Maple Syrup

There are many theories and stories about how people discovered that the sap from maple trees can be turned into delicious maple syrup.

But we know that now, and a huge industry is fueled by the sweet stuff. Canada even has a “strategic maple syrup reserve”, and sets the worldwide prices of maple syrup through an OPEC-like cartel.

Well, if you’re in New England and you don’t want to deal with this cartel, you can make your own maple syrup with the trees that you probably have on your own land, or on your neighbor’s property if you want to share the syrup.

Making maple syrup requires collecting the sap from maple trees. This sap is mostly water, but has about 3-4% sugar and trace minerals. All that is required is boiling off the water, which will leave behind the sugar and lots of minerals.

The process of tapping trees, collecting sap, evaporating the water, and finally finishing the product takes several weeks in February and March.

For years, we tapped a few trees and used the top of the wood stove to evaporate the sap. This took a while, but used free heat from the wood stove and had a side effect of providing indoor humidity during those dry winter days.

Recently, we invested in a small commercial evaporator and were able to tap many more trees to increase our yield. But it is possible to make your own syrup at home using only your wood stove.

In this class, we go through the entire process of tapping, extracting, evaporating, finishing, and bottling. In the end, you’ll know the kind of equipment you’ll need to get started, and the level of effort it takes to make your own maple syrup.

Time: 3 hours

Cost: $40