Every pre-Spring I get excited about collecting maple sap. There’s nothing like the experience of simple homesteading when dashing out to your yard to collect a bucket or two of sap.
Anyone can do this and all you need is one tree!
We collect our sap when the weather is cool at night and the days are getting warm and sunny. This occurs during February and March at our farm in Pennsylvania. Every day we gather sap and by the weekend we have enough to boil down for syrup. Left overs are used for maple sap water. You know, the very expensive water available at your local health food stores.
We tap many trees, but one tree can yield enough syrup to enjoy with breakfast. At our home, we serve Dutch Baby Pancakes and French Toast during our syrup celebration dinners. This event usually follows a full day of sap boiling as friends stop over to chat about the year’s harvest.
From our experience, we find that 5 gallons of sap will yield one pint of syrup. You can easily collect 5 plus gallons of sap each week from one tree. Oh, and the choices you have. Did you know that syrup can be made from many types of trees?
I am not going to get into specifics about tapping trees, especially when there are many Internet sites with detailed information and illustrations. I will however, list a summary on the basic steps we follow at our farm.
So grab a tap and find a tree!
- PREPARE
Get a food grade 5 gallon bucket(s) with lids ready by thoroughly cleaning. - FIND A TREE
Look for a mature, healthy maple tree that’s at least 15 inches in diameter. - WAIT
You need the right weather conditions. Look for a cool to below freezing night that warms up to the 40’s or 50’s during a sunny day. - DRILL
You need to drill a hole 1 to 1.5 inches deep, just enough to go through the cambium level. We drill on a slight upward angle. The drill bit should be the size to fit your tap or slightly smaller to ensure a snug fit. - TAP
Gently drive the tap into the drilled hole with a hammer. Sometimes we have to improvise because the hammer was forgotten. - HANG
Place your bucket from a nail above the tap, or use a tube to connect your tap to drain into your bucket underneath or another, like we do at the farm, is to simply drill a hole at the top of the bucket and place the tap inside the drilled hole to hold the bucket. Was that confusing? - COLLECT
Sap should be gathered each day and stored in a cool place or refrigerator until you’re ready to make syrup. - CREATE
Boil down your sap into syrup. It needs to reach 219 degrees with a candy thermometer. Check out our next blog post for more detailed information on how we make syrup and maple sap water. - ENJOY
Make a Dutch Baby Pancake. Check out our post for this super simple and crazy delicious pancake that’s baked in the oven.