Learning: Maple Sugaring

This afternoon, we had a maple sugaring adventure. J says this is what she learned,

1) The hole has to be 6 inches from other holes on the tree in order to drill (exclude woodpecker holes) :)
2) The bag or bucket needs to be protected from rain, and animals drinking the sap or birds making holes in the bag. (They had less sap since animals made holes in the bag and the sap leaked out)
3) You can tell it is a maple tree by V shaped branches and the sugar maple's bark look like scales
4) The drill used to make holes in the maple tree is different from normal drill and you should be drill about 2-3 inches into the tree
5) Only tap maple from thick maple trees
6) Only certain states produce maple syrup and our state is one of them.
7) It is usually done in late winter due to difference in temperature
8) The sap hardly tastes sweet at all and you have to boil it to make syrup
9) The sap is clear,like water.
10) The syrup tastes funny.


Here is the bag, instead of the bucket used to collect sap.This bag was put on Tuesday and this is how much it has collected. Here is a maple tree. This area have a good cluster of maple trees.

This is the first tree we drilled. J tasting the sap, it doesn't really taste sweet. That's because it has too much water.

These are the states that normally have the right conditions and right tree for maple sugaring. This a picture of how far you need to drill (2 inches) past the bark and into the sap producing part. The red is the dead part and you don't want to drill to there. Here is syrup, when it boils down, there isn't too much syrup. Grade A syrup is the best, and it is light. We have a bottle, not cheap. Later in the season, it turns really dark (due to the change in sugar) and is used only in baking.

Watching the presentation. J/Prime in the woods. Prime trying to cross on a branch.


There is Prime waiting for his turn to taste the fresh sap. Here, the kids take picture of each other with Hello Kitty candy while I was driving. Thanks, Auntie Tiff.