Homemade Maple Syrup, and Crumpets of Heaven

Maple syrup, that sweet sign of change between winter and spring, when cold nights yield to warmer and trees begin to bud....and so delicious, it goes with EVERYTHING. Seriously. We've given it a lot of thought....remember my maple vinaigrette for salad in my Garlic and Brie post? Maple syrup goes with meats, vegetables, fish, fruit, desserts, and well, just about anything you could want it for. It's nature's gift to humans. Humans smart enough to discover it.... (Wikipedia has some history and background of how it came into being, there are lots of tales, I'm sure)....and we are lucky to live in a country that is a primary producer of maple syrup, and they grow right in our backyards, so if you've ever wanted to make your own maple syrup, my mum has written a guest blog for me to tell you how, but here's a quick recipe you could whip up and enjoy while you read :)


I'm not quite sure how this came about, but Steve one day, rather than just drink maple syrup out of the jar, came up with crumpets of heaven. It's so simple, but so divine. Really. All you have to do is toast a crumpet (I like to toast it twice), slather it in butter, scoop really good vanilla ice cream on it, and pour as much maple syrup over it as you can eat (or afford). The cold creaminess of the ice cream melts into the salty butteriness of the crumpet, and dances around in the maple syrup, in an explosion of flavour that will have you seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. (Okay, that was bad, just trying to tie in the whole heaven thing). It is extremely delicious though.

This is the second of my maple recipes, and I'm sure I'll come up with more, but I just wanted to tie in a recipe to my very first guest blog, by my mum, Wendy Maurice. When my mum gets interested in something, she doesn't do it halfway. She is an active member of the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism), where her main interests are in the textile arts. She grows her own flax, from seed, and then later processes the flax (known as retting), which she will spin into thread, and later weave this thread into cloth.  Here is her process for making home-made maple syrup. So even though maple syrup season is over for the year, you can have an idea where to start if you have ever wanted to try your hand at it. At the end of the blog, my mum has produced at least 11 litres of maple syrup in one season, and that is just from four trees, amazing. So even if you just have one maple tree, you could end up with a few litres of your own to enjoy over the year, if you can make it last that long!!!

Maple syrup also has some added health benefits, according to this website: http://www.sucrezmieux.ca/nutritious-sweetener.aspx

Essential vitamins and minerals
Maple syrup products are a significant source of several nutrients. For example, on average, a 60 ml (4-tbs) serving of maple syrup supplies more than 100% of our daily intake of manganese, 37% of riboflavin, 18% of zinc, 7% of magnesium and 5% of calcium and potassium. What other sweetener can beat that!

Homemade Maple Syrup

by Wendy Maurice

20 years ago I bought a home with 4 maple trees on the property, which were basically minding their own business, other than depositing large amounts of leaves on the lawn in the fall.  A couple of years ago, I thought I should take advantage of these magnificent mega litterers and try my hand at maple syrup making.  Fortunately for me, a friend who also makes syrup was posting about it on Facebook last March, which reminded me to pick up some equipment and get going on it.  Another friend locally had some spiles (taps) she wasn’t using. 

I read that you can put more than one tap/spile per tree depending on the circumference according to a formula that allows one tap for up to 25-35 cm circumference, up to 4 for over 63 cm.  I decided on 3 each for the two medium size trees and 4 for the 2 larger ones.  So here’s what I needed:

14 spiles

14 buckets

2 large stainless steel saucepans

1 propane stove

Propane tank

1 cooler

2 collection buckets

Felt filter

Drill

7/8” drill bit

2L jug

Flour sieve

J-cloths

Candy thermometer

A healthy quantity of sealable jars or bottles, pre-washed and sterilized.

I bought some galvanized steel buckets with handles for the trees and 2 plastic buckets for collecting, at the dollar store.  I also used some 4 qt ice cream buckets on the spiles because lids are a good idea to keep debris, rain and snow out, and I had to use foil to cover the steel buckets, which kept blowing away until I anchored them with 2 or 3 clothes pins.  This year I was able to get some proper sap buckets with proper lids from another former syrup maker.

The first step was to drill the holes, about 1 ½”  deep on a slightly upward angle at about 4 feet from the ground, distributing the holes evenly around the trunk, hang a bucket on the little hook under the spile and put a cover in place.  Then wait for the magic.  It doesn’t take long. Here is the first drop of sap.

For the sap to run, the temperatures need to be below freezing overnight and above freezing during the day.  That being said, sometimes it will run even when it is freezing, I can’t explain that, other than those in the sun will run on cold days where shaded ones may not.

Then I checked around noon every day and poured the sap into my collection buckets as I went from tree to tree, and deposited the sap in the cooler (it is important to keep it cool).  If it was running a lot, I would go back out around supper time to collect more.  Sometimes I had two coolers full of sap awaiting boiling.  Sometimes there wouldn’t be very much, but it needs to be collected at least once a day.

Then I sieved the sap (which just looks like water) to sieve out debris with a J-cloth filter into a 2L jug so I could measure it and keep track, poured it into the saucepans and turned on the stove.  I put the lids on until it was boiling, then removed them to permit the steam to escape freely.  About 40 litres of sap is required to make 1 litre of syrup, so all that water has to be boiled off.

Last year when I started, I was boiling it on my stove because I have an exhaust fan (you don’t want the sticky steam to condense on your kitchen walls and ceiling) and I believed it was vented to the outside.  However, I discovered it was only vented into the roof and having all that moisture building up in the roof was not a good plan, so I switched to using a propane stove outside.  Many, maybe most, syrup makers will use a wood fired system but unless you have a guy, a truck and a chainsaw to pick up free wood, or a healthy bank account, costs can be prohibitive.  Plus you have to stay out there with it all the time and need fire permit.

Then it takes many hours to boil it down.  I kept going out to check it and added more sap as there was room.  As it boils down, the colour develops and darkens.  It has to reach the temperature 4ºC above boiling.  Water normally boils at 100ºC so the sap is boiled until it reaches 104ºC.  That being said, the boiling temperature of water varies daily according to atmospheric pressure, so you have to first take note of what the temperature is when it is boiling, and take it to 4º above that.  I have usually found it to be anywhere from 94 to 97º to boil – I haven’t seen it at 100.

When it is getting close to ready, it will start to form tiny bubbles all over the surface and can very quickly boil up and over.  To help prevent this you can hang a piece of fat about 1” over the syrup, when it rises to the fat it will stop the action and go back down; or drop a drop of vegetable oil. (I used a piece of pork fat cut off a pork chop, tied string around it like a little parcel and then tied off the other end to the handle of the saucepan so it was about 1" above the boiling syrup.)  After no incidents last year, I had a serious boilover with my first batch this year because I wasn’t watching closely enough, and sticky syrup boiled over the pot and stuck all over my brand new propane stove.

Once the syrup reached the required temperature, I filtered it through a thick felt filter** made for the purpose (I tried several layers of J-cloth and it wasn’t sufficient).  If it isn’t filtered, the syrup will appear cloudy due to the nitre or sugar sand which is formed in the syrup when it is boiling.  This is normal and is edible but doesn’t look nice. You can see the sediment in this photo.

Then I poured the filtered syrup into the sterilized bottles/jars, closed the lids tightly and labelled them, and began the process of boiling again.  During the 2011 season I collected 333 litres of sap between March 17 and April 12 and made 12½L of syrup, or 51 cups.  During the 2012 season, which was early, I collected 312 litres of sap between February 17 and March 19 and made a little over 11L of syrup.

Different grades of maple syrup.

I mostly re-use bottles and jars with good lids/seals that may not seal properly (as new ones would), so I recommend storing the syrup in the fridge or even the freezer.

The season is over when the night time temperatures are too warm, the syrup stops running to becomes opaque, blow flies are far too interested in the sap, and ultimately when the tree forms leaf buds.

There is any amount of information available on the Internet but a very useful website I used can be found here http://www.lrconline.com/Extension_Notes_English/pdf/bckyd.pdf

**A local suppliers of maple sugaring products is Atkinson Maple Syrup Supplies in Orillia http://atkinsonmaple.com/index