One of the statements that we often hear is a marveled “I don’t know HOW you do it, I could never do that!” The fact of the matter is that most of what we do is not hard. Indeed, most of it is pretty easy. Tapping maple trees is probably the easiest of those things; I think more people should do it it’s so simple. Though we’re in the throes of winter and only just finished a brutal polar vortex, Spring is actually closer that you think and the time to tap trees is just around the corner. In fact, I’ve been eyeing the weather reports and weighing whether or not we should be doing it this coming week sometime. Though we’ve posted ABOUT tapping trees these last few years, we’ve never quite posted on HOW we do it. This post will serve as a ‘Part I’ in the two part process of harvesting your own maple syrup during the sap run. But firstly to answer a question:

What is the sap run?

When trees go dormant in the winter they send their sap from their branches down underground into the roots. This keeps the sap from freezing inside the tree during the colder months. In late winter, the sap returns from the roots to the upper half of the tree for the warmer months – this being the ‘sap run.’ The sap is mostly water with something like 2 or 3% sugar, which is why it requires boiling off to make syrup. To get the sap out it requires tapping the trees. And here’s how we do it:

1. Select Your Maple Trees

Ideally this is done before the snow falls, as the easiest way to identify is by the leaves. They look like this:

Truth be told, you can make syrup from the sap of a red maple or a silver maple, it doesn’t necessarily have to be a sugar maple. Actually, if we’re REALLY telling the truth, it doesn’t even have to be a maple tree to get syrup from it. Sugar maples are the most common because they have the highest sugar content and therefore require less burning off time. Maybe one year we’ll experiment with other varieties, but at the moment we have enough to do without investing in a new trial-and-error process. Ergo, we’re sticking with sugar maples for now. For those doing this for the first time, sugar maples are probably the best option.

2. Time the Sap Run

The time to tap is when the temperature is hitting above freezing (high thirties, forties) during the day and then fall below freezing overnight. This will vary from location to location, but the last two years around us I’ve found it to be mid-February. Ish. There’s a lot of ‘ish’ in homesteading. The weather is right these next few days, but I’m thinking it’s still a tad early. This is the only ‘tricky’ part of the whole process. What I’ll do is check some of the local homesteading groups online and see what others are doing. I may even put a single tap out tonight and see what happens. If some sap has accrued, then I’ll put out the rest. So even then, it’s not actually that tough to tell.

3. Tap The Trees

Use a drill (although it’s a lot of fun to use an auger) to put holes in the tree to extract the sap. Use a bit that’s slightly smaller than the taps you have so that they stay securely in the tree. Make the holes going in at a slightly upward angle to allow for gravity to lend its assistance. Once you have your holes, gently hammer the taps into the trees (gently so you do not bend the taps). How many holes per tree? We go with 1 tap per 10 inches of trunk diameter. Where to place the holes? Try not to re-use holes from year to year, and I’ve heard that you should place them either above a large root or below a large branch so that you can get the sap either from where it’s coming from or on it’s way to where it’s going. That said, I haven’t noticed if that helps all that much. But what the heck, it can’t hurt and it might help.

4. Collect the Sap

You can hang buckets from the taps, although last year I discovered sap sacks and I don’t think we’ll go back. They’re covered, so they don’t let in little bits of bark and who knows what other bits of tree detritus like the open buckets do. They’re simple to use; just a metal holder and a plastic sack that attaches to it. Once they’re filled, dump the sap into a larger container (we just use a cooler) and hang it back up on the tree to collect more. I strain the sap with cheese cloth in case anything does happen to get into it. If you happen to have a layer of ice on top of the sap, do a fist pump and chuck the ice. Why? Because only the water will freeze, not the sugar, and it will help to shorten the amount of time burning off the sap into syrup. This is a good little chemistry lesson for the kids if you homeschool. Don’t let the sap sit for too long, because you don’t want it to mold. If the temperature is cold enough we’ll push it a week or so. If it warms up to the fifties we’ll build up some snow around the cooler to help keep it cold and try to get to it a little sooner.

And that’s all there is to it! Next week I’ll post Part II to cover burning off, and I promise you that’s just as simple as tapping the trees in the first place. I’ll also update you on whether or not my timing on tapping was correct. See you next week!