Meloc, we are jealous here in Maine!! We are chomping at the bit to boil.

I'm tapping tomorrow. High temps later this week of +6 Celsius, well below freezing at night. The flow should be fast and furious.

Pete

There is a guy 50 miles north of us who is tapping now. I thinnk he is high on crack. There is over 2 feet of snow in the woods. The trees wont run with snow up against their trunks. Well, they will just barely drip.

Im ging to get dads 4x4 tractor out this weekend to get in the woods, and start checking my tubing for needed repairs.
Im geting pretty excited.

Anyone in NE Ohio/NW PA have taps in?

Anyone any where have any pics of your evaporator system?

When you start cooking, can you simply add new sap to the already cooking sap, or do you have to complete a batch then start a new one/

Bill in oh, I just started last year so take it for what it's worth.....I would have 2 pots that would pre-heat the sap before adding it to the pan that was doing the boiling that way you don't lose your boil.

these are the home made flat pans I started with.
http://img262.imageshack.us/my.php?i...sap2004ot7.jpg

This is the evaporator I bought in 2005.
http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/8...gsapga4.th.jpg

from what i have read, you can add sap as you go. from what i have read, darker color is often the result from longer boiling times. so if you keep adding sap as you go, the boiling time increases and the syrup will get a little darker. one of the things that happen to folks who use reverse osmosis (removal of some of the water via filters), to decrease boiling time, is that the syrup stays a bit lighter in color because boiling time has decreased.

i did it that way on the stovetop last year. i added sap several times during the day so that my containers didn't overflow on the ground.

you hit the nail right on the head. The reverse osmosis not only makes lighter syrup, but also makes lighter flavour syrup. I preferr darker syrup. It has more maple flavour

bill in oh, another thing we tried that we read about was setting a big coffee can on the corner of your pan. You poke a hole with a nail close to the bottom and after the pan starts boiling add sap to the coffee can and it preheats the sap while 'peeing' into the pan. Trial and error is all part of the fun in backyard sugarin' !!!

Eureka!
 

6:30 pm today

OK - so I tapped 6 trees this afternoon - 4 at 2:30 and 2 more at 4:30. Two that I tapped early are duds so far, the others have yielded 2/3 of a gallon of yummy sap. Oddly, the two 'duds' were next to my driveway.?.?.? So the trees that are producing are doing so at a rate of 5.5 gal per day? 1.3 gal/tree/day average? Did I do the math right?

I'm trying to find a 12" X 24" X 6" deep pan to cook this sap down - any ideas?

TAP 'EM BOB!

good luck with the pan search...i had trouble. i bought one from a guy on ebay who makes custom pans. i got a flat 2' x 3' x 8" pan and a preheater pan that is @ 2' x 8" x 8" delivered for $300. it is 304 18 gauge stainless and tig welded. each pan has nipples for valves and holds @ 29 gallons.

i got some experience with it yesterday, lol. i had enough sap to fill it maybe 1.5-2 inches deep (somewhere between 5-7 gallons i think) and made one pint and one 1/4 pint jar. my boil time was great with that pan and my outdoor wood setup. i did have a problem though. my fire was hot when i drained the pan and i scorched the sap/syrup a bit. i spent about an hour and a half scrubbing the pan with baking soda today. the syrup was really dark, but it doesn't taste scorched. i need to get a helper to help me take that pan off the fire before draining, or i need to kill my fire so i don't do that again.

They've been running for a week. Guy at church has around 150 gallons from 45 taps already. He has a beautiful arch he bought last year (evaporator). I may take mine to his house to boil...

try http://www.therestaurantstore.com/

i purchased a few small SS pans like the ones used in a buffet table

im tapping today... :dance: :dance:

update: of seven taps, 4 started flowin before i had the bit out! the other three havnt dropd a drop.... possible botched species ID on those?

Does anyone on this fine board collect Birch sap?

We are a little too north in N.C. British Columbia for maple, but I have heard of people making Birch syrup. It just so happens we have an abundance of Paper Birch that I would like to experiment on :stars:

i read a little about it last year. i am not sure if all birch species are to be tapped. there is info online as that is where i read about birch syrup. i do remember reading that it takes about 100 gallons of birch sap to make 1 gallon of syrup.

I also came across that fact some where online and I think I would be VERY happy if I got a gallon of syrup my first year! :)

So what do you do when the sap freezes and clogs the spiles? Cook the sap you've collected so far? Right now it looks like Thursday before we thaw out again...

With all my lengthy experience (1 year!) I would say you need to boil what you have. The spiles will thaw out when the weather warms up and things will continue to flow.

Has anyone ever tried the freeze method to get rid of some of the water in the sap before you boil? this is where you put your sap into shallow containers and let set out overnight. the sap freezes into a honeycomb like ice cube. Supposedly the water freezes and the sugar doesn't therefore you have less water to boil off. (at least this is what I've read, does it work?)

I believe paper birch is what you need......we tried some last year but were tapping yellow birch along with the paper birch. So I'm not sure on how it would have tasted if we would have done it right.

You weren't happy with the mix? or did you not have luck tapping the birch?
Just a little curious. :)

I think I have a while before I need to start, since there is still about 3 1/2 to 4 feet of snow in the bush :rolleyes:

my maples trickled to a stop as well. i still have about 2 gallons uncollected i will get tomorrow. the sad part is my flow has been slow the past two days already and i will only have 5 gallons tops to boil. thats hardly worth building a fire for or dirtying the pan.

that does work just the way you said. It wil help reduce the amount of boiling. I tested sap before and after it froze. It was 2% sugar before it froze, and 4% after I removed the ice.

I was going to work in the woods this weekend(march 3&4), but there is way to much snow to get my truck back there, and the starter on my tractor is dead. I guess I should have checked the tractor earlier. The spot where I sit my 1500 gallon collection tank, and the area where I drive into to pick it up has 4 feet of snow.

There's no point in getting into a huge hurry anyway. The snow is over knee deep in the woods. These trees arent going to even think about running untill a bunch of this snow melts. It could be as late as the week of the 20th. Im going to try to get my starter fixed, and get in the woods nect weekend, but the weather forcast is calling for snow all week. I guess we will see.

Sure is a weird winter here MichiganFarmer!! So late coming and now so relentless. I tryed walking back in our woods and it is just exhausting in that snow. I need a new carb on my tractor so I was hoping to use the garden tractor and wagon to haul......not in this snow. I really don't NEED to make syrup this year as I have plenty left, but I was hoping to have some to barter with.

You might look at this website if you havent already.......

www.alaskabirchsyrup.com

We did get sap and it ran pretty good, it runs later than the maple as it was toward the end of our maple season. I think because we tapped some other types of birches the flavor wasn't what it was supposed to be.

Not to mention that all during maple season we were constantly trying to find wood to burn and were 'burnt' out by the time we started getting birch sap so we didn't try anymore last year.

That's a neat site, they seem like quite the couple.

I think while I'm waiting for the snow to melt I'll start picking a harvest route and then jump in with both feet!

Thank you kindly for sharing your experience.

I decided to go ahead and cook down my six gallons of sap since the stupid trees quit. Started it on the stove so I could get a good reading on the boil temp of the 'raw' sap then switched it to my grill to cook it down, then back to the stove to finish it. About eight hours start to finish - I think I could have done it quicker if I'd done it all on the stove. Ended up with just under a pint of REALLY good syrup! LOL.

I'm glad I did this 'mini run' as now I know what to expect and will be able to cook the 50 or so gallons I'm hoping to get from these trees when it warms up again more efficiently.

I'm curious as to how many folks:
1- use a hydrometer
2- use the boiling temp
3- just eyeball the syrup
to know when it's finished.

I used 2 & 3 and think I got lucky since getting a good temp reading off a pint of syrup was pretty iffy... A larger quantity would probably be easier to get a valid reading.

I used the temperature to get it close, but I finish it with a hydrometer.
congratulations

how much do you normally make?

Anyone who wants to come give me a hand, and boil at night for me, I will give them room and board, and all the syrup they want. well, up to 15 gallons anyway. I could use someone to boil all night, mabey cut and split some firewood for the evaporator. I have a wood spliter. Mabey collect sap. I have a 400 gallon tank and a pump in the truck. I have a 1500 gallon collection tank in the woods that I pump into the tank in the truck.

Is that being cheap? Thats $600 worth of syrup.

Well, the offer stands anyway. I only need one person.

Im guessing....Oh I really have no way to accutately estimate when the hard run will happen. Im guessing somewhere between the 21st, and the 30th.

PSSST MELOC, wanna take a road trip? lol

actually, i would consider it if you were a bit closer...seriously. i do have relatives in shepherd/mt. pleasant area. if it were possible, i could kill two birds with one stone. i just have too much to do here though. i really wish i could. i am sure i could learn a lot from you.

on the reporting theme...i got another quart of syrup yesterday. i had more sap than i thought before it froze. i actually lost some due to wind damage. talk about "in like a lion"...geesh. i have about 20 taps out, but they are producing less than i expected. if i can get more containers scrounged, i will tap more trees today as i expect good flow thurs, fri, and sat.

Bob,

you guys (ohio) still have snow and cold dontcha? Is your syrup season over? Will it run again when the weather warms up?

Hey Max

I live about 12-15 miles from Bob

We got about six inches yesterday morning - night temps in the teens. This morning when I fed the critters it was 9. Yesterday it got up to about 30 and five of my trees that have a southern exposure were running including the two that I tapped a week ago that were duds then - go figure. I expect that Friday - Monday will be crazy with the forecast for 20s-30s at night and 30s-40s during the day. With nearly 50 on Monday, I suppose the buds could break? Listen to me - talking like I've been doing this for years LOL.... Anyway, I've got enough wood standing by that I can cook for a week if it lasts...

lol, thats fantasic. talking about it I mean.

I dont think the trees will bud untill its in the 50s for a few weeks.

We actually haven't hit prime run yet. The local bigger guys are saying they haven't had great run yet due to the snow pack and the deep cold we had a few weeks ago. This week it's going to bust loose though.

Which reminds me: Geuaga county is having their 20 farm sugar tour in the next week.

Maple Madness.

http://www.tourgeauga.com/mapleMadness2007.htm

nope buds won't break for a few weeks. You want to stop when they swell, just look at them now and you will see how small they are.

I have my stainless pan getting a modification down at the welding shop right at we speak. It will be ready by Monday afternoon.

near gettysburg pa...

i noticed one branch on one of my silver maples has actually started blooming. i expect my silvers to start budding out by the end of next week if the weather folks are correct.

Woooohoooo! Maple syrup time! We always go to the Maple syrup fest at Malabar Farm. Lots of fun. We were up to Lehman's recently and my husband took an interest in maple sugaring stuff that they had out. We bought a drill, 3 or 4 taps and a booklet by Storey on maple sugaring. We are moving to a new place with oodles of trees but won't be able to tap this year because we can't identify the trees right now. So we'll start it up next year.

Is there any really good books out there that we should get or possibly any websites to show us the ropes?

Thanks in advance!

Kelli

One of my favorite things is identifying the maples in the fall. I paint a red dot on the truck with a can of spray paint.

Eventually, I want to buy some maple leaf cutouts, paint and number them and keep a record of what each tree produces.

Check out the links at the beginning of this thread for sugaring.

check out this link also: http://www.themodernhomestead.com/news.php?item.14.15

Bill, the saps a flowing today, make sure to make your rounds. It was a virtual fountain on the trees I tapped.