I am totally new to this, have lots of questions!

[JennyW]

Hi!
I have one tree, its huge. I am pretty sure its a sugar maple.

So, it took a long time to start, then we finally redrilled the holes (the lady at the extention office wondered if they had sealed up during a warm spell) and got great sap for a week and a half. It was clear, then started to be barely barely yellow towards the end of the week.

We had 3 days with no sap, and now I have half a bucket full of dark yellow sap. Is that normal? Can I use it?

Also, I may or may not have boiled the previous sap enough. It tastes good, but I don't have a decent thermometer or hydrometer. I bottled it by boiling a jar for 10 minutes and filling it with hot (unfiltered) sap. Is it safe to bottle it unfiltered? Is it safe to eat if it has too high water content?

I know I should buy the equiptment.... but I only have one tree. Any advice?

[Run Forest Run!]

We had 3 days with no sap, and now I have half a bucket full of dark yellow sap. Is that normal? Can I use it?

Also, I may or may not have boiled the previous sap enough. It tastes good, but I don't have a decent thermometer or hydrometer. I bottled it by boiling a jar for 10 minutes and filling it with hot (unfiltered) sap. Is it safe to bottle it unfiltered? Is it safe to eat if it has too high water content?


Welcome Jenny! The dark yellow liquid in your bucket is likely rain water than ran down the surface of your tree and into the bucket. Dump it as there's little to no sugar in that. You can bottle unfiltered syrup, just leave the sediment at the bottom of the jar and don't eat it. If the water content is too high it is safe to eat, but make sure you always keep it refrigerated. You can put all of it back into a pot and boil it down further if you find it is too watery - and it likely is.

[Sugarmaker]

You can make syrup without at thermometer or hydrometer and get real close.
A large rather flat spoon will work to scoop out some boiling syrup. Let the hot syrup drip off the edge of the dipper. (We use a wide flat straight edged scoop). So if it is not syrup yet, the thin liquid will have just small drops coming off the edge of the spoon. As the syrup gets very near syrup the drips will become a very large, wide, hanging thin sheet of liquid. Maybe a inch or more wide and a half inch long. At this point the syrup will be within a degree or so of syrup and will taste real good on your pancakes.
Good luck.
Regards,
Chris

[Sugarmaker]

You can use a large spoon to check the hot boiling syrup. Dip some syrup out hold the spoon so the syrup will run off. Small drips, its not ready. Large wide hanging sheet (Dad called it a apron), your probably at or near syrup.
Regards,
Chris

[JennyW]

Awesome. Thank you!
I may need to reboil some of my "syrup". I think I am close though.