Tapping the Sugar Bush

As part of our goal to further self sufficiency I have been wanting to be able to create some source of sugar. Either granular sugar from beets, honey, or maple syrup. Out of all the choices I have considered maple syrup seems the most sustainable. Several reasons made me draw this conclusion. First we already have around twelve trees large enough to be tapped. Second there is absolutely no monetary investment needed, we literally own all needed supplies already. Third the crop is perennial, native, disease, and drought tolerant. Finally harvest occurs during a slow time of year. The downside is it takes a lot of sap (40 gallons of sap makes 1 gallon of syrup), a lot of wood heat, and a lot of time to make syrup.

It may seem odd but beets would probably be my second choice because I have such a knack for growing beets and sugar beets are allegedly easier to grow than table beets. The big downside to beets is the processing is complicated and little information on home scale processing is available. Also seed saving from a biennial crop like beets is tricky and questionable. Bees of course are an option but sound like a lot of work and the regular hive replacement that I have read and heard is necessary seems anything but sustainable.

So I tapped a few trees. Anything in the Maple family can be tapped and turned into maple syrup. This includes Box Elders which not everyone realizes are maples. This is important here in Illinois because in certain soils Box Elders may be your most plentiful tree. While tapping any maple tree is possible Sugar Maples are preferred for higher sugar content and greater sap flow. For the sake of just getting started and experimentation I only tapped three trees. Our one and only Sugar Maple, a Silver Maple, and a Box Elder are the trees I tapped.

For taps I made some out of wood by drilling a 1/4 inch hole through the center of a roughly three inch long by one and one half inch diameter piece of branch. I then sanded one end to a taper and cut the other into a spout shape. I also made some taps out of 3/8 inch PVC supply lines intended for bathroom sinks I had left over from projects. I cut the PVC to about three inches long and slightly tapered one end with sand paper. Both taps or spiles snugly fit into a 3/8 inch hole I drilled in the tree.

I then used gallon jugs to catch the sap by cutting a small hole in the side for the tap and hung them on a galanized nail. Both the taps and nails will be removed when I am done collecting sap.

So far I have collected a little over a gallon of sap and plan to do a test run of syrup making tomorrow. It should yield slightly less than a cup of syrup. Wish me luck!