Maple Syrup
Once the coldest, darkest days of winter are behind us and spring is just round the corner, the days start getting longer and the ice is melting off the pond, it is time to make maple syrup! For a couple of weeks it will be a lot of hard work but the prize at the end is the most delicious, sweet nectar you can imagine!
The timing is critical, in order for the sap to flow from the trees we have to wait until about late February to early March when the days start getting warmer but the nights still drop down to below freezing. The below-freezing temperatures create a negative pressure in the trees, causing water to be drawn up through the roots. During the days, when the temperatures rise above freezing, it creates a positive pressure in the trees which causes the sap to flow out of the trees, through the taps we have put in them, and into our waiting buckets. Check out the video at the bottom of the page to see the whole process!
It’s a fascinating process that starts with picking the right trees. We have many sugar maple trees on the property to choose from but there is a handy patch just a couple of hundred meters down the eastern side of the hill that is conveniently close to the house. With years of experience Steve has discovered that the hard maple trees produce a sweeter sap that requires less boiling than the soft maples. Some individual trees within this collection of hard maple trees are also better producers than others so we pick about 45-60 trees that have been proven to produce a steady stream of sap and are located relatively closely together. We start by drilling a small hole in the trunk about a metre from the ground and into these holes we insert the taps, this is called tapping the trees. From the taps we hang the buckets, complete with lids to keep out the bugs and falling debris. Voila, the first step is complete and now we wait for that magical drip-drip-drip sound as the sap leaks out of the tree and starts filling the buckets. A beautiful melody that is guaranteed to make you smile!
The amount of sap collected each day depends on how cool the nights were and how warm the days get. On really good days we can collect a full 8 litre bucket from each tree but usually it is closer to half a bucket a day per tree. On average we will harvest about 190 litres a day. That is a lot of syrup, you say! Not quite so, for this is where the next step of the process comes in, the boiling of the sap. The sap itself comes out of the tree looking and tasting more like water than the final sweet, thick syrup we’re after. It takes hours of boiling and evaporating for the sap to condense down to syrup. But first comes the biggest workout of all! The buckets are poured into 20 litre bottles and then carried up the hill to the house where the boiling happens. A heavy, laborious job that makes you appreciate every single drop of the delicious syrup as you pour it on your pancakes later in the year!
While the first load of sap drips slowly out of the trees we get busy reconstructing the ingenious DIY contraption that Steve designed and built many years ago. The base is an old bathtub that we line on the inside with bricks and then pile in the wood for the fire. On top goes a custom made metal frame that fits neatly over the bathtub and contains a couple of holes in which two beer kegs nestle tightly. The kegs are open at the top and in there is where we will pour the sap. Custom cut sheets of metal serve as wind barriers around the bathtub and a roof and chimney complete the set-up. Once everything is in place and the fire is hot and ready we pour the first couple of bottles of sap into the kegs and start boiling. And boiling and boiling and boiling…… For every 50 litres of sap that we boil we will get just one litre of the sweet syrup. It sounds crazy but well worth all the effort! When the syrup is nearly at the consistency we want we transfer it to a pot and complete the boiling process inside on the stove. The final step is to pour the syrup into jars, seal and store in the pantry, ready for use.
This year, in 2020, we collected sap for 8 days in early March, harvesting a total of 1,375 litres of sap which we then boiled down to about 30 litres of delicious, sweet maple syrup. That’s still a lot of syrup, you say, what do you do with it all?? Well, we love to give a lot of it away, it’s just too good not to share! We also eat it every morning on our breakfast of fruit, muesli and yoghurt. We use it in baking to substitute for sugar, on pancakes, in cooking, on ice-cream and anywhere we want to add a uniquely sweet taste to a dish. This sweet tree nectar is just unbelievably versatile and delicious!
