Lucky you, Brenda. I watched it a couple of times when we lived in Ottawa and it is so neat to see it run from the tree. And fresh maple syrup is soooooo good.

Shauna

I didn't know you could make maple surple from the Manitoba maples...thought you had to use the other kind... I saw the process when I was younger, visiting relatives in Ontario (really should make the trip one of these years...haven't been down in at least 10) and it was really neat...make sure you do it outside because it will make a sticky film on everthing if you don't. My mom's second cousin used to have a syrup operation. He did it all naturally and went around to collect it with a wagon and a pair of Belgians. (Horses and maple syrup...I was 13 and horse crazy, and if I had been older and he hadn't been related and fourty years older than me... ;> LOL!!)

Keep us posted on how it turns out...if it works I've got a Manitoba out back that I'll have to try it on...I'm a maple surple-aholic...DH buys it for me every once in a while and I do shooters of it.
Mmmmmm maple surple...gllaaaallll...I'm sure that in the bubble it doesn't even have calories. ;-)

Verena

Brenda have you made syrup before or is it a new endeavour? When I was a kid we had Manitoba maples in the yard, and I asked my Mom if we could make syrup and she said no, it's not sweet enough. Well I went out and tried it (of course!) and it was a tiny bit sweet but I was still under the impression it wasn't enough to make syrup. If you do make syrup I am fascinated to know about it!!

Like Verena says, if it works I have one MB maple left (cut the rest down) and I will bleed the darn thing dry and maybe it won't deposit its offspring in my vegetable garden anymore... LOL oops did that sound bitter?

Let us know!

This is not the first time we have made our own maple syrup. And yes, Manitoba maple trees make wonderful maple syrup, I think it is just as good as Ontario maple syrup. Manitoba maple trees...the sap you have to boil down a bit more than the sugar trees that are used in Ontario. So for every 44 gallons of sap collected we would get one gallon of syrup. We do not collect it with the "Belgins and the wagon" ...my son and DH will use the ATV and the little homemade trailer with a miniature water tank on the back of the trailer.

We have a large flat tray which we have on top of a wood burning stove. The stove is out in a shed that we can swing open the doors at each end up. I would never want to do it in the house...too much humidity. We collect the sap, empty the jugs into a large round barrel that has a hose connected to the bottom of it. As my DH gets the sap boiling this hose is opened up just enough to add a little sap into the already boiling sap. It takes hours and hours to finish a batch of syrup. We have the sugar testing "thermometer looking" instrument that we use that tells us the sugar concentration of the liquid. Of course, we are never hungry those days, 'cause of all the taste testing a person "has" to do. We put the finished syrup into little jug containers (that you can buy maple syrup in the stores in) to give to others or just use glass canning jars if doing it for ourselves.

I use maple syrup when cooking apples and squash. I also love homemade maple butter...I put it on toast. An interesting thing...I can only make maple butter on sunny days. It will not work if I make it on a cloudy day. Something to do with the humidity in the air...it doesn't let it set right.

It is an experience to make homemade maple syrup. I have even had a nursing home bring out a van full of their residents on an activity/excursion (whatever you call it) one year. I made homemade biscuits for them and tea and they all seemed to really enjoy themselves.

I will post pictures (probably starting tomorrow) with what we are doing, okay?

Brenda

Yes, pictures would be great! I've never seen it done before, so it would be very interesting. We've got a couple hundred manitoba maples in our shelter belt, but they're only about 7-8 years old. I'm sure the trees would have to be a little older than that before they were tapped.
Actually, I have heard about some guy, possibly in the Dauphin or McCreary area who will pay to tap your manitoba maples, as long as you have enough trees to make it worth his while.

Wow that I cool I would be interested in it too. Last fall I cut a branch off my MB Maple, and right now the whole trunk is soaked in sap running out of it. --> off to lick my tree... just kidding.

Laurie, the guy you are talking about in the McCreary area is Bob Gass. We have been out to see his operation when he has it going in the spring. We have bought some of our supplies from him over the years. For us, we do not have the time to tap more trees and bring the sap up to him to process. Just have enough time to do it for ourselves.

Your shelterbelt would be excellent in years to come. Just let us know and come on over and we'll show you exactly what we do so you can also do it for yourself.

Now for a few pictures.

The first is the tap that we put into the tree.

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Then my DH drills a small hole into the side of the maple tree and pushes the tap into the hole.

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Then after washing with a solution of javex water to sterilize the milk jug, and rinsing well...the milk jug is cut and hung onto the tap on the tree. Notice the sap in the bottom of the milk jug.

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Here are a few trees that are tapped. The temperatures these days... dipping to below 0C at night... freezes the tree. Then on the days that it warms up above 0C and we do not have a wind, the tree pushes the sap out of the tap we put in the tree trunk.

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Will post more pictures later.

Brenda