We did it again – we grew our own maple syrup.syrup11

It’s easy, all you need is a maple tree.  Even one (we only tapped one).

Here’s how.  We visited our local TLC farm store and bought 3 spigots and three buckets.  Then I drilled 3 holes into a 1.5 foot-2 foot tree. The holes were a couple of inches deep, and 3/8 of an inch drill bit.  Pound in the spigot’s, hang the bucket and wait.

In southwestern Ontario we do this at some point in February.  The sap runs strong when you have cold nights below freezing, and days well above freezing.  Other than that there’s no magic or trick to this.

We then collected the sap over a couple of weeks and then boiled it down.  Expect this to take all day long if you’re doing it on the stove.

The result from one tree?  about 1-2 litres of syrup.  Not much, but it tastes delsyrup21icious.  And of course Junior just loved doing this -checking the buckets every day after school.  And finally, it was a good excuse for a family pancake breakfast!