Learn How to Make Maple Syrup

Enlarge Image Image Gallery Store-bought brands cannot beat the delicous taste of real, pure maple syrup over a stack of steaming hotcakes. PHOTO: FOTOLIA/STEPHANIE FREY

One winter day I was splitting logs in the backyard when a man drove up to make a delivery. He looked at the not inconsiderable pile of fuel and said, "What's all this wood for?"

"In a couple of weeks I'll be using it to make maple syrup," I told him.

My visitor thought a moment and then asked, "What do you want to go to all that trouble for? You can get syrup in the stores."

"'I just do it for fun," I said . . . and the delivery man shook his head and climbed into his truck. He probably went away puzzling, the way the hired man in Frost's poem puzzled over the college boy's remark that he "studied Latin like the violin/ because he liked it".

All the same, the reason I gave the curious driver was the truth. It isn't the demands of a sweet tooth or a desire to make money that moves me to tap the maple trees when spring arrives. It's rather a response to an impulse like the one that prompts the Canada goose to lift from the waters of the Mississippi Delta country and wing his way to the breeding grounds around Hudson Bay. Perhaps what drives me is an elemental instinct to produce with my own labor something from the riches of the good earth.

I have sold some syrup, but most of what I make I keep for my own use or give to friends. (I get a smug feeling when they say, "Oh, this is a lot better than the stuff you get in the stores.") And, until the last couple of years, my equipment for this non-profit operation has been simple, frequently of the "make do" variety. I assume that, if you're thinking of following my example, you have somewhat the same point of view. If your purpose is to turn out maple products on a large scale, you will of course consult experts and specialized publications. (For an account of sugaring as a homestead moneymaker, see How to Make and Market Maple Syrup. — MOTHER EARTH NEWS) 

OK, let's start our "sugaring for fun" operation from the beginning . . . with a little background information. First you should know that practically all maple products are made in the northeastern part of the American Continent: in a region east of the Great Plains and north from North Carolina into Ontario and Quebec. Here are found the proper climatic conditions and the greatest growth of the right kind of trees. The sap of the hard or sugar maple makes the best syrup, although an inferior product can be made from the juice of the red maple or the soft (cutleaf) variety.

The sugaring season begins around the first of March, when you can expect the proper weather — cold nights and warm days — and lasts as long as those conditions prevail . . . any where from ten days to six weeks. The sap, however, doesn't flow each and every 24-hour period during that time. There'll be stretches when the days turn cold and operations come to a halt, to begin again when a change in the weather brings on a new "run". Finally the spring turns warm and stays that way, the sweet juice stops rising and the season is over. In any case, sugaring should end when leafbuds appear on the trees because a chemical change takes place at that point and the sap no longer makes good syrup.