![]() Cold temperatures can freeze pumps, valves, hoses, and couplings. It can be difficult to collect sap in a fresh snowfall or when the melting snow turns the ground to mud. The task of collecting sap can have its challenges. It is when the buckets and sap tanks contain sap that it is time to collect the sap from every bucket and tank, and transport it back to the sugarhouse. During the day the sugarmaker may check to see if the weather has been favorable for the sap to flow out of the tree. In late winter and spring sap is flowing up the tree every day but freezing nights and warm days are necessary for the maple tree to yield sap for the sugarmaker. Once the trees are tapped, it is up to the weather as to when the sap will flow. The maple trees the sugarmaker selects must be no smaller than 11 inches in diameter (about 40 years old) to be suitable for tapping. These trees grow in the northeast quadrant of the United States and around the Canadian Great Lakes. The most common tree the sugarmaker selects is the sugar maple, Acer saccharum. The sugar maple is the primary source for tapping. It is then time for the sugarmaker to thoroughly clean and store his equipment until the next sugaring season. Once the trees are tapped, the season lasts for 6-8 weeks until the nightly freeze no longer happens and the sap stops flowing or the trees start to form buds for their leaves. It is when the sugarmaker anticipates the right weather conditions that he/she will make his/her determination to tap the trees. Sap is a colorless liquid with a light, sweet taste – about 2% sugar out of the tree. Freezing nights and warm, sunny days are necessary for the sap to flow from the maple tree. ![]() The traditional maple sugaring season in Connecticut extends from early February until late March, depending greatly on the weather. The season is short and subject to weather conditions. Lack of good preparation often results in a poor season. A final cleaning, careful examination and even testing of equipment is the sugarmakers last task before the start of syrup season. Tasks such as cutting and splitting firewood for the sugarhouse and stringing and/or repairing the tubing in the sugarbush have taken place months before. Months before the start of the short maple syrup season, the sugarmaker has been preparing for the upcoming spring season. MSPAC offers a Maple 101 course once a year. You may also download a glossary of terms. For a full description of the step-by-step process, download the Connecticut Maple Syrup Producers Manual. But the end result is still that beautiful, wonderful tasting amber liquid we call maple syrup. While the basic steps are the same as hundreds of years ago, new processes and technologies have been developed which have increased productivity and ensured consistent high quality syrup. The five steps involved from start to finish are: (1) preparing for the season (2) determining WHEN to tap (3) identifying the trees to be tapped and tapping them, (4) collecting the sap and processing (boiling/evaporating) it (5) filtering, grading and packing the syrup. The simple description is that you collect sap from sugar maple trees and boil (evaporate) it until it reaches the proper density for syrup. The fundamental steps for making pure maple syrup are basically the same as they were hundreds of years ago when the Native Americans first did it and then introduced it to the early immigrants from Europe.
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