MAKE YOUR OWN MAPLE SYRUP

Here's something I would not be doing if I was flying off every Monday to a consulting assignment.... making MAPLE SYRUP. And let me tell you how satisfying it is, especially with blueberry pancakes, or glazed on roast pork or grilled salmon.

The 2009 syrup season just ended - total production this year was just over 1 liter of light amber, home grown maple syrup, which was boiled down from 33.68 liters of sap that I collected between February 18 and March 8. Maybe I could have boiled it down a little more for a thicker viscosity, but as it is, it is so sweet and good. Absolutely amazing. All this from 3 silver maple trees growing in my yard - one of which was not pulling its weight.

The season starts when the nights are still below freezing but afternoons warm up enough to get the tree to start making sugar and flowing its sap. Season ends just before the buds open - which varies according to the weather. When that happens, the tree produces other chemicals which make for a pretty nasty, plastic taste in the syrup.

I make my own taps out of plastic tubes and as you can see in the picture, I collect the sap in plastic milk jugs. If you want more information about the process, the science or where to buy taps, there are a lot of good web sites out there.

Boiling takes a while because there is only a small amount of sugar in the sap (less than 2%) and the house steams up and smells all caramelly, but to me, these are good side effects of the process.

One last word - a credit to my son in law, Aric, for suggesting to me that the silver maples also produce a sugary sap. Prior to that, I thought you needed a sugar maple. So, a big thanks to him and we'll do it again next year.