Our plans were to go up north to tap trees. Instead we went to a maple syruping class at Fort Snelling State Park. After 2 hours we were ready to tackle the process. Proeun’s sister has 2 large trees in her front yard. We asked her it is would be OK to tap her trees. She was a little concerned that it might kill her tree but her 6 year old son Matthew was all enthusiasm. She kept saying, “Matthew’s too excited. Matthew’s too excited.” Matthew tipped the scale in our favor.
We had purchased a couple taps and got to work drilling the holes in the tree, preparing the buckets and trying to explain to Matthew it was going to be awhile before we had syrup.
In a week we returned to find almost a gallon of sap. The house was full of family and in-laws who thought we were crazy. One uncle had made palm syrup in Cambodia and was interested in the process. He suggested boiling that gallon down and seeing what happens.
Out came the big pot. We decided just to boil it in the house since it was such a small amount. Hour by hour the family teased us. It looked just like water but the level in the pot was slowly going down. Finally it stopped looking like water and turned to syrup. The children ran with spoons. At one point we had 5 children standing by the stove and dipping spoons in the big pot. Our children know what maple syrup tastes like but for the others who grew up on commerical brands, it was a fabulous treat.
A few weeks later it was time to pull the taps. We had almost 5 gallons (we had started late with the tapping). We boiled it down to a pint and have our own maple syrup.
Normally you can get about 15 gallons of sap from a tree or tap. Trees that are bigger around then 15 inches can handle more then one tap. It takes 40 gallons of sugar maple sap to make 1 gallon of Syrup. Other types of maple (including box elder) take up to 60 gallons of sap. Start tapping when the nights are freezing but the days are above freezing. Remove the tap when the sap starts to look cloudy. The hole should plug by the following fall.