Jump in your car, drive to Quebec, buy a case of maple syrup and bring it home with you.
🙄Why would I drive to Canada when Green’s Sugarbush is just 10 miles away from me and makes great syrup?
I thought you might enjoy the road trip! Take a bottle of bourbon with you and negotiate a deal with a Canadian….
1. Find maple trees. We don’t have any sugar maples which are preferred for their higher sugar content, so we’ll be tapping silver and Norway maples. The syrup is still delicious.
Greens Sugarbrush has some great stuff, but if you’re looking for another local option, Great River Maple out of Garnavillo is awesome too. They’ve added a lot of different flavors and variations to their product line in recent years.
My father used to make his own maple syrup with a well-crafted system. He connected tubes to multiple trees, all feeding into a single large tank. To refine the sap, he had a custom metal box welded, which he used to boil down the maple water over an open fire. He typically worked late into the night, sipping wine as he tended the flames. The result was a rich, delicious syrup with a subtle smoky flavor, infused by the wood he used for cooking.
Good to know, I’ll keep them in mind if mine doesn’t turn out.
Raising chickens is pretty easy.
I’m planning on boiling the sap down over a fire outside.
That shit makes good fertilizer. Plus if you free range you won’t smell much shit, that and keeping a clean coop.
@InsaneHawkJJP --- no need for the frowny face, I'm just joking!
That fertilizer is incredible. Back in my twenties, when I ran an organic gardening company in Iowa City, we used a turkey manure product called UltraGrow. I’m not sure if it’s still available, but despite its awful smell, it worked wonders—our customers' gardens thrived like never before.
The frowny face was for you. I love my mom, but she’s really let herself go the last 20 years.
www.smokylakemaple.com
www.smokylakemaple.com
Thanks for the links.If you want to speed up boil times and cut down on energy use look into one of these.
You can build them yourself but this guy makes a kit that is hard to source for the same price.
A Brix Hydrometer is also a good tool when your first starting.
Also having a dedicated maple drilling bit ensure you get a clean hole. Worth the investment over a regular drill bit. Just make sure its the same size as your taps.
Maple Syrup Hydrometer | Smoky Lake Maple Products, LLC
This dual declaration hydrometer (Brix and Baume) is specially made for maple syrup production but also works for cane syrup.
5/16" Drill Bit with Plastic Case | Smoky Lake Maple Products, LLC
Compatible with 5/16" taps (Bit diameter = 0.313") Pulls sawdust out of the tap hole much more effectively than a standard drill bit. Very sharp, precise, clean cut. Will NOT leave residue/marking on your tree. Brand = DSD International Made in USA
That’s awesome. I hope to someday have a tube system as well, we have a lot of maples on our property.
You add "tubes" to your trees, and you just made them "trans", yo....
Seems like a lot of effort and expense for maple syrup. How much could you possibly eat that would make this worthwhile?
The hardest part will be boiling it down. I paid less for the taps than I do for store bought organic syrup. Everything else I need I already have. Plus it’s a sense of accomplishment. My wife runs a daycare so the syrup will get used plenty.
