Maple Sugaring

[PineBurrowPeeps]

Quote:
it is...but worth a try.


let that guy tap your trees and give you syrup in return. ha ha...make them do all the work.


me,
g

Oh and he would, if I want to pay full price for all the syrup! Doesn't really mesh with my being more self suffient and learning about where my food comes from either lol

I have an outdoor fire pit (two actually) already set up. One is just a regular fire pit. The other is a rock and grate set up that looks like someone used it for cooking previously. This is the area I plan to use for boiling down the sap.
I will do some net research and try to get a book from the library tomorrow.

I am determined to at least try it.

 

[mjdtexan]

Quote:
This coming Saturday, I am going to start 6 gallons of Blackberry Cabernet. Good luck with your maple trees and that syrup. I really am jealous

 

[maplesky7]

no way...no buying the syrup from him...he wants your sap...then you get some syrup.

But if you want to give some away for Christmas may as well do it yourself.


mmm...maple syrup wine....


me,
g

 

[wilds of pa]

PineBurrowPeeps, Go over to a site i belong to
http://www.mapletrader.com/community/index.php

..Have fun with it, lots of work but the gold is worth it..

however I'm not tapping this year as we have enough from last year to hold us over this year yet..next season i will be back at it..and the steam will be a flyin again..

my user name on that site is..im under pa area
Slatebelt*Pa*Tapper

Charlie

 

[DuckLady]

Quote:
I hope to be standing on your doorstep as you are bottling that nectar of the gods that you produce.

 

[wilds of pa]

Heres some pic's of my homemade rig for ya in action..

and some of the product..

Made a total of 3 gallons finished last year, but i can and did make up to 15 gals of finished syrup my first year at it. But now i only ever make enough for family and friends and i stop normally around 3-5 gals..

for those that don't know, it takes anywhere from 45-50 gals of sap to make 1 gal of finished syrup

terrielacy, if you were closer id hook you up big time, give a little help and you'd get free syrup.. We'd surely cure your sweet tooth for maple syrup thats for sure..

Charlie

 

[maplesky7]

awesome set up.


beautiful product.

 

[DuckLady]

Your syrup has a fabulous woodsey undertone and now I know why!
Shoot if I was closer, you wouldn't have any syrup because I would drink it all! LOL

 

[Birch Run Farm]

I did my first maple last year and it was fun to do and the result was excellent. I am tapping ten trees this year, it's a little too soon to tap here in Vermont yet. I made two liters last year and just boiled the sap in my kitchen. One day I'll do a nice rig like Charlie has there.

I found that doing syrup, known as sugaring season here, helps break the winter blues down. There is 120 inches of snow on the ground so I need to use snowshoes to get to the trees. I have a cordless drill, spiles and tubing for large containers for the big trees and gallon milk containers and Folgers coffee cans (the plastic ones) which work real well. I boils sap a little at a timer and then just combine the finished product at the end.

I have saved a bunch of bottles for this years' harvest. By the time I am boiling sap I am also planting seed trays.

Here's some of last years' trees

I don't use the metal buckets anymore.

Some product

Notice the egg fart next to the measuring cup?

I am looking forward to tapping this year.

 

[wilds of pa]

Hi Ann, i know i don't recommend doing to much cooking in the house, the steam that is generated is and will become quite sticky, i know i made a small batch in the house once

..had the hood over the stove with exhaust fan running, up under the hood area it was a sticky mess after i was done,

Needless to say hinkjc was not happy with my little venture

and i will not do that again! Of course i had to scrub it all up..

some make it in a turkey fryer with propane, i know a fella in NY city that has a hand full of tree's there and he makes his on a balcony in this manner..small Coleman stoves work to or even a portable hot plate you just plug it in outdoors and do the cooking there.

However with that all said your syrup looks mighty fine and your experiment was very successful. Isn't much anything better than making all natural 100% maple syrup, besides honey which is my second favorite sweetener..

For my rig i took a 250 gal oil tank and cut it in half, then welded a 1/2" plate on the top with my MIG welder, cut 2 square holes to fit the size of my stainless pans, the stack/flue was added on from an old franklin wood stove. Also cut a door in it and welded a set of hinges on to it to fasten the door to, its fully brick lined which i got all the fire brick for free from an old foundry here. i use a 2 pan system, fresh sap only goes into the rear pan by the stack and as its boiled down i ladle it from back to front. If you only use a single large pan you will get darker syrup from that method especially when dealing with a couple hundred gallons. over all it works good the home made rig, but one day plan to buy a small used 2x6 Grimm or similar to speed up production..

some other types of trees that are tappable, box elder and birch, we mostly have large red maples here but i have some black maples/sugar maples as well. we have a total of about 125 on our property, then i have my nabor's properties as well if i wanted to..

Charlie