Mastodawn

It's time! Today we tap for #BackYardSugarBush2026. It's warm (+3C) and sunny, and the trees are calling to me. Here's my little sugar bush: 4 sugar maples in a line along the side of my back yard. Time to tap!
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Stephen Heard Mar 3

I'm not sure if it will run today - it's been cold (-20 at night, -10 during the day) the last couple of days. It may take more than one warmer day to get things going. Only one way to find out...

The gear is ready. Eight buckets, and a spile for each. Time to go drill some holes!
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Here goes.

First hole drilled! The new hole is the one at upper right. At centre left is last year's hole, still looking pretty fresh. Bottom is an older hole, hard to spot now.

We move the tapping spot around from year to year, so we aren't trying to pull sap from recently repaired tissue.

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Stephen Heard Mar 3

A good spot is at convenient height, but not underneath anything like a damaged spot, a split or crook in the tree, or a dead limb.

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Stephen Heard Mar 3

First bucket in place. But no sap dripping! At least, not yet - time to tap the rest.

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Stephen Heard Mar 3

All buckets in place. I have 8 taps total - how many can you spot? Three on the nearest tree (one is out of sight behind the trunk); one on the next tree, which is small; and two each on the two in the background.

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Stephen Heard Mar 3

But: not a single drop of sap today. The last couple of days have been very cold; perhaps it will take more than a single day above freezing to wake up the trees! Tonight, -3 C; tomorrow +7. Promising! #BackYardSugarBush2026

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Stephen Heard Mar 4

Too early today to know if the sap will run - but a light dusting of snow overnight has the sugar bush looking lovely!

FIRST SAP!!!!

Not much accumulated today - a couple of cm in each bucket. And it will be cold tomorrow. But it's a start, and the weekend looks promising! #BackYardSugarBush2026

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Stephen Heard Mar 5

Big sugarbushes use tubing and vacuum pumps to bring sap back to be boiled. For #BackYardSugarbush2026, I have a bucket of pop bottles. Very sophisticated!

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Stephen Heard Mar 5

Just four litres of sap, collected and nestled into my SASSS (Snowbank-Assisted Sap Storage System - I'm a scientist, I have to sound very fancy). Probably won't run again until the weekend, as temps are low today and tomorrow.

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Stephen Heard Mar 6

No sign of sap today, as expected. Meanwhile, a note on the trees. I'm tapping sugar maple (Acer saccharum), which is the canonical tree for syrup. You can tap other species, though: pretty much any maple (Acer), birch, walnut, and I'm told hickory, butternut, and pecan.

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Stephen Heard Mar 6

I've tasted syrup from Norway maple (very similar) but not the others. Anyone want to give flavour notes? But all other trees have much less sweetness to the sap - so you need to boil much more sap to make syrup. #BackYardSugarBush2026 will stick to sugar maple!