Tapping Maple Trees

This year, we decided to do something very New England, or in our circumstance, very Maine. After talking about wanting to try it for the past several years, this year Valerie finally inspired me to go out and buy some tree tapping stuff so that we can try our hand at making Maple syrup.

So, order of business #1: identify your maple trees. Had we tried to do this within the first few years on our property, I would have been hard pressed to tell a maple from an oak from a beech from a hornbeam (kind of hard when they don't have leaves). But, we found the maples we wanted to tap.

Order of business #2: drill the hole (7/16" bit, drilled to about 1-3/4 inches deep) using the handy-dandy, shiney new, 18V Li-ion Makita that I just got for Christmas to replace my 16 year old Dewalt.

Order of business #3: drive in the tap. The tap is tapped into place with a hammer, deep enough that it can't be pulled out by hand, but not so deep as to split the wood.

Order of business #4: affix the bucket cover, and hand the bucket from the tap. We'll have to get some close up shots of the tap, but you'll just have to trust me that there is a hook to hang the bucket from. Big operations string together all their taps using blue plastic tubing that all runs down to a collection point. I have seen places up north that have miles and miles and miles of tubing, all draining into the sugar house. The sap is pretty much like water, so will easily flow downhill.

We have no real aspirations of making gallons of syrup, but so far it has been a fun project. I'll try to post a follow up on the syrup making process and how many tablespoons we end up with.

JTB