Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: Maple syruping
When I was little my mom always had Aunt Jemima syrup. Then I got the taste of REAL maple syrup and have NEVER gone back! I can’t even order pancakes at a restaurant unless they have the real deal. I’m so spoiled!
THEN I got to taste syrup made from my own Silver Maple trees. There’s something about making it yourself that just adds to the flavor. I’ll just be honest, this is when I lived on 5 acres with my ex-husband, okay… husband at the time. 😉
The US and Canada are the only producers of maple syrup. Just 19 states in the U.S. produce it. You can use Silver maples even boxelder trees! The only difference is the sugar content. Maple syrup, just like honey, is a completely natural food. The only thing you do is evaporate the water.
You don’t have to have Sugar Maples to make some great syrup. The only difference is the sugar content in the tree sap. This land also has a number of Boxelder trees, these are a type of Maple that can also be tapped for syrup.
So, apparently there is one good thing from a Boxelder tree. You need about 40 gallons of maple tree sap to make 1 gallon of pure maple syrup.
March is sap flow time for Maples. We need temps to drop below freezing at night and then rise above during the day. Once buds have set on the trees, the sap flow stops. Ohio State University has a comprehensive fact sheet on making maple syrup. Check it out. I’ll have more tomorrow as well!
There are plenty of commercial tapping enterprises throughout Minnesota. Here’s a look at some of the pictures. I’ll share more tomorrow…
