Maple Syrup - We Tapped Today

[PhilNH5]

A fine and beautiful day in southern NH. High of 41 and a sunny blue sky. Still 3 plus feet of snow on the ground. I shovelled my way to the shed and found the taps and buckets. Grabbed the drill, a hammer and my daughter. We probably should have used our snowshoes but the high temp and bright skys tainted my judgement. Still, watching each other suddenly break through the snow and sink up to their thighs made us laugh. We set 5 taps and hung the buckets. We'll probably get a gallon when all is said and done.

We are a little late date wise but the ag school just put theirs up this week. I am still new to this so I follow their lead. Sap was running quick. But I will be patient and wait until tomorrow evening to collect it. That is if my daughter can be patient and doesn't go and get it herself.

Boiling down should be interesting. Last year we used a wood fire. But I don't know if I feel like digging down through the all the snow to get a stable base for the fire. So I may cheat and use the gas grill. I'll wait and see how I feel next weekend.

With all this snow on the ground it is hard to imagine that spring is only 3 weeks away. Tapping the maples goes a long way towards relieving my cabin fever.

Phil

 

[thcri]

Phil,

Sounds like a lot of fun. Especially if you start a tradition with your daughter. Not just the syrup but the memory of your daughter. They grow up too fast.

murph

 

[wroughtn_harv]

I like your attitude Phil.

One of my sons will be thirty this year. When he was nine I woke up one morning in Marina Del Rey. I was working six days a week. There in the morning paper was a story about the albacore running outside of San Diego. I had a son nine and he'd never caught an albacore. I called and made reservations on a boat for the coming weekend.

I shut down the crew early on Friday and hauled my butt home. Grabbed the kid and our stuff and trucked on down to San Diego in time to catch the boat about midnight.

We were skunked.

Being the persistant sort to the point of almost being stubborn I made reservations for the next weekend.

We did gud.

As we were dressing a twenty something pound albacore for the bar b que the neighbors gathered around. One of my neighbors was notorious for his thriftiness. He looked at the meat on the grill. He looked at me.

"How much you got in that fish boy?" he asked me. "I bet you coulda saved yourself a ton by just going down to Albertsons."

Having taken my morning shot of wise a$$ as I do every morning I replied with the observation that he was right. I could have saved a ton by going to Albertsons. After all I had about fifteen dollars a pound in that fish.

But when pricing a memory it was cheap. When my son is a grandpa he will relish telling his grandkids about the time when he was nine and him and his dad got into a school of albacore. He'll tell them how his dad had to drop his rod to catch the him because when he set the hook the fish almost took him overboard.

In the grand scheme of things some memories are like two headed coins. They're a winner no matter who flips them where or why.

One of the wisest men I've ever known was a Mexican American laborer. He pointed out to me that his kids couldn't tell you what he'd bought them for Xmas three years ago. But they could go on and on about going to Yosemite ten years ago.

 

[alan40]

Hi Phil, it'a alot of fun. We tapped this weekend because we had one good weather day coming up. My oldest son now 6 is the bucket hanging veteran /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif and my youngest 20 months old got his his first taste of sap. Boy did he smack his lips /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif. Boiling in a 55 gallon drum this year instead of a open fire. Did a test run and it worked great. Can't wait untill the first big run. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif We hung 16 buckets this year up a whopping 6 from last year. Hopefully we'll boil faster with this new rig.
Take care and good luck,

 

[ejb]

A few novice tapping questions if I may...you said you put in 5 taps, and you are hopping to end up with 1 gallon...I assume you mean 1 gallon of syrup? So from 5 taps you hope to collect 8 gallons from each one?

How long after you collect the sap, do you have before you need to do the boiling? Does it need to be refrigerated or anything in the mean time?

Any reason you can't boil it off on the stove inside? I don't have any good outside setup yet...

I will be tapping this week...and am also hoping to end up with just a gallon of syrup, but I bought 10 taps not knowing how much sap each tap may produce...I won't have the ability to store much more so any advice is appreciated....

 

[PhilNH5]

EJB,
Last year was my first time so I am still very much a novice. I posted a year ago maple sugaring and got a lot of help. Especially from Sugarmaker and Youare.

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I assume you mean 1 gallon of syrup? So from 5 taps you hope to collect 8 gallons from each one? )</font>
That is correct. Last year was pretty mild and was supposed to be a bad sugaring year. But we did okay. We got almost 3/4 a gallon of finished syrup. The trees did average around 8 gallons. some more and some less.

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( How long after you collect the sap, do you have before you need to do the boiling? Does it need to be
refrigerated or anything in the mean time? )</font>
I work so we collected each evening. We hauled a 5 gallon white pail ( I got a bunch free from the local pizza joint - that's how they get their ricota cheese). I put the lid on lightly and just stuck it in a snow bank. Then boiled off on Sat or Sunday.

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Any reason you can't boil it off on the stove inside? I don't have any good outside setup yet... )</font>
I heard tell of horror stories of peeling the wallpaper. As you know you need to get rid of the 39 gallons of water to be left with the one gallon of syrup. Plus it is not really just pure distilled water boiling off. It makes the kitchen sticky.
Doesn't take much to do outside. I used cinder blocks and a 11x14 lasagna pan. See the attached pic. After the first weekend I added a second pan. We had fun sitting by the fire and cooking hotdogs on a stick.

Regarding your 10 taps. If I had 5 more trees I would tap them. But I only have these 5. You can buy a trash can and store sap there until the weekend.

The big thing we all learned is: This is fun! And easy! Get outdoors, spend family time together and relax too!

Sugarmaker recommended a book that I got and now also recommend. "Backyard Sugarin'" by Rinck Mann. Very helpful. Out of print but my wife found it on the net. Hope this helps.

Phil

 

[alan40]

I have to agree with everything Phil say's. This is just my second season too. It's alot of fun and it really O.K. to have your syrup dark. Alot of people up here like a darker syrup over the fancy because it taste's better /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif.As you can tell by Phil's picture and if you could see my boiling rig you don't have to spend alot to have fun.
Last year I had 10 taps and made 2 3/4 gallons of syrup. I had so much sap that I couldn't boil it all. Hope it happens again this year. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
For storage some people put it in there freezers. I have never done this but did take over a crisper drawer in the frig. Also if you get to much you should see the smiles when you give someone some syrup. Last year I didn't know who's smile was bigger there's or mine. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
Take care and have fun.

 

[ejb]

Thanks again...sounds like outside is going to be a better place to boil it off...so guess I better build something.

I had orderd the book "Backyard Sugarin" from amazon, they took my order, gave me a delivery date charged my CC and everything, and then a week or so AFTER it was supposed to be here, they said it was out of print..so, I need to wing it this year (hence all the questions...)

Now with the pan you have in your pic, do you just continue to add more of the sap a little at a time until you are done? and how do you know when it is done? Got a guess on how long it would take to boil off 40 gallons?

Last question(for now), once the sap starts running, how long does it run for? a few days? weeks?

Thanks. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[PhilNH5]

EJB,
</font><font color="blue" class="small">(

Now with the pan you have in your pic, do you just continue to add more of the sap a little at a time until
you are done? )</font>
Yes, I just continue to poor in the sap as the stuff in the pan boils away.

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( and how do you know when it is done? )</font>
I boiled 6 - 10 gallons each weekend. This took about 4 or more hours. Now the cinderblock/lasagna pan is not the most effecient way to do this. Once I was down to about a gallon or less I would transfer it to a large pot and bring it in the house.
To "finish off" the syrup I used the kitchen stove. he books say to use a hygrometer which measures specific gravity. Well I don't have
one of those. They also say to use a candy thermometer. Boil until you are 7 degrees
above boiling point for your area. Determine this by boiling a pot of water and measure it
while you are finishing the syrup. Now I do own a candy thermometer but by time I boiled
down only 6 gallons of sap I was left with ~16 oz syrup. Not deep enough to read on the
candy thermometer.

The last method is to watch it drip off a spoon. When it sheets instead of individual drops
you are done. That is what I did. If you have ever made jam or fruit butter it is a similar
concept.

I erred on the side of caution - I decided a little thinner syrup is better than rockhard
syrup. If you overboil the syrup it will form rock hard crystas. Since I am not selling it this is not a problem.

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Last question(for now), once the sap starts running, how long does it run for? a few days? weeks? )</font>
Last year I collected from Feb 20 to March 17th. Last winter was mild. But since it was my first year I don't know what to expect.

Phil

 

[shade2u2]

I tapped a Maple tree yesterday here in Ohio & got 1 gallon of sap overnight. I'm doing it this year with my daughter just for kicks. If we boil down enough for one breakfast, that would be enough for this year.
Now my concern... I'm pretty darn sure that this is a "Sugar" Maple, but I tasted a drop of sap on the end of my finger & it is not sweet at all. I will try to find some leaves to help identify it for sure... Is this normally the case? I suppose that it could be another maple type. We made maple syrup when kids, but I don't remember much of it...