!44: Catalog Buying Maple Syrup: January 2012

Sunday, January 1, 2012

HOW TO MAKE MAPLE SYRUP IN YOUR OWN BACKYARD/ the MAPLE LEAF RAP

!±8± HOW TO MAKE MAPLE SYRUP IN YOUR OWN BACKYARD/ the MAPLE LEAF RAP

With apologies to Scott Joplin... Here is the long-lost document from 2009: never before seen... just found this old footage, and figured we'd put it out in time for Maple Syrup season, featuring jojo's new original Maple Leaf Rap (to the tunes of Maple leaf Rag and Da Da Da) Scientific factoids; why does sap flow? It's the suction! wait, no, it's the Pressure! Wait, no, osmotic pressure; er, starches... I mean sugars! Wait, enzymes...that's the ticket! When you hear so many half-answers, it usually means none of them are right (we used to call this "hand-waving" arguments... "Tap on the sunny side, on the dark side, north side, over a big root..." you know what? You're gonna have PLENTY OF SAP, don't worry about it... Tap holes: best I've heard is go over 6 inches from old holes, and up or down 2 feet from old holes; the holes gradually cover over with new bark by late summer, but this is still a real insult to the tree (look at old pictures of tapped maple trees in cross-section!) If you respect the tree and take the best care you can, people believe it does not harm the tree much to tap it for a few weeks each year. The height above the ground does not seem to matter. Filtering the sap? it's as clear as a mountain spring this time of year... once the bugs start getting into your sap bucket, filter it : you can use cheesecloth, even a coffee-filter, or you can buy filter wool from a maple-syrup supplier. They also make new plastic bags that hang on the taps, and ...