The weather needs to cooperate when you are trying to make maple syrup. As we mentioned in our previous post, the nights need to be cold and the days need to be bright and above the freezing mark.
As karma goes, the weather changed almost immediately after we tapped the trees and temperatures plummeted to -20c.
Everything froze solid!
We now have to wait for things to warm up again.
The good news is that despite the snag in the weather we have sap in the buckets. A good omen that things will flow again.
Stay tuned!
Homemade maple syrup – how great! 🙂
It’s tasty and fun to make 🙂
Well it’s definitely running today!👍
Yup! Just started recently!
Cant wait for the next chapter in this adventure!
It’s coming!
Yay for making maple syrup by hand!
Double yay for eating maple syrup made by hand 🙂
Now that I would love to do!
Soon le temps des sucres 🙂
Oui c’est le cas 🙂
My son lives in Hamilton and it was 13 there today. Seems like A real weather roller coaster.
It went up to about 6 here so things started thawing nicely!
I won’t ask you a bunch of questions because I think you’ll be explaining more about it in your next post. I’m invested enough to try this when I get the chance.
I wouldn’t trust me to answer unasked questions, so ask away! All you need to do is find a sapable tree. You can tap several species of maple, but also birch trees, and I think that walnut as well.
1. How long does it take to tap one tree?
2. Do you have to treat the sap somehow before using it? Remove any impurities?
3. How does the taste compare to commercial products?
4. How much sap (I’m sure it varies) do you get from one tree?
5. How long before you can retap the same tree?
6. Why did I give this bozo permission to ask questions? 🤣
You’re funny!
1. it takes 10 seconds to tap the tree, but if you meant how long the sap flows than it depends on the weather, but usually a few weeks or so.
2. we just stain it through a fine sieve or cheese cloths into the boiling pan to remove twigs etc. that may have snuck in.
3. It depends on the tree, the weather, and the process that you are following, but pretty comparable.
4. I never really calculated this, but a wild guess will be about 10 gallons.
5. You can tap the tree again the following year.
6. This bozo asks the best questions 🙂
I’m glad I asked. Ten gallons blows me away. I would have been way off on that one.
It’s a guess and I may be off. I’ll ask around!
Wild to see just how cold it gets there, to the point that it freezes your maple syrup! Warming it up with a fire might do the trick, but as I’m not a native to a cold region, I can’t say that’s sound advice! I hope you get to enjoy your creation all the same!
The cold weather is essential to this process. Once it warms up during the day again the sap will flow (or drip to be more accurate) and the frozen sap in the bucket will slowly melt. If it’s hot, the sap will spoil. Call it nature’s refrigerator 🙂
Perhaps Mother Nature will cooperate soon. I can just taste that maple syrup – which I love.
She did! Much better today. I can’t wait to taste it 🙂
looking forward to the next maple syrup episode!
Working on it!
👍