I’ve a mind to make syrup from tree sap on the farm. I’m combing the hedgerows and woodlands for good sized Alder, Sycamore, Beech, Poplar and Lime. There are old trees in the orchard. Beech. Sycamore. Some close to a hundred years. More still in the woodland. Some slow-grown thirty year old alder there too. By the quarry field more Beech older than the Republic probably, and some Sycamore coming close to that. Younger trees too dotted around the hedgerows, borders and woods. The old Beech and Sycamore the biggest living things we have on the farm. In summer impossibly loud crowds of bees are swallowed up in their crown gathering honeydew, the aphid processed summer sap left on leaves. The sound makes of the air a solid thing, this roar of bees. Here, picking my way through the farms woodlands and happily nature friendly ramshackle spaces, as Heaney said, “in amongst where the bird sings to the music of what happens” is where I find my peace.
Leaf of an Alder 
Beech leaves 
Sycamore Leaves
People have harvested the spring sap from trees for millenia. Across Europe ales, beers and meads were brewed from it. In some places it was dried, used as a powder to add to porridges. In others it was drunk unaltered. Often reserved for children to provide strength, nutrition, to hlp them fend off illness.
In other places it was made into vinegar and added to cheese to help preserve. Or replaced the water in tea or soups with fresh sap harvested in spring. In places where sugars were rare the sap or syrup were a welcome thing after a winter of cold, and the winters tastes of salted, smoked or vinegar pickled things.
People washed their hair with it, washed their faces in the first of the springs sap to guarantee fair skin, good health or fertility. Took tree sap to heal eyes, kidney stones, tp prevent balndess or for ear ache, for lung disease and gout. In some countries the first food a newborn was given was tree sap. It was given with milk to children who were teething, or mixed with alcohol and put on cloth to treat sores.
In Europe, in the North, birch was most often tapped. In other places Sycamore, maple, beech, alder, poplar, ash and sometimes hornbeam were tapped. The Saami took sap and bark from spruce and pine to make a food.
This week I’ve been mapping the tappable trees on the farm to plan for spring. We have beech, alder and sycamore enough to trial. Some rowan and poplar too. Ash in plenty. But we might leave ash be. It has enough to worry with.
Rowan Berries and Leaves 
Alder Leaf and Catkin
The alder we have perhaps two acres of. It self seeds here in the arms wetlands. A lovely tree. It has pollen for the bees, happily fixes nitrogen for the soil. Its timber good for furniture. Rowan has Autumn Berries beloved of birds. Bows were sometimes made of rowan.
The beech and the sycamore I know the bees take a crop of honeydew from. The aphids eat the sap and leave the leaves coated in a honeydew residue which the bees descend on in their thousand. A dark strong tasting honey it is, called forest honey, and I am curious for the sap and syrup.
The poplar we have is too young. But I will take some from our mature tree. It is fast growing here, Its timber good for outdoor things, its leaves an excellent treehay. If it makes a sweet syrup we will plant much more. A ten year old poplr may be big enough to safely tap, given our 8 year old specimens are coming to 30 something feet.
An Old Leaning poplar 
An Old Beech on the Avenue 
Sycamore Stems
It is one more way to feel connected to land and season. And one more way to make something useful of the trees. This might seem mercenary, but as Oliver notes, the forests that survive in Western Europe for centuries are the ones we had use for. And a twenty acre woods of tappable trees is what a syrup harvester would call a start.
There’s a nice description of tree tapping, varieties to tap and methods at Fergus the Forager, and a great rundowm of the traditional of tree sap harvesting and uses in Europe at absolutelywild (links to a .pdf).
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Was there any implication in your mention of Lime that it could be tapped for syrup or did you refer to it only because it’s being added to the land?
Hi. I came across a few academic papers, and one or two foraging sites that say Linden/ Lime – specifically Tilia Cordata – can be tapped for sap, and syrup.
And some people tap American Like ( Tilia Americana) for syrup
I read that’s it’s a weak sugar sap, so likely not a great candidate. But as we will be planting Tilia Cordata in our hedgerows as a pollinator plant, and have done in our woods, I thought I’d try them and see.
That said, it will be another 5 to 19 years before I have line trees big enough to tap.
So yes. The main reason being it’ll be on the land. I think birch, alder and sycamore are probably better candidates where I am. And Norway Maple further North. Or Sugar Maple if you have it