{Sweet} as Syrup

 

 

If  the girls and I could wear prairie dresses {we do often!} and make our own cheese from our grass fed cow {in my dreams}, bake our own bread (we do), living a life like the Ingalls family, I do believe we would feel right at home.

 

I know, perhaps, I look at the pioneer era through rose-colored glasses, however, I am also drawn to it for it’s simplicity, down-to-earth-goodness, family ties, unity and God-focused living.

So, automatically, making our own maple syrup would fit right into this type of lifestyle.  At first, I was disheartened to find there were no sugar maples on our property … I have always wanted to tap trees and make our own syrup for many reasons:

 

– the education of the tapping for the girls
-we love anything homemade!
-hopefully save a bit of money as we would not have to purchase syrup (even if we made enough to cover a few months of Sunday morning pancakes) – we love to do anything that remotely resembles the life of Little House on the Prairie 🙂

However, after a quick search online, my disappointment vanished as we found out you can indeed tap any kind of maple tree – not just sugar maples. In fact, you can tap many different kinds of trees for sap.

 

{image courtesy of Joybilee Farms}

We have quite a few silver maples lining the front of our yard so we were  in ‘business’.

I excitedly called my husband at work ….
“Guess what?!!!!! I am so excited! We can tap our trees!!!!”

He thought I was being a little over-excited at first, but he should know me by now. Tapping our own trees is like an early birthday present for me! I usually do get very excited about these types of things … they are fun and interesting and a wonderful way to learn … hands on and involving the whole family …
… anyways, off we trudged to the local hardware store to pick up a few supplies. We didn’t need much – just spigots and buckets. I already have the big pot I will use when it is time to boil down the sap. And I am hoping we can do it outside with a cozy, fun fire and experience it just like they made syrup many years ago. I think, by this point, even my husband was convinced that this would be a fun project …

 

He tapped the first tree and then had to zip to work so we finished off the trees. It was very simple – I drilled the hole (use the smallest bit possible to cause less damage to the tree), one girl put the spigot in tree, others hung the buckets.

 

Now, I think I will tap my birch and black walnut trees as well.

Tapping trees on the south side is ideal to help the sap flower quicker.  It will take 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup. I don’t know how much we will collect but we are going to find out over the next week, as the weather warms up during the day and drops to freezing at night (ideal for maple syrup collecting).

 

 

Here is a great website for information on tapping your own trees …
Have you ever tried to make your own maple syrup? We have friends that have done gone through the whole process and she has graciously answered all my questions … we look forward to seeing how our project ends … hopefully with some delicious maple syrup fresh from our own trees – at least enough to get us through once a week Sunday pancakes.

 

P.S. Our call duck, Libby, has just laid another egg for her clutch – a baker’s dozen so far!