Can you make maple syrup at home? You can if you have access to a few sugar maple trees (also known as rock or hard maple trees), some inexpensive equipment, and live in an area that’s conducive to sugaring.
If you live in the northeast, or anywhere else with similar weather and some sugar maples, you’ll be in business. You tap the trees in midwinter and the best sap days are those when the days are warm and the nights are cold.
Interested in a brand new kit? We are a Dominion & Grimm dealer. Please call 603-924-3111 for more information. 
We also buy and sell used equipment. Please call 603-924-3111 for our current inventory or if you’re looking to sell yours.
The big pan you will need to evaporate the syrup may be found at a used restaurant equipment store. It takes about 10 gallons of maple sap to make one quart of syrup.
On average you will get from five to fifteen gallons of sap from one taphole, but in a really good year you could get forty to eighty gallons.
A maple tree that you can tap has to be at least 30 – 65 inches around, measured at about 4 ½ feet above the ground. Don’t put more than one tap in a tree this size. A tree that’s 64-79 inches around can handle two taps and a tree that’s 80 inches or more around can handle three taps.
A taphole is the hole made by the insertion of a tap into the tree. To insert the tap you need to drill a hole into the maple with a 7/16th bit. The tap can flow right into a container or you can insert a hose onto the tap and direct the flow from several taps of trees into one container.
You will want the tap to be tight. You shouldn’t be able to pull it out by hand. Always tap when the weather is above freezing so you don’t split the wood.
A typical kit should contains supplies to tap 3 maple trees. Make sure it includes buckets, lids, spiles with hooks, drill bit, and cheesecloth
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