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Making Maple Syrup

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Making Maple Syrup Maple Trees Red maple trees grow to 40 – 60 feet in Equipment Boiling Sap To Syrup height. They also differ in bark color from In our area there are two species of sugar maples. On young trees the bark is Some of the items needed for maple After you have collected a sufficient maple trees that are often used for smooth and gray to light gray in color. As sugaring may already be at home. The rest amount of sap, you can begin the sugaring due to the high sugar content in the tree matures the bark darkens in color are fairly easy to obtain. boiling process. The best location is their sap. The first and most preferred is and becomes jagged. The buds are also 1. A hand drill or brace with a 7/16” or outside. Most folks are quite successful the sugar maple; also know as rock opposite from one another on the twig and 1/2” wood drill. by using a wood barbeque or propane maple or hard maple. This tree can have shorter in length then the sugar maple. The 2. Several well rinsed one-gallon milk jugs stove. Boiling sap usually requires at sugar content as high as three percent. leaves are smaller than sugar maples and or metal pails with covers. It takes at least five to six hours of continuous The second maple is the red maple, have a toothed or jagged edge. The leaves least forty gallons of sap to make one boiling in a large flat-bottomed pan. which has a slightly lower sugar have only three main points, and are “V- gallon of syrup. Sap is ready to be removed from the concentration. shaped” between the points. 3. Spiles - a stainless steel or aluminum first boiling pan when the sap turns tube that is approximately 2 1/2” in amber in color. Transfer the sap to the The simplest way to identify sugar and Before You Begin length and 1/2” in diameter with a built- saucepan and continue boiling. When red maples is by their leaves. You can in hook. If you choose not to purchase the sap begins to sheet from a spoon, go out during the summer and mark Trees can be tapped at the end of January in spiles, 1/2” aluminum or plastic tubing the correct density for maple syrup has maple trees for winter New Jersey. You must decide if you are cut to the proper length can be used. been achieved. The syrup must be collection. If identifying willing to fully commit to the process of 4. Rubber mallet. filtered while hot to remove any the trees during winter, maple sugaring before tapping. There is no 5. A large flat-bottomed, rectangular pan. impurities. Use the funnel and coffee you will have to rely on sense in placing a hole in any tree unless 6. A saucepan. filter to remove these impurities and fill size, bark, twigs and you plan to see the finished product. 7. A funnel. your storage container. The heat will buds. 8. Coffee filters. create the proper vacuum seal. After tapping a tree, during the next month Sugar maple trees grow to a size of 60 to and a half, trees must be checked on a daily 80 feet in height. Buds are oval and basis and sap collected. The amount of sap Tapping Trees Removing the Tap between 1/4 and 1/2 inch in length. flow depends upon many variables such as They are located opposite (as opposed to tree size, daily temperatures, and soil Choose a tree that is at least 12 inches in When you have finished collecting sap alternate) from one another on the twigs. moisture. Typically when sap begins to diameter. For each additional foot in for your project, gently remove the The twigs and buds are a shiny reddish- flow, a tree may provide a minimum of one diameter an additional tap can be used. spile, clean it, and put it away for next brown in color with sharp buds. The gallon of sap per day and on a good day up Drill a hole on the south side of the tree year. Spiles should be removed by mid- bark of the tree is dark gray-brown and to five gallons. about 2 1/2 feet from the ground and make March. At that time, the sap turns curls on one edge in older trees. the hole on a slight upward angle about 1 amber and tacky and is not suitable for Sometimes, leaves can be found on the 1/2” to 2” into the tree. The upward angle syrup. The tree buds will also begin to ground. Leaves can be enables the sap to flow more freely. Also, swell and will be nearly ready to open as wide as 3 1/2 inches. when the spile is removed, the angle into flowers. They are shaped roughly reduces the potential of dirt and other like a hand, with three matter in the wound, which may inhibit the large points and two tree’s ability to heal. With the rubber It is the policy of the County to provide reasonable smaller points, and are mallet, gently tap in the spile and firmly accommodations to persons with disabilities upon “U-shaped” between the attach your bucket or milk jug to the advance notice of need. Persons requiring points. accommodations should make a request at least protruding end of the spile. two weeks prior to program attendance. SUMMARY OF RULES AND REGULATIONS Maple Sugaring History Additional Reading Materials The rules and regulations governing use of facilities or properties administered by the Making Throughout the northeast, sap from There are many books and websites that Hunterdon County Division of Parks and Recreation are promulgated in accordance with provisions of the N.J. Statutes Title 40:32-7.12, which reads as follows: maple trees is collected when the winter provide detailed information about maple "The Board of Chosen Freeholders may by resolution make, alter, amend, and repeal rules and regulations for the supervision, regulation and control of all activities carried sun increases in intensity to raise sugaring, including those listed below. on, conducted, sponsored, arranged, or provided for in connection with a public golf course or other county recreational, playground or public entertainment facility, and for Maple Syrup temperatures above freezing. Typically the protection of property, and may prescribe and enforce fines and penalties for the violation of any such rule or regulation.” for Hunterdon County, this time begins 1. Amateur Sugar Maker, Noel Perrin, These rules and regulations have been promulgated for the protection of our Information Guide around the end of January to mid- Hanover, N.H.: University Press, patrons and for the facilities and natural resources administered by the February. Maple sap is important to the 1972. Hunterdon County Division of Parks and Recreation. Permits: A fully executed Facility Use Permit, issued by Hunterdon County for tree because it carries necessary minerals, 2. Backyard Maple Syrup, Ithaca NY any activity shall authorize the activity only insofar as it may be performed in strict accordance with the terms and conditions thereof. The State of NJ, County nutrients, and sugars that enable the tree Cornell University, Division of of Hunterdon, or the local municipality may require additional permits. Prohibited Acts: The violation of any Municipal, State, or Federal law. Adver- to sprout leaves. A tap hole in a given Natural Resources. tising, solicitation, ice skating, ice fishing, and any other on-ice activities, down- 3. Backyard Syrup Making from Maple hill skiing, bathing, fuel powered modeled aircraft, the release of any animal, season will yield five to fifteen gallons of explosives of any kind, poisons of any kind, after-hours use, alcohol without a sap, which is only a small portion of the Trees, Durham, N.H.: University of permit in a non-designated area, controlled dangerous substances, weapons, posting of signage, inappropriate attire, and climbing on, or rappelling from any tree’s total sap production. New Hampshire, U.S. Dept. of cliff, rock face, or boulder, with, or without the use of specialized equipment. Agriculture, and Extension Service. Regulated Activity: The sale of merchandise, aviation, boating, cross-country skiing, bicycling, and sledding. Battery powered modeled aircraft, and horses Native Americans were tapping maple must be in designated areas, dogs must be restrained with a leash not exceeding six feet, pet waste must be removed, camping/fires are by permit only. All trees long before European immigrants groups of 15 or more must obtain a permit for use of any Park area. Prohibited Acts for the Protection of Property: No person shall make, exca- settled North America. They introduced Maple Sugaring Equipment vate on, destroy, paint, fill in, cut, remove or tamper with any property, organic or inorganic. the settlers to “Indian Sugar” and “Indian Prohibited Acts for the Protection of Natural Resources: No person shall The following companies manufacture disturb wildlife or vegetation in any manner. No person shall pollute waters, Molasses” which we know today as litter, dump debris, or release helium balloons in any property. It is illegal to maple syrup. supplies and equipment needed for maple remove any natural resource from, or introduce any plant material, bulbs, or seeds to any property without a proper permit or license. sugaring. Contact them and ask for their Prohibited Acts for the Protection of People: No person shall obstruct a Can maple sugaring be done at home as a catalogs and a list of locations where you county employee/official, interfere with a visitor, conduct any unsafe act, or cause a hazardous condition.
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