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.
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| Measuring the diameter of the tree trunk |
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| Drilling the tap hole using a 5/16" drill bit |
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| Fitting the spile into the hole |
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| Gently tapping in the spile |
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| Stile in tree |
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| Let the sap RUN! |
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| Assembling the bag system |
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| Smokey is c-c-c-old! |
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| Drilling the other maple in the backyard |
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| Zee hole! |
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| Tap-a-tap-tap |
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| Hanging the bag onto the spile |
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| This tree is large enough to take a least two taps/bags |
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| oh so FLUFFY! |
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| Black Maple in the front of the house |
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| Close-up |
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| Unidentified maple on the side of the garage in the backyard |
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| Close-up ~ We hung the bags facing south |
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| 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?