Other uses for maple trees

[Doug Miller]

It's that time of year again... SWMBO and I are fortunate enough to have half a dozen mature sugar maples, and one mature black maple, in our yard. For the fourth year in a row, we're tapping the trees to make syrup, and hoping to exceed last year's yield of just under four liters.

Anybody else here do this? Anybody *thinking* of doing it, and looking for a little guidance?

-- Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

How come we choose from just two people to run for president and 50 for Miss America?

[Leon]

Cool Doug..

If you were in Texas you would be looking at the trees that have not quite lost all of their leaves yet and all the Live Oaks that don't know to shed their leaves until spring... I wonder if I could tap a Red Bud. Can you post some pics? It is something I have always heard about but never witnessed... kinda like snow.

[Eric Ryder]

Nice! We grew up making syrup in the kitchen on a woodburning iron cookstove. I do miss that smell sorely. The year we did 7 gallons, the wallpaper fell off:)

[Lee Gordon]

Doug ...

You're lucky. I have one lone maple tree in my yard but it's big enough to hang 3 buckets on. In fact, I may try adding a 4th this year. Last year I got nearly a half gallon of syrup. I'd be happy with the same this year.

Lee

[Norman D. Crow]

Leon, DAGS for "maple syrup" under both net & images and you'll find out more than you can imagine. Not the same as *personal pics* from Doug, though. Did this when making a PowerPoint about Maple Syrup for kids @ school.

BTW, I don't think "Red Bud Syrup" will work!(LOL)

[Doug Miller]

Sure thing, Leon, I'll post pics to abpw later today, after the sun comes up.

You can tap *any* kind of tree, but you might not like what comes out. FWIW, all maples have some degree of sugar in their sap, so you can make maple syrup from any maple tree. It's just a lot easier with sugar maples. The sugar content is IIRC around 4% in the sugar and black maples, 2% in the silver maple, and 1% or less in just about everything else.

-- Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

How come we choose from just two people to run for president and 50 for Miss America?

[Doug Miller]

We vent the steam outdoors, having been warned by my mother not to boil maple sap on the stove. One of her uncles unwittingly contributed to the oral history of our family by his attempt at making maple syrup in my great-grandmother's kitchen. Some sort of sticky, rubber-like substance boils off in the steam, and coated the kitchen ceiling. They never did get the ceiling completely clean.

I'll post pics of our arrangement for venting the steam, too. It's entirely SWMBO's idea, and I think it's pretty clever.

-- Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

How come we choose from just two people to run for president and 50 for Miss America?

[Doug Miller]

It must be a *big* honker if you can run four taps on it!

We get more syrup than we can use, just running two taps on the largest tree and one tap on the others.

-- Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

How come we choose from just two people to run for president and 50 for Miss America?

[Yitah]

We have a massive maple in our backyard. Not sure what kind. What's the drill to tap for sap? Drill a hole in the tree and stick a straw in?

Y

[Leon]

Thanks Doug, that would be great. Kind of a geographical oddity down here in east Texas.

[Leon]

Yeah and on TV but like you said, the personal pics of a "current event" seems more interesting.

Probably not.

Well how bout, Crab Apple, Live Oak, or White Mull Berry? LOL..

[Luigi Zanasi]

On Fri, 13 Feb 2004 01:33:34 GMT, [e-mail] (Doug Miller) scribbled:

Can you tell me how to keep maples alive in the Yukon? About six years ago, I planted 4 sugar maple seedlings. One actually survived for four years, but there was no perceptible growth. I had invited a whole lot of people to a "partie de sucre" - sugarbush party in English, I think

- in 40 years (36 years now). I don't want to disappoint them.

Luigi Replace "nonet" with "yukonomics" for real email address

[Doug Miller]

It works better if you have a tap designed for the purpose. Pics will be posted in alt.binaries.pictures.woodworking soon.

To identify your maple tree, do a Google search on "tree identification" and I'm sure you'll come up with something. A quick-and-dirty method of identifying maple trees with a pretty good degree of certainty is by examining the leaves (tough to do this time of year, I know, so you'll have to work from memory).

Leaves shaped like the maple leaf on the Canadian flag, dark green both top and bottom, turning yellow-orange to deep red-orange in the fall: likely sugar maple or black maple.

Leaves with much longer, thinner lobes, and more teeth, than the one on the Canadian flag, medium green on top, light silver-green on bottom, turning pale yellow in the fall: silver maple.

-- Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

How come we choose from just two people to run for president and 50 for Miss America?

[Doug Miller]

Pics just posted, under the title "Making Maple Syrup".

-- Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

How come we choose from just two people to run for president and 50 for Miss America?

[Doug Miller]

Your winters up there must be *really* harsh, Luigi! I didn't know it was possible to kill a maple. :-)

-- Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

How come we choose from just two people to run for president and 50 for Miss America?

[dave]

Look around you, are there any maples growing? Just conifers? Maples won't grow anywhere. If you're above their tolerance the only way would be indoors. How bad do you want that tree. If you already have maples growing wild, use them, they quantity won't be as good as with sugar maples, but it'll still make syrup. Good luck, Dave in Fairfax

[Lee Gordon]

Doug ...

It's a little more than 8 feet in circumference. I'm not sure I'd get any more sap from 4 buckets than I currently get from 3. All of last year's yield went to making Xmas gifts for family. This year I plan on keeping most of what I get and what does become gifts is going into those little 3.8 ounce bottles, not pints like the relatives got.

Lee

[Doug Miller]

Dang! That *is* a big tree. You're right, though, that you probably won't get more sap from 4 taps than from 3: each one will yield less sap.

We give away about a third to a half of our production each year. Makes us popular with the relatives!

-- Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

How come we choose from just two people to run for president and 50 for Miss America?

[Silvan]

I wouldn't try it with a Norway maple. Milky white sap is generally not wholesome.

(It's not an indigenous species, but they're naturalized. To the chagrin of a lot of people in sugar maple country.)

[Luigi Zanasi]

On Fri, 13 Feb 2004 16:55:10 GMT, [e-mail] (Doug Miller) scribbled:

Apparently, most temperate climate trees can survive up to about -40C (-40F, Keith). At least that's what I read somewhere (The World of Northern Evergreens by E.C. Pielou, IIRC). Below that temperature, they die except for those that have special adaptations such as some poplars and aspens (Populus spp.), birches, pines, spruce and firs.

I also tried growing a bur oak, figuring that if they can thrive in Winterpeg (which has lower average winter temperatures than Whitehorse), I should be able to grow it in the Yukon. The goal was to have some nice white oak lumber in the future. It only sprouted a couple of leaves every year, the new growth got winterkilled, and it did not do anything last summer. :-(

So much for my experiments in growing hardwoods in what is manifestly an unsuitable climate.

Luigi Replace "nonet" with "yukonomics" for real email address