Tapping trees other than maples
I was wondering if anyone on this site had tried tapping and boiling the sap of anything other than maples. I did boxelder and some silver maples on some land we have this year. I don't have any black or sugar maples. It just seems like it would be interesting to see what it would be like to experiment with other trees. I know it can be done with birch. I have river birch, shagbark hickory, sycamore, cottonwood, black walnut on our property and would like to here from anyone on their results from tapping these trees. What does the syrup taste like etc.
Tapping different species
upmep - After playing with maple for a couple of years and then reading about the birch I had the same question. My internet research revealed Black Walnut syrup and poplar syrup. Put the following in an internet search for more info on the black walnut.
Making syrup from black walnut sap. Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science Fall , 2006
I tapped one this year just to test the sap and mine came at 1.5% but this spring has been weird so I'm not sure if I could get higher. My yellow birch this year were reading at 0 and I didn't get around to testing a poplar until after bud break. It didn't run.
As for the syrups made from bark - with the 200 year old native American recipe that utilizes a formula blend of sugars that looks suspiciously like table sugar - I have my doubts. I've collected some bark and will play with it after I get my greenhouse caught up but since the shagbark and walnut are from the same family and I know the walnut can be tapped I think it more likely that the bark was cooked in sap. Unfortunately I don't have any frozen sap to play with so will try the sugar and maybe some honey.