Fun for all ages and a great way to spend time with friends and family, collecting maple sap and making your own maple syrup is easier than you think - especially with this helpful Guide to Maple Tapping. Filled with step-by-step instructions and photos, this book walks you through the entire process from tapping a tree to enjoying your first stack of pancakes. Whether you're a beginner or a lifelong sugarmaker, you'll find essential information including: - Identifying and selecting the best trees. This updated Second Edition also includes a chapter on tapping and making syrup from non-sugar maple trees such as boxelder, birch, and walnut. - Assembling your supplies and prepping your very own sugar shack - Drilling the taphole and multiple ways to collect sap - Filtering instructions and advice on storage - Complete directions and tips for boiling sap into syrup - Recipes and cooking ideas for using pure maple syrup - Interviews, anecdotes, and advice from professional sugarmakers and lifelong hobbyists - Interesting facts, tips, and much, much more!

Presents a beginner's guide to the process of making maple syrup, from tapping the trees to cooking and bottling the syrup, including cooking with evaporators, grading the syrup, building a sugarhouse, pricing, and marketing.

The Sugarmaker's Companion is the first guide of its kind addressing the small- and large-scale syrup producer seeking to make a profitable business from maple, birch, and walnut sap. This comprehensive work incorporates valuable information on ecological forest management, value-added products, and the most up-to-date techniques on sap collection and processing. It is, most importantly, a guide to an integrated sugaring operation, interconnected to the whole-farm system, woodland, and community. Farrell documents the untapped potential of American forests and shows how sugaring can turn a substantial profit for farmers while providing tremendous enjoyment and satisfaction. Michael Farrell, sugarmaker and director of the Uihlein Forest at Cornell University, offers information on setting up and maintaining a viable sugaring business by incorporating the wisdom of traditional sugarmaking with the value of modern technology (such as reverse-osmosis machines and vacuum tubing). He gives a balanced view of the industry while offering a realistic picture of how modern technology can be beneficial, from both an economic and an environmental perspective. Within these pages, readers will find if syrup production is right for them (and on what scale), determine how to find trees for tapping, learn the essentials of sap collection, the art and science of sugarmaking, and how to build community through syrup production. There are many more unique aspects to this book that set it apart from anything else on the market, including: - A focus on maple as a local, sustainably produced and healthy alternative to corn syrup and other highly processed and artificial sweeteners; - The health benefits of sap and syrup in North America and throughout the world; - Attention to the questions of organic certification, sugarhouse registration, and the new international grading system; - Enhancing diversity in the sugarbush and interplanting understory crops for value-added products (ginseng, goldenseal, and mushrooms, specifically); - An economic analysis of utilizing maple trees for syrup or sawtimber production and the market opportunities for taphole maple lumber; - The value of sap as a healthful and profitable energy drink; - Detailed analyses on the economics of buying and selling sap; - Lots of great information on marketing to create a profitable business model (based on scale, interest, and access), and more. . . . Applicable for a wide range of climates and regions, this book is sure to change the conversation around syrup production and prove invaluable for both home-scale and commercial sugarmakers alike.

Sweet Maple is an instructional book on backyard sugarmaking that’s also the story of one family’s connection to the past on a small New England sugar farm. Throughout its pages, Michelle (the “sugarmaker’s wife”) gives advice on: the 22 different kinds of trees that can be tapped. the process of making syrup, to help you decide what level is right for you. how to make alternative treats, such lilac syrup. the health benefits of maple products, which contain more than 40 antioxidants. substituting processed sugar with all-natural maple syrup in any recipe. the 3 steps to making maple sugar. how to make irresistible maple cream and how to enjoy it. While learning the art of sugarmaking alongside her husband, Michelle guides readers through every step of all-natural syrup production, with directions for tapping one tree or dozens, while detailing the life-changing benefits of using maple syrup in the kitchen.Interspersed with sugaring techniques, tips, sidebars, and storytelling, Michelle shares more than 30 of her family’s tried-and-true maple recipes—from scones to salads.

From author Rich Finzer, a Blue Ribbon-winning maple syrup producer with 20 years of experience, get the best advice and learn shortcuts and tricks that will save you from making rookie mistakes, save you money by telling which equipment you really need and save you valuable time during the boiling-down process. Maple on Tap includes step-by-step instructions for all sugaring activities from tapping to bottling, as age-old skills are enhanced with modern technology. Included are beautiful color photographs clearly demonstrating the process further lifting the veil of mystery on this unique North American pursuit.