maple tapping

[MELOC]

i began making syrup last year. i had a blast. it was a rewarding outdoor hobby. well, some of the time was spent outdoors...a lot of it was spent inside while boiling sap.

i was just wondering if others are prepping or actually tapping. since hunting season is over and the morels are still months away, i guess it is maple syrup season.

is anyone tapping this year?

[Pigeon Lady]

I also started last year for the first time. Everyone told me the trees here weren't the "right kind'. But I figured why not give it a try. Well, it tastes just as good as the stuff I used to buy in NH!

Haven't gone into it in a big way. We use it up as fast as I boil it down but it's a very satisfying project. I just tapped a maple out in the back pasture to see if the sap was running and was surprised when I went to check on it. Had enough for our pancakes yesterday. Plan to go up the mountain and start on the others up there.

Hope you have a grreat season,

Pauline

[MELOC]

i only have a few sugar maples, so i tapped mostly red maple and a few silver maple as well. the silver maple really produced, but made a lot of sediment. the red maple worked out just fine...better than i expected. i think i had 20-25 taps.

[dcross]

Where do you get your taps and buckets/bags?

[MELOC]

i got my taps from www.bascommaple.com. i got 25 taps made for tubing and 5 or 6 stainless steel taps made for buckets. i ended up using plastic 1 gallon water jugs that had a handle on top instead of buckets. on the tube taps, i just used a short section of tube that allowed me to get the sap in the bottle and hung the handle over the top.

here you can see the tube tap with a section of clear tubing from lowe's with the bottle hung on top. you can also see an invasion of moths that happened when the weather got warm.

[elkhound]

meloc...i got a bunch of milk jugs a fellow brought me.i seen a guy use about a 1.5 inch heated pipe held in a vise to punch holes at the top and on side of jug to collect sap in.i thounght this would be a way to save some money on collection devises.how good are those plastic taps? do they get brittle in the cold? did any of them bust when you had to pull them out? i like the looks of them better than the metal ones.

[MELOC]

i didn't have any of them break. i tired to be gentle though.

[seedspreader]

I'm a metal man. You can still use milk jugs with metal taps also.

[elkhound]

thanks zeal and meloc...i think i will try a few of both kinds to see what i like the best.never tapped trees before it will be interesting.