Never in a million years would my family and I have imagined making our own maple syrup. Heck, we hardly use the stuff ourselves, save for glazing salmon or an occasional Sunday when our kitchen is filled with the smells of chocolate chip pancakes or belgian waffles. We tend to be more savory folk, typically.
Needless to say, we stumbled upon our new home in March of 2017, and upon closing in July, we inherited the house, the barn, the shed, the pool, the playhouse, the playscape AND 1.5 acres with 51 maple trees. Yes, 51!!
When we first toured the home, we noticed metal buckets hanging from many of the trees. Upon further inspection, we discovered that the former homeowner, Mark, was stacked with all the necessary sugaring equipment for harvesting sap and turning it into some delicious maple syrup {he gave us a bottle at the final walk through!}.
Winter of 2019 rolled around and we thought, well… what are we waiting for? We didn’t attempt to harvest in 2017 or 2018, and after all Mark let us borrow {we still have everything, so not sure we are borrowing anymore} his taps, buckets, tubing, hydrometer, pots, and burners. Why wouldn’t we try our hand at sugaring ourselves?
My aunt had given us a “How To” book as a housewarming gift 2 years earlier, but damned if we referenced it once! Nope… we could figure this out, couldn’t we? We just went ahead with tapping trees, hanging buckets, and collecting of sap. As each bucket on the tree filled, we transferred the sap {surprisingly not sweet, and really clear/watery} to food-grade 5-gallon buckets until full, covered them, and put them in the garage for safe keeping.
Question: Can you keep sap for an unlimited amount of time?
Answer: No, you cannot.
And we learned the hard way. We are skiers, so we are away many weekends during the winter. And since you need HOURS to boil the sap, a weekend is the most optimum time for two, full-time working adults to boil safely and efficiently. So we decided to just fill buckets, empty, and repeat for weeks on end until we had a weekend free to just boil away.
When we finally had a weekend blocked for the great reveal, we discovered that all of our collecting was for not. Our 8 buckets of beautiful sap {40 gallons!!}, had spoiled. Research opened our eyes to the fact that the sap, if not kept super cold, will build up bacteria after just 7 days. We had to dump itt all!!!!
Fast forward to 2020 – we skied very little, so we read and researched. We learned from our mistakes, and pushed forward – gung ho to tackle this proverbial BEAST!! We tapped,
harvested, boiled, filtered, and ultimately labored to make 4 bottles of homemade syrup. It was a long and tedious process, but the end result is beyond rewarding. And, if we do say so ourselves, DELICIOUS!! Our syrup, both light and dark {the color depends on whether the sap is pulled early in the season or later – we had no idea} are perfect in recipes in place of sugar or honey, slathered on pancakes, glazed over chicken, salmon or smoked ribs, and perfect in my husband’s house BBQ sauce.
We plan to tap a few more trees next year to be able to share with family and friends, and perhaps one day we will reach our maximum potential with 50 trees tapped {we lost one in a storm}.
Until then, stay tuned, and send us any questions you have about getting started. It truly is a labor of love, but one we know many of you will enjoy. Reach us at kristen@gourmet-galley.com.
And check out this book: How to Make Maple Syrup
It’s simple and straightforward with step-by-step instructions, equipment needs, and everything to make your DIY syrup a success.
Happy sugaring!!
By Kristen Wich