The Boxelder Tree; Acer negundo

Overview

The multitudes of shapes of the Boxelder leaf, compared to a standard Maple leaf

The "helicopter" seeds hanging from a Boxelder tree

Late winter is upon us here in the Wisconsin/Minnesota area of the country, and soon the maples will be flowing their wonderful sap, the raw material that makes our Maple Syrup and Maple Sugar.  This year I have tapped 10 box elder trees for just such a purpose.  Now you may be thinking..."Why would you tap a box elder tree for maple sap?  It isn't even a maple!"  However, the box elder tree is, in fact, in the maple family, but it's hard to see the similarities at first glance.  First of all, the leaves don't take that typical maple shape and secondly, they tend to grow in all sorts of configurations...unlike the straight up and down growth seen with most other maple varieties.  One thing that can tip you off as you walk through the woods is that they still have those "helicopter" type seeds found on all maples.  Where there's one in nature, there will usually be more nearby.

Tapping

Box elders are actually considered an invasive species in North America, so all the better reason to make some use out of them...because they're everywhere!  The Box Elder will begin its sap flow when we have our first lengthy consecutive string of thaw/frost days, where the temperature is above 32 degrees Fahrenheit during the day, and below 32 degrees at night.  As stated earlier, I have tapped around 10 trees and the sap will be flowing soon.  I will update this post as we get farther along in the process!


UPDATE | April 9, 2013

After a longer than expected waiting period, the sap finally began flowing about two weeks ago.  It was great seeing those buckets full of sap and ready to be boiled down.  I was getting a little worried because I was told from an experienced maple syrup person that the holes begin to heal up if they are dry for too long, and it greatly reduces or completely stops the sap flow when it comes.  It was a good month after I tapped the trees that I finally started seeing some sap.  Next year I will keep a better eye on the weather patterns and try to get the tap holes drilled closer to the sap flow time.

My taps have hose fittings, and I attached some hose to each tap, then drilled a hole in each bucket lid just large enough for the hose to fit through, that way it minimized any debris or rainfall coming in.  I then had to tape the lids to the bucket because they were not tight fitting.  Taping in the cold is not very easy, some tape type's adhesive qualities diminish in the cold...I would recommend duct tape.

 The buckets I used are 2.5 gallons in size and I got them free at the local grocery store.  Sometimes it works to get them free and sometimes it doesn't.  Don't expect to be handed 10-20 free buckets the day before you set up your taps, because stores just may not have them.  Ask around town (nicely, of course...maybe explain your upcoming adventure into tapping) and keep a good window of time on your side and you'll be able to find some buckets somewhere.  The hose was purchased at the local home store for around $5 for 15 feet...plenty for my needs.  As for the taps, I bought 12 stainless steel with a hose fitting spout.  These were more expensive...around $3.16 each including shipping fees.  There are very cheap plastic ones you can buy, and you can even make your own out of 1" staghorn sumac shoots!  I got the stainless because I wanted something that would last my lifetime.  As I expand my operation I will be home-making taps out of sumac.  Another thing I'll mention is that your best bet for price and selection for taps would be going online.  Try amazon, or ebay, or any other places you can think of.  The local home stores sometimes have taps, but they are priced significantly higher than what you find online, even if you factor the shipping costs.

The boiling process was long.  The first weekend we had about 25-30 gallons of maple sap to boil down, and it took most of Saturday and all of Sunday to get it reduced.  Tasting the sap was interesting because I expected it to be so diluted that it would only taste like water.  I was surprised to taste a very light and refreshing sweetness, along with some earthy tasting undertones.  We should have been watching it closer at the end of the boil because the end consistency turned out to be more like maple sugar instead of maple sap.  The end product tastes unbelievably sweet, kind of like a caramel candy.  Yesterday I used some to sweeten up a fruit smoothie and it certainly did the trick with just a small quantity.  The boiling was very inefficient because we used a large pot instead of something long, wide, and shallow.  Next year I hope to improve this operation by finding a more suitable boiling apparatus.

Since boiling the sap is so inefficient with a large pot, we decided to use the sap in different ways.  We will be freezing some of the sap to have as a nice refreshing drink in the summer, and my wife likes to make mead (honey wine) so she used the sap as a water substitute for her mead recipe.  I would like brew beer with the sap as well, but my carboys are full of beer in the lagering process for the next month...so that may not happen.  All in all, I had a really fun time learning how to tap a tree that is in the maple family, the Boxelder tree.  I will certainly look at the Boxelder tree from now on as a very useful and abundant tree.  As for the Boxelder bug...that's a different story.