The 365 Flowers Project

Me and my family have decided to give maple tree tapping a try. We found 6 maple trees on property that were large and healthy. The environmental education center where I work had tree taps, called spiles, for sale.  That's all they had in way of supplies. The rest was up to us.

This is maple syrup season and we had no time to order supplies. We made do with what we had on hand. It may look a bit on the redneck side, but it works. Twenty four hours have passed. In the bottom of the jug I found about 10 drops of sap along with some sawdust made when we drilled a hole in the tree.

I don't have high hopes, my goal is to collect enough sap to make one pint of maple syrup. It takes 55 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup. Now you know why people aren't tapping the trees in their front yards.

There is a second reason why trees aren't being tapped. Not all maple trees will produce sap. In order for sap to "run" the temperatures have to swing from freeze to thaw quickly as they do in February and March here in the northeast.  

Here is a map showing the region of where maple sap is collected.

Today it was warm here in western PA. The snow is melting. Life is a mix of mud and ice. This will pass...just wish it would hurry up!

I have been making art. Today I dropped three new pieces of artwork off at the Bottlebrush Gallery. I post picture in a day or so.

Have a great day and stop back soon!