Collecting sap from the maple trees in my yard is one of my favorite things to do–it gives me something to look forward to and occupy my time during those last weeks of winter. When the sap runs up the maple tree, it wakes the buds up out of the…
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Maple syrup bucket: essential equipment
Making your own maple syrup is fun and easy to do, especially while you’re spending some time at home during a cold winter. The project (which might just become a hobby for you) all starts with the right supplies. So let’s tap into the world of making maple syrup and…
Learning How to Tap a Maple Tree: Day 1 of a New Hobby
Today, I embarked on a new adventure: learning how to make maple syrup at home by tapping my maple trees. This is the story of how I got started with this fun new hobby, all with the purpose of making my own maple syrup. Day 1 of a new hobby…
Maple tree tapping supplies
Are you in Lockdown right now, stuck with a bit of cabin fever and looking for a new hobby to add to your quarantine bucket list? If you’re tired of making banana bread and sourdough bread, I have the perfect cure for the winter blues. You need to make maple…
2019 Maple Sap Summary
This article was originally created in 2019 to capture my personal experiences and learnings from tapping maple trees in my suburban backyard. There are a lot of nuggets in the information below, but if you want to see something more up-to-date, check out the 2021 season review 2022 season review When…
Today I made maple syrup at home (and a giant mess)
Well, it’s official. Today, I made maple syrup at home. Take a look: It tasted delicious. But I did make a huge mess and a few mistakes. I’ll share the full adventure with you here, so you won’t make the same mistakes I did. Making maple syrup at home from…
Two good days in a row
In my second big day in a row. Weather has been great. Check this out: In less than 24 hours, I collected 2.75 more gallons of sap, almost all from Tree #2. There was a small amount (3 cups?) from Tree #1 and the rest from tree #2. I ran…
Big days for sap collection
The weather has been amazing for collecting sap. Sunday, the temperature went from the 20s to the 40s. Like the obsessed psychopath that I am, I checked the taps every few hours to look for sap dripping. When I first tapped the tree, I could literally see the sap dripping.…
Week of January 28th update
It was bitterly cold for most of this past week: Sap ran early in the week and then the temperature got too cold. Tuesday delivered 3/4 gallon of sap again, for a grand total of 1.5 gallons of sap. I boiled it down on Saturday, to save some room in…
The sap is flowing
January 24th, it’s the second day in a row that the temperature was above 40 degrees Fahrenheit and I can officially report…the sap is flowing. Tree # 1 started flowing – I collected 1.75 cups, which is pretty close to the 2.25 cups I collected on day 1 of the other…
