Delaware Twp. teen boils maple sap into syrup

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on March 02, 2013 at 5:08 PM, updated March 02, 2013 at 5:21 PM

Liam Hanna, 14, spent much of Saturday working at an outdoor fire, evaporating maple sap from trees around his family’s Delaware Township home to make maple syrup.

It’s an unusual hobby for the freshman at Hunterdon Central high School. But according to him and his parents, the taste is much better than anything found in a store. Read the label on commercial pancake syrup and you’ll understand the difference. Most brands have eliminated maple syrup from their products, which are made from high-fructose corn syrup along with a slew of artificial flavorings and additives.

After Toby and Peg Hanna and their two sons moved to a 10-acre tract on Upper Creek Road five years ago, they tried maple sugaring on a small scale, only tapping around four or five trees at first. Now, they take the sap from 20 or so trees.

Liam has become the family’s expert on the whole process, learning from books and videos. He’s written school reports on it.

The fundamental steps for making pure maple syrup are basically the same as they were hundreds of years ago when the Indians here first did it, later introducing it to the early immigrants from Europe. The simple description is that you collect sap from sugar maple trees and boil (evaporate) it until it reaches the proper density for syrup.

The Hannas use a portable electric drill to make a hole in the tree, push in a metal tap on an angle downward so the sap will flow out, and hang a big metal bucket from it. It depends on the season, but sap generally begins to flow in late January, February for sure, and then the real work begins. The bucket, holding around four gallons, can fill up in less than a day.

The difference in temperatures between night and day is what makes the sap flow. During the day, starch stored in the roots for the winter rises through the trunk as sugary sap, allowing it to be tapped. When it cools at night, the sap stops moving.

Sap is clear and, “tastes like sugar water,” says Liam’s brother Luke, 11. To concentrate the sap into tasty syrup, it’s boiled in a large type of metal pan (called an evaporator) over a wood-fired outdoor stove.

It generally takes 40 parts maple sap to make 1 part maple syrup (10 gallons sap to make 1 quart syrup), Liam said. But the ratio can be even higher, as much as 60 to 1. That means a lot of time tending the fire, stirring the sap, watching the steam rise.

The Hannas burn wood from the many trees on their property to boil the sap. When it’s almost done, Peg finishes it off inside on the kitchen stove, Otherwise they might be outside all night cooking it, she noted.

Liam and his mom use a device called a hydrometer to check the density (viscosity) of the syrup to determine when it’s done. If the syrup is boiled too long, it will begin to crystallize. Then they filler it again to take out any debris, pieces of ash and so forth that might be in it.

According to Toby, there’s so much time involved in boiling down the sap that the family only does it two or three days a year. That hopefully will produce enough syrup to last until next winter.

Before using it on pancakes or waffles, they heat it so it soaks in, making the meal particularly tasty, he said.
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