When Does Maple Sap Run?

Maple sap runs when the temperatures fluctuate from the teens and low 20's followed by a quick rise in temperatures to the 40's and above.  Using the graph above you can quickly see when the sap will flow.  My husband created this forecasted temperature and precipitation graph which has been an invaluable tool for maple syrup season and gardening.

According to the graph you can quickly see when it will precipitate (green colors) and when to cover the garden plants (the red line is temperature and the blue dotted line is 32°F -- freezing).  The best thing is, you can get this for any location in the USA. Simply go to this website: http://preview.weather.gov/edd/ and click your location on the map and this graph will appear. This website works best on a desktop computer or tablet, not a phone.

We hope you find this tool useful for your syrup and garden planning activities!!

Our first maple syrup boil this year, February 8, 2015.

Here is another maple sap run later in the season that shows temps reaching the 50's and then plummeting down to the teens.  

Maple Syrup Summary 2014

This was our second year tapping maple trees for syrup.  We boiled sap three times and netted 20 pints and a few flasks for the refrigerator.  You can see a change of color in the syrup indicating the different grades with the syrup on the left being from the first boil.  If you look closely, you can see a cloudy appearance in the bottom of the jars.  The cloudiness is a result of tapping silver maples.  We only have one sugar maple on the property. 

Silver maples have about a 60:1 ratio of sap to syrup.  Boiling syrup takes forever...to put it plainly...20 hours of boiling gave us 8 pints of finished syrup.  Of course, we don't sit in front of the fire all day.  We have other projects around the property so we check on the fire about every 20 minutes and add a log, so our boiling time is probably longer than others. 

We aren't hardcore enough to stay up all night (a nice cozy sugar shack would make this more appealing), so we put a piece of tin roofing over the pan leaving about an inch exposed in the back to let the steam out.  The covering keeps animals from drinking the sap and Jon's worst fear is a mouse leaping in for a suicide dive that will ruin our hard work. Luckily this has been just a fear so far.  In the morning, the pan is usually half full because the heat from the coals continues to evaporate the water out of the sap overnight. 

This year we received a lot of snow but the days we boiled were warm so the snow melted before we had a chance to eat "sugar on snow," a process which you drizzle finished syrup on top of snow to make a chewy maple candy. 

With the cold weather, we had the unfortunate experience of collecting overflowing buckets of frozen sap.  We do have the perfect terrain for using plastic tubing since the property is hilly, but we like the traditional way of collecting from buckets. 

When the sap isn't frozen, we transport the sap in plastic carboys (water cooler containers) with our hiking pack.  We have 24 sap buckets on the trees at all times. 

Last year we used a cast iron pot for boiling which wasn't time efficient and seemed to leave a sediment and smoky flavor in the syrup no matter how much we filtered it.  This season we decided to purchase a pan designed for boiling maple syrup that has a thermometer and spigot.  We purchased it through Smoky Lake Maple Products.  We really like the pan and are glad we spent the extra money. 

And the fact that the pan was made in the USA makes it that much more enjoyable. 

And why do I include a picture of our woodpile?  Well, because you need a lot of wood, and also a reminder to cover it in the fall.  Last season we forgot to cover it and learned the hard way with longer boiling times, so this year we were prepared!

While gathering the sap I couldn't help but notice that the Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers also enjoy the maple tree sweetness.  The holes in this picture were made by the birds.  

Spring is around the corner even though while I write this snow is falling.  The buds on the maple trees are swelling and the maple syrup supplies are washed and stored in the basement.  Making syrup is a labor of love, but we will be excited to begin the whole process again next year.   

Maple Syrup Summary 2013

This past weekend was the end of maple syrup season for us.  It was a short 4 weeks but we canned 15 pints and filled 3 flasks with this delicious syrup.  We learned a lot from the experience and plan to tap again next year but we want to get a larger evaporator pan.  The cast iron kettle we used worked really well but we'd like to increase the surface area so we have shorter boiling times.  The picture above shows how the syrup color changes throughout the season.  Starting with the first week of tapping, the syrup is a very light amber color compared to the jar on the right that is very dark from the last boil.  

This is Jon's 3rd design for the boiling operation.

Other links on the blog about tapping maple syrup:  first time tapping   preparing

First Time Tapping For Maple Syrup

We have successfully completed two maple sap runs this year!  We have 24 taps that are collecting sap in metal buckets and we're boiling it over an open fire.  There are only 2 sugar maples and the rest are silver or red maples.  From what I read, silver and red maples produce a lower quantity of sap, less sugar to sap ratio, and make a cloudy syrup.  According to some, it's not worth tapping silver and red maples.  Well, we decided to go ahead and tap the trees anyway and find out for ourselves.

 

We have completed 2 small boils.  The first one was boiled over a fire in the picture on the left and the flavor was smokey.  To help draw smoke away from the syrup, Jon revised the fire setup and made a chimney as shown in the second picture.  The second setup was an improvement but too much heat went up the chimney so Jon is revising it again before the next boil.  From the picture on the right you can see a pot sitting on the chimney; that is water boiling for lunch and hot chocolate!  A piece of sheet metal covered the entrance when the wind was blowing.

 Transporting the syrup around the property can be a challenge with mountainous terrain and trees not located near trails.  With our small operation of only 24 trees located in 3 main areas, we decided to haul the sap in a hiking backpack!  The pack can hold one of those 4 gallon water coolers real easily.  In one of the pictures you can see Jon and Paul pouring the sap into a funnel that pours into one of the water coolers inside the hiking pack.  It's a pretty easy system enabling us to have our hands free in case we fall or need to push tree branches out of the way.  This is a much better system than carrying buckets!  We don't mind the extra work because this is how we get exercise...no need for a gym membership when we have mountains to climb and sap to haul!  Instead of an ATV, we use a wheel barrow, and instead of a chainsaw, we use a handsaw.  Jon and I try to maintain a simple lifestyle and this is one way we accomplish that.

When filtering the syrup, we used 2 layers of clean scrap fabric for filtering out ashes and other solids; and a wool filter was used right before bottling for collecting sugar sand and other small particles.  I took the picture after the fact, but I wanted to show you how we managed to prop up the wool filter by using a fruit masher/strainer.  We didn't realize how large this filter was when we ordered it but we still use it!

All of the maple syrup supplies were purchased used except for the wool filter.  The total cost of supplies, including shipping was: $286.94

Preparing for Maple Syrup Tapping

We are really excited to finally live in an area where we can tap maple trees for syrup!  We are doing a small operation here with maybe 2 dozen taps and we are boiling the traditional way over an open fire outside.

In the above picture I am measuring the circumference of a tree and recording it in my notebook.  I am still learning tree identification without relying on leaves so I wrapped pink surveyors tap around each tree.  The circumference tells me if the tree is large enough to tap and how many taps I can drill.

I sketched maps showing the location, size, and species of each maple tree.

We are using traditional metal buckets with lids for our small-scale operation.

I found several maple trees on the property that have large splits in the trunk.  From what I could find doing a general Google search, these splits are caused from drastic freezing and warming temperatures.  I won't be tapping these trees because I consider them wounded and/or stressed.  Perhaps they are also diseased?

We used bricks left from the previous owner to make the fire place area.  We are still working on the design but this is our first try.

My dad found this kettle at an antique store for $55.00.  It holds about 25 gallons and will be used for boiling the sap. 

To support the kettle, my Dad welded a stand for it to sit on. The stand can also be used as a grill.

We are going to need a lot of wood to burn for the sap boiling.  This is a snapshot of what the woods looked like after the Derecho storm and Hurricane Sandy.

These 4 gallon water jugs are thrown away at Jon's work because there isn't curbside recycling pickup here. These jugs will hold the sap we collect from the trees before boiling over the fire.