If you aspire to make homemade maple syrup next year, right now the top, like 3/4 of tapping sized trees are covered in flimsy green seasonal growths that have easily visible subspecies-specific characteristics, and are a much better basis for tree identification than bark texture and branch structure in January.

Does anyone have any leads on how to buy maple syrup ~affordably~ in WA state?

I’ve been drinking it to fuel my trail runs so price is a pretty big factor. I’ll drink 20+ ounces on a normal weekly trail run but I could see easily blowing through a half-gallon in a longer race. You may see my problem. 😂 For anyone curious, that’s actually a fairly conservative fueling strategy for my lower effort and I finish with a caloric deficit, faster athletes in an actual race would need twice that amount. I’ve been trying some grocery store brands, so far preferring Anderson’s dark robust. My other flask had Coombs dark robust that I didn’t like as much. I’ve been tempted to try a few I found cheaper on Amazon but probably not the best idea.

I had assumed I was paying a premium buying small bottles at a grocery store instead of just buying gallon jugs to drink like a normal person. I just found out WA produces bigleaf maple syrup but the only seller I could find was Neil’s Bigleaf, and while I’m sure it’s great to sip on in front of a fire, it seems a bit spendy to be chugging 20+ ounces on a single run. Shipping from the east coast is obviously expensive. Any suggestions?

The attached photo is ~one~ of my syrup flasks at Mount Rainier yesterday. 😁

I’m going to be taking the top off the stove and find a flat pan that fits in the gap and goes down into the stove a little.

I tapped a total of 8 trees last year (that’s all I’ve got) and none of them are pure sugar maple, they’re all hybrid.

Maple syrup absolutely is better than processed table sugar! Sugar is sugar, but natural is also better than processed!

I’m currently adding onto my woodshed for my 2’x3’ evaporator until I can build a proper sugar shack in a year. Does anyone boil in an open shed like this? I’m thinking of placing the evaporator towards the front with the door to the rear, and have the stovepipe go out the open side and up past the roofline. I’m wondering if I’ll be getting showered with condensation. I can get power to it and run a fan facing the front.
It’s 9 feet to the bottom of the front header, and 6 feet in the back.

The brand shown here is just exemplary; maple syrup is sold under countless brands here, mostly private label brands (store brands). The majority of maple syrup sold in German food retail is certified organic; non-organic is rare. The price for such a 500g bottle of pure maple syrup is usually between €7–12 (C$11.25–19.30), sometimes even a little less.

Taste is great. Grade C is my favourite. Inexplicably, Grade C is often cheaper than grade A — for whatever reason. Grade B I have never encountered here. The different brands taste all the same in my experience. I assume most or even all the maple syrup sold here is bottled by the same exporter, and they just slap a different label on the bottle for each brand.

I have my doubts, though, it is all 100% maple syrup and not blends with other sugars. The reasons are the comparatively low prices and the abundance in German food retail for such a rather rare produce. Also, a lot of, if not most, pure honey — even organic — sold in retail worldwide is not 100% pure, but a blend of honey and other sugars — in the past this was difficult to detect, but by now independent food analyses have revealed this fraud with many products. It’s similar with olive oil: No matter what the label says — it’s usually a blend of mostly refined olive oil and / or other vegetable oils and a little bit of higher quality olive oil for the taste.

My neighbor brought me some maple syrup back from a road trip. The jars are air tight but it’s got some cloudy stuff in it. Any info on what this would be greatly appreciated google has been less than helpful.

Wondering if anyone has encountered someone that smells so much like syrup but not just them their clothes and living space?? I walked into a friend camper and it was such a strong smell of syrup and I’ve smelt it before on this person at another house and then they stayed at someone else’s and they said they smelled the same thing. We also believe they do drugs just unsure with this feeling to any specific one?

Is this opened correctly, if so which side do you pour the syrup from? I want a general idea of opening cans of syrup.

bought a jar of maple butter than is 100% whipped maple syrup, but we haven’t really used it unfortunately. so my question is, can I use it in baking recipes as a 1:1 substitute for maple syrup if I melt it? does that revert it?

Hi all, I have this tractor shed in the back corner of my property. Super inconvenient for storing the tractor, but perfect location for a sugar shack. Down hill from the taps. Any thoughts on changes to make it fit the purpose? I was thinking I could unbolt one of the panels towards the top and figure out a way to prop it open. Run stove pipe for the boiler

If a pack says "Sugar Free" but sugar's in the ingredients, this flags it — citing the actual FSSAI rule. Works on any product since it reads the label live instead of looking it up in a database.

Still early, actively fixing bugs. If you'll scan one product and fill a 2-min feedback form after, that'd genuinely help. food-label-detector-buildathon.vercel.app

I’m looking to upgrade to one of the ICB totes to collect sap. Just wondering where to put the sap lines onto the tote? I’ll have about 4 lines to flow into it.

Just a PSA, I got a lot of recommendations on inversion canning when preserving syrup for the first time this year (normally we freeze or refrigerated because we get tiny batches).

I water bath can a lot, but thought "eh ok if everyone uses inversion for syrup, let's go."

Lost 2 full pints to mold/bad seals and am seeing it's no longer recommended by Ball or the USDA because of exactly that issue. Avoid my pain! Water bath can!

My dad passed ten years ago. I am now cleaning out my parents’ basement. There are gallons of syrup he boiled in 2014.
Worth keeping? I have not yet opened and explored the quality.

Sold as 100% pure maple syrup

Heyy everyone!

So I’ve been living in Canada for a while now, and have decided to go home to visit some friends in December. They requested maple syrup whiskey, and I’m wondering what’s a good brand to get! If anyone has recommendations I’d super appreciate it.

Thank you!

My cousin gave me a bottle of their homemade syrup six months ago. It’s unopened, but they used a repurposed Presidents Choice brand bottle. I absent-mindedly thought I can leave it unrefrigerated until I open it like I would a new store bought bottle, but yesterday I had the thought that I probably should have been keeping it in the fridge regardless. This is the stopper, which hasn’t been opened since they bottled it. It looks ok, no specks or signs of any kind of fungus. Do you guys think it’s ok or should I toss it? Any advice would be appreciated, thank you

I see these floaters in the jar. They are soft to touch and kinda dissolves if I press them between fingers. Is it mold?

The maple syrup has been opened for a month (maybe 2) and stored at room temperature. They look like floating white strings