One of the most magical-seeming things that we do to eat locally is to make our own maple syrup and sugar. Maple sap flow has fascinated me for as long as I can remember. When I was a kid, we tapped a tree or two a few times for the fun of it, but what we do now is a more serious effort.

Sap starts running in maple trees (most famously, sugar maples) when the daytime temperatures start to get above freezing, and the nighttime temperatures still dip below freezing. This is the time to drill a small hole in the trunk of a maple, tap a “spile” into it, and hang a bucket to catch what drips from the spile. In the photo, you can see the spile conducting the sap flow into a bucket hanging below it. This is a classic setup, but in a pinch we’ve also used plastic plumbing parts, tubing, and glass bottles for collection. Something needs to conduct the sap away from the drilled hole, or it just runs down the treetrunk. Spiles used to be carved from wood, too. When I was a kid, my absolute favorite story was the chapters in “Little House in the Big Woods” by Laura Ingalls Wilder, which describe making maple syrup and sugar and sugaring off.

The watery sap is collected by the gallon, usually, then boiled down to get a higher concentration of sugar. Some seasons are poor, if the weather warms too quickly, and trees don’t have the temperatures needed to keep sap flow going. Some seasons are really good, with weeks of the right temperature range. Here’s a New York Times article about the effect of global warming on maple trees and sap production in New England. Yet another delicate balance that may disappear from the world of our descendants?

Last week we had a moderate sap run and made a few pints of syrup, during the warm spell we had. Now it’s cold again and the sap is not running, but soon it will be in full swing…. :)