Maple Tappers

[chicken pickin]

Im looking forward to maple tapping again this year. We tried in 2013 but was unable to locate maples to tap. Then is 2014 we are very fortunate for DH to have a friend with 60acres and many many many maples that he allowed us to tap. We repay them with maple syrup for being so nice and allowing us to use their land. We did 6 taps in 2014 and were very successful at collecting lots of sap and was able to make plenty of syrup that lasted us most of the year. This year 2015 we are tapping on the same property as last year but we are going to double our taps to 12. I truly enjoy this season and am looking forward to doing it again this year. It might be very time consuming boiling the sap down but it is soooo rewarding.

Last season I didn't have much of any other option but to boil down the sap in my kitchen on the electric stove, but this year I would love to find a different way to do. Mainly I would like to find a way not be doing it in the kitchen, also are there any other cost efficient ways to boil down sap other than electricity, and should it really be done outside? If not I was thinking about getting a second cheap stove and putting it in the garage by the back door so I can boil down out there, out of the weather, with doors open to allow the moisture and steam to vent outside. Thoughts?

 

[wyoDreamer]

Could you make a temporary leanto off the back of the garage? You really just need something to stop the wind from stealing the heat off your stove and a roof to keep the snow out of your sap. I had a friend would slap one of these up for his syruping. The side walls only went up about 5 feet with 2 feet opening at the top for venting. He made the walls and roof as individual pieces that just bolt together.

 

[chicken pickin]

Yes I could probably make a lean to off the back of the garage and that might work just fine. I also thought about making a temp shelter off of the kitchen where we have a fire pit already, though I don't think that the fire pit is sufficient enough in size to get enough heat going. This summer I would like to build an actual proper sheltered area with a set up to do a fire for boiling the sap.

 

[swampducks]

DH bought a big tarp and hung it off the wall at the back door of the house then set up a camp stove to boil sap, used the old BBQ grill with one of the rectangular buffet trays for it, then took an old gas water heater element and stuck that in my old bullet smoker. He uses one as pre-boil to get the sap hot then puts it in the other 2 to boil down to near syrup which he then cooks to syrup on the stove.

So far he's boiled about 51 gallons of sap and made just over a gallon of syrup. We thought all our trees were just red maples, but a couple of them just aren't sprouting buds as quickly as some of the others and we hope it means they're sugar maples. We'll compare leaves later this year.

To think, I'd always wanted to try tapping a tree and bought one bucket and spile in January. DH saw it, and next thing you know he's got 15 taps running!He's down in the garage right now converting an old Kenmore dryer into a wood burning sap boiler. All the other ones use propane and we've used quite a bit already.

I've created a maple syrup monster.

 

[swampducks]

It's looking like DH and I have probably collected the last of our maple sap, though there may be a bit out there today, but the temps this week are rising into the 50s and and lows into the 30s.

Still, DH doesn't seem to mind, apparently he's tired of boiling sap at 2 in the morning outside on the deck.

Next he plans to collect birch sap. He boiled down a bit to taste it the other day. Odd, but interesting. Might try enough to see what it taste like over some sort of meat dish. Then he'll decided if he really wants to make more.

This was a fun project. He's thinking 20 taps next year, 5 more than this year. We've got plenty of trees.