We make maple syrup. Why? Well, it is a fun learning experience for the grandkids, and our family is very concerned about the source of our food supply.
We keep hens so we know where our eggs come from, we have dairy goats for a fresh supply of milk, and our vegetable gardens increase every year.
Which would you like your family to enjoy on their pancakes?
Pure maple syrup or
Store brands containing some combination of high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, liquid sugar, water, salt, cellulose gum, salt, molasses, sorbic acid, sodium benzoate, sodium hexametaphosphate, phosphoric acid, potasium sorbate, citric acid, carmel coloring, natural flavors, natural butter flavor, natural maple flavor, artificial maple flavor, or other artificial flavors
We try to adhere to Michael Pollan‘s theory “Don’t eat anything your grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.” 🙂
And, what is more natural than getting food from a tree in your yard? Sugaring is a wonderful family experience if you want your children or grandchildren to be closer to their food supply and understand the value and cost of the meals prepared for your table.
Collecting sap from maple trees and making maple syrup dates back to the 1600s when the Native American Indians traded maple syrup and maple sugar with the early European settlers.
New Hampshire maple producers sell around 100,000 gallons of pure maple syrup each year at sugarhouses and specialty shops throughout the area.
We are lucky enough to have two very special friends who have a sugarhouse and with their advice and help, this is our second year of tapping our maple trees.
Sugaring season usually starts in late February or early March when the nights are still below freezing but the days are mild.
In order to tap a maple tree, it must be in good health and at least 10-12 inches in diameter. The larger the tree, the more taps it can support.
A 7/16-inch diameter hole, about 3 inches deep is usually drilled about waist-high on the tree. A spile is tapped into the hole and either a bucket with a lid is attached to the spile or plastic tubing is attached and runs through a line system to a central collection site.
Each tap hole can potentially yield up to ten gallons of sap.
Maple sap coming directly from the tree is clear and contains approximately 98% water and 2% sugar.
The water needs to be evaporated so the sap is boiled until it reaches seven and a half degrees above boiling point.
At this point it has become maple syrup and contains approximately 33% water and 67% sugar.
It takes approximately 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup making pure maple syrup fairly expensive in comparison to varieties found at the grocery store.
Sugaring season generally lasts from four to six weeks. When new leaves begin to bud on the trees, it is time to shut down for the year, clean the equipment, plan for the next season, and enjoy your maple syrup harvest.
If you want to try it yourself, and I’d highly recommend it, check out Tap My Trees, where you can find practical information and other families commenting about their sugaring adventures.
For more information about the interesting history of maple syrup, there is the New Hampshire Maple Producers or the Maple Museum, and Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello has a historical account of how and why he promoted the use of maple sugar over cane sugar.
On sugaring…
Grandson (7): It’s fun, and I like eating sugar on snow.
Granddaughter (12): It is interesting but making maple syrup takes a lot longer than you think.
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Linked to My Turn For Us Freedom Friday
Maple sugaring is one of the things on my very long list of things I’d like to do when I have house. (Now I live in an apartment, so no maple trees to tap.) It looks like so much fun!
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Great informative post! Your grandchildren will have great memories!
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Very interesting. Your grandkids enjoy wonderful learning every day through hands-on experiences that most kids just read about in books.
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Judy I have never had pure maple syrup in my life. In the grocery store, it is a small fortune. Your posts make me want to try it but if I am going to spend that fortune should I buy it in the store or do you have a supplier friend that sells online ?
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Let me see what I can do about that. 🙂
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I haven’t had real maple syrup in a long time — it really is cost prohibitive! But I do remember the little pails with their roof hanging from the trees along the country roads in Michigan. So wonderful that your grands are getting the opportunity to learn and enjoy all of this!
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I love the idea of local maple syrup. We certainly don’t have that luxury in the UK.
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This is on The Master List of Things I Have To Try At Least Once…no sugar maples on the property, but lots of swamp maple and red maple.
Up on the main road in town, there’s an old guy who taps his trees every year. He uses old plastic milk jugs to collect the sap…
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Any maple tree will work, you just get more from a sugar maple. And, yes, plastic milk jugs will work just as well as $15 pails. It is just an interesting project to see that clear liquid turned into pure maple syrup, and the taste is wonderful.
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Making sea salt from seawater is also on that list…have you ever done that?
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No, but I’m going to have to look it up for our camping trip at Hampton Beach in June. Thank you so much for the idea.
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We have a friend that is tapping trees this year so I’m hoping for some wonderful New Hampshire maple syrup before long.
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What a great experience for the kids. I would love to take them there someday to learn it hands on. My kids watch the maple syrup making process and fascinated. It’ll be super fun for them (and me) to do it for real. 🙂 I love your way of ensuring the food sauce, plant and grow your own is the way to go! I wish I have more space to grow more veggies at my place.
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Thanks for stopping by. Has your family ever been able to enjoy pure maple syrup? It might also be nice to add to one of your wonderful recipes.
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I have nominated you for the versatile blogger award and hope you don’t mind.
http://doro1k1z.wordpress.com/2013/03/09/prizes-and-awards/
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Who could mind being thought of in such a nice way by a fellow blogger? Thank you sincerely.
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You are welcome, but the process is time consuming, bit of a chain letter style…some people do mind. You deserve it.
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So can I really do this with my Autumn Blaze maple tree? How old should it be? And then you just boil the sap down to make syrup? That’s it?
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If your tree is between 10-12″ in diameter, you can tap it, retrieve the sap, and boil until you have syrup. It is a really simple process but takes time to remove the 98″ water. Here is a good link: http://www.tapmytrees.com/preparation.html
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