Making Maple Syrup

Back in January, I shared how we were given a Maple Sugaring Kit from Tap My Trees. At that time, we were collecting the sap but hadn't had a chance to turn it into maple syrup yet as you need a LOT of sap just to produce a bit of syrup.

Finally a few weeks ago, we had collected approximately 5-6 gallons of sap so we started the process of boiling it down.

I had several pots going all at once because I don't have a huge pot big enough for many gallons. I also had a pot going on the side burner of my gas grill outside. That one took a lot longer to boil down I am guessing due to the fact it was cold outside. So I ended up bringing it inside.

It does cause a lot of condensation (which is why I'm sure it's recommended to boil it down outside) but I kept the vent fan running and would just wipe down around my stove & oven hood every so often.

As each pot got less and less, I combined them until I was down to one pot. It was neat seeing the change in color from the clear sap to seeing the golden brown of maple syrup. Every so often I would taste test it and finally when it reached that sweet spot (literally), I took it off the burner to cool.

And after all those gallons of sap, this is the final product (about 1 1/2 pints)! I probably could've let it boil down a tad more to darken it, but we all liked the flavor.

Of course that night we made pancakes for supper so everyone could try out the syrup we made from our own maple tree!

This is definitely something we plan to do each year for sure! The kit from Tap My Trees is relatively inexpensive for all you get and the fact that you can use it for many years to come. This winter was pretty mild for us so I imagine we could've gotten more sap had it been colder for longer. We'll find out next year!