About me
In full transparency:
I am not an expert in making maple syrup at home.
I’m a guy, in his forties (at the time I wrote this page), who just started his journey in making maple syrup at home.
I live in Eastern Pennsylvania, in a relatively remote suburb of Philadelphia.
There are two silver maple trees on in my backyard.
I enjoy learning how to do new things and enjoy gardening. Making maple syrup and maple sugar seems like the perfect hobby to pass the time between winter and spring.
In 2019, I decided that I was going to tap those two maple trees, to see if I could make some maple syrup.
Before I drilled a hole in the tree, I spent hours on the internet doing some research.
For many of my questions, there were answers readily available and some general advice, but for some of my questions, either the information was too generic, obtuse, or frankly, just wasn’t there.
About makemaplesyrupathome.com
Two things motivated me to make this website.
The first thing
I couldn’t figure out if January 19th, 2019 was a good day to start making maple syrup at home or a bad day.
All I saw was that the typically ‘good days’ when the sap runs well, are those days that freeze overnight and are in the 40s during the day.
But there was no authoritative information that could tell me what to do in PA.
I also struggled to find any good accounts of what other people like me were doing.
The second thing
I knew that if I wanted to get good at making maple syrup at home that I was going to have to take some good notes.
The day I started making maple syrup at home, I drilled 5/16 inch holes in my trees and tapped in the spiles and sat down at my computer to take some notes.
My trees
Here is silver maple tree # 1
This tree is right next to the deck, off my back door. It is the younger of the two trees.
Here is silver maple tree # 2
This tree is ‘across the yard’, about 3/4 of the way to the property line. It is the larger of the two trees.
My equipment
I didn’t start with anything fancy, I went with one of the least expensive kits I could find.
Tree tapping kit
I bought this maple tree tapping kit on Amazon.
It came with:
- A drill bit for making the hole
- 5 maple tree taps with 36-inch droplines
- Instructions pamphlet
I’m collecting the sap in 5-gallon buckets I already had around the house (you can see them in the images above).
The conclusion
When I started my own journey, I was hoping there was someone else out there willing to share their own experiences with me, to help give me the confidence to get started.
But there wasn’t.
Since I knew I was going to be keeping notes anyway, I figured, maybe I should just share my notes publicly, in case they are helpful for someone else just starting.
That’s how and why this website was created.
How’s it look?
I’m excited about this opportunity to share what I learn along the way and to meet you and learn about your journey, as well.
Please leave a comment below to introduce yourself and/or ask a question about making maple syrup at home that you haven’t found a good answer to online.
Thanks!
