Maple syrup
I was wondering if anyone out there makes their own maple syrup? I tapped my trees two days ago and the sap is running strong. I tapped four tress, but might do one or two more. Will probably boil my first batch next weekend. Curious to hear from any others maple syrup hobbyists out there.
I do almost every year, run about 15 taps in 8 trees. As a kid growing up in Michigan, we tapped about 400 trees. Keep your sap refrigerated, as bacteria will grow quickly in it and eat up the sugar content. Remember, it takes a lot of boiling, typically a 40 gallon of sap to 1 gallon of syrup ratio. Feel free to email me if you have any questions. (not tapping this year, shoulder surgery is keeping me from lifting the buckets)
I would love to see photos of your process, just for kicks. I think this is awesome.
How does this work? And how do I know what tree?
I have a lot of trees in my yard...always surprised by them.
I know I could google - or youtube - but for sake of conversation.
DogDayAfternoon
CBS2NY just had a video of an operation with 2400 trees that took 15 miles of tubing for syrup collection. Short, but pretty neat. I haven't seen it posted on their Youtube channel yet, but it may be there soon, or posted on their website.
Boiled off my 1st batch today. Made maybe a 3/4 gal. Next week the sap will be flowing pretty good. Fun hobby.
Maples the best, sugar or red . Birch too but less quantity.
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Bemused - thanks for the advice. I’ve been doing it for about 7 years, so I’m aware of those things. Too bad you can’t do it this year, but I can understand it would be hard with a bum shoulder. It’s a bit labor intensive!
Josh - I tap my maple trees and drain the sap into food-safe bucketed. As the buckets fill, I transfer the sap to larger food-safe barrels. It must be kept cool, which can be a challenge some years. But this year I just buried the barrels in snow. Finally, the real work comes when you boil the sap to make syrup. I average about 1 gal of syrup for every 45 gal of sap. So you need boil away A LOT of water! The pros use commercial evaporators, other people use turkey fryers (using propane). I boil it in two large, shallow pans over an open fire. It’s a long day out there keeping the fire roaring (if the fire slows down even a little bit, the sap stops boiling!). On a good day I can boil away about 5 gal of water per hour. So, if I start with 45 gal of sap, I’m out there about 9 hours and end up with about 1 gal of syrup. I do the last bit of boiling (called “finishing”) on the stove inside, which is more controlled and allows me to check the sugar content to know when to stop. Sometimes my syrup has a slight smokey flavor due to the nature of my operation!
It’s a terrific waste of time, considering I can just but a quart of real maple syrup at Costco for about $15. But hey, where’s the fun in that?
FJ
Made me laugh. Your right. A terrific waste off time. Spending the day outside watching water boil. But a great way to get outside after a long winter. Everyone I give my syrup to rave about how good it is. Home made is always better it seems.
Actually not a waste of time: worth about $70 at Dakin Farms VT. Of course, that's below minimum wage.....
Does it taste better at least?
You know what they say when the price of milk goes down? Gotta buy more cows :>) You just need more trees, more pans, more fires, one wait time..... :>)
Of course, I joke about it being a waste of time. But it is very time consuming.....exactly what a hobby should be!
Yes, it does taste better. Just like Indie said, everyone I give it to loves it.
Tasting better is priceless.
Feel the same way about growing apples. A few hours after picking they taste great for some time. But they taste incredibly better right off the tree. Priceless making all the work, hobby it is, worth it.
FJ
Just propane burners with 6” s/s buffet pans. Costs a little but I do to much firewood for the house already.
One of these days I’ll smarten up and convert to propane. Roughly how much propane do you use?
Last year about $150. Made about 5 gal. Last year $11 a cylinder. Went up to $14 this year.
Always remember...grade B is the best. The light grades are for the tourists. Real Vermonters use Grade B.
No, not yet. I collected about 20 gallons of sap by early last week, but then it stopped running....I usually wait until I have 30+ gallons before I boil. With the warm weather this week, I expect they will be running strong. It won’t be a problem keeping it cold since I have the barrels buried in snow and there is quite a bit of ice in them now.
Boiled my first batch on Friday. Started with 40 gallons of sap and got about 88oz of syrup. For whatever reason the sugar content in the sap was very low (average 1.8%). Tastes incredible!
Yes, I boiled again last week. I had 52 gal of sap and ended up just short of 1 gal of syrup. Once again the sugar content in the sap was low, averaging 1.8%. The taps have been removed, 1.75gal of syrup should get me through the year!
It’s that time again. Anyone tapping yet? I may tap next week, weather starting to look good.
Indie......what do you look for weather/temp wise for time to start tapping? Also....do you tap other trees besides sugar maple?
LO- sunny days mid 40s - 50s, nights below freezing. You can tap almost any trees but Maples usually release the most sap. I tap mostly sugars & Reds.
I'm planning on tapping next week....just 4 yard trees, but I usually get 2-3 gallons of syrup a year.
I tapped my trees on Wednesday. I thought the sap would really flow with the warm sunny weather the last few days, but not so much. We’ll see what happens today and tomorrow….
Anyone have any good info references for a newbie or recommendations for where to purchase supplies? Just bought a house with some very large and old red maples and I’m very excited to start this new hobby! Am I too late to start anything this season?
Bigred - a great source of information is at www.Mapletrader.com. It’s an online forum with a ton of great info. I learned a lot reading the different posts. Many of the posts are about large operations but you can find plenty about backyard sugaring!
I bought all of my supplies at www.sugarbushsupplies. At the time they seemed to have the best prices. All I bought were the taps, filters and hydrometers.
It’s not too late for this year, but you would have to get on it right away. The season is very short. I usually tap out (literally!) by beginning to middle of March.
Thanks for the info guys! Going to use this as my planning year and start tapping next year!
I've finished 1.5 gallons of syrup so far, 10 taps. Hoping for a good flow tomorrow.
I boiled off 45 gal of sap, which yielded 148oz of syrup. The yield was higher than usual and probably a result of all the ice that I removed from the buckets and barrels.
FJ - I had the same results I think last Sunday.The syrup was pretty dark. My 1st batch was light 2nd dark and 3rd light again.
Not local, but I was getting Dakins from VT, it's good, nice people, but more of a co-op than local, as in State-wide, not just a farm or two. Rarely have a sale.
Now, I use https://marylandsbest.maryland.gov/item/steyer-brothers-maple-llc/ They facebook so if you do, you can see much more there.
Know this: family farm, 100+ years. High above the Eastern Divide in Garret County Maryland, Oakland to be exact. They will ship, but no credit cards, just paypal. I think you call, you literally talk to the farmer, they send you email with order or you send request, they respond with price and process, you paypal, and it comes. Or something like that. I just call and talk to the nice folks and they tell me what to do. Sent me some candy and a pen last time too.
They have other things, like maple sugar, cool huh, and candies, but no web page, no menu, and they keep saying, see us at the xyz festival..... Where they turn up is on facebook. And I have ordered twice, I swear first time was light, second was darker, so I will be asking about that next time, be sure you do. I am usually a dark guy, the light was fantastic, the dark really good, so I think I am going to try to get their light next time IF they have both offers.
But it's local, it's really real, and it's a 100-year old family farm with really tasty stuff.
Best's has something pretty local too, but I am sticking with my "hillbilly honey" from high up in the Appalachians.
What I love: cut an acorn in half, score a tic-tac-toe, generally a four by four, and so far in over 100, never broke the skin. Use cerated steak knife, the normal one. Then a smear of butter, a drizzle of syrup, not a pool, and some a smatter of brown sugar. Now, even the fussiest kids will gobble it down like it's desert. 400 in the oven forever. Maybe 1 hour 15. I use a V-shaped meat rack to hold and have never spilled.
If you would consider NY state syrup as some of the best and biggest producers, check out this place in the center of the state:
https://www.buckhillfarm.com/
I'd have a hard time believing that Maryland maple syrup is exceptional, just because they probably don't get the nightly subfreezing temperatures on a consistent enough basis.
ianimal:
I don't know enough about the ins and outs of what makes good maple syrup, but if it's cold overnight temps you're worried about, I wouldn't. Garrett County Maryland is a pretty cold mountainous place.
Ya know, Route 46... I always think of Maryland as being all coastal plain with the effects of the Chesapeake Bay keeping winter temps relatively mild. But there are mountains that cross the panhandle along the Mason Dixon Line and the State of Maryland actually has a single ski resort, although not very highly rated.
Thanks for the heads up... their syrup might actually be pretty good, there just won't be a lot of it, lol.
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