tapping our maples...
We have two maples on our property. One is a black maple and the other species we have not identified, however it has yellow leaves in the fall, but not vibrant yellow like you would see on the sugar maple.
I have read a little bit about the black maple and I guess it is in the family of Norway maples. It has purple, almost black leaves. I have read that it could be a "Crimson King". I don't know if it matters all that much, I have read that you can get sap from any maple in order to make maple syrup or maple sugar.
I had mentioned a bit about wanting to tap our trees in a previous post, so I won't get into all of that again. In this post, I just wanted to share the pictures I took yesterday evening when we did the actual tapping.
Measuring the diameter of the tree trunk |
Drilling the tap hole using a 5/16" drill bit |
Fitting the spile into the hole |
Gently tapping in the spile |
Stile in tree |
Let the sap RUN! |
Assembling the bag system |
Smokey is c-c-c-old! |
Drilling the other maple in the backyard |
Zee hole! |
Tap-a-tap-tap |
Hanging the bag onto the spile |
This tree is large enough to take a least two taps/bags |
oh so FLUFFY! |
Black Maple in the front of the house |
Close-up |
Unidentified maple on the side of the garage in the backyard |
Close-up ~ We hung the bags facing south |
The backyard upper garden |
Comments
FYI don't boil it down in the house because it will leave a layer of sticky on everything.
I read somewhere that you need to go out early in the morning and pick the frozen ice out of it. I guess the water part of sap will freeze but not the sugar part. By removing the ice you help to concentrate the sap before you boil.
Is it flowing yet?