Ohiofarmgirl's Adventures in The Good Land is largely a fish out of water tale about how I eventually found my footing on a small farm in an Amish town. We are a mostly organic, somewhat self sufficient, sustainable farm in Ohio. There's action and adventure and I'll always tell you the truth about farming.


Monday, March 9, 2015

We tapped our trees!

Finally! I feels late but if I check my notes we are right on time.

The sap just runs right out. Can you believe it? It TOTALLY works!

Our stupid Winter Without End finally ended and we ran right out yesterday and had a great time. I even took off my big stupid winter jacket when we were doing chores! It was a miracle!

What wasn't a miracle was spending a lot of time trying to get the driveway to drain during The Big Melt - we were out there with shovels and hoes trying to get the water to run in the correct direction and not into the garage. We finally got it all cleared off.

Then we ran right down and tapped our trees.

One of my pals was asking where to get supplies... and you guessed it! You can get maple taps from Tap My Trees from Amazon. We like these taps - they are super easy to use. You just need a 7/16 drill bit and a bucket. We figured out that flat sided bucket works the best. However, you can kind of rig up a $1/each or free food quality bucket from Walmart's bakery department also.

To be sure there are all kinds of fancy set ups but we go for easy and cheap. We always need buckets so we don't mind buying more...and we get more taps every year. If you are new and want to go all out check out this deluxe Maple Sap Tapping starter kit.

At that point people always ask, is it worth it?

*shrugs*

Yeah, sure it is! But we don't spend a lot of money so yes absolutely. This is a super fun project that you can enjoy all year. After you make your own you'll go to your favorite pancake house and turn up your nose at their lame, fake syrups. Plus.... making your own bacon with your own syrup is kind of fun.

You can learn more about how we make our maple syrup here:

And of course, this story never gets old.

Happy Monday everyone! Get out there and get your trees tapped!

Editors note: Do you know what you can buy from Amazon? Almost anything! Yay! And if you use one of these links to go to Amazon and buy something I get a tiny portion of the sale. It can be anything - a book, movies, or something you need from Amazon anyway.  Do you need anything Amazon? You can support this blog by just clicking one of these links. Or using the black Amazon search box on the right side of this page. It doesn't cost you once cent more but helps me with the "cost" of this blog. If you like this blog, or if I've helped you at all in your farming efforts, just make a purchase from Amazon from one of the links, my store, or the black Amazon search box on the right side of this page. Thanks!

5 comments:

Cat Eye Cottage said...

I think having trees to tap is so cool! I hope you have a splendid harvest.

David said...

hope the swat tem doesn't show up

collieguy said...

Tapping here too. Missed the January thaw, and now forecast for night time lows above freezing means a screeching halt to the sap season. Had to chain saw clear the sap trail after a massive straight line wind storm knocked a lot of trees over last fall. Best salvage is that neither man, woman nor beast froze solid and we're ready for winter '16.

anton said...

I'm tapping along with you. I boiled up my first batch of maple syrup today--awesome!

Ohiofarmgirl said...

Thanks WEH! I think the season will be short but we'll make the most of it.

The day is not over, Dave...

Yay, Anton!!! Isn't this a fun project?

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