It's that time once again....

[nursejohn]

Don't mean to sound like a kid, but that is just too cool! I would love to see something like that up close just once in my lifetime. The only maple syrup we get here in Texas comes from the grocery store.... Thanks so much for sharing all the pictures. Keep up the great work.

 

[Tom]

How do you plug the hole in the tree when you stop?

How do you know when to stop?

 

[whino-wino]

The holes heal over on their own. I noticed this year when tapping the trees that you can see where they've been tapped in the past. Some of the trees have at least 15 perfectly round littlescars in the bark about 3 feet off the ground.


Maples tend to bleed out a lot of sap regardless of whether or not you're collecting it. Any time there's a split in the tree or a damaged branchthey start dripping like crazy. I'm assuming that's how the whole idea of tapping trees and making syrup was discovered. The sap isn't super sweet, but you can tell it has sugar in it. I've always wondered who the first person was that thought "Hey, maybe if I cooked this down....."


The sap only runs for a relatively short time. Once the temps start to stay above freezing at night they pretty much shut off for the year. We stop when we don't have any more storage space for the sap, which is apparently going to be in a day or two. We got another 260 gallons today.

 

[Wade E]

Thanks for the pics and info everyone. Whino, does that collection container turn into a hot tub with the furnace as the heater after sap season?

 

[whino-wino]

Wade,


I hadn't thought of that. I suppose it wouldn't be too hard though.


We started cooking bright and early at 6:00 this morning. The only one that showed up other than myself was my cousin Jason so between the two of us we were pretty busy for the first few hours and I didn't get the chance to take any early morning pictures. Of course once all of the hard work was out of the way, everyone else shows up.....

The evaporator is rolling pretty good at this point. We estimated that we boiled off about 700 gallons of waterin 15 hours.

This is where it flows in. The sap level is kept constant by a float attached to a stop valve coming from the tank outside. As water evaporates it lets more sap into the evaporator. It is heated in a tray on top at first and slowly flows into the main boiler in the rear. You can get a good idea of how much water you're evaporating by how much sap flows from the tray into the rear boiler. (the two little holes in the center of the picture)

I also need to clarify a mistake I had posted earlier. I mentioned that you cook the syrup to 214° - 216°. This is wrong. You cook it to 219°. I had it stuck in my head that you didn't want to go past 217 on the thermometer. The thermometer is a bit different than most though. You don't want to go past "7". Zero is 212°, or boiling. 212 + 7 = 219°.

We bottled in batches and went into the night. We ended up with 22 gallons and 1 pint of finished syrup today with another 650 gallons of sapto boil tomorrow. Somehow some of it dissapeared when everyone left.....

We decided to let the fire go out and hit it again in the morning. I'll be back at it by 6am tomorrow. It's pretty late and I need my beauty sleep.............

 

[grapeman]

That was a full day yesterday! Lots of fun along with the work though I am sure. Lots of syrup for pancakes, etc. Now go have some more fun.

 

[Tom]

Only one word comes to mind WOW !

 

[JWMINNESOTA]

Ive seen the sap gathered, never seen it cooked. Thats the neatest thing since home made wine! Wish one of those jugs would "disappear" down to Southern Mn!

Great job Whino!

 

[grapeman]

When I was young, we would go almost every year to one of the many sugarhouses near home. While there we would get a tour of the sugar shack and get free samples of warm syrup just drawn from the evaporator inot dixie cups. Then there was the maple sugar candy and the syrup to bring home. Yummmm.


This brings back memories of that. Now I go visit my older brother when I need a syrup fix.

 

[NorthernWinos]

Hope the guys with their hands in their pockets didn't get any samples...