It's that time of year again when sugar maple trees bestow their life's blood to all that choose to collect their sap. With this being the fifth year that 
The early colonists learned how to make maple syrup from Native Americans.
There are 128 different types of maple trees, but only five are prevalent in the United States.
The first thing the early settlers had to learn was how to identify the (Acer saccharum), the sugar maple.
This book is a must-have if you are into trees.
It provides you with an array of characteristics to look for when trying to determine what type of tree you are observing.
I've had it for years and carry it with me when hiking in the woods.
Before I get into the first step, gathering the sap, I'll point out some of the differences between the two most common maple trees in Upstate New York, the sugar maple and the red maple. The one we're looking to identify is the sugar maple, which is also called the sugar tree, hard maple, rock maple, and curly maple.
Other maple species can be used as a sap source for maple syrup, but most have lower sugar content and produce cloudy syrup.
One of the easiest ways to tell these two trees apart is by checking out their leaves.
Sugar maple trees have 5-lobed leaves (3 large lobes and 2 small lobes). In this picture, you can see that there're five distinct main veins going to each lobe.
Sugar maple trees have leaves with smooth edges. The indentation between the lobes of sugar maple leaves is U-shaped. The leaves of sugar maple trees can be 8” long and wide.
Its leaf shape is the emblem of the Dominion of Canada.
Red maple trees have leaves with serrated edges and are referred to as saw-toothed. The leaves have V-shaped indentations. The lobes of red maple leaves are not deep. The size of the leaf is also much smaller than the sugar maple leaf.
Another way to be able to distinguish a sugar maple from a red maple tree is by looking at the bark. The bark of a red maple will look somewhat like the scales on a fish, when it gets older. Both of the trees in this picture are red maples. The red maple on the right is much younger and in its youth the bark will be relatively smooth.
The furrows in the bark are shallow.
On the other hand, the bark of a sugar maple tree is deeply furrowed into narrow scaly ridges.
Some of the bark will detach from the tree.
The sugar maple's bark is very three dimensional.
Maple tree produces seeds in a winged structure known as a samara. When the leaves start to sprout, thousands of these seeds will begin to develop.
If you have ever seen these seeds fall from the tree, they travel with a helicopter-like motion. This motion allows the wind to carry the seeds quite far in order to establish new seedlings.
The next time you're in the woods and you think you spot a maple tree, see if you can't pick out a SUGAR MAPLE, and if you can, you have taken the first step to making 100% PURE MAPLE SYRUP. Obviously, taping the right tree is critical. 👍
I'm not too proud to admit that the first year we made syrup, I taped a few maple trees I shouldn't have. At a ratio of 50/1, 50 gallons of sap produces 1 gallon of syrup, the liquid you're collecting needs to come from the sugar maple!!!!!!!!
All maple trees produce sap, but their sugar content is so low it may take hundreds of gallons of sap to produce a single gallon of syrup. 😢
The sugar content in the sap should be somewhere between the 1.5-2.0 range. In the middle of this short season, usually around 5 to 6 weeks, the sugar content may be as high as 2.5 brix and higher.
GETTING READY TO COLLECT THE SAP: ALWAYS AN EXCITING TIME !
We use gallon milk jugs that we collected.
We tap 24 trees and having a few extra can't hurt.
These plastic bottles will come in handy. We collected them while we were on vacation knowing we could put them to good use.
🚷 Plastic, Florida's potable water, Florida aquifers, the Gulf of Mexico, water in general, this shits blog-worthy, however depressing.🚷
I'm trying real hard not to get started, so I'll get back to the matter at hand, making syrup.
I used a 1/2 wood drill bit to make the holes in the caps. You want the tubing to fit snug in the cap.
A wood drill bit works the best as you can push the point into the plastic which will ensure a round hole. After the hole is created, the plastic remnants are easily removed from the edges of the circle with a knife. The last thing we want is for any of that NASTY stuff to get into the pure sap made by #mothernature.
The first tree we decided to tap is one of the best sap producers on the farm. Being that it is on the corner of our property, it gets lots of sun.
This year things are a little different than in the past. The amount of snow still left on the ground this year makes hobbitizing a little more of a workout.
Robin made it up the snowbank on her first try, and with very little difficulty. Of course, she was ready to snap away, knowing I may not be as fortunate.
1st attempt: 👎
2nd attempt: 👎
3rd attempt coming up 🤞🤞🤞
3rd attempt landed, even if a little wobbly.
I thought the whole process was funny,
I hate excuses, but in this case, I'm going with one.
Bad legs, on April 6th I get my second hip replaced, and if everything goes well, three months later I'm scheduled to have both knees replaced.
Laugh now my beautiful wife, but very soon you will have a hard time keeping up with your bionic husband.
Tapping a tree only takes a few minutes, this year getting to the tree was the tricky part.
As I was drilling this hole, I could already see the sap start to run out of the hole before even finishing. 😁
The size drill bit is 3/8ths of an inch. The depth of the hole should be about 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 inches. I like to mark the drill at that point, it takes out all of the guesswork.
After your initial penetration, the drill bit should be spun in the hole several more times, this will remove all of the fine shavings created from drilling.
Doing this will allow the sap to flow freely.
Gently hammer in the tap. About 90% of the length of the shaft should be buried into the tree.
Larger trees can accommodate two taps. The rule of thumb is, less than 18 inches in diameter, 1 tap, greater than 18 inches in diameter, you can double-tap the tree.
Two taps set, 22 to go, There is nothing like hobbitizing as a team.
The house in this picture is at the far end of our property and is our closest neighbor.
They have lived there for as long as I can recall.
Friendly people, when we cross paths it's a simple wave and tip of the hat. After 45 years we've got it down, you do your thing and I'll do mine.
The dude is the Fire Chief in our town, and I should probably get to know him a little better, you know, just in case. But, when any of the locals talk about our fire department, the joke is that there're cellar savers.
I say if it catches fire let it burn, because the last thing I need is an overly friendly neighbor.
These marked trees will be tapped.
You've got to love a gal that knows how to use a screw gun and isn't afraid of a little cold weather.
She's getting so good at this taping trees gig that next year I should be able to just point here and point there. I could be the BOSSMAN. Believe that and I'll sell you a bridge. 😁
Two big sugar maples sharing one foundation.
I guess it's my turn.
One thing that I forgot to mention earlier, when drilling the hole for the tap, drill it at a slight downward angle.
It's also a good practice to let the newly drilled hole drip for a minute, flushing out any remaining debris.
In the past, I've drilled a hole and then had some difficulty finding it again. Putting a stick in the hole makes it easy to find.
The sap looks nice and clear. I've talked about the ratio being 50/1. Here's a simple way of looking at that ratio, every 50 droplets of sap gives you one droplet of maple syrup.
Well, that's it for now. If you enjoy the outdoors and have some sugar maples around, you should give it a try.
Stay tuned and we'll show you the remainder of the process of making 100% Pure Maple Syrup.
Here are a few random pictures that we took over the last few days that I thought you may enjoy.
If you can, get outside, enjoy #nature, and partake in everything time and body will allow.