First time Maple Tappers!

[painter chick]

I cooked down 6 gallons today and have about 1 qt of syrup.

Boil it

If you aren't set up to boil out side, do it on the stove but have your vet fan running and have plenty of towels to wipe up the dripping. Get a candy thermometer find out the temp. water boils (it's 212 here) and just boil that sap down.

I started watching the temp when I'd cooked off about 3/4 of the volume (2 1/2 hours) and then watch it closely, get your temp 6-8 degrees over the boiling point of water (I hit 220 and think I'll go to 218 next boil) Mine is usually cloudy (mineral content) so I let it set overnight, then pour off your clear syrup the next morning

Good Luck

 

[PineBurrowPeeps]

Came home last night with DH from work and collected 28 gallons of sap. Now I'm boiling away. I still have buckets FULL to the brim out there. I cannot keep up.

 

[CTChickenMom]

Quote:
Our sap flows heavy when it rains. There's something about the change in air pressure and we end up with full pails. We emptied pails 2x yesterday which made us need to boil today. My DH made our evaporator out of an old woodstove that he butterflied open on the top to set to chafting pans in. This year he welded spigots on the pans so that we could drain off the syrup. The fast you can boil the sap to 217 degrees, the lighter in color it will be. Our first batches were really dark but still very good. I caution against using a grill or any kind of open fire as you [we] ended up with ashes in the syrup. It also adds a smokey flavor to the syrup which detracts from the taste.

Doing small batches in the kitchen is okay and you won't get sticky from boiling a few gallons. Our homemade evaporator is housed in a 12x12 gazebo. The bulk of the boiling is done there and we bring in the syrup to finish it in the house. Once the temp reaches 217, we bottle in Mason jars. We are boiling down 40-80 gallons of sap at a time (shutting it down over night). We collect the syrup all week and boil over the weekend. This last week we started on Friday afternoon and boiled all day Saturday, Sunday and now today....about 2 and a third gallons as of now.

 

[CTChickenMom]

Quote:
Definitely have your stoves vent running on high, hopefully vented to outside and not back into the house. We bottle when temp reaches 217.

220 is high...I've boiled over at less than that. What a mess!

If you're going to can your syrup in Mason jars, the syrup needs to be at 217 in order for the jars to seal correctly. We got some filter paper from a dairy supplier and filter the syrup as it goes into our holding tank, we filter again when we draw off the evaporator, and again when we bottle. We still have a small bit of sediment on the bottom of the jars.

PS: A shot of fresh, hot maple syrup is great with a shot of Southern Comfort (only in moderation!)

 

[Henrietta23]

We started boiling yesterday. We are much smaller scale than everyone else! We got about 4 ounces out of more than a gallon and a half of syrup! And whatever that sharp peppery after taste was in my sample is not there now! It must have been from the nonstick coating. The sap is still running like crazy here.

 

[painter chick]

I boiled down about 12 gallons yesterday (getting about 1/2 gal syrup

)

I took my temp up to 217 and checked this morning and I can see that I need to cook it a bit more. I do need to get some filters though.

Unfortunately our temp is going down to the single digits again for a day or so & that will slow the sap till it warms up again. I made maple corn bread and found a great recipe for maple venison chops so I know what's for dinner anyway!

 

[wilds of pa]

Never plug a hole up to start off, thats a no no, just let the tree heal itself, if you do plug you will only prolong the healing of the tree.

When i first started i made my own taps with wooden dowel rods, cut them to length and then drill them out and tapered the ends with a pocket knife and i also made some from sumac tree's the none poisonous type, very easy to make as the pith of the branches are hollow and one only need to push the soft pith out and taper the end to fit snuggle into the tapped hole..

I now only use 5/16” Soule spiles, as the holes are very small and much less work on the portable drill and they heal alot faster, no production is lost with these spiles..they are boil sanitized before the start of every season..

as for tapping times it will vary in ones location and one must watch the buds on the trees, when the buds start to swell the tree is going to start to produce a green sap or buddy sap to say, it will be very woody tasting and not appealing at all..yukky..you know its over when the buds are swelling up and ready to pop

as for sugar content: Reds are known to produce more sugar in the beginning of the season than a sugar maple, however as the season progresses the red will drop off more and more as for the black or sugar it will stay pretty much the same through out the season..

now a lot depend on the size of the tree canopy and there locations in your forest, so one must give the trees plenty of canopy space, deep woods maple will produce less than a edge tree or tree's more in the open in the woods..most of my trees(125+) have a 30 foot buffer around the trunk, then i watch the canopies of the tree's and make sure my maples are not blocked out by other species. if so those species will be taken out to allow the maple canopy to get larger.

The only maples that i know of that are tapped are: red, silver, Norway, sugar , black.

i know striped or mtn or fancy types are not tapped..

then these are also tappable, box elder and Birch types, however these have very minimal content of sugar and pretty much not tapped by most..

as for tree identification during the winter when leaves aren't present..
Opposite Branching(look at how the little stems and branches match each other) and bark are the best ways..follow link for clues
http://www.ryersonwoods.org/p/wintertrees.html#opposite

Boiling in the house..CTChickenMom wrong it will get sticky even from year after year of boiling small batches., check down your vent pipe after a couple of boils, it will be sticky and a fire hazard..did you ever see sugar burn, its like gasoline when it burns..when you burn it in your pan, be prepared to have some muscle as well, not easy to get it off the pan even the solution they sell doesnt remove it easly..Just as well when boiling over a wood evaporator if it ever boils over move fast to get the flames out or you'll burn you sugar house down..Trust me ive been messing with maple syrup for almost 6+ years now..

Charlie

 

[painter chick]

Wilds of PA that Lester is one handsome Rooster!

I don't plug the holes and I have a real love/hate relationship with our maples they are giant weeds around our house so generally I spend lots of time every year cutting down or yanking out as many as possible!

 

[wilds of pa]

painter chick,
i wasn't pointing fingers, just wanted anyone who does tap not to worry about the hole after there season is complete, it will drain a while after the tap is removed but heal up completely within the next two years some faster depending on the size tap used... You are right, if you cut a maple down you can bet there will be many shoots to replace the stump of the tree. lol weeds but tasty ones at that..

Thanks on the Lester roo

Charlie

 

[baldie]

Thanks MichiganWoods for showing me how easy this is!! We tapped some of our Maples today and the sap is flowing like crazy!! We can't seem to keep up!! This is our first time and we are all excited!!
Thanks PinBurrowPeeps for showing Michigan how easy it was. I missed your post on it.

My boys in front of one of the tapped trees

The hubby checking on how it is flowing!

This is how much we got in about an hour, if that long.