Southern Maple Syrup: Tapping Silver Maples for Local Sugar Pt. 1

This is the first video documenting a cooperative local sugaring effort that happens every year at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage. It's mid-February and the smallest hint of spring is in the air. The robins are returning, the woodcocks are finding places to nest, and the silver maples are just starting to flow with sap. Sugar maples like a colder climate, but If you live south of the zone where sugar maples can grow, you don't have do without delicious local maple syrup. Silver maples like warmer climates and produce almost as much sugar in their sap as sugar maples.

Sugar is a big part of our diet, and most sugar we eat is produced in tropical regions, highly processed, and shipped thousands of miles to wind up on our grocery store shelf. Yet native trees all around us produce an abundance of sugar every year, sugar that we could be harvesting and using in place of tropical sugar. Producing maple syrup doesn't require us to alter natural habitats in any way. We don't have to till the land, cultivate, or use pesticides, and taking the sap doesn't hurt the trees. It is the perfect example of permaculture in action. In this video, we set up taps on our nearby "sugar bushes" and dream about an abundant harvest of syrup this season.

[cunit]

Thats a beautiful story of you and your daughter. I wish more mothers and fathers were doing what you are doing with there children. God bless

[brad]

I'm so glad I stumbled onto this video. I have three very mature Silver Maples all at least 75 years old but probably all over 100. I cut a large limb off the bottom of one tree and I watched water flow from it that literally made me wonder if there was some way that a water line started leaking and flowing up through the tree.(of course it was just maple water) Literally well over 5 gallons of maple water flowed out for over 30 minutes.

[lrn_news]

I love Silver maples, here in western Canada they don't grow in the wild but they are commonly planted in parks, yards and alongside streets.

[rubygray]

I do wish we had forests of maples here! I have some tiny sugar maple trees, but have never heard of anyone suggaring her ein Tasmania. We sure don't have snowy winters that maples apparently need.

[Caroline_T]

I have a 60 year old 3 trunked silver maple in front of my house. I want to tap it this year. Looking for tips and found your video. Thanks!

[Eagle]

Awesome, I have 11 silver Maples in my yard🤤

[glffmn]

Hey I think we spoke a very long time ago. With the cold snap coming it looks like a few days will be below freezing at night and above at day. Safe for me to tap my tree the night of the freeze?

[lucasbradshaw]

I have two large mature silver maples in my yard, about 3-4 ft diameter. Would it be worth tapping them for a small amount of syrup each spring? Would love to do it with the daughter. Is silver maple syrup good?

[romerobinson]

So I’m new to tapping maples. Most of the Naples on my family’s property are red maples. I tapped 10 of them but have yet to see any sap. I live near Asheville nc. It’s been 30-50 degrees here lately. Is it too warm for there to be sap coming out? I figured I would have had sap come out by now. Thanks for any advice!

[oldyellerschannel]

This is just a thought.
Wouldn't it be okay to plug the tap hole with a bit of cork when you're finished tapping?
Or even some sawdust?
And...how DO you get the sap to stop dripping, once you are finished?
Also, did you know you can tap Yellow and Black Birches, Paper Birch too?
People have said that they often, some even prefer, to drink the sap without reducing it to syrup.
They call it Maple Water.
Yellow Birch sap is actually supposed to be healthier for you than Sugar Maple sap too,
more minerals and different kinds of sugar apparently.
I just learned that, thought I would share!