Most springs, my family makes maple syrup. There is not a specific date we start. There isn’t a specific day we end, either. However, we usually end up starting in March or early April. In order for the sap to run, the temperature must be below freezing (32°F) at night and above freezing during the day. Once it looks like there will be at least a week of weather like this, we tap the trees.
My family goes out to our stretch of woods to tap maple trees with all the supplies we need: buckets, lids, metal taps, hammers, and drills. Once we get to a tree or group of trees that are big enough to tap, we all gather the supplies. First, someone drills a small hole in the tree. We use a 5/16 or 7/16 inch drill bit depending on the size of the tap we want to use on that particular tree. Once it is drilled, someone else pounds in the tap with a hammer. Next, the bucket and lid are attached. We continue this process until all the maple trees are tapped. Since we started tapping trees a few years ago, the number of trees that we tap has increased. Last year we tapped between 30 and 35 maple trees.
After we have tapped the trees, we check them daily to see how much sap has run. Once it becomes steady and the pails are about half-full, we start collecting the maple sap. After this point, we collect sap once a day. We collect in the morning so that the ground is still hard enough to drive the tractor on. On really good days-meaning it got really warm so the sap ran faster than normal—we collect twice a day.
to be continued next week …….
Anderson’s Maple Syrup, Inc. is proud to support our local schools. Most recently we collaborated with one of Cumberland High School’s 10th grade English classes. Students were given the opportunity to use their skills to describe the flavor of and creative uses for pure maple syrup.