Stephen HeardMar 3
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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Show threadStephen HeardMar 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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Show threadStephen HeardMar 3
Here goes.
Show threadStephen HeardMar 3

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.

Show threadStephen HeardMar 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.
Show threadStephen HeardMar 3
First bucket in place. But no sap dripping! At least, not yet - time to tap the rest.
Show threadStephen HeardMar 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.
Show threadStephen HeardMar 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
Show threadStephen HeardMar 4
Too early today to know if the sap will run - but a light dusting of snow overnight has the sugar bush looking lovely!
Show threadStephen HeardMar 4
FIRST SAP!!!!
Show threadStephen HeardMar 4
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
Show threadStephen HeardMar 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!
Show threadStephen HeardMar 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.
Show threadStephen HeardMar 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.
Show threadStephen HeardMar 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!
Show threadStephen HeardMar 8
Rather unsatisfying update: just 4 L of sap stashed away this morning - nearly all of it ran overnight. It's running now, but slowly; and forecast doesn't have it freezing overnight until at least Tues/Weds. We need cold nights, not just warm days! #BackYardSugarBush2026
Show threadStephen HeardMar 8
Also had to discard two buckets due to stemflow from yesterday's rain. I can never predict when the geometry of the trunk and the spile will conspire to direct stemflow into the bucket, argh...
Show threadStephen HeardMar 8
(You can tell because "sap" in buckets is yellowish. We call it 'squirrel pee' when we're being 12.)
Show threadStephen HeardMar 10

First boil today. Not because I have very much sap - only ten litres so far! But it will eventually spoil, even sitting in my high-tech SASSS (snowbank-assisted sap storage system). Especially as it will reach +17 C today...

I won't finish any syrup, of course - this would make only about 300 mL. But I'll boil it down to a litre or so and then store that in the fridge. Fingers crossed for better sap weather this weekend! #BackYardSugarBush2026

Show threadStephen HeardMar 10
The first pic, by the way, shows pre-filtration through a jelly bag. That takes out any twigs or insects that have wound up in the sap. Not much of that, this early in the season, but later on this is more necessary!
Show threadStephen HeardMar 11
Just a little more sap yesterday, so reboiled; this is now 14 L of sap boiled down to a little under 1 L of pre-syrup. (That amount of sap should make ~0.5 L syrup.) It's noticeably more viscous than sap and it smells heavenly. If only there were more of it!
Show threadStephen HeardMar 14
No sap for a couple of days now. First too warm, then too cold... but at least there's some lovely snow right now to help me relax about that. Here's your moment of #BackYardSugarBush2026 zen.
Show threadStephen HeardMar 15
First time I've done THIS: in hopes of maintaining a snowbank to store sap in, I SHOVELED MY LAWN.
Show threadStephen HeardMar 15
Expanded #BackYardSugarBush2026! A neighbour has a tree that is the champion of all trees. She's not planning to make syrup this year - but she's allowing me to tap it. This is just a moment after drilling - look at that sap run!
Show threadStephen HeardMar 17
Finally! #BackYardSugarBush is producing sap by the bucketful. Two warm days and low atmospheric pressure; the sap ran all day yesterday, all through the night, and is only just now stopping.
Show threadStephen HeardMar 18

I now have 11 taps total (with the 3 I added at the neighbour's). And so far since yesterday morning, about 75 litres of sap. The only problem? My snowbank is melting!!

Cold last night and today (-10 overnight, high -5 today) so it won't run at all until Thursday. Just as well, I need to do some boiling!

Show threadStephen HeardMar 18

Two pots going today! I'd like to work through all the sap I have on hand, which will take a while. I can boil off about 2 L water per hour per pot - so it will be an all-day project.

By the way, if you're interested in trying this yourself: you can ONLY boil inside the house if you have a strong range hood fan that vents OUTSIDE. You're producing a very large amount of steam and it has to escape.

Show threadStephen HeardMar 19

This is 57 litres of sap, now boiled down to about 3.5 litres. It's getting close to being syrup - you can see it's boiling with substantial froth, and with sound on, there's kind of a fragile bubble-popping sound to it.

I'll let this cool, and hold it until I'm ready to do a finishing boil for the first syrup batch of #BackYardSugarBush2026. It's easier to make around 4 litres of syrup at once - I'm not there yet!

Show threadChris Walter
@StephenBHeard Is there an agreed criteria for stopping? Or is it experience of what you enjoy?
Mar 20 at 12:43amWeb
Show threadStephen HeardMar 20

@ChrisWalter There's a standard sugar content, which you determine by density - will show that part of the process soon. If you go farther, sugar crystallizes out. If you stop sooner, the "syrup" can spoil in storage.

But it tastes great now - if I was impatient I could use it right away like this!