An even Sappier Tale about a Drip!!

After collecting all the sap, it was time to make Maple syrup. We collected the sap for about 5-6 weeks, with about 2-3 of those weeks generating the most sap. By the end of April, we had filled the 33 gallon barrel over half full, and still had plenty of snow in our snow bank to keep the barrel buried and the contents chilled. All in all, we estimate that we had about 17-18 gallons of prime, Gorham, Maine Maple sap, just waiting to be turned into syrup.

So, I started by lugging the barrel up on to my deck. If you do the math, that is over 150 lbs, including the barrel. Note to self, next year think of a better way than lugging that stupid barrel up the steps.

The next step was to set up my trusty Camp Chef stove, which I use for canning more than anything, and start boiling. I actually started this on a Saturday morning, but ran out of propane about an hour into it. So, we filled up the tank and went to a movie (I know, my dedication to my craft is simply amazing, isn't it?).

The sap-cook continued on Sunday afternoon, after church of course. A spring rain storm had rolled in, making the forest kind of misty and foggy (very pretty out).

Cook, cook, cook. Boil, boil, boil.

Cook, cook, cook. Boil, boil, boil. Wait, are we getting close? I don't know. It is starting to smell a bit like syrup out. Maybe you better check the temperature. Yep, it is boiling and temperature is right at 212 F. Nope it is not close yet. Fill the pan with more sap and keep boiling!

Cook, cook, cook. Boil, boil, boil. Finally after about 6 hours of boiling, things started to happen. I had a minor boil over due to foam. Quickly dropped a little butter in the pot, which immediately broke the surface tension and dissipated the foam. At this point I started watching the temperature very closely. There are two basic ways to determine if you syrup is done: 1) use a hydrometer to measure the solution density, and 2) use a thermometer to measure when the temperature is 7 F above the boiling point. In either case, the sap-to-syrup process is complete once it has reached the right concentration of sugar (67% sugar by weight). If the syrup is left less dense, it can spoil. If it is more dense (higher sugar content), the sugar will crystallize and you will have created maple sugar.

Basically for us here in Gorham, ME, we are essentially at sea level. So for us the finish temperature is 219 F. Once the syrup foamed, and I stopped it, we hit 218-220 F in about 1-2 minutes, and the syrup was done.

Next step was to filter out the chunks with cheese cloth and pour our fine, amber nector into the most attractive, decorative bottle we could find. OK, so we settled for wide-mouth quart jar. The color was a rich amber color, and the taste was totally awesome of course! This picture makes the syrup look slightly cloudy, but it was not.

All in all, we ended up making just over 5 cups of syrup. A normal reduction is about 40-to-1, so either we only started with about 12 gallons of sap, or our sap was a mite weak. I am soooooo ashamed of my trees!

This was such a fun project! BTW, for the record I should state that this was Valerie's idea. We plan to do it again next year, but I bet we will expand the operation some. I already have ideas to switch to tubing, build a sugar house and tap a hundred trees. But, I bet we will probably just buy 4-5 more taps and buckets is all.