Land staff have been harvesting maple sap for many years. SMSC has some excellent areas to tap sugar maples, the tree of choice when tapping. We chose two main areas, or sugar bushes, to tap this year. Sugar bushes are the forested areas chosen to tap in a given year where sugar maple trees are the dominant tree or are clustered. However, other maples can be tapped to generate syrup including red, black, silver, and boxelder, but they don’t have as high of sugar concentrations in their sap. It takes roughly 40 gallons of sugar maple sap to generate 1 gallon of syrup. In contrast, it takes roughly 60 gallons of sap to generate 1 gallon of syrup while tapping the other maple species. You end up doing more work and in general sugar maples are more abundant and clustered in forested systems which makes harvesting a little easier. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources published a ‘How To Tap and Make Maple Syrup’ document that is useful for a person interesting in tapping sugar maples (see [Maple Tapping Process] tab). Below is a summarized list of results tapping sugar maples in 2008. Also refer to the map to see where land staff set up sugar bushes and the photos of the tapping process (see [Sugar Bush Locations] tab, and [Photos] tab).

We had 300 taps this year on approximately 200 trees (some obviously tapped more than one time with a maximum of 3 taps per tree).

We had approximately 75 gallons of finished, filtered, and bottled syrup.
We boiled down approximately 4,000 gallons of sap that was collected by hand from two sugar bushes on SMSC land.  A gallon of sap weighs slightly more than 8 pounds and thus we hauled over 32,000 pounds of sap from the sugar bushes!

Our stove processes (evaporates) sap at approximately 15 gallons per hour.  Thus, staff tended the stove for approximately 275 hours that included several stretches of burning non-stop for several days (72 hours) at a time.

We burned approximately 4 cords of firewood.  A cord of wood is 4 feet by 4 feet by 8 foot tightly stacked pile of wood (128 cubic feet).

click here for printable map

 

How To Tap and Make Maple Syrup

What Trees Can be Tapped

Maple syrup can be made from any species of maple tree. Trees that can be tapped include: sugar, black, red and silver maple and box elder trees. Of all the maples, the highest concentration of sugar is found in the sap of the sugar maple. Generally the ratio of sap to syrup for the sugar maple is 40 to 1 (40 gallons of sap yields one gallon of syrup). Other species of maple have lower concentrations of sugar in their sap. For example; it may require 60 gallons of box elder sap to produce one gallon of syrup.

Tools Needed

The tools required for a small maple syrup operation are found in most homes or can be easily obtained.
They include:
Drill (brace) with 7/16" or 3/8" drill bit
Hammer
Collection containers - plastic buckets, milk jugs, and coffee cans work well
Large boiling pan (preferably low and broad)
Candy thermometer
Wool felt or cheesecloth filter material
Spiles or tapping spouts - Spiles can be purchased or made from 1/2 " wooden dowels cut to
3 " lengths. Drill a 1/8 " hole through the center of each dowel and taper at one end so the spile will fit snugly into the tree tap hole. A notch should be made on the top of the wide end of the spile to support the sap collection container

When to Tap Trees

Alternating freeze and thaw temperatures are necessary to create the pressure which causes the sap to flow when the tree is tapped. Sap runs best when temperatures drop below freezing at night and rise into the 40s during the day. In Minnesota these conditions typically occur during the month of March. However, because weather conditions vary somewhat from year to year, and from one location to another, trees can sometimes be tapped as early as mid- February or as late as April. Once temperatures stay above freezing and leaf buds appear, the maple syrup season is over.

How to Tap Trees

Drill a hole in a tree, 2 - 4 feet above the ground. The hole should be drilled at a slight upward angle to a depth of about 3 inches. Use a hammer to lightly tap the spile into the hole. Do not hammer the spile too far into the hole as it may cause the wood around the hole to split - resulting in lost sap flow. Hang a sap container from the spile. It is best to use containers that have a cover on them to keep out rain, snow and other forest debris. Empty sap containers once a day and process sap immediately or store in a cool place out of direct sunlight until you are ready. It is recommended that you have at least ten gallons of sap before you start the evaporating process.

To determine the number of taps per tree, (too many taps in a tree may be harmful) use the following chart:
Tree Diameter Number of Taps
less than 10" 0
10" to 14" 1
15" to 19" 2
20" to 24" 3
25" or larger 4

How to Process Sap into Syrup

To make syrup from maple sap is a simple process of boiling and evaporation. Since substantial quantities of water will be "cooked off," most of the boiling should be done outside, preferably over a wood-burning stove. Pour your sap into a large cooking pan. (A pan with a large surface area will increase the rate of evaporation during the boiling process.) As the water boils off, add more sap. Take care to add only small amounts of sap at a time to avoid killing the boil. Use a candy thermometer attached to the side of the pan to monitor the temperature of the sap. As the sugar in the sap becomes more concentrated, the temperature of the boiling sap will rise. When the sap darkens and the bubbles become smaller, you are approaching the final stages of boiling. At this point, pour the sap into a smaller pan and continue boiling on your indoor stove. When the temperature of the sap reaches 219 degrees, the sap has become syrup! To finish the syrup making process, strain the hot syrup twice through cheesecloth or felt, pour into jars and refrigerate. For longer storage, you can also use mason jars and can the syrup.