Projects

Maple Syrup

Traditionally, Maple Syrup has been made from the maple trees on the land. We've continued that tradition and tap maple trees during the syrup season.

Maple syrup is made by drilling a hole into a maple tree, putting a spigot into the hole, and capturing the sap that runs out of it. That sap is then boiled down to make syrup and bottled for use over the year.

Tapping the trees

We tap the trees in mid February when the temperature starts going below 0 degrees Celcius at night and above 0 during the day.

There is a drill bit in the "Special Drill Bits" drawer storage of the workshop with an orange-red flagging tape tied around it that is used to drill the holes for the taps.

Taps and buckets are stored in the back corner of the basement in large tupperware bins.

Trees that may be drilled are tagged with orange flagging tape throughout the forest around the workshop. In 2021, we tapped 11 trees. In previous years it appears that the landowners tapped trees which were far too small to tap safely for the tree.

Collecting Sap

We use food safe 5 gallon plastic buckets to store the sap that is collected during the day. They are in the workshop and stored in the workshop when full.

Sap is collected daily, sometimes twice a day when the sap is flowing well! It can we difficult to walk with a full 5 gallon bucket, so we sometimes only fill them half way before getting a new one, and then pour the half filled bucket into the last half filled bucket we brought in.

The buckets should be sealed every night to let the sap keep longest.

We stop collecting sap when it stats to attract larger quantities of insects and pests, and gets significantly darker in color.

Boiling Maple Syrup

The boiling stove is located next to the workshop, and is currently in disrepair, but still workable. The Boiling bins are in the basement of the house, large metal bins with lids that are hard to miss. Each bin holds ~20 gallons, making about a half gallon of syrup (~1,89 litres) when boiled down to syrup.

[WIP, boiling to come soon]