Sweet Surprise

Last week, I broke a branch off of one of our silver maples in order to hang up a finch feeder. A couple of hours later, the broken branch was dripping like a leaky faucet. I tasted the sap and was surprised to find it very sweet. Just for kicks, I placed a small metal bowl under the drip and was again surprised to find it half full in just under two hours. After a little online reading, I learned that even though the best sap is found in sugars and blacks, silver maples can produce a decent syrup as well--I had always considered the trees overgrown weeds. Very excited with my new discovery, I brought the sap in and boiled it in a skillet-- over-boiled it, as it turned out, and instead of syrup, ended up with a wonderfully tasty hard candy. The next morning I set out another bowl, and this time was able to boil my three cup harvest into just enough syrup for one glorious pancake.

I'm hooked. Yesterday I ordered my first set of taps from Yankee Grocery . I don't know if they'll arrive before the flow starches up, but at least I'll have them for next year.