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Who's doing it?

When do you start tapping?

I collected a few things as they became available last year. Namely taps with preattached hoses...but I gotta get some food grade buckets with lids.

I usually tap in mid February as I have am at the Miami Boatshow for work during the second week of Feb.

I'm in eastern Z10 if anyone wants to come by and check out the set up when its boiling time. Made 10 gallons last year and hoping to make a bit more this year.

sam

Man, I really blew it with my career choices. Only place I get to go is Omaha in the winter. Bleeech...

sam

Hick - love it. Such a crazy cool sound.

Yea Will, the sap stopped flowing tuesday night. it should pick back up again on Sunday.

I finally learned a good lesson though and instead of killing my boil by dumping cold sap into the already boiling sap to top it off I used another pan to melt what had frozen over Friday & Saturday, and warm it up before dumping it into the evaporation pan....

by 1) I mean how crowded it is. all of my trees are around my yard and the ones that produce the best happen to be in the wide open so they get direct sunlight all the way up the trunk. and I guess a 1b would be what side you tap, I seem to get way better flow tapping the south side of the tree and I think its due to the sun exposure/warmth

2) some species flow at different timing eg my Norway Maples flow earlier than my Red Maples but as you noted....some days the norways will shut down and the reds are crankin.... so 3) is kind of a hit or miss thing...which also relates to your location/region. I've been collecting and boiling for a couple weeks here in Central MA, but others haven't even tapped yet, or are just starting.

The big thing I'm excited about is I just picked up a scrap Well Tank (water pressure tank) from FB Marketplace to convert into a 'barrel' style evaporator. this type is one big chamber (approx 30" by 24") with a rubber diaphram and a liner, so All I have to do is cut into it and remove the liner and diaphram. My plan is to cut the base ring off and then half it to make feet to be welded back on the bottom. Cut holes for the pans on the top and use the waste pieces to make a shelf for 'warming' trays toward the back/exhaust pipe, and cut out the 'part that is normally the bottom' to make the door and tack on some make shift hinges and a latch.

Then drew a rough center line around the whole tank, measured, drew & then cut out the door off the front. And marked and cut out the holes for the pans. Leaving about an inch and a half connected at each end to bend down to make flanges for the pans to sit on.

And, lastly cut out a 4 inch hole for the chimeney pipe.

Now I gotta get a new grinder and clean up all tge cut edges, get the pans to sit a little better, and weld on the feet. My plan is to take the base ring and cut it in half diameter wise, and use each semi circle as a set of legs.

I was hoping to have enough space to add a warming pan across the back, which I don't so I'm going to have to fabricate a stand or rack that will sit adjacent to the chimeney.

however, if you collect a bunch of sap and let it sit outside in the warm temps continually it will definitely spoil. so when its super warm...like Wednesday - Thursday this week where the temps aren't supposed to drop below 50 degrees even at night...it could be bad for the sap. (ideally you don't want the sap to get warmer than 38 degrees). what most folks do on abnormal warm spells in pack a bunch of snow around their buckets to keep it cool...unfortunately we haven't had snow on the ground here for a while. I may have to go by the hockey rink and fill up a couple coolers with zamboni snow. LOL

As for Flow...it should flow better, but pressure also comes into play. the pressure outside the tree needs to be lower than the pressure inside the tree.

My trees barely have dripped the last three days…. I was hoping to get another batch in later this week…..but I have no idea when or if they’ll drip any more with this super warm weather for the next 10 days ??

Thanks for coming to my TED talk. Lol

Lots of folks say to add a blower but I didn't seem to have an issue keeping the boil going...but I brought my Forge blower home anyway just in case.

Unrelated to the thread, but, for any of you in the central MA area, Rota Spring Farm in Sterling opens Saturday March 4. THAT, is some goooood ice cream!

Quick video of my evaporator in action Monday night. Not super happy with the warming pan setup, but my old forge blower worked like a charm keeping the fire roaring. once I get the black chimney pipe in later this week, I'm gonna have to think about an alterative location for the warming pans. thinking of notching out my campfire grate and dropping it down over the chimney and sort of suspend the pans over the back end of the barrel and adjacent to the chimney pipe.

collected ~3 gallons of frozen sap pucks from the previous week. will wait for a warm up this week to collect some more before I boil again.

Do you suggest perhaps tapping the trees again just to see if they drip later this week with the temps being what they’ll be?

if the spiles are still in, no harm in still collecting.

what the folks on the reddit board are saying is to avoid 'buddy' sap/syrup....collect it and boil a couple cups full on your stovetop to check the flavor....if it tastes good boil the whole batch, if its off tasting just dump the whole batch and wait til next year.

in other words. I would not recommend adding new holes...especially if you have smaller trees. every hole you add is more stress on the tree.

Just kidding I have no idea… that’s a lot of buckets lol

I really need to improve the efficiency of my barrel evaporator when the season is over. I'm running around 2.5-3gph right now. these are my improvement ideas

1) I'm thinking about a 24x24 evaporator flat pan so the whole top of the barrel is covered.

2) replace the chimney stack with one that has a damper in it to hold more heat under the pans

3) run a pipe tuyere under the fire, so the air blows vertically up towards the pans rather than towards the back/out the chimney.

and lastly, thinking about a small RO system to concentrate the sap when I'm not boiling. Since I'm backyard boiling its kind of weather & daylight dependent.

Tge stuff to assemble the RO didn't arrive til late so I still have to get that assembled.

I built my reverse osmosis system over the weekend and condensed 25 gallons down to 10 over the last couple days. I need to get out and boil it before it spoils.

Now thati have the RO built, and the 24x18 pan, 2024 should be a bomber year!

Now thati have the RO built, and the 24x18 pan, 2024 should be a bomber year!

THEN I saw a video of a guy using one of those propane weed burners to basically bake it off, like the 'self cleaning' on an oven. damn I wish I had seen that sooner. lol. oh well....will have to remember that for next year.

I do have a few aluminum buckets/lids that resemble the old traditional ones, but they require a bigger hole in the tree which I don't like doing. they also don't seal the bucket...they are more like a rain cover...and they were always getting full of bark/dirt and bugs in the sap.

I was expecting more yield.

although...i'd definitely venture to guess, too many of 'us' ate a few too many lead paint chips when we were kids. lol

I also need do some repair work and modifications to my barrel evaporator before it gets too cold to weld outside. lol I wanted to do it this summer but my buzzbox stick welder was giving me fits.

I finally sterilized the three 19 gallon barrels I posted earlier. Split a 5 or 6 rounds of hemlock that was dead-standing. I was originally hoping to burn it in the evaporator but i think I'll let it air out a bit. Ill use the ash, oak, and maple i have from last year, and save this stuff for the fire pit.

And I've shot my bow a couple times now. I'm back at it and have leads on a farm in the Binghamton NY area for hunting, so I gotta start now and get my chops back up for the fall.

A little nervous about the sap season though. We've yet to have a deep freeze and this entire week looks to be highs in the 40s. We could really use some actual winter weather.

I have a few more Norway maples on the farm that I am waiting for permission on.

Last year I tapped 1/28 and was done by mid March, with buds open on my trees.

So today I pulled the evaporator out of storage and rebuilt it. Tomorrow is 1st boil of the year.