Backyard Sugaring:
You can Make Maple Syrup
at Home!
By Betsy Luce
If you live in Northeast
and have a maple tree
in your back yard, it can be a fun and educational family experience to tap your
own maple tree and make syrup.
What you need to start
First, you will need to obtain a sap spout from either a local farm supply store,
or a sugaring supply company such as Leader Evaporator Company (www.
leaderevaporator.com), a sap bucket (also available at your farm or sugaring
supply store), and some kind of cover to keep the rain and snow out.
Next, select a maple tree that is at least 14 inches in diameter (which would make
it at least 40 years old). Drill a hole with a 7/16 drill about 1 to 1 1/2 inches
deep...at about waist high. Hammer your spout into the tree and either attach a
sap bucket or a plastic bucket. .Put only one tap per tree.
Sugaring season begins around mid-February and goes until March and early
April (depending on where in New England you live and how early the spring
thaw arrives.)
How do you know when its time to tap? Check the outdoor temperature during
the day and at night: If its gets 40 to 50 degrees F during the day and somewhat
below freezing at night, you can bet the sap is flowing. This combination
temperatures during the day and night pushes the sap up from the roots into the
trunk and branches, where it freezes, and then the next day as it warms up, it
drips out your spout.
How much sap do you need? It takes 40- 50 gallons of sap to make a gallon of
maple syrup, so you might expect in 4 to 6 weeks to get 40 quarts of sap from a
tree which would make one quart of syrup. Sap looks like water and is about 2%
natural maple sugar.
Directions for making sap into syrup.
Collect the sap from your bucket every day the sap drips (some days may be too
cold or too warm and you won’t get much of anything) and try to boil it within 24
hours. Since you are evaporating most of the water, you will be producing lots of
steam so back yard boiling works best on a gas grill. As the water is evaporated,
the sap gets thicker and starts to look golden brown.
When the boiling is getting near done, and reaches 212 degrees F. the syrup will
double in volume so be sure to have a large enough kettle to handle this
expansion. When your product is near syrup, it might be best to take it inside
and finish cooking it on your stove (be sure to have the exhaust fan going or you
may loosen your wall paper with all the steam).
Maple syrup is cooked enough when its 219 degrees F. so a candy thermometer is
critical. Overcooking will result in burning of the syrup and the pan. Maple
syrup needs to be refrigerated once it’s done, and will keep for a couple years in
a glass jar. After all your hard work, pure maple syrup never tasted better and
will probably soon be gone in just a few days!
One back yard sugaring season is usually enough for most families...but it gives
them a deep appreciation for nature -- and a taste for pure maple syrup that will
last the rest of their lives!
About the author:
Betsy Luce and her family own Sugarbush Farm in Woodstock, Vermont. The
farm is a 550 acre hill side farm located 5 miles outside Woodstock. She writes:
“We are working farmers with maple syrup production, cheese aging and
smoking, beef cattle, farm attraction, maple sugar house education part, nature
trail, and farm animals. We have about 37,000 visitors a year....who come from all
over the country and world, to taste our products, learn more about maple
sugaring, and purchase Vermont products. My parents started Sugarbush Farm
in 1945....my husband Larry is the farmer part of the operation, and we have two
sons, Jeff and his wife Kerry work here full time, and other son Ralph works with
my husband on the farming part of it...cattle, maple syrup, logging, fire wood,
hay sales.”
You can visit their website at www.SugarBushFarm.com or send Betsy an email
at sugarbsh@sover.net
You can Make Maple Syrup
at Home!
By Betsy Luce
If you live in Northeast
and have a maple tree
in your back yard, it can be a fun and educational family experience to tap your
own maple tree and make syrup.
What you need to start
First, you will need to obtain a sap spout from either a local farm supply store,
or a sugaring supply company such as Leader Evaporator Company (www.
leaderevaporator.com), a sap bucket (also available at your farm or sugaring
supply store), and some kind of cover to keep the rain and snow out.
Next, select a maple tree that is at least 14 inches in diameter (which would make
it at least 40 years old). Drill a hole with a 7/16 drill about 1 to 1 1/2 inches
deep...at about waist high. Hammer your spout into the tree and either attach a
sap bucket or a plastic bucket. .Put only one tap per tree.
Sugaring season begins around mid-February and goes until March and early
April (depending on where in New England you live and how early the spring
thaw arrives.)
How do you know when its time to tap? Check the outdoor temperature during
the day and at night: If its gets 40 to 50 degrees F during the day and somewhat
below freezing at night, you can bet the sap is flowing. This combination
temperatures during the day and night pushes the sap up from the roots into the
trunk and branches, where it freezes, and then the next day as it warms up, it
drips out your spout.
How much sap do you need? It takes 40- 50 gallons of sap to make a gallon of
maple syrup, so you might expect in 4 to 6 weeks to get 40 quarts of sap from a
tree which would make one quart of syrup. Sap looks like water and is about 2%
natural maple sugar.
Directions for making sap into syrup.
Collect the sap from your bucket every day the sap drips (some days may be too
cold or too warm and you won’t get much of anything) and try to boil it within 24
hours. Since you are evaporating most of the water, you will be producing lots of
steam so back yard boiling works best on a gas grill. As the water is evaporated,
the sap gets thicker and starts to look golden brown.
When the boiling is getting near done, and reaches 212 degrees F. the syrup will
double in volume so be sure to have a large enough kettle to handle this
expansion. When your product is near syrup, it might be best to take it inside
and finish cooking it on your stove (be sure to have the exhaust fan going or you
may loosen your wall paper with all the steam).
Maple syrup is cooked enough when its 219 degrees F. so a candy thermometer is
critical. Overcooking will result in burning of the syrup and the pan. Maple
syrup needs to be refrigerated once it’s done, and will keep for a couple years in
a glass jar. After all your hard work, pure maple syrup never tasted better and
will probably soon be gone in just a few days!
One back yard sugaring season is usually enough for most families...but it gives
them a deep appreciation for nature -- and a taste for pure maple syrup that will
last the rest of their lives!
About the author:
Betsy Luce and her family own Sugarbush Farm in Woodstock, Vermont. The
farm is a 550 acre hill side farm located 5 miles outside Woodstock. She writes:
“We are working farmers with maple syrup production, cheese aging and
smoking, beef cattle, farm attraction, maple sugar house education part, nature
trail, and farm animals. We have about 37,000 visitors a year....who come from all
over the country and world, to taste our products, learn more about maple
sugaring, and purchase Vermont products. My parents started Sugarbush Farm
in 1945....my husband Larry is the farmer part of the operation, and we have two
sons, Jeff and his wife Kerry work here full time, and other son Ralph works with
my husband on the farming part of it...cattle, maple syrup, logging, fire wood,
hay sales.”
You can visit their website at www.SugarBushFarm.com or send Betsy an email
at sugarbsh@sover.net
| ©The Heart of New England online magazine ...celebrating the unique character of Maine, New Hampshire & Vermont Contact | The Heart of New England HOME | Search |
| The Heart of New England Celebrating the unique character & culture of Maine ~ New Hampshire ~ Vermont |
| Back Yard Sugaring: Make Maple Syrup at Home Click here to get your FREE subscription to The Heart of New England weekly newsletter Subscribe today and get your FREE desktop backgrounds...12 beautiful photographs of all the New England seasons! Love New England? Put it on your wall! We have a huge selection of affordable New England art, prints & historic postcards. Visit our Art Gallery today! More Stories About Life in New England |
| Home ~ Life in New England ~ Recipes ~ Garden ~ Travel ~ B&B/Inns ~ Made in New England ~ Events ~ Art/Prints ~ Archives ~ About Us |