It’s maple season in New Hampshire, and it’s not too late to become a maple producer yourself. For NHPR’s How to New Hampshire series, NHPR’s Morning Edition host Rick Ganley visited Steven Roberge, the State Extension Forester with the University of New Hampshire and a maple syrup expert, for tips on how to tap maple trees and make syrup for the first time. He works with amateur and professional maple syrup producers, and he also taps hundreds of trees on his Peterborough property as a hobby sugar maker.
“I was exposed at a pretty young age to sugaring, and it was just a cool thing to do,” Roberge said. “It's just fun to be out here. I think it's just another way to enjoy being outside in New Hampshire.”
Here are some of Roberge’s tips for beginners.
Find a healthy maple tree
You can tap a few different maple species in New Hampshire for sap, but sugar maples are best because they have a higher sugar content in the sap. Look for a tree that’s 10 to 12 inches in diameter. Avoid tapping smaller trees because the tapping wound could do significant damage.
Sap yield is tied to the size of the canopy and the health of the tree. So pick a tree that has a full, lush canopy in summer months.
Get some basic equipment for the tapping process
The very basic set up and process for tapping includes:
- Cordless drill: You’ll use this to make a small hole in the tree. Make the hole on a part of the tree that has clean wood – no scars, wounds or signs of decay. Drill only 1.5 to 2 inches into the tree at an even level.
- Tap: The tap fits into the hole you make in the tree. Taps come in all shapes and sizes and can be made from metal or plastic. Make sure your drill bit matches the tap size. Roberge says he uses a 5/16” drill bit for a 5/18” tap in his backyard.
- Hammer: Use any type of hammer to tap – not pound – the tap into the hole you drilled.
- Bucket: Hang a food-safe bucket on the tap and the sap will flow from the tap into the bucket.
- Bucket lid: Get a food-safe bucket lid that allows the sap to flow into the bucket but also keeps out rain and debris. Roberge has a rounded lid that fits onto a galvanized bucket for this purpose.
Start tapping when a freeze-thaw cycle is in the forecast
There’s no specific date to start tapping, but sap starts to flow in trees when temperatures are above freezing during the day and below freezing at night.
Roberge looks for a 10-day forecast that shows that freeze-cycle, and you can tap during and after that window. He says it’s ideal, however, to start tapping before that cycle happens so you can catch all the sap when it starts running.
“Down here in the southern part of the state, that can range anywhere as early as January,” Roberge said. “Up north they're usually a little later because they're just a little colder. Around mid-February I'm starting to think about tapping in Peterborough.”
Collect sap daily
“Sap is just like milk,” Roberge said. “It can spoil, so you want to keep it below 40 degrees.”
Collect sap daily and store it somewhere cool like a fridge or freezer. You can also store the sap in a garage or snow bank if temperatures are reliably below 30 degrees in your location. Freezing syrup is fine – it’ll thaw out during the boiling process.
Get a large, shallow pan to boil the sap in
Boiling sap turns it into shelf stable syrup. Big sugar houses and regular hobbyists use evaporators, but they can be pricey. A beginner option for boiling is a buffet pan.
“When we boil we want surface area,” Roberge said. “So we don't want the big deep frying turkey pot that you'd have for Thanksgiving. You want a nice big flat pan.”
Restaurant supply stores sell buffet pans that work well for boiling sap. Roberge says they should be stainless steel and about 6 inches deep.
Boil, don’t simmer, the sap
Boil the sap directly over a hot fire that is consistently fed until the sap turns into syrup. Roberge recommends getting cement blocks and balancing the rim of the buffet pans on the blocks, over an outdoor fire. He says to keep the fire hot.
“I usually recommend to folks that if they're gathering their sap daily and storing it, Saturday morning it's time to boil, and that's going to be your day,” Roberge said. “So invite some friends over, have something to do while you're boiling. And by the end of the day you might be able to process all that sap.”
Remember in New Hampshire you will need a fire permit if snow isn’t covering the ground.
Enjoy your syrup
Sap becomes syrup when the boiling gets to about 219 degrees. You can check the temperature while boiling with a candy thermometer. When it’s cool, bottle it up and enjoy!
Or if you don’t want to go to the work of boiling to make syrup, there’s an option for you, too.
“You can just do what my son does [and] just drink the sap, too,” Roberge said.
Just remember it won’t last very long in the fridge. But we find that syrup also doesn't stick around for long if it tastes good and someone is making pancakes.
