This is part 4 of a 4 part series on tapping an abundant resource, maple sap, to make fresh local maple syrup, crème and candy.

Parts 1-4 appear each Friday in March. Part 1, Tapping the Sap, appeared on March 5th, Part 2, Bucket by Bucket - The Gathering appeared March 12th, Part 3, Boiling and Boiling and Boiling, appeared last Friday.

Photo: Maple Community

It’s been weeks of hard labor - tapping trees and lugging buckets through the woods, carrying gallon after gallon of cold sap to your sugar shack, and then boiling and boiling and boiling until you dream of it in your sleep. Now’s time for your sweet reward. We’re going to put up some syrup.

As we said earlier, maple sap is only 1.5- 3 % sugar on average. It becomes maple syrup at between 66-67% sugar content. Which happens to be when the boiling sap reaches a temperature 7.4 degrees above boiling. Now everybody knows that boiling is 212° Fahrenheit, except if you are not at sea level and the barometric pressure fluctuates, as it does every day. So every time you boil, you have to take the temperature of boiling water where you are that day and add 7.4 degrees to it.


Today we hit 212° on the nose- the first time this season- it’s been bouncing between 211 and 213. So our sap will be ready to bottle when it’s 219.4° today. Some folks finish it in the sugar house, but today I’m going to finish up a batch on the stove. I’ve got the nearly finished sap boiling away in the stove, and I’m keeping an eye on the temperature. Meanwhile I’m setting up my canning jars and gift bottles to fill, and my filtering felts and buckets to filter any last sediment out of the hot syrup.


I used cone felts like these, but you can use coffee filters or clean flannel cloth.


I secure the filters with a clothes hanger and set the pail overhanging my pot to catch the syrup as it’s filtered. You can buy a 500 dollar filtering and canning rig if you want to, but I make do for a lot less.

OK, the temperature hit 219.9 - time to pour it off into the filter.


Let it filter and if it’s hot enough, you can bottle some of it right out of the filter bucket…


I should be wearing some gloves - that syrup is hot! You want to bottle it up at above 180°…


If it gets cooler than 180°, I transfer it to this steel pot with spigot, warm it to above 180° …


And bottle the rest of it.


Mason jars are an economical choice and can be reused year after year. Put them on their sides so the hot syrup can sterilize the lid. When they cool, they’ll vacuum seal.


I put up some of the syrup in gift bottles for friends and family, but use quart jars for my stash.

You can see the color changes from the first batch we made 3 weeks ago (on the left) and the last. But it’s all rich and good - most folks prefer the robust flavor of the dark stuff!


Ok, now we’ve got syrup for the year (I made 22 gallons!). It’s fun to turn some of that syrup into maple crème and candy. Here’s how. The directions below are the same up to the temperature you want to reach, then different for crème and candy.


Take some of your syrup and put it into a deep cooking pot or pan. With your digital candy thermometer (I like the accuracy), measure the temperature of boiling water today. Pour maple syrup into the pot - a quart will make 2 pounds of maple cream or candy. Put a few drops of oil or butter on the syrup to keep foam down. (This is why you use a deep pan).


Boil carefully over high heat without stirring, until temperature of the boiling syrup is 24°F above the boiling point of the water you noted earlier. Watch carefully - it can get too hot very quickly near the end and boil over or scorch. Remember the boiling syrup is very HOT & STICKY.

Remove from heat, and place immediately into a large pan or sink of very cold water to cool. Do not move, stir, or disturb the syrup during cooling.


Cool to near room temperature (Hold the back of your hand close to the surface, it’s cool enough when you don't feel any heat radiating off the surface anymore).


Remove from water bath and stir slowly with a wooden spoon until it loses its gloss and starts to get opaque. You will notice a change in the color of the liquid. This will take a strong hand and some time. It will get to the consistency of peanut butter when finished.


Spoon into containers and keep refrigerated. It’s great spread on apple slices or warm bread.

For maple candy, keep boiling without stirring, until temperature of the syrup is 32 ° F. above boiling. Remove from heat, and let cool for 3-5 minutes.


Stir evenly (don't beat) until the liquid loses its gloss and starts to become opaque. This should take a few minutes, and is the tricky part to learn the exact correct moment to pour off. Stir too long and the thickened syrup will "set up" (harden) in the pan. If this happens, add a cup of water, and re-heat slowly to dissolve sugar, and then start over. If you don't stir long enough, the sugar may not "set up" in the molds at all.


Pour carefully-not like this picture- into molds. Small aluminum foil pans can be used.


Allow to cool, remove from molds, place on a rack to dry for a few hours. Eat the crumbs and hide the finished candy from everyone else.

If you want to try “maple on snow”, or maple taffy, heat the syrup to about 234° F, then pour or drizzled immediately, without stirring, over packed snow or shaved ice. It will form a thin glassy, chewy, taffy-like sheet over the snow. Enjoy!

The syrup season is ending - the warmer weather is here, the trees have stopped giving up sap. I boiled the last batch into syrup today and made the candy and cream for this blog. Time to pull the taps, wash the buckets and equipment, put it all away and dream of next March. In the meanwhile, there’ll be plenty of pancakes, scrambled eggs, glazed venison, ice cream, warm milk and whiskey this year made that much better with warm maple syrup added.