We don’t get a lot of humidity naturally here in northwestern Montana, something I’m not at all complaining about… but during these late winter months we create a good bit of our own in the kitchen. Humidity in the form of maple sap boiling, that is…
I boil the sap down on the regular stove under the range hood. The fan and hood do remove a good amount of the humidity but there is still plenty in the air of our home as the sap slowly boils down to syrup. Unlike the humidity I remember from growing up in western Pennsylvania, this humidity has some mighty sweet rewards.
The weather is a little fickle this year but the sap is running and as we boil and jar up the syrup I’m grateful and excited to have my hands back in some food preservation work.
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The spiles and the drill are sitting on the counter, the temp is up to just above freezing so later today we’ll make our first attempt. Wish us luck
We’ve tapped two trees but I guess the temp range is not enough just now, the sap is not running here. So tell me, what is the temperature range we should be looking for, because we’ve definitely got day time above zero and night time below.
In Fahrenheit – the temperatures should be in the 20s during the nights and in the 40s during the day for optimal flow. Best of luck in tapping adventures!
What kind of maple trees do you have to have to tape a tree? I live in Ga. Can we tap trees here?
We have silver maples. I don’t know that you’d get the right temperatures in Georgia to make the sap run. Temperatures need to be in the 20s at night and 0s during the day…