MAKING
MAPLE SYRUP AT HOME
by
New England Gardener
I can't tell you if you can make Maple
Syrup where you live, but I believe it can be made in
most of the Northeast, and anywhere else with Sugar Maple
trees and similar weather. It takes about 40 quarts of
sap to make one quart syrup. You tap the trees in mid
Winter, and Sap will start to flow when the days are
warm, and the nights are cold. The farther above freezing
it gets during the day, and the farther below freezing it
gets overnight, the more the sap will run.
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A tree of at least 8 inch diameter is
needed for one tap, and more taps can be used on
larger trees. A good tree can have three
taps and buckets. |
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A hole is drilled
a few inches into the side of the Sugar Maple
tree, and sloped upward slightly. The photo shows
a
brace
with 7/16th bit for tapping trees with traditional
metal taps |
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enlarge, then use the "back" button on your browser to
return here.
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A snug fitting, tapered hollow
tap is driven into the hole, so the sap won't
just run down the side of the tree. This flows
into an open container, or through a small hose
to a larger system. Note that the bucket is full
of sap! |
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enlarge, then use the "back" button on your browser to
return here.
To get ideas, let's look at a
traditional commercial Sap House, where the
boiling takes place. It will have a large vent at the
peak of the roof for the steam to escape, and vents in
the upper half of the side walls for fresh air to enter.
There will be some way to control this air flow, to keep
it efficient as the wind and temperature changes.
The boiler will be a long
rectangular pan, with a firebox under it. The stack will
extend well above the roof, for a good draft. The sap
will be added at the flue end, since it is hotter, and
the pan will have a maze of baffles in it. At the front
of the firebox, where the fuel is added, there will be a
spigot, so the syrup can be drawn off once the sugar
content is high enough. It is run 24 hours a day through
the Sap season, which is usually 4 to 6 weeks, depending
on the weather. The best quality syrup will be made in
the first few weeks.
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The tool cart
Rik modified into a sap boiler. The top shelf was
mounted lower, to hold the Kerosene stoves just
below the 14 quart steam table container. The
stainless steel pan is about 4x12x20 inches. It s
available from commercial kitchen suppliers or
www.benmeadows.com
(item # 5JB-226362). A frame of 1x 1 angle iron
was made to support the pan. The heat output of
the two stoves and the 3 & 1/2 gallon pan are
perfectly matched. I would fill the stoves and
the pan in the morning, and add sap every hour or
two during the day. |
The simplest home set up is to
boil down a single large batch outside. You will need a
large shallow pan, 4 to 6 inches deep. These are used in
commercial kitchen steam tables, so you might try a
dealer in used restaurant equipment. A box stove or a
laundry stove, with the stovetop lids removed, so the
flames touch the pan, is much more efficient than an open
fire or a masonry pit or cook out grill. You need a tall
chimney to keep the smoke smell from getting into the
syrup. Now let's do a little math. Fill the pan 1/4 full
of water, and pour it off and measure it. Multiply times
40, and that's how much sap you should do in one batch.
Keep the pan full, and boiling very hard, until all of
the sap is in it, then gradually lower the heat so it
boils, but doesn't burn. As you get closer to finishing,
it may boil up, so you need two people right there to
remove it from the heat, or you could bring it inside to
finish it on a kitchen stove.
To test to see if it's nearly
ready, drop a spoonful on a saucer, and tip it
steeply. It should leave a thick trail behind it, as it
runs down. Now it will keep for awhile like this, but it
is better to boil a little longer. Eventually, you will
not be able to stir in down with a spoon, like jelly
making, and then it will cool to be very thick.
We pack it in hot jars from the
oven, and put on sterilized lids, and process in a
water bath canner for 20 minutes. This may not be long
enough by today's standards, for long term storage. Use
small jars, that you will use up in a month or so. If you
won't be keeping it through the summer, don't bother to
process it, just use clean hot jars with sterilized
lids.
If you have a "Summer
Kitchen", that would be an ideal place to work.
What we do, is make it on the kitchen wood fired cook
stove. You could use any woodstove with a cook top, or
several burners on any range. The multi burner Butterfly
stoves, or make a wide frame for two or more one
burner stoves. It takes a lot of heat, so the economy of
kerosene or wood is important. With lots of fresh air to
carry away the steam, your kitchen won't overheat. Since
we are inside, it's much more convenient, but the steam
it gives off in the house is a problem. Even with exhaust
fans, it's hard to make 40 quarts over a long season. We
crowd the top of the stove with shallow pans, and preheat
sap in a canning kettle.
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Final product!
The sap ran here for about two and a half weeks,
which is a short year. We had 13 taps out in the
Maple trees, and we got two cases of 8 oz jars
with thick syrup. That s, just the way we like
it. We processed this in a water bath canner for
an hour, so it will keep indefinitely.
Click on the thumbnail photo at left for a full
sized photo. |
Sap should be kept below 40
degrees, or heated above 140 degrees to keep it from fermenting or
spoiling. I use a large ladle to move the sap to the hottest pan over
the small fire box, and then work backwards, filling from the next
hottest to the coolest one, and fill that from the preheated kettle.
Once you set all this up, it doesn't take long to move the sap,
perhaps every half hour. While you finish a small batch, it will take
your full attention. When the hottest pan gets close to being syrup,
ladle out a large saucepan with a pouring spout or a square deep steam
table pan, 3/4 full. Heat it on a single burner you can control
better.
A Kerosene cook stove or camp stove is
ideal. If you use a kitchen range with a hood over it,
the steam will melt old grease out of it, and it will
drip down into the syrup. I put my portable stove right
in front of our electric range, and use the fan in the
hood. A box fan pushing air out a window helps too. A
small fan to move air OVER the sap pans will make it go
faster too, but don't cool the stove itself, or the sides
of the pans. I gather daily, before dark.
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I have a 17 gallon plastic
barrel secured to a hand truck. I put it onto a
cart I pull with a small garden tractor, and
drive that around to the trees. My son has a 25
gallon sprayer tank [new and food grade] he
straps to his ATV. |
I like the barrel on the hand truck
better, because I can wheel it right into the kitchen, to
draw from. Then I can move it to a place between 32 and
40 degrees until I need more. You could use a sturdy
wagon or make a cart
something like Miles did for his generator and kerosene
heaters. If you have open containers at the tree, the
sap should be filtered. I just use a milk filter because
I have one, but you could make something like the
juice strainer.- New England Gardener
3.16.2012. Note from Miles.
New England Gardener has greatly expanded this article on making maple syrup.
It is a great article with many photos and updated information that is
fascinating to read. Please visit New England Gardener's website to
read
the updated article, and if you need garden seeds, now is
the time to get them from New England Gardener.