Maple Syrup Season

February and March are an exciting time at Klover Rose Farm because it means that it is finally Maple Syrup Season! A few years ago my family decided to tap tress and try to make our own syrup. Making maple syrup requires lots of time and hard work- a lot more than people probably expect. First, we had to tap the trees. This year we taped 40 maple trees all over our farm. Sap flows best when the temperatures at night drop below 32 degrees and the daytime is sunny and above freezing. On our best day we collected over 95 gallons total from our trees! Then, after going around and collecting the sap from buckets throughout the week, we begin to boil the sap down on Saturday morning in a giant pan over the fire. One weekend in March we cooked down 170 gallons of sap! Did you know that 40 gallons of sap are required to make 1 gallon of syrup? This means that lots of time is spent cooking down the sap (12 hours for us last week) and evaporating much of the water off. Once we get down to a few gallons we move from cooking outside over the fire to inside on the stovetop. Maple syrup is measured in Brix, which is the sugar content of an aqueous solution. We use a hydrometer to tell us when our syrup has reached 66-67% Brix at 68 degrees Fahrenheit, which means we have perfect syrup. It is important to filter the syrup to remove any particles and niter that may be present in the sap before bottling. This year we decided to get cute jars and even made labels for our product. My favorite part after working so hard is having a pancake breakfast once our syrup is complete. It is amazing how clear, tasteless sap can transform into a sweet treat that is perfect on pancakes, incredible on ice-cream, sweet on salmon, and excellent on practically everything! Explore nature and try something new by making maple syrup for your friends and family to enjoy!