Plans to produce maple syrup at Wheaton Labs?

Wouldn't it be sweet to produce maple syrup (in a permacultural, non-commercial way of course) there (for educational-demonstration purposes too!)
Any plans to do this?  Of course there has to be interest and enough people to see it through you know.. I may be able to help (maybe through WWOOF) if there is nough interest

(not sure if this is the best forum to post this. let me know if there's a better one)

It's a great idea but there aren't any maple trees growing there yet.  There is a sort of maple bush there but I'm not sure if it makes sweet sap...

We have a couple of the sweet sap silver maples that we planted about eight years ago.  Supposedly, they can be tapped when they are nine years old

https://www.slngrow.com/products/sweet-sap-silver-maple

I'm not sure what grows at the Lab, but in the North, birch sap is known to make a light, spicy but toothsome syrup.

It's quite possible that like us you have "Manitoba Maples" (a.k.a. box elder) in the area (which Eastern maple snobs consider a weed tree). I can attest that they bleed copious amounts of sap when wounded/pruned in spring. I read somewhere that it makes a passable syrup, but haven't tried it personally.

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:I'm not sure what grows at the Lab, but in the North, birch sap is known to make a light, spicy but toothsome syrup.

It's quite possible that like us you have "Manitoba Maples" (a.k.a. box elder) in the area (which Eastern maple snobs consider a weed tree). I can attest that they bleed copious amounts of sap when wounded/pruned in spring. I read somewhere that it makes a passable syrup, but haven't tried it personally.

yeah, of course if there are naturally-growin maples like "box elders" doug suggests may be there, that'd be even sweeter! anybody there know if those are there?

great plan(n/t)ing paul! leave it to ya'll people for great plan(n/t)ings

seems like tapping for sap can be tried on the right trees there soon, exciting!

I know that here in the northeast we don't typically tap trees less than 9" in diameter, preferably at least a foot, for the health of the tree.  Having said that, sugar maples are everywhere so we might be on the cautious side?  I assume the same advice would go for box elders too?

Greg Martin wrote:I know that here in the northeast we don't typically tap trees less than 9" in diameter, preferably at least a foot, for the health of the tree.  Having said that, sugar maples are everywhere so we might be on the cautious side?  I assume the same advice would go for box elders too?

Hm! Good question, Greg. My experience is with big old gnarly specimens. Since they are often considered "weedy" I doubt anybody would really care. But I'm not an experienced "tapper" -- perhaps it requires a certain cross section to get enough production to justify the effort?

BTW, I don't know about sugar maples, but Manitoba Maples will blast out new shoots from the stump when you chop down the main tree. So these may be coppice friendly.

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:BTW, I don't know about sugar maples, but Manitoba Maples will blast out new shoots from the stump when you chop down the main tree. So these may be coppice friendly.

Extremely coppice friendly.

Manitoba maples are tapped for sap for syrup.  In a couple weeks, I'm looking forward to the Sugaring Off Festival in St. Pierre-Jolys, Manitoba.  If you poke around that museum site, there is a discussion of the history of tapping the trees in the town.  If I recall, there are about 200 trees they tap and they always sell out of syrup.  They are fundraising to plant more trees.  There are some newer hybrids that are supposed to be better trees for tapping, but I don't have any growing yet...we do have a number of Manitoba maples.

There is an outfit here in Manitoba that sells birch syrup as well.  We have had some, although I can't recall it well enough to describe the syrup.

It's been a long time since I tried maple sugaring, twenty years? Around that time however, there was a trial that I read about where they were sugaring from literal saplings! Instead of drilling a larger tree, the sapling was cut (not sure if a branch or the leader, or what the diameter) and the collection tubing slipped over the entire cut end. Supposedly the production per acre was comparable to mature trees, since the density of the saplings was far greater, and it was obviously achievable years sooner.

Maybe a good question would be that there might be other trees that can be harvested for their syrup, so what is there?

Primarily doug fir, ponderosa pine and larch.  I haven't seen the sweet sap maples in my visits.

Anne Miller wrote:Maybe a good question would be that there might be other trees that can be harvested for their syrup, so what is there?

A variety of hardwood trees can be tapped for sap, with varying sugar content and flavour.  Aside from the planted fruit trees, I don't recall seeing much in the way of deciduous trees when I visited.

Another thing to consider is the Badge Bit for making maple (or similar) syrup:

Maple Syrup PEP BB - Foraging