Making homemade maple syrup takes some work
It has been more than 20 years since I made maple syrup in my backyard, on a very small scale. There are no sugar maples in this part of Florida, so that is not an option down here.
I did enjoy the process when I was still in New York and I would encourage you to give it a try if you have the necessary equipment or are willing to invest in it. The basic requirements for making maple syrup, maple candy or any of the other delicious maple-based concoctions include sugar maple trees at least 12 inches in diameter, spiles, buckets or other collecting vessels. (I used recycled one-gallon plastic water or milk jugs that will be impaled on the spile.) Also needed are an outdoor fire pit, a pan to boil in, a holding container for the sap, a candy thermometer and strainers or cheesecloth.
Begin by identifying sugar maple trees. Like all maples, they have their buds arranged opposite each other on the twigs. Sugar maple twigs are light brown in color but the buds are dark brown and the terminal bud is quite pointy. Red, silver and Norway maple twigs are reddish in color with more rounded redbuds and often very large round red flower buds near the end of the twigs. Norway, silver and red maple sap also contain sugar but it is not as concentrated as sugar maple. These species may be tapped as well, but they begin to come out of dormancy earlier in the season than sugar maples.
Once the buds swell noticeably, the sap takes on a sour flavor that produces what is called “buddy” taste. This “budding out” event usually ends the maple syrup season. Sugar maples usually can be tapped until the first week of April most years, but red maples may not be suitable after March 15.
Right now is a good time to begin but sometimes the sap will flow as early as January. Trees tapped in January sometimes quit producing by the main season of March into early April. Trees are tapped using a hand-driven or sometimes chainsaw- or battery-driven drill with a suitable-sized bit. Standard spiles call for a seven-sixteenth diameter hole but some commercial maple producers have switched over to thinner diameter spiles, which do less damage to the tree. The tap holes are drilled at a slightly upward angle about two inches deep and the spiles are tapped in with a hammer. Try to avoid tapping directly above, or below a previous
year’s tap hole since there will be a vertical column of decay directly above and below that hole.
Make the hole a few inches on either side of the previous year. A healthy sugar maple tree should have completely sealed off last year’s tap holes, but the scar should still be evident. If the previous year’s tap hole is still open, that indicates the tree is not as healthy as it should be and you might consider not tapping it this spring.
With good conditions (sunny, warm days and frosty cold nights) a single tap may produce a gallon or more of sap in 24 hours. Gather sap as needed. When you have 10 gallons it is time to begin to boil.
Ten gallons will usually boil down to only about one quart of syrup. If at all possible, boil outside or risk having your paint or wallpaper peel off indoors due to the huge quantities of steam produced! I generally start off with a few gallons of sap in a clean washtub. A stainless steel kettle or some sort of large, flat pan works well. Try to avoid using any lead-based boiling or collection vessels, since the lead may end up in the finished syrup.
Start with one or two gallons of sap and boil as fast as possible, maintaining a roaring fire beneath the pan. Gradually add more sap, one gallon at a time as the sap in the pan evaporates. When you have reduced 10 gallons of sap to about a gallon of liquid, bring it indoors for finishing. Maple syrup is “finished” when it reaches a temperature that is 7 degrees above the boiling point of water, or about 219 degrees Fahrenheit. Filter the hot syrup through cheesecloth or filter cloth into clean glass jars or jugs and seal. The finished maple syrup keeps indefinitely at room temperature.
If all this sounds like a lot of time and effort for a relatively small reward, it is, but what else is there to do in this muddy in-between winter and spring season. One day you may be walking through three inches of mud to collect the sap and the next day you may have to tromp over a foot of snow!