Tre3hugger
Let Your Freak Flag Fly
This was my second year in the maple game. As a real lover of trees(see username lol) I was really attracted to the idea of making syrup. I also really value that added 20 minutes outside a day in march when the cold winter has been keeping me in. Last year was mostly for learning, with three conventional bucket taps on three trees. Got a very small amount of syrup but learned a lot.
This year I added 9 blue plastic taps to my setup. What was great about these is it was 10 for $25, as opposed to about 25$ each for the stainless steel buckets. They also have smaller spiles(part that enters tree) so it is supposedly easier for the tree to heal after. Cons was I was scrambling around for collecton containers. With a little resourcefulness(juice and milk jugs) I added 9 taps for about 25 bucks. I purchased a food safe(white) 55 gallon drum for storage, and emptied my containers one or 2 times daily. I tapped early this year, when we got a mini heat(40 degrees) wave last week of februrary. I pulled my taps april 1st. I probably could have waited 2 more weeks but i was at capacity for sap storage and boiling.
I ended up with almost 80 gallons of sap, and decided I was gonna build a cheap as possible evaporator, because boiling that much on the stove is not practical in any way. I needed an evaporator! After drooling ionline at models ranging from several hundred to a few thousand, I started looking at diy options. I ended up buying 11 cinder blocks and 2 buffet pans, costing about 80 dollars. I built a bootleg evaporator and boiled my sap over a fire outside for 2 days, about 17 hours total.
I was left with about 5 gallons of very concentrated sap. I finished off inside with a candy thermometer, bringing it to 219 degrees and holding that for about a half an hour. After all that, I ended up with almost 2 gallons of syrup. Enough for my partner and I for the year, as well as holiday gifts for our families. All in all, I love the whole process. Makes me feel very in tune, knowing when to tap, paying attention to the weather and working with the trees I love.
This is the stuff i sealed for room temp storage. You can seal the jars by pooring in the syrup piping hot, put on lid and put upside down on counter to cool. When you flip the lid over, the jar top pops. Magic.
Anyone else tap that amber gold this year?
This year I added 9 blue plastic taps to my setup. What was great about these is it was 10 for $25, as opposed to about 25$ each for the stainless steel buckets. They also have smaller spiles(part that enters tree) so it is supposedly easier for the tree to heal after. Cons was I was scrambling around for collecton containers. With a little resourcefulness(juice and milk jugs) I added 9 taps for about 25 bucks. I purchased a food safe(white) 55 gallon drum for storage, and emptied my containers one or 2 times daily. I tapped early this year, when we got a mini heat(40 degrees) wave last week of februrary. I pulled my taps april 1st. I probably could have waited 2 more weeks but i was at capacity for sap storage and boiling.
I ended up with almost 80 gallons of sap, and decided I was gonna build a cheap as possible evaporator, because boiling that much on the stove is not practical in any way. I needed an evaporator! After drooling ionline at models ranging from several hundred to a few thousand, I started looking at diy options. I ended up buying 11 cinder blocks and 2 buffet pans, costing about 80 dollars. I built a bootleg evaporator and boiled my sap over a fire outside for 2 days, about 17 hours total.
I was left with about 5 gallons of very concentrated sap. I finished off inside with a candy thermometer, bringing it to 219 degrees and holding that for about a half an hour. After all that, I ended up with almost 2 gallons of syrup. Enough for my partner and I for the year, as well as holiday gifts for our families. All in all, I love the whole process. Makes me feel very in tune, knowing when to tap, paying attention to the weather and working with the trees I love.
This is the stuff i sealed for room temp storage. You can seal the jars by pooring in the syrup piping hot, put on lid and put upside down on counter to cool. When you flip the lid over, the jar top pops. Magic.
Anyone else tap that amber gold this year?
