1. 10/21/15, 7:44 PMFrom tree trunks to breakfast pancakes: RSOP turns sap into syrup - UMD StatesmanUMD Statesman
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From tree trunks to breakfast pancakes: RSOP turns
sap into syrup
Posted by: Aloysia Power Tags: Aloysia Power, bagley, Campus, duluth, Elly Power, erin denny, harvest, maple
syrup, maple trees, SAP, sugar bush, syrup, tap, umd Posted date: April 11, 2014 | No comment
RSOP turns sap to syrup
Caught in the middle of spring’s fight against winter are the maple trees in the Bagley Nature
Area next to campus. One week, spring is ahead and the days are warm, encouraging the maple
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2. 10/21/15, 7:44 PMFrom tree trunks to breakfast pancakes: RSOP turns sap into syrup - UMD StatesmanUMD Statesman
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sap to flow up the tree trunks into the branches. The next week, winter strikes back, and the sap
flow freezes with the falling snow.
It’s been a slow spring for the RSOP Maple Sugarbush program, which takes local school
groups out to tap the maple trees in Bagley in order to collect the tree sap. Maple sap is used to
make maple syrup.
“There was an initial run a week or two before the big storm because it had warmed up so
much,” Erin Denny, the Maple Sugarbush Coordinator, said. “Then, it stopped.”
For the sap to flow, maple trees need warm days and cold nights. The freezing night
temperatures create negative pressure in the trees, which causes suction, drawing the water
from the ground through the roots and pulling it all the way up to the branches.
The warm day temperatures do just the opposite, creating positive pressure in the maple trees.
This pressure is what pushes the sap – now inside the tree because of the cold night
temperatures – out of the taps, or lowest points of pressure, that RSOP drills into the trees.
Because this temperature fluctuation is necessary for the sap to flow, the tapping season
doesn’t last long in Duluth– usually about a month. And right now, the sap is flowing.
Last Thursday, The Statesman followed Denny out to Bagley to learn how the traditional
woodsman craft is done.
Step One: Find a healthy maple tree
In the summer and fall, maple trees are easy to identify because of their hand-shaped leaves
made famous by the Canadian flag. But, in the spring, when the leaves have yet to grow and the
trees are naked, identifying a maple tree can be a bit harder than usual.
“The easiest way to tell if it’s a maple is if you look up at the branches,” Denny said.
The twigs on the branches are longer and thinner compared to other trees, and they branch out
from the main stem in opposite directions in pairs of two, she said.
Maples can also be spotted because of their buds, which are half-inch to an inch thick, she said.
The buds look like they’ve been “dipped in maple syrup” because of their brown color.
Not every maple is big enough to tap, however. The tapping process can stunt their growth if
they’re too young and small. RSOP’s rule of thumb for tapping Bagley trees is 8-inches through
the middle, Denny said.
Trees that meet RSOP’s minimum diameter can only support one tap, but larger trees can
handle more. The standard requirement for two taps is a 21 to 27-inch diameter trunk, and for
three taps, a 27-inch or greater diameter, according to tapmytrees.com.
Step Two: Drill a tap hole
About a two-inch deep hole is necessary to reach the sap, which flows up through the outer part
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of the inner tree called the sapwood.
Denny used an old hand drill to hollow out a nook in the trunk for the tap to sit in. The tap is a
small metal spigot that allows the sap to flow out of the tree into a collection bucket. She angled
the tap hole to the sap could flow down and out of the tree.
Then, she took the tap, placed it in the hole and hammered it into place. Immediately, the sap
began to spew out of the hole onto the ground.
“It’s OK to jam it in there because the trees expand and get skinny,” Denny said. “And so if you
don’t pound it in there, it could fall out.”
Step Three: Collect the sap
Once the tap was set, Denny pulled the metal collection bucket from her hiking backpack and
hung it underneath the mouth of the spout on a hook attached to the bottom side of the tap.
The water-like liquid began to run out of the tree and collect at the tip of the spout, forming a
clear, round droplet. After a few seconds, the droplet expanded to a size where it and could no
longer resist gravitational forces. It slipped off the edge of the spout and a split second later,
made a quiet “plop” as it splattered on the bottom of the empty metal bucket.
This process repeated over the next two hours until a thin layer of sap sat in the bucket.
RSOP uses a mixture of metal buckets and plastic bags to collect sap from each tap to show
there are many ways to do it, Denny said. But, they only tap maple trees.
“Sugar maples have the highest sugar content,” she said. “You get a lot more bang for your
buck.”
Once the buckets are full, RSOP volunteers hop on a snowmobile, exchange the filled buckets
with empty buckets, then build a fire to boil most of the water off the sap. What’s left is a highly
sugar-concentrated golden-brown liquid. Tah-dah, they have maple syrup.
It takes about 32 gallons of sugar maple sap to create one gallon of syrup, Denny said.
Right now, the volunteers have 14 gallons of sap total.
VIDEO AND STORY BY ALOYSIA POWER
Multimedia Editor

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