Maple Syrup

Saturday we were making Maple Syrup because we had the sap and we thought it would be a good science experiment. We read Little House in the Big Woods and it made me, at least, want to make our own maple syrup.

We got the tap last year, but because it was out of season we could not tap our tree.

Well 4 days ago we tapped a tree. Every morning we put the sap in the refrigerator because it’s like milk and spoils easily..

Saturday we boiled it down to Maple Syrup. Hopefully it will end up on some pancakes. We were going to use the smoker but it didn’t stop smoking. 8)

It looked like we were not going to get any more sap because it was too warm. But we did get more, lots more!

Here is the recipe for Maple Syrup.

First you collect the sap from your tree. It needs to be a Maple tree; Sugar and Black Maple work best, but any kind of Maple will do. You get as much as you can, because LOTS of sap equals itsy bitsy bit of syrup.

Then you boil it down until about 219 degrees. It gets darker and the water evaporates. The best place to boil it is outside because the house felt icky doing it inside (Momma said it was all the humidity in the house). We opened the windows to let the humidity out.

Then after it was boiled we let it sit for 12 hours in a cold place. All the sediments (Miss Krista called it Sugar Sand) goes to the bottom. We strained it using a funnel and coffee filters. Straining it took out all the sugar sand and made the syrup look nice.

Then you can it by heating the syrup to over 180 degrees (just before it boils) and pour it carefully into sterilized canning jars. After you pour it you can put the lid on and screw it on tight! We tipped it on the side ’cause the recipe said to. We listened for it to POP! It means they are sealed.

Miss Krista said that the lighter the syrup the better the grade. The grade is only for the color, it does not mean the taste is better. Try the different kinds, see if you like the lighter better or if you like the darker better.

Now we are waiting for some Pancakes!

I can barely wait to try out some of our new, home made Maple Syrup. I think that real Maple Syrup tastes better than store-bought-nothing-has-to-do-with-Maple Pancake Syrup!