Sap, Lot a Sap We Hope

Tapping maple trees today to hopefully get a nice supply of maple syrup for Chef Brian and his culinary team. We tap about 15 maple trees. Some trees deliver better than others. We will usually collect for 2 weeks or so depending upon the weather. The sap flow usually slows by the 3rd week as the tree tries to heal itself plus we are in warmer days by then.

The temperatures conditions that we need for good sap flow is below 32 at night and above 32 and sunny during the day. There are forces within the tree that pulls water into the tree and flows past our taps. Once it gets closer to bud break which is usually in late February, the sap changes it composition and is not usable after that point. This is reasoning why we collect sap in late January/early February.  The following link with give you more information on maple sap collecting
43 gallons of sap is boiled down to make one gallon of beautiful and natural maple syrup that Chef will  use in the kitchen during the season. If we collect enough, we will make it available for pancakes/waffles.