Maple Syrup is starting to flow.

We have several Maple Trees on the property so in the spring as it starts to warm I tap the trees. The trees are quite large so I usually put 3 buckets on each tree. You can expect the sap to run if the nights are cold – below 0 and the days are above 0 and the sun helps a lot as well. This year the season started real early with a nice mild patch in the begining of March.

It takes a couple days to have enough liquid to start boiling the sap down. It takes approx. 40 gallons of liquid to make 1 gallon of maple syrup. It take about 6 hours to boil down a batch of maple syrup. The first batch I made came out a very light golden color – it looked and tasted wonderful. This was the first time I had a batch that turned out so light. It may have been that the weather was just right and the sap was flowing fast. The next several batches were a dark golden brown color and I noticed with these it took about 5 days till I had enough to run a batch.

Well we are getting closer to the end of March and most days and nights have been above 0 so the sap has stopped flowing for now. I will keep checking the buckets every 3 days or so. Almost all the snow has melted and I am starting to clean up areas to ready them for the coming season.