Maple Syrup Recipe

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Learn how to process syrup using this Maple Syrup Recipe.

This Maple Syrup Recipe includes instructions to prepare syrup from trees.

Maple Syrup Recipe

March is maple syrup time across the upper half of the eastern United States, and just for fun, you might like to tap a tree or two to see how it’s done. You don’t even need sugar maples, either: Syrup can be boiled down from the sap of any variety of maple — even the sycamore — and prospectors up in Canada’s Peace River country often tap birch trees.

Pick trees at least 10 inches in diameter and tap ’em. The spile can be anything from a cutoff bean shooter to a 4-inch length of green elderberry stem with the pith pushed out. Put two spiles in each tree and figure on 15 to 30 gallons of sap — which will boll down to 1/2 to 1 gallon of syrup — per tree.

Late afternoon is the best time to collect the day’s flow, and don’t expect it to run on a regular schedule. Some days you’ll be lucky to find the bottoms of your buckets wet, and on others, the pails will be running over before you get to them. That’s the way Mother Nature works.

  • Published on Mar 1, 1978
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