Tapped Out

Maple syrup season has come to an end at this little place here.  Last weekend we actually hit 70 degrees.  Which really sent the maple trees into growing leaves mode.  The buds swelled to bursting, and I pulled my taps.

maple buds showing red

The taps had been in place roughly five weeks, the typical length of a sap run is about six.  Depends on the weather, of course.  The sap won't run if the days are below freezing, but the spring run is done when the days are very warm and the nights are consistently above freezing.  

tap removed, sap clearly not running

The taps popped out of their holes easily, and the tree will fill in the hole with new growth, just like how over several weeks a hole in your own skin heals with just a small scar to show where the puncture was.

After pulling taps, I loaded up all my buckets, taps, and hosing into the tractor loader bucket for easy transport up to the house, where everything will get washed and thoroughly dried before being put away for the next 10.5 months or so.

ready to haul in for clean up and storage

Once the final batch of sap was boiled down into syrup, I took a picture of all this year's batches to show how the color of the syrup changes as the season progresses.  It starts out very light and golden colored, becomes amber, and finally near the end of the season, becomes the brown color that is typically thought of when one says 'syrup'.

color progression

My yield for this season tallied up to be 14 pints, which is 1.75 gallons.  Not counting the small amounts that didn't fit into jars with each batch.  Those got eaten up on stacks of pancakes and waffles each weekend.