers can tap up to 200 trees or more depending on how they are set up for the process. With our process we do things in more of a redneck way. This year it was easier to bring in our turkey fryer base, our propane tank, and a big stainless steal tub we found at an antique shop. When the sap is boiled down to 2 inches from the bottom of the tub, we then get out our filters (use wool or orlon material) and pour the sap through the filter into a smaller kettle and keep boiling till again it reaches 2 inches from the bottom, then filter it through into yet a smaller kettle and finish it off. The final round of boiling is done till it reaches 7.1 degrees above the boiling point of water. (The reason for boiling it to only 2 inches is so that it does not scorch as it will at less then 1 1/2". Boiling points vary by barimetric pressures, so boil a seperate pan of water to find out what your boiling point is and add 7.1 degrees. A candy thermomater can be used for this process.)
