Yup, we’ll be at it again. Have fun! We typically tap around Jan 20. You can get 5 gal icing buckets with lids from grocery store bakery. For free, but you have to wash them out.
I haven't made syrup in a few years. When I was doing I'd normally tap in early february. I used Jeb's recommendation on icing buckets. Grocery stores are happy to give them away. I still go to grocery stores whenever I need 5 gallon buckets for a variety of tasks.
Scaling back small tubing operation this year but still plan on hanging a few buckets, or spring water gallon jugs, also will probably be thinning out (giving away) some equipment if anyone wants to give it a try, ( pump, tubing, accessories). Send me a PM if interested, zone 11.
I stopped into a local sap house last March to learn about it. Pretty neat. I knew of the guy who heads it up and he was informative. I caught up with him just before Christmas and volunteered to help. He said the taps go in about third week of Feb. no tubing all buckets…..1400 of them. Should be fun…..
I tap about 50 most years and I'm hoping to expand that this year. There is a property that I has a long maple lined driveway that runs down hill that I'm going to ask for permission to tap their trees. If that goes well maybe I'll ask about hunting it as well ;)
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.
We used to do a couple dozen trees when we first got into it years ago. Now we just do about half a dozen sugar maples in a grove in the front of our house and boil once every week or two. Despite the warm weather lately I don't usually tap until the last week of January or first week of Feb. Bought a "lifetime supply" of blue bags about 8 years ago that are still going strong.
I lived in Lauderdale for 7 or so years and fished a lot down there. The amount of fishing you can do is amazing from the back country of the Glades to swordfishing out in the Straights. I have walked around with a rod in the past, but after trying to fish bridges from land that I have had lots of success on from a boat gets very frustrating very quickly. Maybe I'll give it another shot this year, but I'll probably just get in and get out.
Counting the days. Squirrel hunting is a stop-gap. Used to start around Jan 20 in eastern MA, and now the locals tell me to start mid-Feb in NH. Everyone makes syrup up here—every single person—man, woman, and child. Even some dogs.
Getting the stuff ready now. We made about 10 of those larger jars last year hick. Could have boiled a bit more tho. This year we’ll tap more trees and see what we can come up with. Also, we fell behind on the sugar shack build because we did a shed first which took longer than planned to get the lumber milled. But in spring we will be pouring Pilings and building a little/medium/way to big but why the hell not sugar shack!
Funny. There was a story on WMUR Tuesday night that the warm weather we have had has the sap flowing. There was an outfit in Vermont that claimed to have already pulled 100,000 gallons of sap.
Okay...a little late but just got 4 trees tapped, 6 more to go, but I want to switch those from the old metal spiles & buckets to plastic...gotta run out and grab a couple more buckets (already have the spiles & tubing)
Pro....i went back and checked and it's actually 2 weeks later than I tapped the last two winters and that syrup came out fantastic tasting and right on ratio.
did my first boil last night. Already had 15 gallons of sap, boiled down 10 gallons to a few quarts over wood, then will finish it tonight on the range. While getting the boil started I decided to stay warm by splitting up some free wood I got from a neighbor of my mom. some of it is oak, some maple and some seems like cherry.
BTW ended up with 1 quart from the first boil (10 gallons of sap, 5 is hours over the fire pit, another 1.5 on the stove to finish. I'm thinking about putting together a 55 gallon drum evaporator to make it more efficient.
I think we are going to tap on the 12th. Quite a bit of snow up here, going to be tough. Won’t be pretty, but come hell or high water, we’re making syrup.
Boiled another 6-7 gallons yesterday. battling the wind yesterday sucked, I definitely need to build an evaporator so if anyone out there has a 30 gallon steel drum they aren't using let me know.
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....
Oy. Just loaded into my truck about 90 gallons worth of heat treated lumber scrap from an intl shipping crate manufacturer, and then unloaded. And then collected 5 gallons of sap.
Hick, what’s your experience with how these maples drip sap? I tapped some trees Sunday and they started dripping Monday. One day I’ll get a pint from one tree and 1/2 a gallon from another. The next day one tree barely drips and another will leak a lot. But nothing like I expected. Is this normal?
Very normal Kyle. Depends on the tree, the temps everything. I’m not master but I’ve found that you can’t guarantee which tree will drop a lot what day. No matter the temps lol
It is tough to figure Blood. Some trees really give it some don’t. We’ve had trees with three buckets on them be full one day and and then two days later nothing much. The key you want is temps. Ideal 28 at nite high 30’sday. You get a cold snap and they shut right down. It’s still early. We’ve got a good foot of snow on ground up here and it’s tight to the trunks. Those trees are frozen. Not ready.
Fond memories of drinking the sweet cold sap out of the buckets as a kid. Warm day in the spring and the buckets were full all you could drink. The road up the hill to the house was lined with huge sugar maples 3-5 bucks on some of the real big ones. Lot of work to making syrup. I think the sap run is all temperature driven with some trees producing more than others. Harvesting nature's bounty can be rewarding in many ways.
it will sort of look like this with two big holes on top to sit the pans in.
it will sort of look like this with two big holes on top to sit the pans in.
like this with domed ends instead of flat.
like this with domed ends instead of flat.
Blood, looks like you already got your answers. I'm no were near even an intermediate in syruping. this is only my 3rd year. a couple things I've noticed or noted over the years relating to sap flow are 1) trees exposure to the sun 2) species 3) timing.
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.
Thanks all. This is really cool stuff. I emptied my containers last night and there wasn’t much after sitting for 24 hours. I wake up this morning and take a peak….and some are almost full…. I’m amazed. I’m going to start a boil this afternoon.
I forgot to set my alarm this morning so I didn't get a chance to check before work but I'll check when I get home. I collected about 4.75 gallons Tuesday-Wednesday from my 9 taps
Started work on the EZvap2000 today. Started with cutting off the base ring with a angle grinder. And unfortunately ended up smoking my 20+ year old grinder in the process. So I ended up using a carburundum blade in my circular saw and my sawzall.
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.
It's not just temp, Blood. Barometric pressure effects sap flow as well. Today was high pressure, and it flows better on low pressure days....(the pressure outside the trunk has to be lower than the pressure inside the tree.
Thanks Hick! That explains a lot. I almost boiled down about 10 gallons yesterday and today, I’ll finish this batch in the morning. I was hoping this upcoming week produces a lot more sap so I can boil by Friday again.
I boiled 15 Gallons in about 5 hours today. Having the warming pans made a hell of a difference. Can't wait to get the barrel evaporator going for comparison.
I don't think it will mess with the taste of the final product unless the tree's buds start opening earlier than they normally would. apparently the chemistry in the sap changes when the buds start opening.
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.
Here’s what I got. A pint and a half of nice dark amber. This stuff is so intriguing…..last year I tapped many of the same trees but later - the first week of March - and I got a super light final product. But I got a ton more sap. Tons more.
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 ??
Also, re:effiency....having all that free dried lumber scrap was incredible. its mostly pine thats kiln dried AND heat treated (for NeLMA crates), so it burns fast and hot, so I was adding pine and hardwood throughout and that made for a steady hot fire and I never lost the boil at all. I think it will be even better inside the evaporator arch.
finished boiling in a little over an hour last night on the cooktop so I was super close to finishing over the fire on Sunday......ended up with 2 full quarts plus topped off another quart jar.
Zone 11 tapped 25 on saturday, heat wave has my swamp reds dry as a bone, need a reset before buds are out. Hey Jebediah, you having any luck in your southern Plot? -this weather is unbelievable.
Brian, I have 11 trees tapped now. I have only gotten 7 gallons of sap in the last 9 days. I’ve gotten zero sap in the last 4 days. I think it’s over here and the weather isn’t helping any.
Blood, I have 9 taps in 8 trees (6 reds and 2 norway) I collected and boiled 15 gallons on sunday, collected another 4 gallons monday evening. I only got to check one bucket (one of the norways) last night and just have it a 'schwish' and it felt like about half a gallon. ...however three of my Reds haven't produced hardly anything. I have one red and 2 norway that are going gangbusters. they are the ones with the most sun exposure, the trees fighting for sunlight aren't flowing well.
I have all silver maples. I’m also in central/southern CT. Maybe a little of this rain coming in later this week will force the trees to get moving again??
That my friends is a labor of love . I completely understand doing something so labor intensive for so seemingly little in return. Kinda like Hunting and Processing Deer. Remove yourself from the monetary and focus on the process and quality. I think there is way more satisfaction in Homemade for sure. Now you need the sap to run! Kinda early no? I woulda guessed late feb -march, but i am no sapper.
That’s a great question. Our neighbors used to make honey, and it tasted totally different from what you get in the store. Actually the neighbors bees made the honey, not the neighbors themselves.
Brian...I would say yes, every tree would have their own chemistry, but I'm going to say that the product is reduced so much into something like 65% sugar that that is pretty much all you're going to taste. I have heard that sap boiled over wood fueled evaporators tastes more smokey than those commercial syrups made over fuel oil burners
There is such a thing as birch syrup. I’ve been told birch sap starts running just about the time maple sap stops. Supposedly birch sap has lower sugar concentration than maple, would make boiling kind of brutal.
Did the first fire in the evaporator to burn the paint off and see how it boiled. Used the pan lids in place of my pans cause I didn't want to get paint flakes in it. Got most of the paint off and the boil was solid.
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.
Crazy...buds are already opening on my reds I added a couple more taps on my norway maples to eek out a few more gallons I hope. Boiled just under ten gallons tonight in three hours on the barrel evaporator. had it reduced enough to bring inside to finish.
Jeb, the vanilla ice cream post is a good observation. Chocolate syrup and caramel also especially good but there are other toppings , many others. And so little time ,lol.
From my eclectic photo archive, I have this image illustrating just some of the many ice cream topping options. The fruit ones aren’t to be dismissed. Concerning syrup—the snow has melted enough that we can get into the woods easily now. Hoping to get in our last 20 taps today for 100 total. We never do more than this, because 100 seems to be the tipping point between fun and work.
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.
lol....what a difference a year makes. I just got a FB memory from Feb 23, 2022 of me saying that I was overflowing with sap. over the last 5 days I've barely eeked out 4 gallons.
disappointing season so far for me. although I posted on reddit and folks are saying to stick with it...so, I'm not gonna pull my taps until I know the sap stops flowing.
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.
Blood, have you removed the spiles? if so, it might not be good to reinsert them. you could be introducing bacteria into the hole.
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.
the holes wont 'seal' for a year plus, so if the holes you already drilled aren't flowing, chances are that new holes wont either. I literally had some of my trees weep a little out of last years holes back in January.
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.
yikes....I feel bad for complaining about my 11 taps now! LOL. I'm preparing one last boil this weekend depending on the weather. then I'm pulling everything.
We have a trailer with 325 gallon galvanized tank on it. We each carry two 5 gallon buckets and go each tree and dump the pails into the 5 gallon buckets. Days like today 3 tree buckets fill the 2 5 gallon buckets
Yes a Kubota. I enjoy it. A lot of folks come by to see the operation each year. The only part I don’t much like is washing and drying those 1400 buckets when we are done!
Pro you guys actually let people come by and check it out? I’d be super interested in checking it out with my oldest. We did our own little syrup thing last year but never had a chance this year.
Yes people stop bye to see things periodically. Next weekend is the annual sap weekend and I believe the public is welcome at most operations. Lot of syrup gets sold.
Pro, I assume with that much volume you run a RO system??? I'm thinking about making one over the summer for next season so I can RO during the week and boil on the weekends.
Nope. This is old school. Runs the same way it did 101years ago when they started. The tank on the trailer is gravity unloaded into a 900 gallon storage tank in the back of the sap house. Then fed into the evaporator which sits on top of the fire box. We burn a cord of wood a day. I’ll get some pictures together in the next couple days and post some. Six AM off to the house….
Next weekend on Sunday me the wife and the kids are heading up to a sugar shack in NH for the syrup weekend… no idea which one, gotta look at the list. If anyone’s got a recommendation let me know!
So approaching 75 gallons per hour. I paid attention in math class. Apples-to-oranges comparison, but our crude system can do 20 gallons per hour at peak efficiency. And peak efficiency is rare.
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.
well....I just "did a thing". lol I ordered a 24x18 flat pan for my barrel evaporator, and ordered the components to build a small RO system. bit late for this season but the RO components should be in by friday, and the pan in by monday. I might get some use out of them. LOL.
Got my RO Membrane and sediment filter along with the pressure gauge yesterday. just waiting on the pump and the needle valve set to deliver tonight. then I can get this 30 gallons reduced and start boiling. may be my last boil of 2023. most of my trees the sap is starting to darken. and slow to a trickle.
Got the new 24x18x6 pan from Silver Creek and retrofit it to the barrel. There are some gaps that I will need to seal up. Sealed some temporarily with kaowool. But was able to down down 15 gallons. Need to rethink the warming pans as they didn't warm at all.
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.
Looking good. You have dough into it! We had the state stop in Friday and certify. The warm weather has slowed the sap down to nothing. This week looks good for the final push.
I'm assuming that they check your Temperature and Hydrometer equipment to make sure they are accurate since it needs to be 66.8 brix to be 'food safe'. but that's just a guess.
Jeb. Is that snow??? WTF. Lol I def don’t want to move to NH. I am walking around with the dogs in my shorts down here and pissed cuz one of the dogs is rolling in dead worms from yesterdays rain !!!
Spent the afternoon Saturday (after the rain) disassembling the evaporator and stowing it away. and then most of the day yesterday cleaning and sterilizing all the buckets, tubing, spiles and pans, and double wrapping in plastic for storage. it took forever to get the thick black creosote and carbon from the undersides of all the pans off. used vinegar+baking soda and scotchbrite and that got about half, but had to bust out steel scrubber to get the heaviest off. lots of elbow grease too.
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.
Cleanup sure is the least fun. Used to live near a “community farm,” and they had a day camp where parents could pay a few hundred dollars to send their kids to wash sap buckets. We used to joke that they could come and wash our buckets for free. Also this day camp was in July/August, which raises certain questions about syrup-production hygiene.
Aaah. The dreaded washing. We are doing our final collection morning as we are pretty much out of wood and then start taking down those 1,400 buckets, lids and spouts.
Noob, they are warning folks against using those old galvi buckets, many of them where sealed with a lead solder, one of the reasons most folks have switched over to plastics.
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.
Hick everything I hear about lead solder being so bad and this is that and take the to tinyest little bit of lead out of everything is so god damn stupid. The Federal Government took .05% of lead out of brass fitting, ball valves, drip tees, faucets etc. know what held those together for the last 50 years? .05% of lead. We use to put ball valves in and they’d last forever. Check valves the same. Everything. Now, 2-3-4 years later all the brass is already pitting because theres no lead holding everything together keeping it from leaking. It’s the stupidest thing ever. 100 years ago people drank from lead pipes. Was it safe to make and work on? No. Neither is asbestos and fiberglass insulation which causes the same scar tissue in your lungs, but there’s no alternative to that so, we can’t say anything bad about it yet. Old timers drank from lead pipes and lived to be 100. We all drank from garden hoses outside and survived now they basically tell you in school if it’s not poland springs it’s not safe. The tiny amount of lead in those buckets will not contaminate you and ruin your maple syrup and kill the consumers lol.
So I just read through this post and I would like a final grade on how the sap season was this year. I’m talking production only. Just chime in and let me know if you thought it was good, great, poor or average. I’m going to try to tie this information into other natural occurring seasonal cycles like spring rainfall amounts, seasonal allergies and more. Just looking to see if there is any related variables for better predictions. Thanks guys
I did not keep accurate records Longbeard. but annecdotally it was a 'Meh' season. the big warm up in February where we had several consecutive days where it never dropped below 50*F really limited the volume. I did make more syrup than last year but I also increased the amount of taps from 8 to 15 and trees from 8 to 10...so its hard to get an apples to apples comparison.
Scott my line of work and “cast brass” fitting we use now has turned to COMPLETE SHIT. You can see just in the color difference. Even soldering the new stuff. New kids can’t solder it. And some of my younger guys have a hard time to because the never truly “learned” to solder. And if you over heat this new crap you burn it up and the flux and solder won’t take. At all. It’s ridiculious. All the Propress ball valves and fittings are the same. Fortunately those seem to be holding a bit longer before corrosion.
its not just the direct contact in the water/sap guys, its the accumulation in the environment. We're currently going through hell right now re engineering our device so we can sell it into the international market, trying to meet the REACH and RoHS requirements for everything. same thing with lead paint and lead fishing weights. everyone needs to adapt to new tech when new discoveries are made.
although...i'd definitely venture to guess, too many of 'us' ate a few too many lead paint chips when we were kids. lol
trying to get a jump on the season prep work. picked up these bad boys last week after work. 20 gallon, food safe, locking lid. just need a warm day to sanitize them. they should make collecting the sap from my moms tree and the ones on the farm I got permission to collect from much easier. the other duty is the R/O system. instead of doing them 5 gallon buckets at a time.
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.
With the closing of most local hunting seasons (yote, and CT/RI excepting of course), my thoughts now turn to two things sugaring and shooting my bow. And I did work for both today.
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.
We are going to scale back on the syrup this year. Can’t sell it up here as we did in Mass, really, because the whole state is awash in maple syrup. Regardless, it’ll be a fun project, always something to look forward to.
they're way up by the Canada border...sounds like they caught a little bit of 'fall run' but nothings flowing there since Christmas. they are definitely in a different climate than me. lol
I can remember hunting parts of Vt. that had systems of plastic tubing for collecting sap running downhill for quite a distance. Looked kinda weird until I knew what it was.
Yes BD....most places that run either Vacuum or Gravity feed tubing, leave them up all year and just connect the spile/tube to the main line & tree when tapping in December/January. It takes too long to run new main lines or branch lines to do it only during tapping season. they will replace them every couple years as sunlight and freeze/thaw take (not to mention falling branches) take their toll.
And so it begins...this is just from one Norway Maple tapped Saturday afternoon. and a spilled a little trying to dump the tap bucket into the carry bucket without unhooking it. lol
As of yesterday I had 13 gallons of sap (testedto 3.3 brix), collected over the week. So I had to revive my reverse osmosis from its state of preservative....ran it last night and removed 5 gallons of pure water (tested at 0.0 brix). The remaining concentrated sap was around 5 brix...it was hard to see the hydrometer way down in the 22 gallon barrel.
So today I pulled the evaporator out of storage and rebuilt it. Tomorrow is 1st boil of the year.
Going to tap this coming week, just doing 30 this year. Hopefully a little less of a death march. Still plenty of syrup from last year, but I don’t want to skip this year altogether.