maple sugaring for dummies

 With help from the Ontario Extension Notes handout on Backyard Maple Syrup Production my son and I drilled some holed, hung some buckets and had some old fashioned fun! With power tools!

He was very much intrigued by the drip, drip, drip of the sap into the buckets. We now have a pitcher of maple sap in the fridge and yes, it does taste better than plain water :)

The taps come from Agway and the foodgrade buckets are either icing buckets from Wegmans or oil buckets from my soap business. I used a door handle drill (makes about a 2 inch hollow hole) to drill a hole in the lids, to help prevent stuff from blowing into the buckets (and squirrels and snowflakes). And I used rubber bungee ties to wrap around and secure the buckets to the tree. I did that because it's quite windy at our place, but last time I when gently unhooked the bungees one full bucket fell right off the tree, taking the plug straight with it!  I had been wondering if that could happen...

Over the past two weeks we collected about 5 buckets of sap which kept well as they pretty much froze solid overnight. I moved the buckets indoors to thaw, have one pan on the woodstove to preheat and whenever the main pan is getting low I add that. It seems a pretty efficient system. Surprisingly, the indoor woodstove does not get stoked hot enough this time of the year to evaporate much from that large a quantity of liquid. I'm using my turkey fryer propane burner which works well, yesterday outdoors but today in the sunroom with all windows open as it is raining (works better, less draft).

Will keep you updated!