Our One Tree Maple Syrup Empire

Although I hail from a large city I've now lived most of my life in more rustic settings.  And since this is where my kids and grandkids also reside it may not be surprising that the extended tribe has a bit of hunter-gatherer instinct re-emerging.  Collectively we raise chickens, grow peppers and beans.  Of the small game hunting perhaps the less said the better, as it eventually brings up the topic of squirrel tacos.

This spring on a whim we decided to tap our front yard maple tree for sap.  

Being mildly encouraged by friends who have an ambitious sap to syrup boiling system we did extensive research which consisted of going to the hardware store and buying some "taps".  You hammer these into the tree and sap runs out.

As you can see there are buckets involved.  A few in the case of our little one tree operation.  Many if you are doing this on a dedicated scale.  As ours was a substantial tree we put in three taps, perhaps just a bit excessive.

In fact this is a tree that I both love and hate.  It is gigantic and towers over our house.  Although most impressive it has a system of roots that pulls water from a huge area.  Our front lawn becomes dead brown grass by mid July.  Unless you are willing to water it and I consider that a bit environmentally dubious.

They say an average maple tree will give you 10 to 20 gallons of sap during a "season".  The season by the way is that variable span of time when it gets warm in the daylight hours but is still below freezing at night.  Even with a late start we got over 30 gallons from this tree.

The other big variable is sugar content.  This is a Norway Maple with less concentration than the classic Sugar Maple.  Still, with a 2% reading we expect for our efforts to eventually have all of 2, maybe 3 quarts of really good syrup.  Pancakes and waffles ahead.

Cooking sap is always done outside.  The sticky fumes would otherwise coat your kitchen walls for all Eternity.  Also you might consider cooking Moonshine as an "off season" product.....

Naturally I wonder about the names of things.  The word "sap" can have assorted meanings.  It can be sticky juice that can be transformed into syrup.  It can mean a foolish person.  It can be an excavation.  When digging a World War One site the term sap for a dug out area of trench is used.  Those who dig them, or just military engineers in general, used to be called sappers.

"Sap" in the sense of sugary plant fluids goes way back to Proto Indo European.  A side version in German is "saft", meaning juice.

On the other hand, "sap" as in to dig a trench towards an enemy position, only goes back to circa 1590.  It is from the French "sapa" but ultimately comes from late Latin "sappa" meaning spade.  The variant of the word that means to weaken - as in to sap one's strength - probably comes from the undermining implications.  Some cross influence notwithstanding, in general tapping trees for sap is not harmful to them. 

And to refer to someone as a "sap"?  This meaning corresponds to "simpleton" and is a bit of early 19th century English schoolboy lingo.  It in turn comes from 18th century "saphead" or "sapskull".  In an era where knowledge of nature was perhaps a bit more universal it was known that the "sapwood", that soft mushy layer between the bark and the hardwood of the tree, was where the sap flowed.  A sapskull was someone who was soft between the ears!