Tap Them? These Common Montana Trees are Full of Syrup Sap

A common Montana tree can be tapped to make syrup.

Places like Vermont, Maine, and Minnesota are known as maple syrup states. However, maple trees are common across the upper Midwest and northeast United States. Canada is responsible for the most maple syrup in the world. They produce around 71% of the international supply, with 90% made in Quebec.

Excluding backyards and parks in urban areas Montana does not have many maple trees. Only two varieties are native species. However, a close relative to the maple tree is box elder trees, which are found everywhere across Montana.

Now we want to try making box elder syrup.

My mom is into health food and we never used imitation maple syrup when I was growing up. The main ingredient is high fructose corn syrup, with maple extract, food coloring, and other ingredients added to give it that golden brown tint and maple-ish taste.

I remember learning how maple syrup was made when I was a little kid and my mind was blown. Five-year-old me: "Syrup comes from trees?! That's crazy!" Real maple syrup is expensive, due to the amount of time and labor necessary.

Ten gallons of raw maple sap are required to make just one quart of syrup. Most of us probably reach for a jumbo bottle of Mrs. Buttersworth on the store shelf, instead of buying the real thing because it's so much cheaper.

It's too late in the season to try your hand at Box Elder syrup this year.

As it turns out, box elder tree sap can make a syrup very similar (some say almost identical) to maple syrup. The folks at Montanahomesteader.com wrote an excellent reference on making syrup from maples or box elder trees.

They note that the prime time for collecting tree sap for syrup is usually between February and mid-March in Montana. Tree tappers say conditions are best when daytime highs are around 40, and overnight lows are below 32.