Nestled in the woods near the small town of River Falls, Wisconsin, is Beldenhille Orchard. As winter slowly melts away, this grove of maple trees oozes with sweet syrup. It's a tapping training ground, where young and old alike learn how to turn sap into syrup.
Maple syrup season runs from February through the first of April. Perfect conditions include a freeze at night and a thaw in the afternoon. When the sun hits the tall maples, it pulls the sap up from the roots to the top of the tree. The sap is intercepted halfway up.
The process starts one drop at a time, but to get those drops you need the right kind of tree. Sugar and hard maples are the best because they have the highest concentration of sugar. Red and silver maples, and even boxelder trees, can also be tapped, but they have a lower sugar content.
Trees need to be at least 16 inches in circumference and the only tools needed are a 7/16-inch drill bit and a hatchet. Taking into consideration concerns about the environment, there's a non-intrusive way to tap a tree. The outer bark of the tree is chipped away to the orange layer, and then a hole the size of a quarter is chipped away for the tap. This is where the drill bit is used. It is carefully inserted into the tree at an upward angle, and then the crank is turned until the hole is about two inches deep.
Once the hole is tapped and the sap starts flowing, the hole is cleaned out and a spigot is inserted so that the sap can be collected. Maple groves like Beldenhille use a tubing system to collect sap. The tubes are stretched between trees and then connected to a holding tank. The old-fashioned way involves hanging a bucket, where the sap is turned into syrup.
Believe it or not, it takes about 50 gallons of sap to make just one gallon of syrup. It has to boil down overnight; then it's taken from the shed where it was cooked down to another stove indoors, where it boils for another eight hours. A hydrometer is used to check for viscosity--if it floats, it's ready; if it sinks, it's not.
When the syrup is ready, it's great over vanilla ice cream and, of course, pancakes.
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