I’m so excited to be getting ready for the 2022 maple syrup harvesting season in Pennsylvania. This will be my third year of collecting sap from the Silver Maple trees in my backyard. I live in Eastern Pennsylvania, between Philadelphia and Allentown. I don’t own a sugarbush yet, but I…
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Best maple tree tap kit
Which is the best maple tree tap kit to make maple syrup at home? That’s a question I personally researched when I started in this hobby a few years ago. There are three main designs to consider when picking the best maple tree tap to get started with sugaring: Spile style with buckets…
How to tap a maple tree for syrup?
In this article, I will show you, step-by-step, how to tap a maple tree for syrup. If you have never tried this before, it might seem a bit intimidating—but don’t worry, the process is pretty easy. It all starts with having the right gear and then following these 4 easy steps. Equipment…
How much sap to make maple syrup?
In 2019, I decided that I wanted to learn how to make real maple syrup from a tree in my yard. I don’t own a farm or a large patch of trees–just a house in the suburbs with a maple tree in it. Well, actually, two maple trees–not the famous…
Can you tap maple trees in the fall
The weather just got cold here. By cold, I mean freezing at night. Which has been biologically proven to make me start thinking about making maple syrup again. The weather seems perfect…25 degrees Fahrenheit overnight and mid-40s during the day. This begs the question: can you tap maple trees in…
2021 Maple Syrup Season in Pennsylvania
Hey there. Nice to meet you. I started this post in January 2021, as a journal-style article as I got ready for the (at that time) upcoming 2021 Maple Syrup Season. If you want to find out what’s happening in 2022 you may want to jump over to that article…
Which side of maple trees produces syrup best? How to decide the best place to tap
I have recently started to enjoy the hobby of making maple syrup from two ordinary maple trees in my backyard, but being a guy who grew up in a city, I don’t exactly have a wealth of farming and sugaring knowledge to draw from. Read, fire, aim was how I…
How much maple syrup from one tree each year?
The amount of maple syrup you can make with the sap collected from a single tree will vary based on a few important factors, like the size and location of the tree, the relative vigor of the tree, the daily temperature swings, and the timing of when you tap the…
When is maple syrup harvest season?
A few years ago, I set out to make my own maple syrup from scratch, using the sap collected from a silver maple tree in my yard. I’m still figuring things out, but here is what I’ve learned about the maple syrup harvest season. The maple syrup harvest season will…
How to make maple candy in snow (maple taffy)
This is how you make a specific type of maple candy called maple taffy. I live in the suburbs of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which is in Southeastern PA. There are two silver maple trees in my yard that I tap to collect sap from concentrating and making maple syrup. Maple syrup…
