It is sugaring time

Delkancott said:
I'm looking forward to the weather the next few days, hopefully our sap production will pick up.

What do you all use for sap storage?
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I use 30 gal open top food grade drums. They are tapered so at the end of the season I can nest them all together and they take up less space. I got them from a guy in Loudon NH on Craigslist. He also has some smaller 14 gallon tapers that I put in the truck to hold sap when I collect from my neighbor.

Looking at the projected weather I think I may be done middle of next week it gets low 50s during the day and mid to high 30s at night. Little too warm for good flow and at those temps sap can start to spoil. We shall see though.
 
atilla said:
i bought a commercial maple beer... wasn't too great. that's just one though--but i looooove maple and a maple beer done right would be awesome.
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treehouse in Monson does a limited semi-annual stout called Good Morning. draws huge crowds, because it is incredible chocolaty, nutty, maple stout. when done right ( there are a few) it is my personal favorite beer....
 
The Anchor said:
treehouse in Monson does a limited semi-annual stout called Good Morning. draws huge crowds, because it is incredible chocolaty, nutty, maple stout. when done right ( there are a few) it is my personal favorite beer....
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If I remember right it's actually the #1 rated beer on beeradvocate. Good luck getting in and out of treehouse though!!
 
As I was driving home today, I noticed that one of the houses down the street from me that borders a large section of woods is in the middle of building a good sized sugar house....I'm friendly with him, gonna have to look into this some more [grin]
 
Did my first ( and second) boil this week, and it's the first time I have had fresh syrup. Man it's so good. Can't believe I never did this before. We have a ton of Maples on our property and next year will really expand.
 
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Really dark, lots of Carmel flavor.
 
Finished just under 2 gals tonight. Puts me at a little over 6 gals of syrup for the year. I think I can collect one more boil worth of sap before the season is over next week.

I am trying to talk my wife into letting me build a larger evaporator for next year. Either a 2x4 or 2x5. I can build the arch for nothing but it is the pan that is going to cost some money. I am maxed out with this evaporator and 32 taps. Found some more maples on my property and a guy at work said I can tap his trees. He has a number of big sugars.
 
Collected about 5 gallons of sap this morning from 10-12 taps.

Question, when you all have ice in the buckets, do you discard or collect it? Our resident old timer and self-proclaimed Swamp Yankee says toss it as the sugar won't freeze so the ice is pure water. Thoughts?


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Delkancott said:
Collected about 5 gallons of sap this morning from 10-12 taps.

Question, when you all have ice in the buckets, do you discard or collect it? Our resident old timer and self-proclaimed Swamp Yankee says toss it as the sugar won't freeze so the ice is pure water. Thoughts?


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I used to toss it but this year I tested it and for me it was running about 1.5% sugar so I keep it. I usually leave it in the barrels and just put fresh sap in with it. THe ice keeps the sap cold. It melts and gets boiled eventually.
 
Just bottled my first batch ever. 4 pints. That's a lot of work for such a small amount of syrup. Looks good, though.
 
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Pulled the taps today. Boiling the last of the sap tonight and tomorrow and then we are done. Found a 2x4 pan for next year so now I just need to build an arch. A buddy has an oil tank I can have so I should be in it for short money.
 
You pulled your taps? After nothing last week, mine were cranking yesterday. I'm getting a lot of leakage, though.


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Mine were cranking today. 15 gallons out of 10 or so trees. Plus lots of ants and some moths.


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Martlet said:
You pulled your taps? After nothing last week, mine were cranking yesterday. I'm getting a lot of leakage, though.


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I will be over 7 gals of finished syrup after today and I am traveling thru the end of the week. The weather looks like we are at the tail end of the run so I figured I wouldn't hassle my folks with collecting the sap. If we had another few weeks then I would have left them but I am seeing buds on my south facing reds and the warm weather makes sap storage a pain. It was a great year. It is funny because last year I think I was still boiling into April.
 
righteousbarbarian said:
Do any of you tap black walnut trees for syrup? I hear that the sap is similar to maple but with a nuttier taste. I'm really interested in trying some someday.
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My Dad has a couple dozen good sized walnuts down at his house. We are going to try next year. My understanding is that they don't produce near the volume of sap as the maples. We were going to try this year but with the weird weather we couldn't get it all organized in time. One concern I have is if you have good quality trees you could hurt their sawlog value with tap holes. I know it can effect the price of hard maple. I think the Sugarmakers Companion has a section on it if you want more info. I may have a little in one of my permaculture books I can try to scan for you.
 
Question for you guys on boiling. My son and I have gathered about 30 gallons of sap, this is our first year sugaring. We have an old wood stove out in the back yard that we are going to use to boil using a big pot. How should we do this boil? Should we keep adding sap to the pot as it boils down, until we get to the finished product, or should we boil it in batches?
 
Brin747 said:
Question for you guys on boiling. My son and I have gathered about 30 gallons of sap, this is our first year sugaring. We have an old wood stove out in the back yard that we are going to use to boil using a big pot. How should we do this boil? Should we keep adding sap to the pot as it boils down, until we get to the finished product, or should we boil it in batches?
Click to expand...

I use at least 2 pans. One I keep boiling and the other I preheat sap in so it won't stop the boil when I add it to the first pan.

Boil it all at once. Otherwise you'll be boiling it down to a teaspoon multiple times.


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