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Get homegrown syrup right in your own backyard by learning how to tap trees.
Tapping trees is an easy process that involves more than just maple trees. It’s a gloriously easy activity and of course results in some very tasty liquid.
Types of Trees to Tap
Most everyone knows that sugar maples are the most traditional tree tapped for syrup. However, any maple tree can be tapped for syrup. I personally tap silver maples.
Beyond maple these trees can also be tapped for delicious homegrown syrup:
- Birch
- Black Walnut
- Box Elder
Climate is Everything
In order for any of the tappable trees to actually produce sap, they need to be in an area that has a winter or at the very least a period of freezing.
Folks who can grow citrus aren’t going to be able to tap trees for syrup. This is just a simple and true fact that there seems no way around it.
The optimum time to tap varies not only from region to region, it varies from year to year. Trees should be tapped when the temperatures reach the 40 degree Fahrenheit range during the day and drop to the 20s at night.
While most of us know generally when this will happen in our areas, it’s good to keep an eye on the forecasts to get the timing better and it is likely to vary a bit year over year.
The sap will naturally stop flowing once the temperatures rise too much above this range. It’s always a good idea to pull the taps once the leaves start to bud.
Tapping Equipment
Commercial producers have huge systems of tubes and evaporators and much more. At home, most folks keep it simple.
To actually tap a tree, a hole needs to be drilled into the tree and a spile or tap of some sort must be placed.
Buckets or containers to collect the sap are also needed. That’s pretty much it for getting sap from the tree.
Truly, Mother Nature does most of the work here.
Making Syrup
Once the sap is collected, it needs to be boiled down into syrup. This is a lengthy process but still simple. Making syrup is simply boiling the sap until all the water is gone leaving only liquid sugar behind.
The sap needs to be boiled until it reaches 7 degrees above the boiling point (boiling point changes depending on elevation, so it’s important to know at what temperature it boils to calculate proper temperature here).
I do this boiling on the stove, under a powerful hood. Many folks do it outside. It gets very humid inside, just a warning. Keep the syrup long term by canning or storing in the refrigerator.
That’s truly all there is to it. If you have the right climate, adding some homegrown and homemade syrup to the list of food creation and preservation ideas is a simple and fun thing to do.
This is the first year I’m going to try making maple syrup. I’m so excited and glad to find this post.
It should be mentioned that in order to get 1 gallon of syrup, you need 60 gallons of maple sap and 100 gallons of birch sap. Also should be mentioned that when you are done, you must plug to hole or the tree will bleed out and die.
Actually the amount syrup to sap ratio varies wildly depending on the type of maple tapped. Sugar maples are usually in the range you mentioned but there are a number of other factors.
You should never, ever, ever plug a hole – the holes will scar over and close themselves. Plugging them will actually cause more damage than allowing them to close on their own. I can site numerous sources to confirm this finding: http://extension.psu.edu/business/ag-alternatives/forestry/maple-syrup-production & http://www.mnmaple.org/index.php/frequently-asked-questions to name just a few. Never plug holes please.
60 to 1 ratio on your sap? Wow, that’s not very sweet sap. I live in Maine and have been sugaring for 20 years and usually get about 35 to 1 from my trees. I make it over a wood fire and am set up to do 1 gallon batches of syrup per 12 hour day of boiling.
Would love to do this with our black walnut!
I would love to try this! We buy real maple syrup from a local source.
We tapped trees for the first time last year and wonder why we waited so long to try.
Last year we made homemade spiles and used gallon jugs.
How did you make those?
This giveaway would be perfect for my daughter and her husband. They have a five-year-old daughter and want to tap maple trees with her this year. They have explained the beginning of this process and have gone into the woods around their home to identify maple trees for tapping. They’re read the pertinent parts of Little House on the Prairie books in explanation of how it was done in Mary and Laura’s time.
Thank you so much for your kindness in this giveaway.
Never done this before, excited to try it!
I have always been interested in how maple syrup is made. I have been on a learning/application journey for the past couple of years. This would be something great to learn.
Thanks for the info and the giveaway… This is very interesting.
I love maple….would never have thought of the different trees for syrup…
I did not know you could get syrup from tapping a birch tree! Can’t wait to try it out!
Awesome giveaway!! Thank you for sharing this great information..would love to try this, there is nothing like REAL – maple syrup!! We live in the mountains of PA , this would be a fantastic adventure to try.
Thank you for this amazing opportunity!- Sincerely, Danielle
Thanks for the chance to win :) Looking forward to trying to tap our trees this year and give it a try :)
Like thinking of the possibility of tapping some of our trees. What fun for kids.
This is so cool! Thank you for the contest!
Last Spring we were successful in our backyard in downtown Kalispell, Mt. I have recruited the neighbors to try for themselves this Spring!
Kathy, I live in C-Falls, and am building a home outside of Whitefish. There are birch trees there… What kind of tree(s) have you tapped?
We tap silver maples because that’s what is on our property. We have had great success each year. Good luck! I know some other folks in Columbia Falls who’ve done birch.
We will be tapping our maples and the one huge birch we have in our backyard this year. Very exciting!
This would absolutely thrill the grandkids! They enjoy helping on the farm, and this would be a brand new thing. I never knew you could use black walnut! I’ve got to try, I can’t stand it when I learn something and then don’t do it.
can’t wait for maple syrup season to start
We have tapped our 3 maples for 3 years now and totally love doing it. We have made all our own equipment. It would be nice to have some “real” equipment!
We have two maple trees. This would be fun to try!
Thanks for this great giveaway! I’m a huge fan of your blog…if I win this, i’ll be giving it to my parents who have almost 20 acres and still haven’t tried tapping for themselves!
So awesome. Didn’t realize we could gather syrup from our Black Walnut trees.
I would love to win either one!
I’d *love* to win either of these kits! This is our first year living somewhere with land and mature maple trees, and I’m really hoping to be able to tap them this year!
this is something new, that I would like to try.
Maple Tree tapping is something I always wanted to try! This would be so perfect for the Grandboys and I to experience!
I am trying to teach my 2 Grandson’s at an early age 4 and 5 how to garden and homestead and this experience would be just wonderful :)
I had no clue you could tap other trees! I grew up with a huge Black Walnut tree in the front yard. I’m going to mention the idea to my parents :)
Sure would love to have the kids’ kit for my grandsons to use this spring!
Can’t wait for sugaring season! Been a long cold winter!
I thought about tapping my maples last year but ran out of money before I could get the equipment. Would love to try this…
This would be so cool.
you can also tap fruit trees…we made our first syrup last year from just a little sap….it was very good
I think this would be a great project for kids to be part of – to know where food comes from and value the time and effort put into growing, harvesting and processing it.
How do you care for the hole once you remove the spile to make sure the tree stays healthy?
The holes will scar over before fall and no extra care is needed. I do make sure to tap a different location each year, as recommended to keep it sustainable. The trees really do take care of themselves as long as we don’t burden them with to many taps in one tree or leave the taps in longer than necessary.
How big is the best maple to tap? Also, how long do you leave the jug there? Do bugs get inside the jug? Thanks!!!!
Maple trees need to be at least 10 inches in circumference before tapping. Leave the jug as long as the sap runs – it’ll stop running when the temperatures get too warm, usually right before the tree buds. I empty my jugs whenever they’re full and then let them hang again. Yes bugs in the jug now and then. I strain them out. You’re gonna boil it anyway.
Hickory, too. The Indians didn’t boil, they just put the sap into troughs and pulled out the ice in the mornings, no boiling!
Great article thanks for sharing! I just moved to WV from NH and are going to try tapping Sycamores as well as Sugar Maples this year. I heard that Sycamores have a butterscotch type flavor. I’m curious about how it will go here because so far I haven’t seen the drastic change in daytime vs. nighttime temps that I experienced in NH.
I’ll bet you’ll have some interesting notes to compare based on climate. I’ll hop on over to your blog to see if you post ’em.
I have been wanting to do this, thank you for the instructions on how to do it, never knew you would get sap from so many trees!!!!
Isn’t that fun? I wish I had a few more different types so I can do a comparison of the different flavors.
This would be so awesome. We have to try this. We have 174 acres in southern Ohio so we should be able to find plenty of trees. Thanks!
Oh enjoy it and have so much fun!
I’m originally from Belarus. Birch is traditionally used there for taping. But they do not make surap but instead just use the sap as it is to drink it. Just like a juice.