My Wild Homestead: Maple Time- My Process and My Breakfast

Batch number two of maple syrup is made and batch three is now started. Maple syrup total as of now 2 gallons and 1 (almost) quart. Not bad at all for the beginning of March. A couple people have asked me how I make maple syrup since I'm not a professional and have no special equipment such as an evaporator or outdoor stove. It's not too difficult to make a few gallons of maple syrup and maybe a batch or two of candy in your home. It is BETTER to boil outdoors because there will be a lot of evaporation from syrup making and we do boil outdoors some years but when you can't you can use the stovetop and try to vent out the moisture by cracking windows, opening a door etc.

Here is our current method. I will say that there are countless great tutorials online to see or read about maple sugaring step by step. This is just what works for me and our small scale maple sugaring. In February or March, when we see the first stretch of days that will be above freezing, with the nights below freezing we set the taps. You will use a drill to tap a hole into the maple tree the size of the taps. Taps come in metal or plastic there are pros and cons to both types we have the plastic taps. Place the tap into the hole in the tree, attach tubing to the tap and then place the other end of the tubing into a bucket. We have a bunch of food grade 5 and 7 gallon buckets that we found somewhat locally for a good price. You need a lid on the bucket so rain and debris doesn't get into the collecting sap. You can drill a hole in the top of the lids or cut a notch into the sides of the lids, either way works fine. Very large trees are able to have multiple taps. We have one giant maple tree that can take 3 taps and fills 3 buckets very easily. Other trees are smaller and take 1 or 2 taps. I think we have 8 taps set on 5 trees this year. We have done more in the past and might add more but these are our most reliable trees. Maple trees that get good sun will produce better than those in the middle of the woods. This is why you might see lines of maple tubing on trees along the road.

Once the taps are set all there is to do is wait and check the buckets at least once a day. A good run can fill a 5 gallon bucket in a day. Sometimes there will be just a little sap sometimes the bucket is full better to check than to have the sap overflowing the buckets and being wasted. Once the first few buckets are full I start boiling. I'm using the stovetop this year, I set a large stock pot on each of the front large burners, strain the sap for any debris then fill each pot about 3/4's full and let it boil. Add more sap as the level goes down in the pots. I just keep adding sap never letting the level in the pots go below half, you don't want the sap to start turning to syrup or candy too soon. After 4, 5 or so of the buckets have boiled down (depending on if they're the 5 gallon or 7 gallon buckets) it's time to let the sap, which will now be turning brown and smells sweet finish off. I'll admit it's by instinct that I do this. No year is the same, some years it takes more or less sap to make a gallon of syrup. The standard equation is 40 gallons of sap makes one gallon of syrup but it varies a lot.

Finishing off the syrup. As things get more brown and sweet I take it from two big pots down to one combing the sap from both. Then keep on boiling (evaporating) until the sap has turned to syrup. With a candy thermometer this will be when the sap temperature has reached 7 degrees fahrenheit above your boiling point. For many people this will be 219 degrees farenheight. Another clue is lots of little bubbles will be appearing on the sap, it kind of looks like roaring ocean water, the sap starts to look fierce and furious as it becomes syrup. I keep an eye on it when things start to look close. It will over boil if you leave it too long.Another way to test for doneness is to scoop out a little of the syrup from the pan, let it cool then taste it, check to see if it sticks to the spoon a bit, look at the texture. Does it taste like maple syrup, does it look like maple syrup? If you've reached the right temperature and/or the syrup looks and tastes right it's time to filter and put into jars.

I like to use quart sized mason jars to store my syrup. For filtering the syrup I like the smaller cone shaped filter cloth. The cones fit nicely into the mason jar funnel. Once I've taken a good guess at how much syrup I have made I set out the appropriate number of mason jars, adding a funnel each into the first couple jars. In the funnel I place a small cone shaped filter. Then it's time to pour the hot syrup into the jars. It will take a little time to work through the filters but this is important, the filters strain out any debris that might have been missed and any impurities or sugar sand. You may need to replace the filter before the jar is full depending on the syrup, if the filter seems clogged replace with another one. You can wash them out and reuse them again later. Once all the jars have been filled I cap them and the maple syrup batch is done.

Sometime soon after the first good run and first batch of maple syrup is made I like to make pancakes for breakfast! When we have pancakes we usually have all sorts of extras too. I call it the full English Breakfast (I know it's not really) My husband is British but I am not. Also we're a vegan/vegetarian family but I can call it a full English if I want :-). Today I made pancakes, tomatoes, potato, fried veggie sausage, fried veggie bacon, baked beans. Some in the family will add eggs and mushrooms. We all like a little bit different things but here is my plate.