TLDR: I’m going to need a lot more tree sap or smaller pancakes.

I think most of us on the F&DB are always wanting to try something new. My wife, a down the bayou woman, always busts my balls for being a yankee, despite the fact that my family settled in middle Tennessee in the early 1800s. I figured I’d lean into my "yankeeness" and try my hand at harvesting tree sap and making syrup.

After a night spent staying up way too late going down a youtube rabbit hole on syrup making, I decided I was an expert. A quick stop at my local Amazon shop provided me with some spiles, which is a new word I learned. A spile is the metal tap that goes in the tree.

You’re supposed to harvest sap when the nights are just below freezing and the days heat up above freezing. Looking at the forecast, Nashville was going to have prime weather. I put the kids to bed and braved the cold to tap several trees. I tapped three sugar maples (Acer saccharum) and one black walnut (Juglans nigra). It is recommended to tap the south side of the tree. In hindsight, I should have tapped lower, but that was the first of many lessons learned.

The first day barely got above freezing, so little sap flowed. The second day was perfect. It started off around 28 and got up to right around 50. Of the three maples, the big one produced the bulk of the sap, with one other contributing a few ounces. The third maple didn’t do shite. The black walnut gave me a few ounces, but not enough to do anything with. I ended up with a little more than two quarts of sap over the two days. You’d think that would be a lot. It’s not, as I found out.

I filtered it through a coffee filter and then boiled it down in a stock pot.

After it got to a certain level, I filtered it again and put it in a small pan.

The syrup connoisseur in the house could hardly contain his excitement.

Here’s where things got hairy. In truth, I needed a lot more sap. I had way too much surface area to depth. Things started splattering. Then they started bubbling. Then they started solidifying. I ended up having to add water to reconstitute the sugar, boil it down to brown it, add more water, boil, brown, add water, boil, brown, etc. it took a while, and I made a mess of the kitchen. I could feel the wife’s side-eyes burning a hole in the back of my head.

I ended up with a little more than an ounce when all was said and done. Despite the meager results, I learned some things along the way. I still have good weather this week to collect more sap. If today was any indication, I think I can get 2-3 gallons of sap by the end of the week, which might get me enough syrup to fill up this tiny jar.

I think I can get things planned out better for next year. I have a total of eight properly sized sugar maples and three black walnuts. With some better tapping skills and multiple taps per tree, I think I can really ramp up production next year with the lessons learned from this year.

(As an aside, my wife and I once went to a maple syrup museum in Vermont that was owned by some Blanchards, which is my mother in law’s maiden name, as well as a number of posters on this board, I’m sure. These Vermont Blanchards were part of the same group that go run out of Nova Scotia and they ended up in Vermont rather than Louisiana. So, despite the fact that my wife gives me shite for being a yankee, she has yankee cousins that make syrup in Vermont.)

This post was edited on 2/19/22 at 2:25 pm