We live on 40 acres of land, and I grew up with a copy of "Stalking the Wild Asparagus" on the family bookshelf. I love trying to find culinary uses for wild plants, and have eaten a lot of odd weeds over the years.
In the early spring in Wisconsin, there is not much happening in the wild plant world, but we did plant a few maple trees a few years ago, with an idea that at some point we might be able to tap them and make syrup. The trees are doing well... but it will be a while before we can tap them.
However, we do have a lot of box elder trees, which grow like weeds. My husband has been trying to get rid of a lot of them as they are crowding the oaks and other nicer trees (and they burn pretty well, also, in the fireplace).
We took a "managing your woodlands" class this spring, and learned (to my surprise) that box elders are in the Acer genus, just as maple trees are. And people do tap them for sap to make syrup!
I quickly ordered some tree tapping supplies, and today we started tapping 3 trees. The sap (which flowed quickly from two of the trees) didn't have much flavor, but after boiling it should taste a little like maple syrup.
Well see how it turns out!
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