It takes 40+ gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup!

Historically, this was done by boiling the sap for hours either outdoors over a wood fire or indoors using propane. We use a more environmentally friendly process:

Stage A: Reverse Osmosis

Reverse osmosis uses a semi-permeable membrane (filter) that allows the passage of water molecules but not larger particles, like sugar. Over a period of 8 hours, we use energy from our solar panels to pump our sap through a series of filters, increasing the sap from ~2% sugar to ~7% sugar.

Stage B: Boil using Solar

Next, we boil the sap on an induction burner using energy from our solar panels for 4 hours until the sap is ~55-60% sugar.

As the sap heats, foam inevitably collects on the top of the sap. Some producers add agents to eliminate (defoamers) or prevent further (anti-foamers) foam such as insoluble oils, polydimethylsiloxanes and other silicones, certain alcohols, stearates and glycols, animal fat (bacon grease), butter or beeswax. Organic maple producers may use organic cooking oils (safflower, canola, sunflower, etc). We simply skim the foam off and discard it when it occurs.

Stage C: Boil using Solar or Propane

We find that heat control offered by a propane gas burner is necessary to concentrate the syrup from ~55% sugar to the desired 66% sugar concentration that we all know as syrup!

We need to carefully control the heat (either using a low power induction burner or propane) to ensure it does not boil over as we concentrate the syrup from ~55% sugar to the desired 66% sugar concentration that we all know as syrup!

Sap runs when temperatures are above freezing during the day and below freezing at night. This causes the movement of water from the ground through the tree’s roots and to the tree's inner bark (xylem) using capillary action. Maple tapping typically begins during February as we traipse through the snow to place taps into 40+ of our maple trees. Tubing is attached to these taps and gravity brings the sap down the tubing to a large food-safe tank or food-safe bucket. Over the course of the season we transport the 400+ gallons of sap from our forest to our house for concentrating.

Once the syrup reaches 66% sugar, we pour it into our custom-designed canner that uses reusable paper filters and an orlon filter to remove mineral precipitate.

We then pour this filtered syrup into sterilized glass jars, grade it as golden, amber, dark, or very dark, and share them with you!

Minerals naturally precipitate as solids. We filter out this precipitate, called sugar sand or niter, as we bottle the syrup. Niter, perhaps seen as slight clouding on the bottom of a glass jar, is not a sign of spoiling. It is harmless, but may taste a bit gritty. You can’t see this in a plastic bottle.