The Official 2010 Maple Syrup Thread.
 

Yes, it's THAT time of the year again.

As I write this we are in the midst of a snow storm that has dumped a good 3 foot of snow on the ground and we still have another 6 - 12 inches to come in the next 24 hours. It seems strange to be thinking of making maple syrup this early but THIS is the time of the year to get your pans made or bought. To buy those taps before they become outrageous and to learn everything you can.

This will be the first year on this homestead and in this state that we've tapped. I must say that I live near many a good sized producer and not from from a town called "Sugar Grove" which is named after it's sugar bush that line the road. I have, within 10 miles of my house, a full outfitter who sells everything for tapping and many amish folks within 2 miles of the house that tap.

I am looking forward to it. Last year it was a pleasure to see how many folks tap around here!

yes, indeed. i don't know how it will pan out this year considering my erratic work schedule, but i am getting the bug. i was really inspired by the goofy silver maple that grows down by the road in front of my house. it has serious bud swell already. it did in december.

if i can find the money (slim chance), i wish to buy some galvanized cable so i can properly install the 3/4 inch line i bought the other year. if i can eliminate some of the droops in the line, i would get much better performance out of it. i have a few nice trees too far away from the house (and uphill) to effectively run jugs and buckets on a daily basis. i need a line to that section.

i also hold hope that i can convince my unemployed nephew to weld me a new cooker out of some of the old fuel oil tanks i have been sandbagging for a few years. if i can motivate him properly, perhaps i will have some help during the run, too.

Today hubby bought a pump in anticipation of sap collecting.

He collects with a 40 gallon tank on the back of the 4 wheeler.
Then he had been transferring it, one 5 gallon bucket at a time. to another bigger tank on the back of the pick-up before hauling it down the road to a neighbor who does all the cooking.

So this pump is suppose to make the transferring much easier.

He's like a little boy with a new toy!

Thanks for the reminder . Was remodeling our shed last summer and came across our old spiles . I was going to get rid of them but then thought to hang on to them till sap season. I'll post them somewhere to see if a beginner might want them . We went to plastic taps some years ago and last year ran lines . Bought a pump for transfer .
We don't make much - enough for family and friends.

Come on Max, where are you? I KNOW you've got big plans.

I was just looking for Max too. I don't think he's been on much lately.

We bought a few more plastic taps on ebay last week. We don't have many trees to tap and we lost one that we didn't know was dying early in December during a wind storm. We don't need much. Last year I used one tap on our largest tree as a test year and it produced much better than I thought it would. Last year I did all the cooking down while dh was working but this year he'll be able to help with the whole process. Should be a fun family activity!

We're switching from buckets to bags this year. Have about 10 trees picked out to tap, up from 6 last year. I'm counting the weeks. I feel like a kid waiting for Christmas!
Karen in NE Indiana

Been doing syrup for many years now but we have to walk through the woods to get to the trees and carry out the full buckets..not an easy task. But over the years we have tried many type of things to collect the sap. Have finally found this to work the best for us but need to daily empty then. Use odf soda bottles..the bigger plastic bottles the better..and turn them upside down so the screw lid is on the bottom. Push through a wire hanger or wire and wrap around the trees. Then just unscrew the cap to get the sap out into your carry-buckets. No leaves in the buckets and no lost sap either. Of course,everyone wants to boil down the sap but no one wants to help haul it up and down through the woods. We enjoyndoing it an d we get enough syrup for us and the family.

We just finished up the gallon of syrup we bought from Max last year, so it must be time to start tapping! lol

I can't work out how to tap the trees in the cow pasture without the cows knocking of the jugs etc. Those used to be our best trees and I hated not being able to tap them last year.

hey guys. I had about 370 taps on tubing last year, and about 350 buckets. I bought about 3000 gallons fo sap. I made 150 gallons of syrup.

This year I hope to increace my taps on tubing to around 600. Ill prolly not put any more buckets out. That was a lot of collecting by hand last year and Im so buy Its just very difficult to get the buckets dumped.

Ive put an add in craigs list about ecvery 6 weeks wanting to buy sap. A couple days ago I put an add in our local paper that will run for 30 days asking to buy sap. this summer another guy near me saw my add in craigslist, and said he taps about 1500 trees, couldnt keep up last spring, and wanted to know if I wanted to buy sap. He said he has an RO but his evaporator is too small to keep up. He has a 2x10. I asked, and suggeted if he ran his sap throguh the RO Id pay him $1.00 a gallon for the concentrate. He just called me today, and tralked to me again about it. We talked about, and kind of came to a tenative agreement that he would tap another 1000 trees, run the sap throuhg hid RO, and sell me the sap.

A neighbor gave me a 30x40 pole barn this spring. I spend most of the summer tearing it down, moving it, and putting it back up. That is gonna be my new saphouse.

Another farmer who I repaired a drill for said he has 8 aces of maples, and might sell me the sap from them.

I bought steam hoods this year. My plan is to buy an RO next year. I own 12 acres of maples, and dad owns 8. I want to buy the 8 acres from dad, and evetually get all of mine, and his tubed, and put on vacume.

I really dont want to use an RO because it makes lighter syrup, but if IM going to make 1000 gallons of syrup per year, Im gonna have to have one.


I remember when I first started, I was useing a 3x3 flat pan that my grandfather built. It was only able to boil about 10 gallons per hour. Then I bought a 2x6 eveporator. that was able to boil about 25 gallons per hour. A couple years ago I sold the 2x6, and bohgt this 3x12. THis will get rid of 100 gallons per hour. If I buy this used RO Imlooking at, I should be able to get rid of around 300 gallons per hour.

Impretty excited about the upcomming season.

Good luck everyone!

I'll be tapping this year too. I'm going to use bags. I'm going to help my sister tap her's too. We'll share whatever we end up with.

It's going to be warm here in NE Indiana beginning the end of the week, well into next week according to the weatherman. Is it too early to tap the trees?
karen in NE Indiana

I dont know about indiana, but here in noprthern michigan I tap rght arund the 10th of march. a week long warm up in january would not be enough to get me to do any differetn. Even 2 weeks wouldnt I dont htinnk. Ive heard of it beiing done though. My concern is what happens when the weather goes back to winter for a month, six weeks, or two months? you gonna tap again later? there might be a lot of holes in a tree after a few years of that.

I reccoment talking to any local regular syrup producers and fidn out what they do, and follow their lead.

I just put a cow in teh cooler a couple days ago. im gonna grind her up saturday, then next weekend Im getting in the woods to work on tubing.

I need to get tanks cleaned, get the leaks on the flue pan on the evaporator slodered, get some couunter built in the new saphouse.... lots to do iin the next 58 days

That wasn't really the solution I was looking for, but it might just work :D

lol. you could always put electric fence arouund it

Oh that's a good idea! We put up an electric wire after there last escape - I can easily re-route it so I can get to the maples and they can't.

Thanks for the advice. I know they tap here about the end of Feb. DH said the same thing as you. So I'll put away my drill and taps for now. Darn!
karen in NE Indiana

I know Kansas is not known for making maple syrup, but I would like to try it just because. I am talking one tap and bucket to show my kids how it happens. Is there any reason it won't work? Is there a special time to tap the tree? What conditions should I look for before I tap this tree? We have one sugar maple standing on our property that hasn't died and I thought it would be a great learning experience.

This has probably been covered many times before, but it might be nice to have it in this thread. Can someone with experience outline the rough costs for small-scale syrup operation? What equipment should someone consider starting out with?

We just bought a farm with 10 acres of bush and a gully (prime beech-maple forest). I'd love to try getting enough syrup for us and who knows, maybe even some to sell. I've heard the economics of it are depressing, but that would make it fit well with farming, right? :)

I'm farther south than you (SW Ohio), but in looking at long term forcasts and average temps I think that I am going to go ahead and tap at least one tree and see if the sap is running. Our average highs are above freezing from here on out, so we will see...

(This is only my second year tapping our trees, so I'm no expert or anything.)

there are too many variables to outline costs. folks would need to know how many taps you plan to set, if you intend to run tubing, if the tubing is gravity only or assisted by vacuum pumps, how dense or sparse are the trees and the distance to the collection sight. you would need to have some idea how much you would produce to decide how to finish the syrup, how you would package it...the list goes on and on.

Does anyone have a favorite supplier. One that isn't unhappy with small orders?

Kathie

my first order with www.bascommaple.com was rather small, but they seemed to appreciate my business.

Been wanting to do this for years,and I may actually have time this year. But where to start? Not sure what is the proper spile to use, or how much I should be paying for them.... seems like $1.00 to $2.50 is the average.
Most of the maples around here are Box Elders, which I understand will yield worthwhile amounts of sap.
Well Im gonna order some spiles and see what happens... the best way to learn is by doing!

I'll make a trip this week to my local supplier and do a little article on a simple set up based on his prices.

My thoguht is if you want to make 5-10 gqalons you need a 3x3 pan that is 8 inches deep. that will cost about $300. the rest of the stuff you can pick up used here and there. cement blocks to set your pan on, jugs or buckets to collect sap, plastic barrels to store sap, used spiles from ebay, or a neighbor who taps trees.

Hey everybody. What are your thoughts on tapping a little early and getting that first run. It seems like every year we miss that very first run, which is suppose to be the best sap. Have any of you tired this, and does it make difference. Our (family) thought is to tap a week or two before that first good thaw and run.

your first run is going to be good no matter when it is...so long as the trees are not blooming. i guess the point is that the first sap drawn from a tree is going to be the sweetest and the sugar content drops as you draw sap from the tree.

i am a bit bummed right now. we have had "run" weather for several days now with more in sight. i was totally not ready at all. i was going to get wire for my tubing run and to build either a block or oil tank evap. if the weather holds like this for weeks...good. if it gets warmer, my silver maples will bloom along with some of the reds. i am seriously considering punting the ball again and tapping only about 20 trees and collecting in jugs. it is so difficult to do by yourself and to be employed at the same time. tubing and collection tanks, along with a good evap, make it so much more feasible when you do it alone.

Plastic Taps are about .50 each
5/16" tubing (to go to 7/16" taps) about .10 a foot
Cast Aluminum about 2.50 each

At my local supplier. They have everything, bags, holders, cans, glasses, nice little evaporator from Leader for $999.00.

On the topic of taps, have any of you seen the new taps that were "invented" by a professor at a NE university. Had somebody ask me about them and I can't find anything. They are to be used in the commercial field and help to reduce bacteria in sap and to keep the flow going. If any of you have any information about these please post it.

thanks

If someone wanted to try this, on a very small scale, what equipment at minimum would be needed? A spout, a bucket, something to store it in, and something to boil it off in (outside), and canning jars. Is there anything else that I would need to give it a shot?

Thanks.

Don't forget the tree! Looks like you got all the essentials, but be careful, that's how we started. We are now up to 75 taps, collect between 300 and 400 gal of sap each year and jar/bottle around 10-15 gal of syrup. It takes up a majority of 4 weeks of our life and two good weekends to cook and bottle. But we wouldn't have it any other way. Good luck and have fun.

P.S. Watch out for the sneaky syrup stealing friends. You start doing this and you will have people coming out of the wood work to sample the goods.

they have one way check vavles in the newest ones and are made for tubing. there are also spiles with replaceable ends on them. each year you throw away the replaceable tip, and use new ones the nex year. the spile stays connected to the tubing

therre is a guyhere who has a used 3x8 for $4800.

sounds good to me. I reccomend a few buckets instead of just one. the sugar content is higher in the early part of the season. th emore sap you can get early, the less boiling you have to do per gallon of syrup, and the big trees along the road, or in your yard have as uch as 4% sugar. even at 3% it only takes about 28 gallons to make a gallon. the aerage sugar comming out of a woods is about 2% and at that it takes 40 gallons of sap to make a gallon of syrup

bascom has the new spiles with the check valves. i saw some mention that they would work with a gravity system, but another portion of the catalog mentioned that they were for use with vacuum systems. something tells me you would need to have a good gravity system for them to work properly...but who knows?


hey max...what's your handle on mapletrader? i forget, lol.

http://www.themodernhomestead.com/news.php

I've got a couple of articles up on Maple Syrup making. Feel free to stop by and check them out.

Where is a good place to get an evaporator pan for boiling down the syrup? We want one just like the one on your webpage, but have not been able to find out. The one we used previously had a spigot on the end so we could pour out the syrup at the end of boiling it. Unfortunately, it was a friend's and can't borrow it this year. DH has welding skills / equipment but we have no idea where to get the stainless steel to make the pan.