Tapping Box Elder trees and Silver Maple trees for syrup

Euell Gibbons, in his book 'Stalking the Good Life' rated syrups produced by different species of Maple tree by his personal taste. Acer saccharum, Acer nigrum (Sugar Maples) came in first for taste. In second place for taste was Acer plataneides (Norway Maple). In third place was Acer negundo (Common Box Elder). In fourth place was the Acer rubrum (Red Maple, or Swamp Maple). In last place is Acer saccarinum (Silver Maple). Silver Maple syrup tastes almost identical to Corn Syrup. Box Elder syrup tastes more like traditional Maple syrup, but with a bit of a tang taste to it. I may have over-cooked the Box Elder syrup just a touch, giving it a carmelized candy flavor that the Silver Maple syrup didn't have. Boiling down a liter of Silver Maple sap gives about 1.5 ounces of syrup. Boiling down a liter of Box Elder sap gives about .75 ounces of syrup. The Silver Maple sap makes about twice as much syrup per liter as does the Box Elder sap .The Box Elder and the Silver Maple, like all Maple trees, can easily be identified by their helicopter seeds. The Silver Maples out back here of the house have shed all their helicopters over the winter, but the Box Elders still have clusters of helicopter seeds that haven't fallen yet. It is best to boil the sap down in shallow pans under low heat. Deep pots don't work as well. 40 gallons of sap will typically make about a gallon of syrup. Unless you honestly want to steam the wall paper off your walls, only a pint or so of Maple syrup should be made over a kitchen stove. Boiling off 39 gallons of water in your house will make the sheet rock soggy. The sound track is Reina DelCid's original song Kindness (Cypress Tree) Reina DelCid is one of my favorite YouTube artists. Be sure to check out DelCid's YouTube channel

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Maple Syrup
• Box Elder Syrup
• Silver Maple Syrup
• Tapping Maple Trees

[cdyblood]

Love the song - who is it?

[GregoryLog]

@cdyblood The sound track is Reina DelCid's original song Kindness (Cypress Tree) Reina DelCid is one of my favorite YouTube artists. Be sure to check out Reina DelCid YouTube channel

I see the leaf buds on the Silvermaple out back here in the Minneapolis area are close to opening, so at least for the Silvermaple, there isn't much time left to tap those trees as once the buds open, the sap collection slows way down.

[asceticpodvig]

How did you know Box Elder was a tapping candidate? Are there other good trees?

[GregoryLog]

@asceticpodvig, Euell Gibbons, in his book, STALKING THE GOOD LIFE lists and rates all the trees that are worth tapping for something other than emergency food. I listed some of the trees in the video write-up. Click the down arrow to the right and at the bottom of the video count number.

The Silver Maple sap probably would have tasted more like Maple Syrup had I caramelized the syrup, which is tricky, as the point between caramelizing it and burning it is very small.

[kevjay777]

I'm so sick of people playing music throughout and entire "educational" video. Get in front of a video camera and USE YOUR VOICE INSTEAD OF TEXT!

No one wants to know your flavor of music they want the information in the title. Arrrrg!

Thumbs down all the way.

[JesusDillinger]

Cool.

[cdyblood]

@GregoryLog Thanks! I'm a low volume backyarder here in So Central PA -my taps dried up about 2 weeks ago due to the warm temps but I still managed about 2 gals of sap on a simple 2 pan block arch. Thanks for the video as well/.Take care..

[Tithis]

@asceticpodvig Box Elder is part of the maple family, despite being unusual by having compound leaves. Trees that are commonly used for syrup are sugar, black, red and silver maples. Norway maple, while an invasive non-native species, can also be used.

Other trees that can be tapped are American Sycamores and Birch trees. I believe there are other trees as well but don't know them off the top of my head. They would all have a unique flavor, but maple is prefered for its high sugar content.

[ActaSanctorum]

I like the approach with the spouts, thanks

[badshrooms]

How deep do you drill?

What does the negundo syrup taste like?

Cheers