Superlative Maple Sugaring Season

Sap started flowing here in upstate New York on March 12th and ended a few days ago. We pulled out our spiles on April 18th. These 14 maples delivered over 460 gallons of sap that my neighbor and I reduced to 12 gallons of maple syrup. I had to carry our portion in five gallon buckets of sap about a quarter mile, usually two at a time, together almost 80 pounds, almost a ton and a half altogether. The best part? The daily activity and multiple trips helped me lose 7 pounds of winter weight.

Early season maple syrup is quite light in color and as the season progresses, it get ever darker from nutrients trees add to the plasma. Some trees add more and their sap seems to diminish before the others. A few of the clear sap trees were still producing a quart or two of sap when all the others had stopped.

Eighteen of our 34 quarts of 2015 Maple Syrup

Quarts of Syrup Showing Changing Color, Sunshine from Behind, One Shaded

Every day we collect sap (some cold days none flowed) we boil off the excess water on our wood stove that's burning anyway for heating our home and cooking.  Periodically we carefully bring the ever thicker syrup to 104 degrees Celsius that indicates the proper amount of water and sugar. We let the refined maple syrup settle for a day or two at room temperature and then decant the clear portion so that we don't have to filter it. The solids that settle to the bottom, usually a quarter inch in a quart jar, we collect in a separate jar for use in cooking. We keep collecting full jars of clear syrup in the refrigerator until the season ends and then can them by steaming them for 10 minutes above a hot water bath. The canned syrup keeps for years.

Last Maple Syrup Finishing with First Batch of Canning

All the equipment used in the sugaring operation have to be cleaned and disinfected before being used again and I prefer to do this before storing it away. Altogether, this year we used nine pails for carrying and storing sap, two pails for collecting sap from the most prolific trees, and eleven milk jugs. Next year, if we tackle maple trees at all: not so many.

Pails and Jugs Ready for Cleaning