For two entire weekends we have been raking leaves. The last count on bags lugged to the compost dump was 35. And the front yard needs to be raked again. But really I'm not complaining too much. All our trees are Maples, and in early spring when the sap starts to flow those trees produce the most wonderful maple syrup.
The sugaring season is months away and already I've taken stock of our supplies. I have a mental note to put in an order for 6 more taps, and 10 new buckets. I think Santa will leave them under the tree.
5 comments:
How do you know if it's a sugar maple, so you can tap it?
You can use most Maple species for making maple syrup. The sugar maple gives the best sap to syrup ratio which is 40 to 1. Other species average a sap to syrup ratio of 60 to 1. Meaning it takes 40 (60) gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup.
We have sugar and silver maples in our backyard. We also tap the neighbors trees which are norway and sugar maples.
Oh... to answer your question... You can tell by looking at the leaves or by knowing what the bark looks like.
Its best to consult a tree book. But our rule of thumb is no red or ornamental maples. They don't produce good syrup. Also at a glance, the sugar maples are the ones that have a nice egg shape to their branches.
So, I could show one of my maple leaves to you, so you could tell me if the tree is tappable? Too bad the leaves are all gone. One of my maple trees drips -- could that mean maple syrup?
Usually, dripping sap means syrup can be made. Bring a leaf in and I'll take a look at it.
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