Browsed by
Category: Maple Sugaring

How To Identify Sugar Maples

How To Identify Sugar Maples

Wait, wait, wait, WHAT?! A maple sugaring post before the Autumnal Equinox even?! Yes, and for good reason. We might be five to six months away from the sap run, but now is the time to identify which trees we want to tap come February. We’ve tapped the same couple of trees for 3 seasons straight, and we want to tap a few more this year to increase our yields. While I’ve made a mental note every spring to scout…

Read More Read More

Maple Sugaring Part II: Burning Off

Maple Sugaring Part II: Burning Off

Okay! We started recently with how to tap maple trees and collect sap; now we’re going over burning off. Sap is almost entirely water, so we use the burning off process to evaporate the water and leave behind the sugar syrup. This is something you want to do outside, as it takes something like 30-40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup. If you’re doing the math with me that’s a lot of water being released into the…

Read More Read More

Maple Sugaring Part I: How To Tap Maple Trees

Maple Sugaring Part I: How To Tap Maple Trees

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,…

Read More Read More

January Update

January Update

No ‘big’ things on the homestead, but there have been plenty of ‘little’ things to keep us busy as of late. January isn’t much a month for ‘doing,’ but it is a great month for dreaming, planning and organizing. It might be the dead of winter, but kidding season has already started for those who breed their does early in the season. This would not be us; we have a solid 2 months before we have to even think about…

Read More Read More

Late Winter

Late Winter

Whenever I tell people that we boil off our own sap to make maple syrup, the response is almost always: “That is SO cool!” I don’t say it, but my thought is usually “Yes, yes it is very cool. And very BORING!” Having the excuse to sit still in front of a hot fire and relish the chance to do very little is quite enjoyable for the first two hours or so. After that it’s just a bit tedious. Not…

Read More Read More