Maple syrup time ... again

Spring like temperatures have arrived and the sap in our maple tree has been flowing freely this week. We're getting about 6 liters of sap per day ... that's a lot of water to boil down each night.

Ideally I wouldn't be processing the sap on the stove top but I have no other convenient option.


If you want to see a picture of the tree we tap please check out last years post about our maple tree.

Last year I made the syrup for my 100 meter diet. This year I'm making the syrup for the family to enjoy.

It takes about 4 hours to slowly boil off the water to be left with about 2/3 of a cup of maple syrup. You want to boil off 96% of the sap which leaves behind the wonderful maple sugars in the syrup.

I let the maple syrup 'settle' in a measuring cup over night before bottling it to store in the fridge. This gives the sediments time to sink to the bottom.

In the end, after 3 nights of sap boiling, I'm left with about 2 cups of 100 meter maple syrup. Nothing tastes better than home made maple syrup so it's well worth the effort.

I hope to gather and boil enough sap to make 2 more jars for the family to enjoy.

I wonder how long those jars will last?

P.S. For those of you looking for more signs of spring .... our Red Wing Blackbirds returned last Saturday! I absolutely love their sounds ... it fills my heart with warmth every spring when they return to our ponds. It will only be a few more weeks until the frogs make an appearance with their nightly songs .... I can hardly wait!