making maple syrup

liquid gold | photo:  Becky S.

This is a guest post from my friend Becky S. who lives in the northeast.  One day she happened to mention making maple syrup with the kids.  Definitely a cool learning experience for anyone but especially exciting when it comes from your very own trees.  She and her kids had a great time and she agreed to share the story of her first-time maple syruping.

Although maple syrup is a form of sugar, if it's the real stuff, it has some modest added mineral benefits as well.  One tablespoon provides some zinc and a whopping 33% of your daily requirement for manganese (important for bone health, nerve health, blood sugar stability, and thyroid function).  Definitely a better choice than the fake, flavored syrup so many people tend to substitute for the real thing.

Here's Becky's story:

Liquid Gold

Five or six years ago, we took our children to a local Maple Sugaring Fest. We were told the charming story of how the Native Americans discovered syrup, boiling it in hollowed logs by dropping hot stones into the sap. When we stepped inside the sugar shack, we were engulfed by steam. We got to see the sap being boiled down in large vats. It was at that point, while receiving my first maple-scented facial, that I became determined to someday make my own syrup from the trees in our backyard. There really is something quite amazing about boiling the bejeebies out of “water” from a tree to create sweet, amber goodness that my children delight in pouring over hot pancakes.

Two weeks ago, perhaps in an attempt to avoid spring cleaning the house, I found myself googling  “How to Tap Maple Trees” and discovered Tapmytrees.com which told me everything I needed to get started. Apparently there was no time to spare. In case you haven’t noticed, it has been a tad warm lately; not exactly the right conditions for tapping trees. In our case, a little ignorance was pure bliss...or should I say “pure syrup.” Here's what we learned from the experience and what we will do differently next year...because there WILL be a next year!

Helpful things to know:

placing the spile | photo: Becky S.

1.  Are you actually tapping a maple tree? Thank goodness for my “Local Flora” class in college. We tapped Norway Maples. Mark your trees during the summer when their leaves are easier to identify.

2.  A Spile is the metal tap that goes into the tree from which the sap drips. I found a kit with spiles and hooks at our local Agway.

3.  Drill the tap holes underneath large limbs. The sap will run much better in that location.

filtering the sap | photo: Becky S.

4.  Sap is sweet. Bugs and little fuzzy critters really like the way it tastes. Be prepared to greet guests in your buckets if you are not using lids. (Ewwwwww)

5.  Keep a cheese cloth handy when collecting the sap so you can filter out unwanted guests. (Ewwwww again)

6.  Have a cold place to keep the sap until you are ready to boil. It must stay cold or it will get rancid. We stored ours in 1-gal covered containers, surrounded by ice in keg buckets.

We also learned what not to do:

1.  Do not use a concrete drill bit on maple trees...or any tree, for that matter. It takes FOREVER to drill the 2.5” hole for the spile, using up the battery on your cordless drill and turning the wood into putty. Invest in a regular 7/16” drill bit. They’re about $8 at Home Depot. Better yet, call your neighbor to borrow his.

2.  Do not think tin foil will be an adequate cover for the sap buckets. Trust me, it’s not. (Read #4 above). Clean, sterilized gallon milk jugs are a great alternative to buckets.

3.  Do not wait too long to try tapping. Keep an eye on the weather and the maple syrup blogs. Ideally, the temps should go below freezing at night and above during the day.

boiling sap | photo: Becky S.

So, you’re wondering how it all turned out?

We managed to collect 10 gallons of sap in a day and a half from 7 taps. We boiled it outside (a must!) on a propane turkey burner for approximately 8-9 hours (divided over 2 days). Our final product: one quart of syrup that we affectionately refer to as “Liquid Gold.”

It is delicious!

Next year we are going for a full gallon!

eating in the woods

Merriweather | photo: miradessy

My husband and I were fortunate enough to be able to take a Wild Edibles Foraging Tour with Merriweather today.   He's always interesting and engaging, offering an amazing depth and breadth of information about edible, non-edible, and medicinal plants.

The ground was very wet and muddy at the Spring Creek Greenway Nature Center due to all of the rain we've had lately.  And trust me, all of that rain is a good thing after the drought we've had for the last two years.  However the muddy terrain didn't hold back our eagerness to follow Merriweather over log and trail in pursuit of the knowledge he had to share.

There are rules to wildcrafting or edible foraging:

1.  Respect the law - in Texas it is a crime, carrying fines of up to $500, to rustle.  That includes plants.  So if you're going to harvest you need to ask permission first.

2.  Respect the land - just like I learned in Girl Scouts all those years ago, leave it cleaner than you found it and if you packed it in, pack it out.

3.  Respect the plant - make clean cuts so the plant can stay healthy and do not over-harvest.

4. Respect yourself - know, definitively, what you are picking and planning to eat.  Don't assume because you could be risking your health.

It was a fascinating class and I think everyone was struck by the vast number of edible plants in our environment that we are not aware of.  There was a mind-boggling amount of information.  Although there are other books out there, I'm waiting for Merriweather to write one of his own because I'm sure it will be good.  He has a unique point of view when it comes to sharing this information.

luna moth | photo: miradessy

There were lots of neat things to see during the class, not just plants.  One was this beautiful luna moth which patiently clung to the branch, allowing us to turn it over so everyone could photograph "the pretty side."

In spite of the chilly weather, overcast conditions, and muddy terrain everyone appeared to enjoy the expedition tremendously.