Ahhhh, I’m glad you asked.

I’ve been making maple syrup for a decade and maple cream for almost as long. And it’s–hands down–my favorite way to enjoy maple syrup.

This is my favorite way to consume my favorite sugar, so, friend, let me rock your world and tell you exactly how to make some amazing maple cream.

Fox News asked me about maple cream

I guess I’m getting a little famous for my creamy talent, Fox News even called for an interview… Read the full article of my talk with Fox News here.

What is maple cream made of?

Maple cream is one ingredient. Pure, genuine maple sap, from a maple tree, collected drop-by-drop and boiled down into syrup then boiled down even more and agitated just right (aka stirred a lot).

I don’t know how one ingredient (espeially one as “odd” as tree sap) can be so angelically delicious, but folks, there’s no denying this. Maple cream is possibly the most glorious taste you will ever experience.

How to Make Maple Cream

You’ll need 2 quarts of genuine maple syrup to make roughly 5 cups of maple cream.

Maple cream, just like any other confection made from maple syrup, starts off as supersaturated syrup. The exact temperature of the syrup, how you stir (or don’t stir) the syrup, and how you cool the syrup all have an impact on what you wind up with. All of these factors impact the size of the crystals that form in your concoction. 

As you heat it to make sugar or cream, the syrup becomes viscous and, if left alone, will start to solidify (think hard candy) before crystals can form and grow.

On the other hand, if that hot, supersaturated syrup is stirred while it’s cooling, it will form crystals. I’m told that the mechanical motion of the spoon causes microscopic crystal nuclei to form (or something like that). Basically, if you keep stirring, you form crystals, mix those tiny crystals throughout the thickened syrup, and cause them to grow in size and increase in number. Depending on what you want to make, you’ll need different sizes of crystals.

For the purpose of this article, we’ll turn those crystals into maple cream. Here’s how…

Maple Cream, step by step

Ingredients:

2 quarts 100% maple syrup

Directions:

1. Pour maple syrup into a large pan that is at least twice the size of the volume of the syrup. The syrup will bubble and rise. A lot.
2. Insert a candy thermometer into the pan, attached to the side and not touching the bottom of the pan.
3. Boil until the syrup reaches a temperature of 234°F (or 22°F above the boiling point of water where you live), this may take 20 minutes or more.
4. While your syrup is rapidly boiling, prepare an ice bath, filling an extra-large bowl (a good big bigger than your pan) at least 1/2 way with ice cubes.
5. When boiling syrup reaches the right temperature, immediately move your pan into the ice bath.
6. Watch the temperature of your syrup closely until it reached 100°F (this took 25 minutes the last time we made maple cream and I thought to actually time the process), then start stirring, with a sturdy spoon. We like to have 2-3 people on hand and switch out the duty every few minutes. We stirred for 15 minutes before we wound up with cream.

Notes about making maple cream

• As you stir, you’ll notice your contents getting lighter in color and thicker in consistency, until suddenly, like magic, you’ve made the most delicious form of sweetness know to man. (Okay, I may be a little bias…)
• You’ll notice a color change as you work through the steps. It’s a dark color at first (assuming your syrup is dark) pand turns into a light, almost peanut butter color.
• You’ll hear pops occationally as you stir. This is normal.
• It may look a little “stringy” as you stir. But keep strenuously stirring. 
   

What’s the difference between maple butter and maple cream?

Sugarmakers will refer to this delicacy as “maple cream.” Manufacturers will occationally add butter to it and then it’s officially “maple butter.” But maple cream is 100% maple syrup. Zero anything else.

How long does maple cream last?

If your maple cream is sealed well it can last at room temperature for quite a while, but once it’s opened you do need to refrigerate it.

You’ll notice the maple cream will most likely separate over time (no problem if you have liquid maple syrup forming on the top, just mix it back in before enjoying), but it will last for many long months in the fridge.

More recipes if you like making maple cream

• How to make maple sugar
• How to make maple candy
• How to use maple syrup in baking

And be sure to Download my FREE Pantry Checklist and all the discounts on the best ingredients

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“Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” 1 Cor. 10:31

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This is kind of the Ultimate Guide for a Newbie Sugarmaker right here, chocked full of answers to more than 20 questions you may not even know you have. Yet.

Hi. I’m Michelle.

Our family has been making maple syrup for a decade now. And you and I may have “met” already on the pages of Where Women Create Work, Hobby Farms, or my book, Sweet Maple.

Or maybe over on instagram, where I love sharing, and connecting with folks like you… folks who are interested in real food (like maple syrup) and getting back to the basics, even just a little bit (it doesn’t get more basic than boiling down sap into syrup, right?)

But today we’re diving into the top 20 things you need to know about sugarmaking. But first, let’s answer a few questions…

What is the most efficient way to make maple syrup?

The number 1 best way to make maple syrup efficiently is to use a special filter–a Reverse Osmosis filter. This will cut your boiling time in half, saving you a lot on the cost of fuel, not to mention all the time this will save you.  Go here for the full details on Reverse Osmosis for making syrup.

What are the techniques for maple syrup?

Maple maple syrup isn’t hard, if you know the right tips and have the time and the patience. There is a lot of detailed help right here, on this site, so take a look around. You want to start by knowing what trees you can tap for syrup, then you want to know the secret to tapping your trees at the right time, and you’ll want to gather up the equipment you’ll need for sugarmaking. Find out how to save money when making maple syrup. And you might want to look into using pumps for collecting your sap.

What makes maple syrup better?

This is, of course, a matter of opinion, but, as the author of Sweet Maple, I have three thoughts about what makes maple syrup better:

1. Saving money makes everything better, but maybe especially maple syrup. Building and using a Reverse Osmosis filter is a huge game changer for a backyard sugarmaker.
2. Doing a continual batch boil, where you are constantly adding new sap to your boiling pot or pan is going to lead to a richer, more flavorful maple syrup with hints of caramel.
3. Making it yourself. The effort you put into it as a family, and the time and energy you devote to the process genuinely makes you appreciate it so much more than if you walked into a farmers market, forked over some cash, and went home to pour it on your breakfast plate.

Top 20 Tips for Making Maple Syrup

1. ID Your Maple Trees

While there are certainly other trees you can tap successfully (see the full list of tappable trees here), a maple is always going to give you the best sugar content, therefore the most (and sweetest) syrup for your efforts. To know how to ID a maple tree, even in the dead of winter, watch this short little video:

2. Time it Right

I can’t give you a magic calendar of dates to tell you when to tap in each region, because the timing changes slightly every year, based on many different factors. The short answer is to watch the calendar for temperatures above 40 during the day and below freezing at night. More on that here, in this video:

3. Drill Right

Don’t drill downward. Do your best to stay level, with slight upward tilt. As I explain in Sweet Maple, “To be sure you have a perfectly circular hole, and to avoid air leaks around your taps, you’ll want to carefully drill a hole relatively straight into the tree, with a slightly upward angle to prevent sap pooling.” If sap drips back in, it will freeze every night and you’ll have to wait later the following day until you see any sap dripping into your buckets.

4. Don’t over tap

Respect the size of your tree and use the appropriate amount of taps. Overtapping a tree, or tapping one that is too small to begin with, will greatly reduce the amount of years you’ll be able to tap it, and the amount of wonderful syrup that beautiful tree will be able to provide for your family in the years to come.

Chart from my book for backyard sugarmakers, Sweet Maple.

5. Don’t Tap too Early

Trees are amazing at quickly healing. In just 4-6 weeks, they seal up wounds that are causing their sap to leak. Holes that you tap in mid-January in New England (when there may be a little sap flowing) will leave an inch or two of sap in a bucket every day, if that and then be healed over in mid-March, when they would typically be overflowing a 5-gallon bucket every day.

In this video I share what happened to us one year when we tapped too early.

And this article is loaded with tips on how and why to avoid tapping early here.

6. Choose Good Footwear

Get a good pair of boots and a nice pair of ice grippers or ice cleats so you’re prepared for inches deep of mud, standing water, a foot of snow, or slick ice. Because you very well may experience all of the above in one sugar season. I love my BOGS, (or here are men’s BOGS) but I imagine many different brands will do.

Go here to see the two different ice grippers and cleats I use & why.

7. Toss Ice

Save yourself a lot of time and fuel. Throw away any chunks of ice you see floating in your collection buckets. And pull out and toss any rings of ice that form around the inside edge of your buckets. Go here to read more on the “why” behind this.

More of an audio person? Check out my podcast on this topic:

8. Store your Sap Well

Even on a cold New England day, sap that sits in the collection bucket all day, in the direct sun, can get warm and spoil.

Remember, this is sugar water, and bacteria thrives off of sugar, so it’s important to keep your sap cold until you’re ready to process it.

The best advice I can give you is to process your sap often, if you’re able, and collect your sap often, if you can, especially on sunny days, moving your collected buckets to shady spots. Even better, if you have snow on the ground, make snow banks to burry your sap buckets in. We’ve even buried large coolers in shady spots of snow and dumped our sap into the coolers to hold it until we’re able to boil it.

9. Toss Old Sap

Don’t boil sap that if you have any fear at all that it might be bad. If it’s at all cloudy or ropey, throw it away. I repeat, throw it away. I know it’s hard, but trust me it’s harder throwing away syrup that tastes like dirty socks!

10. Filter Well!

Don’t scrimp on filtering. Do it often… filter when you pour your sap into your turkey fryer or evaporator, filter when you pour the almost-syrup into your pan on your kitchen stove, and filter when you go to bottle your syrup.

I never recommend using anything other than Orlon filters and prefilters. Anything less and you make the job much harder for yourself and you ensure your syrup will be filled with niter. I personally like this set of filters because it’s a high-quality filter that come with prefilters, and it’s from a fantastic, small, family-owned business that I love to support.

11. Choose the Right Tools

For first-time sugarmakers I always recommend starting off very small, with just the bare minimum equipment. But like the Orlon filter I mentioned above, a few items are definitely worth investing in. This list of supplies is more complete than what you need your first year, but it’s a good starting place to pick and choose from.

You may want to bookmark the list as a resource for what tools you’ll want to add on to your sugarmaking production as the years progress.

12. Know What Trees can be Tapped

Don’t think it’s all sugar maple or nothing… While a sugar maple is the holy grail of tapping, providing the highest ratio of sugar to sap of any tappable tree, don’t think you can only tap a sugar maple. That’s very far from the truth. Go here for a comprehensive list of all the tappable trees.

13. Invest the Time; it’s Worth it

Don’t think this is a simple little hobby you can do for an hour a week. Instead, go into it knowing it will gobble up a lot of your time, but it’s relaxing watching the sap boil (plus it smells amazing!) and it’s a nice break from screen time and stress. Also, it will come and go every year before you know it. Typically the longest season won’t stretch past a 6-week period.

14. Install Tubing the Easy Way

If you’re dealing with tubing in any way, even just to run a few taps from a few trees into a bucket for collection, know that hot water is your best friend. Simply dip the tubing in a thermos of hot water that you carry with you in the woods, and voila, it expands and slips easily over your connectors.

If you want to upscale your operation I highly recommend investing in this tool some day.

15. Keep it Simple &  Keep it Outside

Know that it’s okay to start off small. Just tap a few trees, grab a turkey fryer like this to boil in, and see if you like making syrup before you dive in too deep. If you don’t believe me, check out our set up when we first started out in the video below, where I also explain why it’s important to do your boiling outside:

16. Don’t Let it Boil Over

17. Save Money! (aka Reverse Osmosis)

You’ll hear a lot about an RO, because a Reverse Osmosis set up that you build yourself will save you tons of time and money, but don’t stress over it your first year. If you love making maple syrup and want to improve your set up next year, I’d make building an RO like this one my #1 priority for next year.

This video explains how it works and why it saves you so much time and money:

18. Talk to Other Sugarmakers

Listen in on maple-themed episodes of my Simple Doesn’t Mean Easy podcast right here.

If you have sugarmakers local to you, stop in and introduce yourself to them. Most are happy to help out a newbie and answer your questions.

If you’d like to be part of an encouraging group where your questions can all be answered online, join my Making Maple Syrup group on facebook. (I’ll see you on the inside!)

And take heart with these words of wisdom from some of our group members:

* A word of caution, if you don’t use the right tools and measure that your syrup is the right temperature (with this) and the right sugar content (with this), your syrup may turn out a little light and will mold in the jar. Or turn out too dark and form huge rocks of crystals in the jars.

19. Grab the Book of Knowledge for Backyard Sugarmakers

While I tried to cover all the common beginners questions here–as kind of an Ultimate Guide for a Newbie Sugarmaker–let’s face it this is just scratching the surface. I can’t dive into the kind of details here that I did in the 218-page book on the subject.

So please grab a copy of Sweet Maple at your local bookstore today. Or ordering it here actually supports your local store (pretty neat huh?):

Support Small Business & Order Sweet Maple Here

You can, of course, also order Sweet Maple on Amazon.

Best option? Let me send you an autographed copy, from our sugarbush to yours!

20. Make Sure You Have Fun

Most importantly? HAVE FUN. This article is all about how we enjoy the time with family.

3 Things You Need

Other tips about how to make maple syrup:

How to Save Time & Money Making Maple Syrup

How to Set up a Tubing System for Making Maple Syrup

Professional Sugarmaker’s Tips on How to Make Maple Syrup

My favorite tools for making maple syrup are all right here

 

 

 

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And all the trees of the field know that I am the Lord; I bring low the high tree, and make high the low tree, dry up the green tree, and make the dry tree flourish. Ezekiel 17:24

 

 

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The post How to Make Maple Syrup–20 tips for beginners first appeared on Souly Rested.

Truth is, there are many options for making maple candy. But they all share two things in common. Keep reading for the full scoop…

Hi, I’m Michelle. A backyard sugarmaker in New England, and author of Sweet Maple.

Please consider helping me support sugarmaking education worldwide with every purchase of the SoulyRested Swag. You’ll find the latest designs right here (like the one I’m wearing here) .

There are many ways to make this deliciousness

All varieties of maple candy are delicious. And they are all made up of ONE ingredient. Yep, one.

And guess what? You can not only pronounce it, but know exactly where it came from and how good it is for you: 100% maple syrup.

Seriously, there’s no better candy, guys.

This post contains affiliate links. Go here to read the full (ultra fun) legal disclosure about that.

Get the Full Scoop

For the full scoop on the amazing science behind all-natural sugar and all the options and varieties of maple candies you can make, see my book, Sweet Maple.

If you can’t find it at your local book store, great news! You can purchase it right here and still support your local bookstore. (Pretty cool, huh?)

Of course you can grab a copy on Amazon too, if that’s your jam.

If you do grab a copy of my book be sure to go here to claim all the bonuses I’ve gathered for you to say thank you!

How to Make Two Popular Kinds of Maple Candy

I walk you through the details on how to make my two favorite ways to make maple candy in this video:

I call them Maple Stained Glass and Maple Crumbles. My favorite way to use maple candies? I keep them in a jar by my loose leaf teas and use them to sweeten my morning cup of hot tea.

Making maple stained glass hard candy

Making maple crumbles candy

Heat a quart of maple syrup to 244°F in a large pot on the stove.

When it reaches 244°F remove it from the heat and let it cool to 175°F. Beat it with a wooden spoon until it turns a nice cream color, then pour it into greased molds. If you do this just right (which I seldom do, there are just too many variables that have to be perfect) you’ll have a wonderful soft molded candy.

BUT if you let it go slightly above 244 or let it cool to lower than 175 or stir it too long or not long enough you will have a hard sugar that hardens too quickly to pour into molds. Just pour it onto prepared cookie sheets and break it into pieces as it cools.

Store your maple crumbles in a sealed mason jar. I use this lid and jars like these.

Give an amazing gift

I love giving these candies as gifts. I have a page of printable gift cards in my subscriber library if you’d like to have a sweet note to attach to your gifts to let folks know the amazingness you made them and great ways to use the candies. Just subscribe here and print it out right away.

Other Recipes You’ll Love:

• Making Maple Mango Granola
• Making Maple Peanut Butter
• Making Homemade Gatorade
• Making Maple Kombucha
• Making Maple Cream
• Making Maple Sugar

And I list my favorite tools in my homestead kitchen right here.

p.s. Remember, order a copy of my book Sweet Maple for all the details on making the best maple confections and maple-infused baked goods, bread, and even savory meals. Go here for a peak inside, reviews, and all the bonuses.

p.s.s. If you need to order syrup, my friend’s XXL size of maple syrup right here would make lots of wonderful candy, and it’s the best bulk-serving price I’ve found anywhere. Order $50 worth or more & use coupon code SOULYRESTED to enjoy a free tub of maple cotton candy! 

My people shall be satisfied with my goodness, declares the Lord. Jeremiah 31:14

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I was writing my book and reaching out to sugarmakers across the country, asking what they loved to do most with their syrup. Numerous people told me they love making maple granola. Maple Granola? Why had I never thought of this? I knew immediately I wanted to know how to do this wonderful thing.

I already knew how important gut health is. That was one reason I had been making our family’s own kombucha for years. (Kombucha is a delicious, carbonated fruit drink made by fermenting tea. Read more about that in these articles. And learn how to make your own.)

In addition to enjoying kombucha, snacking on high-fiber foods like oats, nuts, and seeds increases gut health.

And granola fills you up with good stuff, slowing down the emptying of your stomach and increasing digestion time, which means you feel fuller for longer.

This post contains affiliate links. Go here to read the full (ultra fun) legal disclosure about that.

Could you help me with this?

Hi, I’m Michelle. A backyard sugarmaker in New England, and author of Sweet Maple.

Please consider helping me support sugarmaking education worldwide with every purchase of the SoulyRested Swag. You’ll find the latest designs right here (like the one I’m wearing here) .

There are lots of great reasons to snack on granola

• Granola can improve gut health. I’ve already covered this point (above), but I didn’t want to leave it off this list. Granola has been found to increase levels of healthy gut bacteria. In fact, studies have shown what we all already knew–granola is a much better choice than refined breakfast cereals.
• Granola can offer numerous antioxidants. Ingredients such as coconut, chia seeds, and Brazil nuts are good sources of antioxidants.
• Granola is a source of good fat. The fat you’ll find in homemade granola is the good stuff. I’m talking about the heart-healthy, unsaturated fats in nuts and the good-for-you omega-3 fats in seeds.
• Granola can improve blood pressure. High-fiber ingredients like oats and flax seeds can reduce blood pressure, according to scientific studies like this one.
• Granola can reduce bad cholesterol levels. Oats are another good source of fiber that helps reduce bad cholesterol levels.
• Granola can reduce blood sugar levels. It seems counterintuitive, but dried fruit–as well as whole grains, nuts, and seeds–may help control blood sugar.

Why make your own granola?

Even the ingredient list on healthy-leaning brands can contain some ingredients you need a dictionary to pronounce.

Store-bought granola may be loaded with way more sugar than you bargain for. And just because you scan the label for high-fructose corn syrup, extra unnecessary sugar can go by healthier-sounding names as well, like evaporated cane juice, molasses, brown rice syrup, and oat syrup solids—those are all added sugars.

On the other hand, when you’re making your own granola and when you know every ingredient in your granola, you can minimize added sugar and fat.

Of course, nuts and seed are still full of calories, so don’t get caught in the trap of thinking it’s okay to eat too much, since you can argue that is is, after all, good for you.

Maple Mango Granola

Ingredients:

• 4 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
• 1 ½ cup raw nuts and/or seeds (I used 1 cup sunflower seeds, 1/4 cup walnut pieces,  and 1/4 cup honey roasted peanuts)
• 1 teaspoon fine-grain sea salt (I use this one. Use code SOULYRESTED for 15% off.)
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon (this is the best)
• 2 scoops (6 TB) protein powder (optional, see notes)
• ½ cup oil (I use this one)
• ½ cup maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I like this one)
• ⅔ cup dried fruit, chopped if large (I used dried mangos w a little bit cranberries)

Storing Your Homemade Granola

I store my granola in a glass jars with these airtight lids, which happen to be the same lids I love using for my second ferment kombucha. Bonus, the nifty handle makes both my granola and kombucha super easy to grab and take on the run, which i happen to do often.

While I’ve kept my Maple Mango Granola for months without any problem, you may want to freeze your granola if you won’t be using it all within a few weeks.

More Food You Can Make (Better) Yourself:

DIY Everything Bagel Seasoning

DIY Taco Seasoning

DIY Giant Cookie

DIY Kombucha (Why making it is better & cheaper than buying it)

DIY Sourdough Pizza Crust

Pizza Crust (without sourdough)

Uncaffeinated tea that tastes like coffee (seriously!)

DIY Peanut Butter

And I list my favorite tools in my homestead kitchen right here.

I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God. Ecclesiastes 3: 12-13

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Now that you gotta love.

What if you just have a few trees?

I’m Michelle, author of Sweet Maple, Backyard Sugarmaking from Tap to Table (go here for a peek inside) and I’m elated that you found this page.

If you are a backyard sugarmaker with two or three trees to tap, you want to grab my book… it’s pretty much the Bible of Backyard Maple. But this post isn’t going to benefit you.

This article is for someone who has many trees to tap, who would rather not carry each bucket, one by one, from each tree back to their processing location. That’s exactly what we did for the first two years.

The first year, with a dozen trees, wasn’t so bad.

The second year, with twice as many trees, got exhausting.

This post contains affiliate links. See my full disclosure here.

Our turkey fryer pot and propane burner has served us well, and is truly all a backyard sugarmaker needs if they’re just tapping a dozen trees or less.

btw, if you want to upgrade or expand on a turkey fryer, this pot is a sweet upgrade with a spout and an extra thermometer that makes your job a lot easier. And this dual burner is great  with stainless steel pans like this if your backyard operation grows, as ours did.

We still, for one more season at least, use 3 propane burners and a combination of pots and pans to boil down our sap that we collect from more than 100 taps. But we weren’t about to carry 50-100 buckets from the woods every evening, for the 6 weeks of sugar season. Many of you have asked me how we built our collection system, so this article will break it down for you.

When you have more trees to tap…

By our third winter of sugarmaking Bill decided to not double our previous year’s number of taps, but quadruple them. With more than 100 taps, buckets would not be an option. So we added lines, collecting sap into collection tanks.

Grab a copy of Sweet Maple for lots of insight into that big step, if installing collection tubing like this is something you’re considering.

But just installing lines to collect your sap isn’t enough. For two reasons:

• First, you’ll want a vacuum pressure on your lines, to create the highest quantity of sap you can in your short 4-6-week window of sugarmaking every year.
• Then, you’ll need a way to pump the sap out of your collection tanks and into your tank on your truck or gator that you’re using to transport the sap.

Keep reading for links to everything we use to make this all run smoothly (and make us lots of smooth-tasting maple syrup).

What you’ll need to make a similar set up…

The transfer pump

The heart of this whole collection operation is the transfer pump. This one works great for us, and of course we have lots of extra batteries.

On a side note, this happens to be no effort for us at all because Bill is a huge fan of Milwaukee. We have bright red Milwaukee drills, and awesome beacons of light (aka this LED stand work light that comes in handy if we’re working in the sugarbush at night). The same interchangeable, rechargeable batteries work for all of the above.

The vacuum pump

Then you’ll need a stationary pump that serves as your vacuum on your lines. We use this pump for that purpose and store it in a heavy-duty plastic tote like this in the woods, at the base of our network of collection lines. The sap is pulled into a collection tank where we then pump out the sap daily into another collection tank on the back of our gator. We connect the pump to the collection lines as well as into the large collection tank using this 3/4″ high pressure tubing.

The tubing

And we use a 1/2″ piece of copper from Home Depot or Lowes, connected to this type of tubing with a 1/2-inch shark bite fitting to pull the sap out of our large collection tanks or 20-gallon tubs. (We found our collection tubs at Tractor Supply; they’re made to serve as food bins for farm animals.)

Once the sap is transferred to the gator, it’s super easy to drive back to our processing area, where we will RO the sap and boil it down. We just attach a piece of tubing, open the spigot of our carrying tank, and let it flow.

btw, if you don’t know what I’m talking about when I say we RO the sap, this article right here, all about reverse osmosis for sugarmakers, will change you life and save you hundreds of dollars a year.

How we made our vacuum system…

Here’s everything we used to make this set up work for us:

Here are some other links that might interest you:

Professional Sugarmaker’s Tips on How to Make Maple Syrup

6 Ways Sugarmakers can Outsmart Squirrels

Check out this list I’ve put together, after many years of research, of 31 trees that can be used for sugarmaking

How to build your own Reverse Osmosis filter–step by step–and why you should

Taste and see that the Lord is good. Psalm 34:8

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To find me in some other neck of the woods, just click any (or every!) icon below:

And please follow along!

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How to identify a maple tree & make syrup

In this article, we’re breaking down how to identify a maple tree, in every season, and how to tap your maple tree(s) and make syrup.

Do you need a sugar maple?

Hi, I’m Michelle. A backyard sugarmaker in New England, and author of Sweet Maple.

Please consider helping me support sugarmaking education worldwide with every purchase of the SoulyRested Swag. You’ll find the latest designs right here (like the one I’m wearing here) .

Ideally, you’ve found the holy grail of all sugarmaking trees if you identify sugar maples.

Sugar maples offer the highest sugar content of any sap you can find, as well as a great sap production rate. Our best producing sugar maples will give us 5-10 gallons of sap a day, on the best days, at 2-3% sugar content.

But you definitely do not have to have a sugar maple to successfully make delicious syrup.

In fact, you don’t even have to have a maple, period. In my last post, right here, I itemized 31 varieties of trees that can be used to make syrup. Kinda crazy, but absolutely true.

Even so, there’s no denying that maple trees, in general, have the highest sugar content in the sap. So let’s talk about an easy way to identify if your tree is a maple tree, even in the winter, without the help of leaves.

How to identify a maple tree in the winter…

Even without any leaves to guide you, there is one telltale sign to look for to help you know if your tree is a maple tree.

Look where the branches meet on the branch. If they are alternate placement, like the beech branch on the left, below, you definitely do not have a maple tree.

If, on the other hand, your branches meet in an opposite placement, like the maple branch on the right below, you very well may have identified a maple tree.

You see, in all of nature there are only 4 types of trees that have opposite arrangement of their branches:

1. Maple,
2. Ash,
3. Dogwood,
4. Chestnut

By the overall shape of the tree and appearance of the bark, you can pretty easily eliminate the other 3 options and know if you have identified a maple.

How to identify a maple tree in the summer and fall…

It’s easy to examine the shape of the leaf’s cleft (where the lobes meet) and the edge of the leaf (if it’s smooth or serrated, or jagged) and know if you have a sugar maple tree. Watch the short video below to see exactly what you need to look for.

How can you tell a maple tree from another tree?

If you look closely at the leaf’s cleft (where the lobes meet) and the edge of the leaf (if it’s smooth or serrated, or jagged), you can easily tell a maple tree from another tree.  In this short little video, I show you exactly what to look for, and examples of different maple leaves.

How do I identify a specific maple tree?

Again, a close look at the leaves’ lobes and edge will tell you what type of a maple tree you have. While ALL maple trees are great for tapping and making maple syrup, if you only want to tap the most productive, best-of-the-best maple trees, you’ll want to identify your sugar maples. This short video helps you identify specific maple trees.

How to identify a maple tree in the spring…

When I first learned about the striking, unique appearance of sugar maples in the spring I was amazed at how easily I could identify a sugar maple from a long distance away. In this video right here I explain more about identifying a sugar maple in the spring.

And I wrote about spring maple tree identification as well.

How to make maple syrup…

Now that you’ve identified a maple tree or two, you need to know the ins and outs of tapping a tree and making maple syrup. Check out the plethora of information I offer here and grab a copy of my book, Sweet Maple, for all the answers to the questions you don’t even know you have yet.

Go here to see what others are saying about Sweet Maple and for a peek inside the book.

How to save money making maple syrup?

Watch this video to find out how to save hundreds of dollars a year on your backyard sugarmaking efforts. Or read the details in this article, and follow the links to everything you need to build your own reverse osmosis system for maple syrup.

Other articles you’ll want to read:

How to build a reverse osmosis system for maple syrup that will save you hundreds of dollars

Find out what 31 varieties of trees can be tapped to make syrup.

Find out what tools you can use to measure your sugar content when making syrup.

Make decadently delicious maple cream with your syrup!

A complete list of what you’ll need to tap trees and make syrup.

You can also follow my Maple Syrup pinterest board right here. Everything I ever write about maple gets added to that one board.

And all the trees of the field shall know that I am the Lord; I bring low the high tree, and make high the low tree, dry up the green tree, and make the dry tree flourish. I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it.” Ezekiel 17:24

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Glance at my Resource Page if you’d like to get a glimpse of all the supplies I use and recommend for everything from gardening, to homeschooling, to chicken care, to nature journaling, to maple syrup making.

And download my 8-page Pantry Checklist and have instant access to the best ingredients and exclusive discounts.

I’d love to connect!

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There are Many Trees to Tap…

Hi, I’m Michelle. A backyard sugarmaker in New England, and author of Sweet Maple. And I’m here to tell you–you probably have a tree to tap…

Before we dive into this amazing list of tappable trees, I wanted to ask if you’d please consider helping me support sugarmaking education worldwide with every purchase of the SoulyRested Swag. You’ll find the latest designs right here (like the one I’m wearing here) .

I get two questions pretty often that require an emphatic “no” for an answer.

1. “I don’t live in a cold winter climate, so I can’t tap trees, right?” and…
2. “If a tree isn’t a sugar maple it won’t make good syrup, right?”

The answer to both of these questions is a wholehearted “no.”

3 Things you Need

What kind of trees can you tap?

Here’s a list of 32 sources of delicious syrup, which grow in various climates.

In fact, amazingly, at least one tree from this list grows in every single one of the states in the U.S.

I owe a wholehearted “thank you” to many sugarmakers around the world who helped me compile this list to answer your important question: “What trees to tap?”

I hope you find this list inspiring.

If you’ve successfully tapped an unusual tree on this list–or one that’s not!–I’d love to hear from you in the comments below. I would love to continually update this article with more information from you!

Want to know even more about sugarmaking?

For more details about these trees or info on how to tap trees, make maple confections, and understand the science behind syrup (and why I think it’s the best sugar known to man), you should pick up a copy of my book, Sweet Maple, available where ever books are sold. Or grab an autographed copy of my book for all the deets on everything “SYRUP.”

Even better, join me in my sugarbush, let’s roll up our sleeves together, and I’ll have you a tapping and boiling and bottling pro in no time flat–Join Maple Syrup University today.

3 Things You Need

Is it bad to tap trees too early?

It definitely pays off to be patient! If you tap too early you will loose out on the most productive time of sap flow because the tap holes will have started healing and closing before that time arrives in your sugar season. Lots more in this article from extensive research by The University of Vermont Extension: The Secret to Tapping Trees at the Right Time.

Can you tap a tree too late?

For sure! If you wait too far into the sugar season you’ll miss week’s worth of precious sap collecting. Go here for lots more insights: How to Know the Perfect Time to Stop Tapping

What tools to use?

Folks are always asking what tools they need to make syrup. So I made a list of all my syrup-making tool recommendations. That was easy.

Now the rest of this post is another list. One that wasn’t so easy. It took years of research and talking to sugarmakers around the world to compile this list. But it’s fascinating and I hope you discover, thanks to this list, that you have a few trees you can use to make amazingly delicious all-natural sugar.

What trees to tap?

Trees to tap in the maple family

Sugar maple This is the holy grail of maples because its sap is more concentrated than any other maple, meaning you can make more syrup with less sap.

Bigleaf maple Native Americans have tapped these trees for centuries, but current-day sugarmakers tend to not even know about this power horse, even though bigleaf maples can produce as much sweet sap as sugar maples. I’ve tasted big leaf maple syrup that a reader, Pamela Williams, shipped to my little corner of New England from Vancouver. I can attest that it is delicious.

Black maple These rival sugar maples in sap volume and they even resemble them as well.

Boxelder This hardy tree can often be found in abandoned areas, along railroad tracks, and in ditches, so this may be a sugarmaking tree that you can forage sap from, as long as you’re prepared to transport a lot of the cold sugar water. Boxelders may yield only half the syrup of sugar maples.

Canyon maple/big tooth maple These trees are popular in the Rocky Mountain states and Texas. While their sap has high sugar content, their volume isn’t impressive.

Douglas maple can be found in Alaska, through British Columbia, and into Washington state. It also grows further south into Oregon, California, and Nevada, as well as out to Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming.

Gorosoe The gorosoe is the most popular tapping tree overseas. In Korea, where the tree’s sap is enjoyed by locals and tourists alike as a health drink, “Gorosoe” means “the tree that is good for the bones.” Read chapter 6 in Sweet Maple {{LINK}} for all the details of the science behind syrup to find out why “Gorosoe” happens to be a perfect name.

Greene’s maple can be found in central California.

The New Mexico maple grows in its namesake state as well as Arizona, Colorado, and Utah.

Norway maple Norway maple syrup is less sweet that other maple syrups, but it’s a smooth, buttery flavor.

Red maple While they also produce high yields of sap, rep maples’ tapping season is shorter. But their sap produces a yummy, slightly tart syrup.

Rocky Mountain maple The Plateau Native Americans made syrup from these trees, found in western North America.

Silver maple Like red maples, these trees produce spring buds very early, so they have a short tapping season. But the syrup is delicious.

This article tells you more about how to know when to pull your taps. 

Sycamore Maple This variety of maple, native to central and southern Europe, can be found in pockets of the U.S. While it has a pretty low sugar content, sycamore sap makes some yummy syrup with delicious hints of caramel and vanilla.

Trees to tap in the walnut family

While many say walnut syrup is delicious, I need to warn you that walnut trees naturally produce a lot of pectin. This means if you don’t filter walnut sap correctly, to remove the pectin, you may wind up with walnut jam instead of walnut syrup. I have no experience making walnut syrup, but the best tip I’ve heard is to let the walnut sap sit (making sure you keep it cold) until the pectin separates, and then it’s easy to just skim it off the top before you boil.

Black walnut The black walnut tree is for valuable for timber, as well as a good source for sap, with a long tapping season. The syrup is nutty, rich, dark, and just a little bitter.

Butternut/white walnut The butternut is similar to a sugar maple for sugar content and volume of sap.

English walnut These trees produce the walnuts we purchase from the grocery store. They can be tapped, but they need especially cold winter and spring temperatures to be tapped successfully.

Heartnut While heartnuts have a good concentration of sugar in their sap, they produce much less sap than maples.

Trees to tap in the birch family

I’ve talked to many people who tap Alaskan white birch who are convinced they need to finish their syrup at a lower Brix to avoid bitterness. Read all about what brix is, why it matters, and how you measure it, right here. But any syrup—maple, walnut, birch, or whatever you’re making—isn’t truly “syrup” at any brix less than 66 percent sugar. I have talked to folks who bottle their birch syrup at 60 percent Brix, but they don’t have birch syrup, they just have birch-flavored water.

Alaskan white birch is a fabulous syrup for baking and marinating meats. I have never made birch syrup, and am very glad I have hundreds of sugar maples, so I probably never will, given how low it is in sugar content and, therefore why it’s so expensive to make. But I’ve been sent a few bottles from readers and can tell you it’s delicious in my as well as a perfect syrup to use to marinate steak (recipe here).

White Birch, the state tree of my home state (New Hampshire), is a different variety than the short Alaskan white birch. Even though it is the state tree, it is not as prominent as the sugar maple, at least not in my corner of New England. Given that all birch varieties have half or less of the sugar content of sugar maple sap, I choose to ignore our white birch trees. But many folks do say they have the sweetest sap of all birches.

Black birch While black birch, native to eastern North America, is most most commonly used to make birch beer, it can be tapped for syrup too.

European white birch While many say this tree’s syrup is “unappealing,” birch syrup is great for cooking.

Gray birch While this variety of birch tree never grows large, the gray birch can be tapped if it grows large enough.

Paper birch While the paper birch requires a lot more boiling time than maples, since it has a very low sugar content (less than 1%), it is the sweetest of the birch trees.

River birch This birch grows in the southeastern United States and in the Northeast, and it can be successfully tapped.

Yellow birch This birch tree sap has a higher mineral composition and a higher number of antioxidants than sugar maples’ sap, but a lower sugar content.

And there are more trees to tap! (kinda)

Sycamore Many sycamore tappers report that sycamore syrup has a touch of butterscotch flavor. Of course most people have never heard of tapping sycamore, so there is a wealth of delicious sycamore sap around the country just waiting to be tapped into.

Sweetgum While sweetgum trees offer quality syrup, they do not offer a lot of sap wood in relation to heart wood.

Palm It turns out palm trees are not really trees at all, but flowering plants. If you happen to live in the only one of all 50 US states that doesn’t have a truly tappable tree (and that’s Hawaii), believe it or not, you can still make syrup, from palm trees. Palm syrup is not made by boiling sap, but by lancing the flower of the palm, to make it weep. The liquid collected from the flower is boiled down to a syrup that, I’m told, is wonderfully honey-tasting sweet.

Shagbark hickory Hickory syrup isn’t made by tapping into the trunk of the tree. Instead, hickory syrup is made from an extract taken from the bark of these trees. See Sweet Maple for a great marketing suggestion for shagbark hickory syrup from Mike Farrell, former director of Cornell’s Uihlein Maple Forest research center.

Tulip poplar Poplar syrup is made the same way as hickory syrup, by boiling down toasted pieces of poplar bark.

Sorghum No, sorghum is not a tree, but sorghum syrup—a favorite in the South—is worth a mention here. The all-natural molasses-like syrup is made by pressing sorghum canes through a mill, to extract the juices out of the cane. Then the juices are boiled down to make syrup.

This post contains affiliate links. Go here to read the full (ultra fun) legal disclosure about that.

More information about what trees to tap?

So there you have it. After years of talking to sugarmakers around the world, and compiling lots of great tips and information about making and baking with all-natural syrup and pulling it all together to write Sweet Maple, here’s my list of 30 trees (and one plant) I compiled. See this book  for more detailed information about tapping each of these trees along with everything you need to know about backyard sugarmaking, not to mention lots of inspiration in how to use your delicious syrup.

If you do decide to pick up a copy of Sweet Maple, please be sure to take advantage of the amazing bonuses that come with your purchase–valued almost 3x the cost of the book, btw–go here for more info.

Also, you may want to join my facebook group, Maple Syrup Making where experts from around the world offer tips and encouragement.

Oh, and, random note (cause sometimes I’m random),  if you’d like to know why I’m super happy when I find ice in my sap bucket, you’ll like this article.

Do you need to live in the maple belt to find trees to tap?

So I still haven’t told you why I answer “no” to that other question I get all the time. You know the one about “Can I tap trees if I don’t live in the “Maple Belt”?”

In researching and writing my book, I was blown away at how many folks I talked to who successfully tap well outside of the Maple Belt.

Pamela Williams is a great example. She has learned to watch the barometer more than the thermometer to know when to tap. Pamela doesn’t have sugar maples where she lives, on the west coast, so she taps bigleaf maples. And she’s part of a large group of sugarmakers who call themselves the SapSuckers. They not only tap very successfully outside of the maple belt, without sugar maples, but they love educating others how to do the same thing.

Pamela explains, “Bigleaf sap runs happen after extreme weather events. Barometric swings between the atmosphere and the tree produce sap runs as good as, if not better than, a reliable freeze-and-thaw cycle,” which is important when Vancouver experiences a mild winter.

btw, if you’d like to know more about the specifics of tapping bigleaf maples, you’ll enjoy this little book: Bigleaf Sugaring, by Gary and Katherine Backlund. 

From my family to yours, Happy Tapping!

Want to be an expert sugarmaker?

It took Bill and I sooo many years of mistakes and trial and error before we understood the art of backyard sugarmaking, but I was determined to use all we learned to teach others. You don’t have to waste years of effort and batches of trashed syrup (been there).

Grab a copy of my detailed book and dive into Maple Syrup University–I created this 12-module resource of videos, printables, and detailed workbook so you could be an expert at this in no time flat.

3 Things You Need

More info about trees to tap & making syrup:

Take a FREE self-paced e-course and learn all my syrup-making tips and secrets

What tools are needed for backyard sugarmaking?

What is brix? And what tool should you use to measure it?

How to make syrup, step by step

Build a reverse osmosis system for maple syrup

Join Maple Syrup University!

The godly will flourish like palm trees and grow strong like the cedars of Lebanon. Psalm 92:12

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and then one of the Top Homesteading Blogs of 2019 as well.

 

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And please follow along!

And have you tried my a-MAAHZ-ing Maple Sugar Cookie recipe that’s in my Resource Library? You’ll have instant access when you sign up for my FREE e-course of sugarmaking secrets, right here–>

The post 32 Tappable Trees that can be tapped for making syrup first appeared on Souly Rested.

If you’re just trying this out and only tapping a few trees for fun, you can keep it very low key. A few taps and buckets and a large pan over the fire should do it. When it’s time to bottle your syrup, a simple candy thermometer can help you test the temperature and know when to bottle it. Go here to see the taps, buckets, and thermometer I recommend.

If you want to make a hobby out of making syrup, you will very soon realize you want to have the best tool to test your sugar content, to make sure you’re bottling it at the perfect point.

So it’s one of the Million Dollar Questions in the world of backyard sugarmaking… “How do you test your brix?” If you have no idea what I’m talking about, I’ll explain below.

Go here for step-by-step directions on how to make syrup, or take a listen to the podcast episode I recorded all about the 8 Steps From Sap to Syrup. (Or go here for a link to listen on your favorite podcast player.)

And grab a copy of my book, Sweet Maple, or my course, Making Maple Sugar, if you want to know every detail about all things maple.

How to make syrup — and “measure the brix.”

To have the best syrup, you want to know when it’s boiled down to the perfect thickness. Or, another way to say it is that you want to boil off just the right amount of water to leave you with the perfect amount of sugar.

To know when you’ve reached syrup perfection, you need to take a simple measurement. In the syrup world, it’s called “brix.” The brix–or the perfect amount of sugar–is 66-68 (or 66-68% sugar). At that stage, you have yourself some genuine good syrup; not too runny & not too thick.

So how do you measure the brix? This is one of those questions. A question that is always debated and never solved to everyone’s agreement. But that’s okay, because most backyard enthusiasts have one tool that they stick with, because they’re not overly particular and it works for them. Professional sugarmakers, on the other hand, have a very definite opinion of the best tool to use. Sometimes they have a very specific combination of tools that they use, in a very precise manner, every time.

How to make syrup–what tools measure the brix?

Without arguing it to the death–cause well I don’t really care what tool we use, as long as I have maple syrup in my root cellar all year long, ya know what I’m saying?–I will describe the tools that will help you have perfectly boiled syrup. Which you should use, well, that’s the $20,000 question.

Here’s a break down of how these nifty tools work.

Hydrometer

To use a hydrometer, you fill the tall metal cup, which you purchase with your hydrometer (but usually as a separate purchase) with your syrup that you’re boiling. Then gently place your hydrometer in the filled cup (with a plate underneath to catch any overflow). It will float, and when it finishes bobbing in the syrup, you can read the measurement on the hydrometer at the line of your syrup. If the red line is even with the surface of your syrup in the cup, you’re ready to bottle. 

If your brix reading is too low, and the red line floats below the surface of the syrup, you need to keep boiling your sap and try measuring it again in a little bit. If, on the other hand, your brix reading is too high, mix in a little partially-boiled sap, cook the syrup a little bit longer and retest it.

If you decide to purchase a hydrometer, keep in mind that there are different types of hydrometers for using in beer and wine making, so be sure you buy the type of hydrometer that is calibrated for syrup making. This one is perfect. Then make sure you have a hydrometer cup like this one as well. If you’d like to purchase both a hydrometer and the cup that you’ll need to use with it together in one kit, my friends over at Smoky Lake Maple have got you covered. Check out their hydrometer and cup combo right here.

Refractometer

If you wanna go a little-fancier, you could consider a refractometer. If you do, you have a choice of manual or digital. Either way, a refractometer does exactly what its name insinuates. It measures how light is refracted through your sugary, boiled-down sap to determine how high your sugar content is. Even one step better, many refractometers are more detailed than hydrometers in the sense that they can also measure the sugar content in your sap, right out of the tree.

A few years ago, we upgraded from a hydrometer to a refractometer because we wanted to be able to measure both sap and syrup. We use it when we’re bottling syrup, but we also like using our refractometer to measure the sugar content of our sap before and after running it through our RO filter, to reassure ourselves just how awesome our RO is and how much money it’s saving us.

You’ll place a drop of sap or syrup in a little cup at the end of your refractometer then, with the manual option, hold it up to the light. With a digital refractometer–this is the one we have –you just push a button. As light reflects through your syrup, it’s refracted and the nifty tool in your hand tells you the sugar content of your syrup. You do want to zero out, or “reset” your refractometer with each reading, using water that is a similar temperature to the sap or syrup drop that you will be placing on it.

If on the other hand, you only want to measure the sugar content of your sap, you can save money by getting a refractometer that only measures on the lower end of the scale. But I personally want one refractometer that can measure everything I need to know… sugar content in sap as well as syrup. That’s why we own this refractometer. Both are fine choices, depending on what your needs are.

On the other hand, if you want a professional grade refractometer that is durable and as versatile as you’ll find anywhere, this top-end refractometer might be for you. Watch this video to see our refractometer and how I use it to measure the sugar content of my sap and my boiling syrup.

Murphy Cup

This tool is a nifty sort of a combination of others, in one place. You need to fill the cup with syrup, float a hydrometer in the cup—just as I described in the description of a hydrometer above—and read the dial on the cup. The dial tells you what your hydrometer needs to read, based on the temperature of your syrup. To have perfect syrup, you just want the dial to match the reading on your hydrometer. That’s all you need to do.

I love the ingenuity behind the Murphy Cup, and the smart inventors behind it run a great shop, full of products I often recommend to backyard sugarmakers. So whether you’re in the market for a nifty Murphy Cup or not, stop over to Smoky Lake Maple (and tell Jim & Angela I sent you :)).

If you want more maple-infused goodness…

Grab a copy of my book, Sweet Maple, for more tips on using these three tools and pretty much an answer to every question you come up with about backyard sugaring.

Every sugarmaker also needs a great maple recipe… sign up here and download ebooks and printable recipes. All resources are totally free, in my Resource Library for subscribers.

Or maybe you’d like some maple goodness in your kitchen without any effort at all… I can help with that too. Check out this amazing syrup. Use code SOULYRESTED and save $$ too!

Other articles about how to make syrup:

A list of all the products I recommend for sugarmaking.

Making maple syrup in your backyard, step by step.

Sugarmaking tips from the pros.

6 ways to outsmart squirrels on the sugarbush (or in your backyard sugarmaking).

Everything you need to know to make your own RO filter & save hundreds of dollars making your own syrup.

I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God. Ecclesiastes 3: 12-13

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Find out why SoulyRested was considered to be one of the Top 20 Must-Read Homesteading Blogs of 2018

and then one of the Top Homesteading Blogs of 2019 as well.

 

 

I’d love to connect!

To find me in some other neck of the woods, just click any (or every!) icon below:

The post How to Make Syrup–what tools do you need? first appeared on Souly Rested.

Squirrels on a Maple Syrup Farm

If you’re a sugarmaker, chances are you’ve gone head-to-head a few times with a squirrel who is after the same sweet sap that you are. Whether you own a large, professional maple syrup farm, a rural sugarbush (like our family), or just tap a tree or two in your backyard, squirrel troubles can be an irritating reality.

Of course the little furry guys with big tails practice sugar maple tapping too. The North American squirrel is known as Sciurus carolinensusk, for those who are into binomial nomenclature… (I happened to love that chapter in high school biology.)

But no matter what you call the little devilish things, squirrels are effective tappers during sugaring season. They gouge the bark of young maple trees with their two front teeth and drink the sap that flows. And they’ll chew through tubing or plastic collection bags, not to mention do anything they can to access sap buckets.

So how can you avoid the problems that squirrels bring to a maple syrup farm or just your backyard maple-syrup-making operation so you, ultimately, can bottle the most delicious syrup possible?

Read on, my friend. And be sure to grab a copy of my book, Sweet Maple, or my course, Making Maple Sugar, if you want to know every detail about all things maple. Remember to snag the $75 worth of bonuses that come with Sweet Maple (see the list of bonuses here) & take advantage of the $53 worth of special bonuses that come with my maple sugar course as well. (See that list here.)

Some links in this article take to you affiliate products that I use and love. If you choose to make a purchase, I may earn a small commission. 

6 Ways to Outsmart the Squirrels

If you happened upon this page wanting to know more about how to make maple syrup, you may want to start here. Otherwise, if you need some tips to deter squirrels. read on.

1. Use buckets, not bags.

Bags tend to attract bothersome squirrels who want easy access, because chewing through a plastic collection bag is a piece of cake for a determined rodent. I explained in Sweet Maple that we prefer buckets over bags for this very reason.

On the other hand, plenty of folks buy and use collection bags like these with great success. So it’s worth noting that people who use collection bags instead of buckets say they like working with the bag better than a sometimes awkward bucket and they like that they can see how full the bag is from quite a distance, knowing if they need to empty them on any given day.

2. Use a different cleaner.

Louis Plante, a professional who runs a family maple syrup farm in New Hampshire, found that changing the solution they were using to clean their lines at the end of the season made a big difference in their squirrel troubles. Their previous solution was appealing to the annoying little rodents, who apparently liked the taste. Once they switched what solution they were using to sterilize their lines and taps, they noticed a lot less squirrel destruction. Read other suggestions Lou has for backyard sugarmakers right here and in Sweet Maple as well. 

And, if you’re in the market for purchasing some maple syrup, I’ve been recommending Lou’s family’s delicious syrup for years, made on the family’s maple syrup farm in Hinsdale, NH. Go here to order their all-natural, wood-fired maple syrup.

3. Use gloves around the maple syrup farm.

Brenda Chmielewski, a sugarmaker in Vermont, shared a tip with me that makes a lot of sense. She recommended always having clean gloves on when installing or working with your tubing. Squirrels seem to be attracted to the taste of salt, and if your hands are at all sweaty, you leave a delicious taste behind for the tree rats, encouraging them to take a few bites, which of course will lead them to the even more appealing non-ending trickle of delicious, sweet sap.

4. Use some hot stuff.

Dameian Edgerly, a backyard sugarmaker in in Ohio, recommends slathering a hot mess on your lines where the squirrels seem to be attracted. He mixes an unappealing concoction of Vasoline and Tabasco Sauce or hot peppers. (Ground hot peppers will hold the spiciness a little better in the rain and/or sunlight exposure.) Bonus, if you’re worried about the well-being of your tree rats, this concoction is non-lethal to the squirrels. It will, of course, need to be reapplied after heavy precipitation.

5. Use some ammo or a good 4-legged friend.

If, on the other hand, you’re NOT worried about saving a rodent’s life, many sugarmakers insist that it’s necessary to cull the squirrel population in their woods annually. Others swear by the importance of having a good dog around the sugarbush often to keep the squirrel population under control. Bixby would second this notion.

I would also add that our barn cats do an amazing job of critter control around our little farm. While they don’t traverse the woods as much as Bixby does, the squirrels are happy to come to them. For this E.B. is eternally grateful.

6. Use a chainsaw.

Finally, if you’re able to clear out your softwood trees you will notice a lot less squirrels wreaking havoc around the maple sugar farm or in your backyard.

3 Things you Need

Other articles you may enjoy about troubleshooting problems around a maple syrup farm:

An article about how to save money making maple syrup.

Read this to find out why you should throw away the ice in your sap.

Everything you need to know to bake deliciously with maple syrup.

A list of the products our family uses for making maple syrup.

A collection of podcasts, print, and online articles about making maple syrup.

 

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Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. James 1:2-4

 

 

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Find out why SoulyRested was considered to be one of the Top 20 Must-Read Homesteading Blogs of 2018 and then one of the Top Homesteading Blogs of 2019 as well.

Glance at my Resource Page if you’d like to get a glimpse of other supplies I use for maple syrup making (as well as gardening, homeschooling, homesteading topics, nature journaling, and more).

Many readers often ask what camera I use to take the images you find here on SoulyRested. I love my Nikon; you can read more about my camera and even purchase your own here.

I’d love to connect!

To find me in some other neck of the woods, just click any (or every!) icon below:

And please follow along!

Please take a second to follow along here on SoulyRested to catch up on a few of my memorable mishaps, discover fascinating things about my centuries-old farmhouse, glean a little parenting/homeschooling insight from this momma who’s been failing at the effort for almost 2 decades, or enjoy the inside scoop on the secrets other legit homesteaders might not tell you.

And have you tried my a-MAAHZ-ing Maple Sugar Cookie recipe that’s in my Resource Library?

 

The post 6 Ways to Outsmart Squirrels on a Maple Syrup Farm first appeared on Souly Rested.

If you’ve grabbed a copy of my brand-new book, Sweet Maple (affiliate link there), you know I’m bound and determined to make everything that I can with the best choice of sugar known to man… all-natural maple syrup.

So, yes, I had to start making my kombucha with maple syrup.

This post explains 3 ways you can go about making maple kombucha in your first ferment, meaning your total sugar base is all-natural maple sugar. Another option is to add maple syrup to a second ferment. In that case, you could feed your scoby (in the first ferment) any sugar source you want and use maple syrup to sweeten your second ferment.

But that’s not what this post is about… More about that another day. (For now, see links at the bottom to some of my favorite second ferment recipes.)

If you need a scoby…

Save $$ on this organic scoby with code SOULYRESTED.

How to make maple kombucha

This post will help you brew a completely all-natural kombucha without a hint of refined sugar. Now that’s sweet, am I right?

If you’ve stumbled upon this post and have no idea what this “kombucha” and “scoby” stuff is you might wanna go here for more info on all that. Or check out this post for the full scoop on what you’ll need to get started.

Folks said I was crazy.

So there I was, sitting back sipping my kombucha one afternoon right after I had sent my final edits on Sweet Maple (affiliate link) to my publisher and it hit me. I needed to ditch the refined sugar in my kombucha and try making it with maple.

When I first got this idea to make maple kombucha, folks seemed to think I was crazy. (That’s okay, it certainly wasn’t the first time.) I couldn’t find anywhere as a reliable source for how to do it either. Those sources I did trust told me it couldn’t be done and I would kill my scoby. So I knew two things…

1. I would prove everyone wrong (or kill a scoby or two in the process… one or the other)
2. I was alone in this experiment of making a maple scoby.

So I put on my big-girl pants and got to work in the kombucha corner of my kitchen.

Fast forward a few seasons, I’m loving my successful experiment of maple kombucha, and I stumble across an intriguing, hot-off-the-press article about findings at the Cornell Maple Program that suggests the public is longing for maple kombucha. Go figure!

Little ole me, sitting here in my little ole farmhouse kitchen, tucked away in little old nowhere… I was doing what the scientific geniuses at Cornell were doing! The article went on to explain that there’s an overwhelmingly positive response from the general public who is loving their maple kombucha. Well, duh.

That’s what I’ve been saying!

This is seriously good stuff guys! And, creating an amazing organic scoby that has only ever lived on pure, all-natural maple syrup? Well, I feel as brilliantly happy as any Cornell genius ever could!

Here are more drinks I love making with maple!

Try this delicious Maple Apple Cider. (A fall favorite of mine.)

I love making Maple Lemonade. (A refreshing summer drink.)

This Maple Switchel is another gut-healthy drink (and it doesn’t require a scoby).

How to make a maple scoby.

I took three approaches to growing a maple scoby.

Well, okay, to be honest I only took two approaches. The third one just happened, and I can take no credit for any effort at all on the third option.

1.  You can convert a current scoby.
2.  You can grow a new scoby.
3.  You can let your kombucha grow a new scoby.

Today we’ll look at all 3 options… the ones you have to work at and the one that takes no brain power at all.

Once you get the hang of this, the sky’s the limit on the amazing kombucha flavors you can start creating. (I share lots of tried-and-true second ferment recipes in Simple DIY Kombucha.)

Converting a scoby from refined sugar to maple syrup

First, I took a new scoby from my established one and started a new batch of kombucha that I fed a little less refined sugar and a little more maple syrup gradually, each time I brewed a new batch. This slowly got the scoby used to a new food source and prevented starving it before it learned to adjust. You can totally work this out in your own estimates and adjustments… just be sure to write it all down. Trust me, you think you’ll remember it, and then you totally don’t. Not that I’ve ever done that.

Or feel free to check out my kombucha Master Class for all the nitty-gritty details. Basically, let me do the trial and error, and make the mistakes, and then teach you all I learned.

In my crash course, Simple DIY Kombucha, you’ll find the exact schedule I followed as I converted my refined sugar scoby over to a 100% maple scoby, all laid out in an easy-to-follow format, that worked for me, over 6 brew cycles. It took about one month and my scoby was thriving on pure maple syrup.

Growing a new scoby with maple syrup

Make your own maple scoby is surprisingly easy and probably the best way to have your own maple-based scoby. Oh, and sidenote–you can follow these same steps for any kind of scoby, fed with any type of  sugar.

You do need a little floater of a tiny piece of scoby in order to grow a new one. I found one in my current brew and used that. If you already make your own kombucha, they are ultra easy to find. There are little floaters of scoby floating around in kombucha all the time. Tiny is fine.

If you don’t brew your own kombucha yet, you’ll have to make a trip to the store and inspect all the unflavored kombuchas for sale. Turn the jars upside down and around until you find the best floating specimen of scoby. Or until the produce manager kicks you out for manhandling the drinks. Whichever happens first.  

Place your tiny scoby “floater” in a little bit of tea that you brew just for it. You’ll want to combine 1/2 cup hot water with 1/4 TB of loose leaf tea (or 1 tea bag). If you’re new to making kombucha, there’s plenty to learn about what teas to use, but for now you’re safe to choose a simple non-flavored black tea.

Check out Simple DIY Kombucha for a break down of the best types of teas to use when brewing kombucha and the ones I personally have had the most success with that you’ve probably never heard of.

When nice and dark, add 1 TB maple syrup and 1/2 cup cold water. Make sure it’s cooled to room temp before adding in the tiny scoby wannabe. That part is super important!

Secure a piece of fabric over the jar, so your little bit of brew can create and take on the good bacteria in the air. Then let natural goodness happen. Ideally, set your jar in a warm area, 68-85°F, but not in direct sunlight, and let it be, untouched, for a week or two.

About a week into your science experiment, you may notice the scoby doing its magic. It will be a clear film across the liquid. Over time, it’ll become thicker and less translucent. Most likely you’ll need to wait a month or so until your scoby is thick enough to actually brew some kombucha.

If you give it 3 weeks and see no difference in your concoction—no sign of scoby growth—you’ll need to toss your little experiment; recite Edison’s brilliant quote, “I have not failed, I’ve only found 10,000 ways that won’t work;” and try again. And don’t worry, I’m positive you won’t need to do this 10,000 times before you succeed.

Letting your maple kombucha grow a scoby

It may not look like much, but that picture above? That right there is Maple Scoby Kombucha Success. On the right/top is the beautiful scoby I grew from scratch. When I first decided to go for this kombucha goal, I thought for sure I would fail, but boy was I wrong. It was super easy and so exciting to watch gut health form and grow right there in a mason jar on my counter.

On the left/bottom is an even crazier success. While I was eagerly trying to grow my own scoby, one started forming totally on its own in another jar of kombucha that I was transitioning to maple syrup. In the second ferment. (Again, we’re not talking about second ferment maple kombucha today. I’ll have to write about that topic soon.) While the jar was totally sealed. I wasn’t trying to do a darn thing but make a bottle of kombucha. Crazy, but true.

The longer time went on and the more I made kombucha over the years, I realized this wasn’t unusual at all. These scobys really do seem to take on a life of their own sometimes.

But really, isn’t that just like life? You labor hard and hope big and then, out of nowhere, you realize another blessing right there in front of you that you didn’t see coming or do anything to deserve. I never would have thought I’d see an analogy for God’s grace in a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast in my kitchen. I never would have thought I’d WANT a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast in my kitchen… but oh was I wrong. On both accounts. 

Fyi, never use a second-ferment scoby as your primary one for new batches. I feed mine to the chicken–they LOVE it–but it’s also great to add to your compost pile.

How long does it take to grow a new scoby?

You can grow a new scoby from scratch in a month or less. If your kitchen is warm it could only take a few weeks.

On the other hand, if your kitchen is cool, the scoby formation could take even longer than a month. In general, if you’re able to keep your kombucha at an average temperature of about 70°F, you’ll have a new scoby in no time, sending out glorious strands of yeast and making oh-so-good-for-you fermented goodness.

If you’d like to monitor your kombucha temperature, that’s extra easy with a handy stick-on thermometer. This is the one I use.

I applaud you that you’ve made it this far into this crazy-long post! You obviously care about your gut health (or you just like to try fun new things), and you’re obviously a fan of maple syrup.

You may want to check out my new book, Sweet Maple. (affiliate link) For a peek inside and a long list of reviews, glance right here.

More kombucha and maple goodness you’ll love:

Go here to find out the full scoop on every product I use for making kombucha.

This article shows you how we cut the cost of making maple syrup IN HALF. Seriously. 

Enjoy 10% off this organic scoby with code SOULYRESTED.

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