Comments on: Urban Maple Syrup

By: Busy Like Bees | GreenCouple.com

Busy Like Bees | GreenCouple.com — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 22:38:37 +0000

[...] to the aforementioned business, our maple syrup operation turned out to be a bust. We collected about 10 gallons of sap and boiled it down to [...]

By: Maggie

Maggie — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 21:03:40 +0000

Farmer John -
I’m not super familiar with your neck of the woods but you can make maple syrup out of any kind of maple tree and I’m pretty sure there are a few varieties in California and Oregon. You can also make syrup out of birch trees although it takes a lot more sap (http://www.birchboy.com/articles.html). I think there’s another species of tree that can be tapped… Hickory? I think those live in California too.

Besides, those of us who live through cold winters with no fresh produce deserve a little bit of sweetness in the spring!

And you have delights of your own out west. Oh, what I wouldn’t give for a good avocado, olive, or almond tree…

By: Farmer John

Farmer John — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 20:27:23 +0000

I’m so jealous, I’m out on the West Coast and seeing those sap buckets just makes my mouth water. I wish we had something so wonderful here. We can’t even grow sorghum or sugar cane for sweetness because it is too cool during the summers. However, we do have lots of bees!

By: Will

Will — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 04:50:14 +0000

We tried using the crock pot, but it never got hot enough (my old crock pot, which doubled as a deep fryer would have worked, but alas it cracked years ago).

Now we’re boiling on the stove. So far, so good!

By: Farmer's Daughter

Farmer's Daughter — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 04:14:53 +0000

How are you going to boil the sap? Both my husband’s family and my family make syrup, but we have evaporators. Are you just going to do it on the stove?

I’ve been wondering if I could tap trees on a small scale with my Botany students and then it down. I’d love to see an update from you when you boil.

Thanks!
Abbie