Everyday Farm Life

Tapping Trees for Maple Syrup

Katrin BabbPost a Comment

I was skeptical about boiling our own maple syrup the first time we tried it years ago.  Now, I can’t imagine going through the month of February without it.  If you are interested in tapping some sugar maple trees and boiling down your own syrup for the first time, here are some quick pointers about tapping:

  1. The temperatures need to be above 35 degree F for three days before tapping.
  2. Pick a spot on the tree that is at least 3 feet off of the ground.
  3. Using a drill angled at a slight incline, only drill 3 inches into the tree.
  4. The tree must be at least 10 inches in diameter to be considered large enough to tap.

A general size gauge for how many holes you can drill on a tree is:

  • 10-14 inches in diameter – 1 tap
  • 15-19 inches in diameter – 2 taps
  • 20 and up – 3 taps

It is not recommended to have more than three taps to a tree.

Those are the basic points for getting started.  Once you drill the hole in the tree, you gently pound or press a spile or tap into the hole and check to see if it is dripping.

This is the tap we use, which we bought on Amazon:  HERE 

Once the tap is inserted into the hole, you have a few options as to collecting the sap.

  1. You can connect a hose to the tap that runs into a bucket on the ground
  2. You can attach a small pail to the tap
  3. Or (what we did) attach a cleaned milk jug to the tap by a tie.

Here we used a zip-tie to hold the milk jug onto the tap.

Whichever method you choose, it is important to make sure you collect the sap at least once a day.  We usually collected in the morning or evening.  Also, sap is very perishable and can start going bad after only a day or two of sitting out.  We boil every other day and freeze the sap on the off days to keep it from going bad.

The sweet sap will run for 2-3 weeks.  After that, it starts to darken and takes on a bitter taste.  For us, we only boil for that first week.  That gives us more than enough maple syrup to last the year plus extra to give away to friends and family.

Next week’s post will be about the boiling part.  Hot dogs, sweet tea, and s’mores!!!!!!!