Adpschools.com

If you wish to make maple syrup at home, the first thing you must accomplish is to collect some fresh sap from a maple tree.You can do this by finding one or more maple trees. Sugar Maple is the type of maple tree with the highest amount of sugar. Nevertheless, the other types such as Ash-leafed Maple, Silver Maple and Red Maple can also be used, although you will not be getting sap as sweet as that of the Sugar Maple tree. The Sugar Maple is the best to use for making maple sugar candy or maple cookie recipe. Furthermore, you need to be certain that the trees you pick have at least a diameter of ten inches and a height of four and a half feet.
The next thing you should do is to drill a hole in the trunk of the tree.This hole must be 2-3 inches deep and 7/16 inch wide. Clean the hole if there are any loose wood present. Once you have done this, use a hammer and lightly tap a spout into the hole. A spout is available in hardware shops, feed stores and farm supply stores.
Get a clean bucket and hang it onto the spout to catch the maple sap as it drips out. This bucket should be non-corrosive. Furthermore, a container with a lid is recommended because this will prevent any matter such as wood, insects and rainwater from falling into the sap.
Once you have collected enough sap, put it in containers and have it refrigerated until you are prepared to proceed to the boiling process and turn it into syrup. Note that if you want to make a lot of maple syrup, you also need to collect more than a lot of sap. This is because only one gallon of maple syrup can be made from 40 gallons of sap!
The boiling is needed because fresh sap is about 98% water and only 2% sugar. Therefore, in order for much water to evaporate, you need to boil it. Use a pot or pan that is made of stainless steel for boiling. It is better to boil the sap outdoors because there will surely be intense steam.
The sap with better quality is the sap that boils faster. When the sap first begins to boil, determine its temperature and take note of it. Later on, you will need again this initial temperature. Go back indoors and complete the boiling there once the sap starts to become thick. Measure the temperature of the sap from time to time. You will know that it is ready when its temperature is already hotter than the initial temperature by 7 degrees Fahrenheit.
Once the syrup is ready, use a food-approved filter, strainer, or clean cheesecloth and strain the syrup so that any trace of debris and crystallized sugars can be removed. And that is it; you have now created your very own maple syrup at home! You can even make different organic grade b maple syrup.