PSA: Tap Your Maples! And the health benefits of maple sap

Just go outside and tap some trees, I encourage you! It does not take any fancy equipment. I whittled some second year sumac twigs, drilled the pith out (make sure to blow the remnants out), hammered them in. My collection vessels are random jars, bottles, etc. that I recycled from other things. The worst that can happen is you have lots of delicious, blood purifying sap to drink as a late winter tonic. At best, you get some delicious, flavorful maple sugar you can use throughout the year.

A lot of people here do tap their maples, a lot don’t. There is no reason not to except sluggishness. Go out, have some fresh air and much needed activity for the end of winter, and as a result you will have something delicious for free that would otherwise be extremely expensive. I implore you all who live in places where maple sugar runs!

If you don’t have the “right kind” of maples, try it anyway. Some of the best maple sugar I have tasted came from silver maples. Norway wasn’t as promising, but some people even tap boxelders. One tree is plenty to start out with, you don’t need to tap the whole forest. Later on people will tap the birches, but for now it’s maple.

For reasons I won't expand upon, I've shelved my box elder tapping for the time beingbut can attest to the wonderful taste it has!  It's about half the sugar concentration of sugar maple, but still worth doing....especially if it grows like a weed in your area.

Another reason, here is an article about the health benefits of drinking maple sap: https://wildfoodism.com/2015/02/24/the-health-benefits-of-drinking-maple-tree-sap/

Summary: good for your bones, more effective at preventing gastric ulcers than conventional drugs, and lowers excessive blood pressure.

Judson’s entry was near the top of the search for “maple sap blood purifier”!
https://permies.com/t/177972/Medicinal-Trees-Acer-Maples

More uses, especially as a liver aid and in the case of pain in the liver, but also good for the lungs and kidneys.

It is also a much needed source of carbohydrates to get oneself out of the lethargy of wintertime. (Some might call it a  “sugar high”… but it’s so much better for you than that would suggest…)

I have tons of box elder and silver maple at my place in Memphis but nobody taps out here.  Need to educate myself