The Sugaring Process
When the days thaw and the nights still freeze in late winter, the sap in sugar maple trees begins to flow. Maple sap is mostly water with a hint of sugar. About 40-60 gallons of sap are needed to make one gallon of pure River's Edge Sugar House maple syrup.
Click on the steps below
The beginning
We determine that all taps and sap lines are intact and connected.
We tap the maple trees by drilling approximately 1 and 1/2 inches into the tree's sap wood. A spout (tap) is inserted into the hole.
The sap is collected from large holding tanks and transported to our sugarhouse for processing.
Once at the sugarhouse, the sap is sent through a filter and into a large holding tank in the basement. This tank feeds a reverse osmosis machine (RO) which separates out some of the water from the sap.
This sugary sap is then sent to the evaporator where a hot wood fire keeps a constant boil.
Feed the fire and boil, boil, boil!
The extra water in the sap is boiled off as steam
The concentrated sap is turned into sweet Connecticut maple syrup.
The maple syrup is drawn off of the evaporator where it is checked for density, filtered, and stored.
We offer pure maple syrup in traditional plastic jugs as well as decorative glass, pure maple cream and maple candy in our rustic country store.
