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Maple Syrup Making: How to Tap into this Valuable Resource

We all love maple trees for their gorgeous fall colors. But did you know, that you can put a tap in those trees and make your own maple syrup from them? It truly is a simple process that can be done at home and does not require a large investment to try out. Chances are, that you may have a few maple trees right in your front yard? We started out by tapping 6 trees in the front yard of our house and were quickly hooked on the hobby. You too can use this valuable resource! In this Maple Syrup Making series, we will walk you through the entire process! Starting with Why You Should Consider Tapping Your Trees,  Identifying the Maples & Equipment Needed, Tapping & Collecting the Sap, Boiling it down, and Storing Your Harvest (Preserving the Gold).

We will be sharing several instructional videos to help you on here and on our YouTube Channel. Make sure you follow along.

Maple Syrup Making Series Posts:

Maple Syrup Making: Tapping into this Valuable Resource
Identifying Trees & Equipment Needed
Tapping & Collecting
Boiling Down the Sap (or Evaporating)- Check out the videos of our DIY Maple Syrup Evaporator and how we boil sap on our YouTube Channel
Preserving the Gold
Take Down & Clean Up

Why You Should Consider Tapping Your Maple Trees

Where Does Maple Syrup Come From

To some, this may seem like a dumb question. But, we have come across countless people who do not know that real maple syrup comes from maple tree sap. Maple sap is a clear liquid that flows from the maple trees in the right temperatures and has a slightly sweet taste to it. You can see in the image above, that maple sap looks like clear water. You can drink the sap and it is said to be nutritious and a good electrolyte drink. Read about that here. When the sap is boiled down, the water evaporates and the color and taste start to change. Eventually, you will boil almost all of the water out of it and end up with pure maple syrup. 40 gallons of sap will make 1 gallon of syrup.

How we started tapping

Like I mentioned above, we started out by tapping 6 maple trees in the front yard of our home on a 2-acre lot in our old neighborhood. We did not have a woods full of maples, but we did have a few and that was enough. This was an inexpensive endeavor to try and we had the main resource right in our front yard. What did we have to lose?

During the first sap run, we were amazed to see that our buckets were full! We boiled down the sap on our turkey frier (a wedding gift we had received), which may not have been the most cost-effective way to boil it down but we used what had and took a stab at it. That first year, we ended up getting 8 jars of beautiful maple syrup right from our property!  We were hooked right there on sugaring.

Since then, we have found several other people willing to let us use their property to tap maple trees and increase our sugaring. Our dear neighbors let us use their woods and they love seeing our family come out, tap their trees, collect the sap, and then boil it down. They get as much maple syrup as they would like throughout the year.

Six years later, we continue to look forward to the “sugar” season and continually improve the process of tapping, collecting, and evaporating.

Can everybody tap their maple trees?

Not all locations have the right temperatures needed to get the sap to run. The map below gives you a general idea of where you may be able to successfully tap your maple trees in the U.S. and Canada. Climate is the primary determinant of this.  Sap flows when daytime temperatures rise above freezing (32 degrees Fahrenheit / 0 Celsius) and nighttime temperatures fall below freezing. The sap generally flows for 4 to 6 weeks depending on the weather, with the best sap produced early on in the sap-flowing season.

What to look for in your trees

You can tap sugar, black, red, and silver maples. The trees should look healthy, be at least 12 inches in diameter, and have sufficient sunlight.  If you have a large maple tree, you may be able to put 2-3 taps in this one tree.

Depending on your location and weather conditions, maple tree sap will start to flow between Mid-February and Mid-March.

So now that you know where it comes from… Why Tap Your Maple Trees?

Now that you know where maple syrup comes from, you may be wondering why someone would want to take the time and effort to make it. If you have access to maple trees, you can make maple syrup. So many of us have this natural resource at our are fingertips or know where to find some.  This is a fun winter activity to keep you busy in late winter and early spring.  You can learn something new and best of all, produce your own food.

I guess what I am really trying to say, is that ANYONE CAN DO THIS! You don’t need all the fancy equipment, special tools, and cute jars. Maple Syrup Making is a time to enjoy nature, notice the signs of spring, and spend time with your family in the woods and by a fire boiling the sap down.

If you still need more reasons for why you might want to make your own maple syrup here are a few more: 

Why You Should Make it

You may have a few nice maples right in your yard just waiting to be tapped.

It’s one less thing you can depend on the store to provide for you.

You can sell it or give it as gifts

It is a great hobby that you can take pride in

It gets you active at the end of winter/early Spring.

A great activity to do with your family!

You can do this fairly inexpensively (if you choose to do so)

You can enjoy the sweetness ALL YEAR LONG!

Benefits of Pure Maple Syrup

It is 100% Natural (Imitation Maple Syrup is loaded with corn syrup, caramel food coloring, and artificial flavors)

Hight in vitamins:  zinc, potassium, manganese, thiamine, calcium, iron, magnesium, and riboflavin. (According to Acadian Maple)

Contains Antioxidants

It’s a Natural sweetener

Ways you can use Pure Maple Syrup 

Pancakes & Waffles

Ice Cream topping

Oatmeal/Granola sweetener

A sweat meat marinade

Old Fashioned mix

A vanilla substitute ( I have been doing this for the last month and can’t tell a difference in my baking)

A substitute for white sugar (use 3/4 cup pure maple syrup for 1 Cup White Sugar)

Our 2019 Maple Syrup Season Video

Last year, my husband put together this little video of our maple syrup season. If you haven’t seen this yet, I think it is a great way to get you excited about tapping your own maple trees! We were hard at work building our maple syrup cooker, tapping maple trees, collecting sap, cooking it down in our new DIY evaporator, and finally, canning up that liquid gold.  It was a blast for the entire family! We started with about 300 gallons of sap and ended up having just short of 7 gallons of fresh maple syrup. Don’t be intimidated! Our big project last winter was making this DIY maple sap evaporator.

In less than 4 1/2 minutes you can see how we built our cooker, tapped trees, collected sap, and cooked it down. In a nutshell, this video shows the process from start to finish. This video also shows how we converted a fuel oil tank into a DIY maple sap evaporator. It was originally posted in SNEEK PEEK! Our Syrup Season From Start to Finish in 264 Second.

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I am interested! Now what?

Are you interested in Making Your Own Maple Syrup? We will walk you through the entire process in this series! Starting with Identifying Maples Trees & Equipment Needed, Tapping & Collecting the Sap, Boiling it down, and Storing Your Harvest (Preserving the Gold).

We will be sharing several instructional videos to help on here and our YouTube Channel. Make sure you Subscribe to our Channel.

Next up: Identifying Maple Trees and the Equipment Needed 

Maple Syrup Making Series Posts:

Maple Syrup Making: Tapping into this Valuable Resource
Identifying Trees & Equipment Needed
Tapping & Collecting
Boiling Down the Sap (or Evaporating)- We have several videos to help you on our YouTube Channel
Preserving the Gold
Take Down & Clean Up

Looking to learn more about homesteading? Want to find a like-minded community? Join the Homesteaders of America

Happy Tapping,

-Daniel & Lindsay Madsen

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