Making Maple Syrup, eh?

[Peter the eater]

Many years ago my extended family began making small amounts of maple syrup from scratch, mostly as a means for getting together at the end of a long winter. We don't always pull it off, for some it's a hard time of year to get away and the traveling conditions can really suck. Next week we're planning to do it again even if family participation is low. This time I'm bringing my camera and laptop.

Anyone else making and/or enjoying maple syrup?

[violetfox]

I have friends who have been making it, but it's nearing the end of the season in Maine. Two 65 degree days didn't help! And yes, I always enjoy maple syrup!

[Peter the eater]

I have friends who have been making it, but it's nearing the end of the season in Maine. Two 65 degree days didn't help! And yes, I always enjoy maple syrup!

I'm about 600 miles East and North of Bangor, Maine. Sunny days and freezing nights are the key to good sap flow. We've had some nice weather, but I think we'll still get a good amount. Things definitely slow down in April.

[Darienne]

We live in called east central Ontario (90 miles north and east of Toronto), Maple Syrup Land. Every hamlet in the area has a maple syrup festival.

Last week we went to our neighbors round the corner (so to speak) and watched the operation -year old lath from our farm renovations, miles of plastic tubing, dogs covered in syrup...it was amazing. I had no idea what a huge operation our neighbors had.

They gave us a bottle of fresh hot syrup to take home which I promptly screwed up making maple candy. (There is a tiny window in beating the candy between pourable and a huge solid lump on the receiving mold.) Then the ground-up maple sugar went into rolled biscuits with walnuts. Delicious.

[judiu]

(snip)

Last week we went to our neighbors round the corner (so to speak) and watched the operation -year old lath from our farm renovations, miles of plastic tubing, dogs covered in syrup

it was amazing. I had no idea what a huge operation our neighbors had.

4 legged variety, or in a bun type? How would a 4 legged dog get into the maple syrup?

[Darienne]

(snip)

Last week we went to our neighbors round the corner (so to speak) and watched the operation -year old lath from our farm renovations, miles of plastic tubing, dogs covered in syrup

it was amazing. I had no idea what a huge operation our neighbors had.

4 legged variety, or in a bun type? How would a 4 legged dog get into the maple syrup?

Our two dogs had just arrived and so were maple syrup-free, but their three dogs, two of them Goldens with long fur, had somehow gotten maple syrup on themselves, particularly their tails and hind feathers.

Imagine a hot dog in a bun with maple syrup??? Strange pairings.

[Peter the eater]

An appropriate article from yesterday's Toronto Star: Here's why maple syrup is very good for your health

[Marlene]

One of my contractor's up North makes his own maple syrup and has brought me a couple of jars of it. Wonderful stuff.

He is concerned that the amount they will get this year will be down because of the realtively light winter and early warm weather here.

Edited March 24, 2010 by Marlene (log)

[Peter the eater]

We've got our kit together and should start tapping this weekend. There are a few mature sugar maples out in our woods near Iona, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, that have produced well in past years. Here's the process:

1. pick a spot on the tree around a meter off the ground, below a branch is good
   
2. drill a 1/2" hole 2" deep, don't use last year's hole
   
3. insert the spile (spigot) and hang the bag or bucket to collect the sap
   
4. come back in a few days and remove the sap-filled bags
   
5. boil the crap out of the sap -- 40 ounces of sap becomes 1 ounce of syrup
   
6. filter, jar and refrigerate

You can use the raw sap for making tea or coffee. You can also boil off almost all the water to get a fudge-like maple butter.

[Darienne]

Would two huge Maple trees be worth tapping? We have two just behind the farmhouse. It's too late this year to think about it for us, but maybe next year? I have no idea of how much sap one tree will provide.

[judiu]

(snip)

Last week we went to our neighbors round the corner (so to speak) and watched the operation -year old lath from our farm renovations, miles of plastic tubing, dogs covered in syrup

it was amazing. I had no idea what a huge operation our neighbors had.

4 legged variety, or in a bun type? How would a 4 legged dog get into the maple syrup?

Our two dogs had just arrived and so were maple syrup-free, but their three dogs, two of them Goldens with long fur, had somehow gotten maple syrup on themselves, particularly their tails and hind feathers.

Imagine a hot dog in a bun with maple syrup??? Strange pairings.

Not so strange really; think of a buttered, toasted bun with a nice pork/beef hot dog and a sluice of maple syrup over all. I love breakfas sausage dipped in the maple syrup from the french toast; a hot dog isn't all THAT different, no?

[Darienne]

(snip)

Last week we went to our neighbors round the corner (so to speak) and watched the operation -year old lath from our farm renovations, miles of plastic tubing, dogs covered in syrup

it was amazing. I had no idea what a huge operation our neighbors had.

4 legged variety, or in a bun type? How would a 4 legged dog get into the maple syrup?

Our two dogs had just arrived and so were maple syrup-free, but their three dogs, two of them Goldens with long fur, had somehow gotten maple syrup on themselves, particularly their tails and hind feathers.

Imagine a hot dog in a bun with maple syrup??? Strange pairings.

Not so strange really; think of a buttered, toasted bun with a nice pork/beef hot dog and a sluice of maple syrup over all. I love breakfas sausage dipped in the maple syrup from the french toast; a hot dog isn't all THAT different, no?

Aarrgghh. Ya got me.

[xxchef]

Would two huge Maple trees be worth tapping? We have two just behind the farmhouse. It's too late this year to think about it for us, but maybe next year? I have no idea of how much sap one tree will provide.

I haven't been involved in syruping in a long (LONG) time but my family used to tap trees in CT and make, maybe, 40-50 gallons of syrup a season for personal consumption, friends & family with a little left as a cash crop.

"Worth tapping" depends on what your expectations are. Not all types of maple trees are equal in their sap sweetness. You want to make sure they are "sugar maples" or "red maples" for best results. Not all trees of the same species will have the same sugar content to their sap either. And the variables can change from year-to-year and dramatically with the weather.

The nice thing about "huge" trees is that you can put more than one tap in them. Trees over 24" diameter can handle up to 3 taps but you really don't want to tap any more then that, regardless of tree size. Our taps probably averaged around 10 gallons per season (= about a QT of syrup) but I bet some yielded three or four times that. Some we had to go harvest the buckets 3 times a day or they'd overflow on heavy sap days.

There's a lot more to doing a good job then just poking a hole in a tree and boiling down the sap to syrup but that should give you an idea whether or not your trees are "worth it" and you can do the research from there.

Good luck!

[Peter the eater]

I agree with xxchef -- there's a whole bunch of luck and alchemy at work when tapping maple trees. Yet another variable is the soil. My trees grow near white gypsum cliffs which, according to the local elders, can impart a trace of sulphur taste when the sap is concentrated. If your motives are fun, camaraderie or exercise, I say go for it. I just want to show my preschoolers that maple syrup comes from a tree, not Aunt Jemima.

[Darienne]

Thanks for the answers. It's strictly for fun, and yes, they are sugar maples. Maybe next year...

[xxchef]

I just came across this article from the Toronto Star (as if we really need another reason to eat REAL syrup!)...

Here's why maple syrup is very good for your health

Canada’s sweetest export might come with some added health benefits

Published On Mon Mar 22

Nicole Baute

Living Reporter

Good news for sweet tooths everywhere: that sticky syrup you love to pour on pancakes and waffles is not only bad for you — it might be good for you, too.

Sure, it’s sugary and calorie-packed. But real maple syrup is also full of compounds touted for their health benefits, according to a professor from the University of Rhode Island.

Navindra Seeram, an assistant professor of pharmacy who specializes in medicinal plant research, found a cocktail of 20 antioxidants in 20 litres of the sweet stuff from Quebec, including 13 never before found in maple syrup.

Although he says more research is needed to determine whether people can actually benefit from maple syrup, Seeram adds the compounds are reported to have antibacterial, anti-cancer and anti-diabetic properties.

Seeram – awarded a $115,000 research grant by the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers, and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada -- has a sugar maple tree trunk in his lab for future research.

“A lot of people don’t even think of using maple syrup as a sweetener,” he says. “Apart from putting it on your pancakes and your waffles, think about integrating it in your cuisine, in cooking.”

The newly-discovered compounds are types of lignans, also found in flax seed and whole wheat, a stilbene, which is in the same chemical class as the red wine extract resveratrol, and flavonoids, which are known for their anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer and antioxidant properties.

Phenolic acids, commonly found in berries and coffee, were also found in the syrup.

Seeram thinks sugar maples might secrete phenolics as a defence mechanism when they are wounded by being tapped.

He says it makes sense that maple syrup contains antioxidant properties, because it comes from sap located just inside the maple tree’s bark, which basks in the sun.

His findings, presented this week at the American Chemical Society’s annual meeting in San Francisco, are great news for the booming maple syrup industry.

Geneviève Béland, director of promotion and market development for the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers, says maple syrup exports have increased by up to 10 per cent a year since 2003, with the exception of last year, when the crop was too small to fulfill worldwide demand.

Béland says Seeram’s study builds on previous research that has found maple syrup to contain a host of natural minerals such as calcium, vitamin B, zinc, potassium and magnesium.

“I think that we are at the beginning of a new life (for) maple products,” says Béland, who says she’s watched high-end chefs create incredible new flavours by mixing maple syrup, sugar or butter with other ingredients.

“We are realistic here,” Béland says. “It’s a sugar, for sure. It’s a little like olive oil. Olive oil is a fat, however, if you need to choose a fat, well, you’re better to choose something like olive oil. So it’s along the same thinking here: if you want to use a sugaring agent, you might prefer to choose maple syrup or a maple product.”

Registered dietitian Shannon Crocker says you would probably have to consume large amounts of maple syrup to benefit from its antioxidant properties. If anything, Canadians need to cut back on overall sugar consumption, not ramp it up.

“Yes, it may be better than white sugar but, bottom line, you still want to have small amounts of it,” Crocker says.

Although it’s much pricier than high-fructose commercial syrups with maple flavouring, Seeram says only real maple syrup is likely to contain these natural properties. It’s worth paying more for the real stuff.

But some consumers don’t even know the difference between syrups real and fake: a Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers survey found 50 per cent of Americans did not know whether they were buying real maple syrup or not.

[Peter the eater]

The trees got tapped today. It's been sunny days (+5C) and chilly nights (-8C) so I'm hoping there'll be some sap on hand tomorrow.

Some photos of the gear, and the mandatory thermos of hot chocolate:

[Darienne]

Hey Peter! Didn't know you were THAT cute!!!

[Peter the eater]

Hey Peter! Didn't know you were THAT cute!!!

The harvest isn't viable without non-unionized child labour. Kidding, my son's the Habs fan, I put my Leafs toque away for next year. I hope we get some sap, the trees we tapped this time are untested.

[Peter the eater]

We collected around 10 litres of sap from a half dozen trees overnight. From the blue bags on the trees, the sap goes to a carbouy with a reliable cap in the back of an ATV, then into the cauldron at home.

That last photo was supposed to show the antique Soviet weapon we carried to protect us from coyotes. It's a 20 guage shotgun that says "Made in USSR".

[tim]

Peter,

We made maple syrup when I was in grade school. Boil forever in a tall stockpot. I do remember getting a lot of maple sugar from the sides of the stockpot; this is probably the result of inadequate stirring.

I understand that current practice is to us a very wide pan that is only filled to about three inches with constant refilling. Is that your technique. Do you boil to 219F?

Tim

[Peter the eater]

I understand that current practice is to us a very wide pan that is only filled to about three inches with constant refilling. Is that your technique. Do you boil to 219F?

We usually employ a propane burner outside with a big aluminium pot. This time we had so little sap the operation was moved indoors onto the woodstove. It took most of the day to simmer off 98% of the water. If one were serious about making some volume, one would get a big stainless steel evaporator, and one would collect the sap using plastic tubing.

[cookingofjoy]

I was hoping to get my dad the supplies for the process, and I'm wondering if anyone might have recommendations? I found taps in 5/16 and 7/16 - would there be a preference? Also, how do you filter the sap? I noticed various filters and prefilters. I thought the taps, sap saks, holders, and some sort of filter. Is there an essential piece I'm missing? He does have a propane burner, but I was kind of assuming he'd do the reducing indoors. I'm wondering if I don't have a good sense of the scale of the project....

[plum tart]

Years ago, my husband and daughter and I had a cottage near a sugarbush south of Owen Sound Ontario. Every year in spring break or when the sap was running we would make maple syrup. We didn't want to spend a lot of money on equipment - so we bought taps and used them but we collected the sap in green plastic garbage bags (these were my husband's favourite container for just about everything). We did the initial reduction outside over a fire using my very large stock pots since we didn't have an evaporator, and I would do the final finishing off reduction indoors. That still involved a lot of boiling. You really need to do the initial reduction outside since you have to boil a large volume for a long time to get anywhere near syrup.

The farmers next door who made maple syrup every year using a huge ancient evaporator and tending the fires all night, recommended old long johns as a filter. We were somewhat dubious but tried them. Our syrup was pristine - clear and pale and sweet. The farmer's syrup was dark and smokey. We loved them both.

[Peter the eater]

I was hoping to get my dad the supplies for the process, and I'm wondering if anyone might have recommendations? I found taps in 5/16 and 7/16 - would there be a preference? Also, how do you filter the sap? I noticed various filters and prefilters. I thought the taps, sap saks, holders, and some sort of filter. Is there an essential piece I'm missing? He does have a propane burner, but I was kind of assuming he'd do the reducing indoors. I'm wondering if I don't have a good sense of the scale of the project....

It can be a very simple and low-tech activity, which I like. I forget our tap size, just make sure you have a drill bit that matches. I don't believe a bigger hole produces noticeably more sap because it's all about the tree you choose and the weather.

We don't filter until near the very end simply because there's always dust, ash and dog hair floating around the open pot.

Another caveat . . . starting and stopping the boil-down can screw-up the sugar. I forget the chemistry, just that the best quality syrup comes from a swift and continuous removal of water from the sap.