HOW TO MAKE & MARKET MAPLE SYRUP
There's a joyous sense of accomplishment in producing a healthful, organic sweetener for your kitchen, here's how to make and market maple syrup.
 |
OLD STURBRIDGE VILLAGE
PHOTOS BY J. ALAN BRZYS
|
It's a long way from gathering maple sap in
hollowed-out logs and boiling it down outdoors in iron
kettles in 1800 . . . to the monsterous Reverse Osmosis
Concentrator of Maple Sap now being tested by the U.S.
Department of Agriculture. With equipment somewhere in
between these two extremes, a lot of homestead and
medium-to-large commercial operations produce a lot of
maple syrup in this country every year. Commercial setups
generally pump the sap right out of the trees and pipe it
directly into specially-designed refineries these days. . .
but thefolks on a number of small homesteads
still earn spending money by gathering maple juice in
buckets and concentrating it over wood fires in homemade
"arches". Sarah Funk is one of those folks and here's how
the Funks do it up in Michigan.
RELATED CONTENT
It's worth spending the extra money to buy real maple syrup. It tastes infinitely better than the c...
A Sap-Seeker's Field Guide...
maple syrup....the cool way January/February 1974 by: George R. Lightsey I've always thought of thi...
Sandy Hevener talks about the differences between the northern and southern syrup making....
Learn to make jack wax, a yummy winter candy made with maple syrup and snow....
by SARAH FUNK
If you live in the northeastern quarter of this country and
have access to one or more hard maple trees, you've
probably thought about making maple syrup. Well, by all
means, get some equipment and give it a try! Don't let the
fainthearts discourage you with their warnings about
backbreaking labor and long, tedious cooking. Of course
there's some work involved and patience required, but we've
found that good things are worth working for . . . and
sometimes it's that very work which makes good things even
better!
There's a joyous sense of accomplishment in producing a
healthful, organic sweetener for your kitchen (one less
item to buy from the supermarket!) and, for sale or barter,
syrup has an advantage over most farm produce: it's not
perishable. We put ours away in the basement and sell most
of it to summer visitors.
Whether you plan to make syrup for homestead use only or
hope to sell some for a small income, think the procedure
through both carefully and in advance. Decide how big an
operation you want and secure all necessary equipment
before you begin. Moments are precious once the sap starts
running.
If you establish a small commercial venture (as we did),
two main factors will limit the size of your operation: one
is the number of trees available and the other is manpower.
Let's consider the trees first. A hard maple, five inches
in diameter, is large enough for one taphole . . . a
smaller tree can be permanently damaged if tapped. (In
THE MAPLE SUGAR BOOK—the definitive work on the
subject—the Nearings say not to tap a tree that is
less than 12 inches thick two feetabove ground
level. In addition, Mr. Paul Richards of Chardon, Ohio and
Mr. George Binnig, of Thompson, Ohio—both of whom are
in the maple syrup business—strongly advise against
tapping any tree under 10 inches in diameter and—even
then—prefer waiting until the tree is 12 inches
thick—MOTHER.) A tree twice as large may be
tapped twice, while some old trees are large enough for
three, four or even five tapholes. Don't be tempted to
overtap . . . when in doubt, give the tree a break.
Page: 1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
13 |
14 |
15 |
Next >>
