this post was submitted on 25 Mar 2024
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I make syrup out of the tree(s) in my yard.
It’s true. It was such a weird year weather wise that I only got about 2 bottles of syrup. Normally I can get like… 8-10?
A lot of people don’t really know how sap production works, but it really is a pretty limited window
That being said, if you live outside of a maple tree (or some other kinds), go buy a $20 tap or whatever from Amazon. It’s fun and surprisingly piss easy to make syrup at home.
Out of curiosity, do you have to refine it somehow, or is it good to eat straight from the tree?
Sap itself is essentially water. You probably… could just drink it alone but don’t. It’s weird and a little gross.
You basically just pour it all in a vat and boil it down. It boils down at a 40:1 ratio. 40 gallons of sap is about one gallon of syrup.
You just boil it until it reaches the correct sugar concentration, or until you’re pretty satisfied
Gross as in it tastes bad raw?
I mean, I haven’t tried it in any significant quality, it’s incredibly close to normal water at that concentration. Maybe a bit woody, really not sweet.
It’s also just unprocessed tree-water you get from a bucket and I’m not an expert on the health and safety of all that but yunno, to me it’s something I’d want at least boiled first.
It didn’t seem that different from like… tree fruit juice, but based on some of the comments I’ve gotten, it doesn’t sound like it would be very pleasant.
It's not inedible but it certainly isn't something I'd want to drink a lot of. It picks up all sorts of tastes from the tree and tubing and it doesn't have the good caramel-analogous taste of syrup yet. It's noticeably sweet though. Think sugar water with a hint of tree bark (which is basically what it is). I'd recommend tasting it once or twice if you haven't for the novelty, but yeah it's not very good unboiled.