Tapping our Maple Trees
Tapping our Maple Trees This is our 2nd year for tapping our handful of Maple trees. We only have silver maples- while this gives us a nice sweet syrup when all said and done, it is a little different then Sugar Maples. Silver maples are not ideal for syrup-making for a couple of reasons. The first reason is the low sugar content of the sap. Silver maples have thin, watery sap with relatively low sugar compared with some other maples. In addition, silver maples tend to leaf out earlier than other maples. Once leaf buds start developing, the flavor of the sap becomes unpleasant. However, gotta use what's on our land. The tapping season varies from region to region but generally starts in early March and lasts until mid-April. When the sap starts and stops running depends greatly on day and nighttime temperature fluctuations. Watch the weather forecast – sap starts flowing when the temperatures are below freezing at night but climb to the 40°F and above range ...