Growing up my father collected Maple Sap and boiled it down into Maple Syrup, so when my husband showed interest in making his own maple syrup I told him “Let’s do this!”
Making or growing our own food in an important part of life for us, not because we are hippies or anything that may come to mind. It is because we want to know exactly what we are eating and where it comes from. Teaching our children how to grow plants from the seed up is something that not many children these days know how to do unfortunately.
So how does one go about making maple syrup? Well the process isn’t as difficult as you may think it is. First you you will need to make sure you have Sugar Maple trees. This handy little chart from the River Bend Nature Center Website is simple and easy to use.
Once you have found several sugar maple trees (you will need several because it can take 40-60 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup), you will need to drill a hole the size of your tap. The tap is what funnels the sap in to your bucket
Along with your bucket and lid, you are ready to start collecting sap.
Now Sap looks like water, but is slightly sweet, so it must be boiled down to be concentrated into syrup.
Our Little helpers, my nephews along with my daughter and son who is a toddler.
We collect sap and use a water pump to pump into the tank, which makes collection faster since we do not have to climb on and off the back of the RTV.
Once it has been collected, we start the boiling process. We use a boiling tank borrowed from my Dad, so I have no idea where it came from originally. We use a contraption my husband built to boil it down, this process takes a while.
Once it is boiled down and concentrated you have Maple Syrup, we put ours into canning jars and it is ready to eat.
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