Started Taping sugar trees this weekend

[atgreene]

Here's a great pamphlet with some info on maple production. Lots of great ideas here.

http://www.umext.maine.edu/onlinepubs/PDFpubs/7038.pdf

We had our annual open house this weekend. Had about 300 people come through, much lower than normal but the cold temps and having it on Easter didn't help.

Yesterday we tapped another section of sugarbush and were testing a low of 3% and a high of 6 with an overall average of almost 4%. Good tree's!

Here's a few recent pics.

The sugar house door buried in snow.
Maple syrup samples from the last few years.
Packaging syrup.
A 5% tree from last week.
Pipeline pic.
My fathers spout collection.

 

[atgreene]

A couple more pics from this week. It's been running fairly well and sugar content is staying at 3% or better.

 

[SPIKER]

atgreen:

you must have some nice property there to get a lot of flow and the sugar content is very nice. How many trees are you taping? I have lots more trees but only put in some 14 or 15 taps and could easliy put in a hundred but not into that kind of production (time effort and the equipments is not there.)

I do have some 500 more saplings planted in a uphill flat area and will some day invest in a larger production with vac systems and lots of hose as most of the trees are spread out on my place. I may end up with 2 or 3 collection spots and then have to transport to a yet to be built sugar shack...


mark M

 

[JB4310]

atgreen,
Your sugar house is sure well insulated with all that snow, I pulled my few taps out yesterday, got over 40 gallons from 1 tree in 2 weeks! boiled down enough sap to get another 2 quarts of syrup the other day, this batch is a little watery, can I just boil it more to thicken it, it's plenty sweet enough now though. Even if it's not legitimate syrup how long will it last for before it might start to spoil?
Also mine has a smoke taste to it which does take away from the flavor, cooking on an open fire I guess there is no way around that, but I'll tell you I put some on my left over Easter ham and it was the perfect compliment with a little smoke flavor.

John,

 

[atgreene]

atgreen:

you must have some nice property there to get a lot of flow and the sugar content is very nice. How many trees are you taping? I have lots more trees but only put in some 14 or 15 taps and could easliy put in a hundred but not into that kind of production (time effort and the equipments is not there.)

I do have some 500 more saplings planted in a uphill flat area and will some day invest in a larger production with vac systems and lots of hose as most of the trees are spread out on my place. I may end up with 2 or 3 collection spots and then have to transport to a yet to be built sugar shack...


mark M

We have about 100 acres of our own, some of which we tap. Additionally we rent another couple small sugar bushes. All told we run about 500-800 taps depending upon how ambition we are feeling. We have always strived for quality over quanity. At 3%+ we can tap 1/2 as many tree's and get the same amount of syrup in the end as others that tap everything in sight.

The tubing is the way to go. When you do use the UV (stiff) poly tubing, it holds up great and flows and cleans good. We've been using tubing since the late 70's and although we still do some buckets it allows us to get to the good tree's a lot easier.

Keep track of your tree's as they grow. Thin them out using sweetness as a guide. A refractometer is invaluable when thining a sugarbush. If you can remove the less sweet tree's and let the good ones have the sun and water your production will be much better.

Vacuum is nice, we run a small set-up sometimes to improve floww. It does help but the cost to run it has to weighed against the increased flow.

Good luck.

 

[atgreene]

atgreen,
Your sugar house is sure well insulated with all that snow, I pulled my few taps out yesterday, got over 40 gallons from 1 tree in 2 weeks! boiled down enough sap to get another 2 quarts of syrup the other day, this batch is a little watery, can I just boil it more to thicken it, it's plenty sweet enough now though. Even if it's not legitimate syrup how long will it last for before it might start to spoil?
Also mine has a smoke taste to it which does take away from the flavor, cooking on an open fire I guess there is no way around that, but I'll tell you I put some on my left over Easter ham and it was the perfect compliment with a little smoke flavor.

John,

You can reboil it. It will darken the syrup, but if it is too thin it may spoil very quickly on you. Once syrup reaches 66 brix it will not spoil if properly stored. Any impurities can be boiled out years later and it will taste as good as new.

Check it with a candy thermometer or use the spoon method to confirm it is syrup. Keep it refridgerated and you'll be fine. We have syrup that we made before I was born in storage. Someday we may have to break it open and try it.

The smoke flavor is proabaly unavoidable. Syrup/sap is extremely susceptible to contamination by other flavors/smells. You have to be very careful that anything it touches isn't somehow flavored from something else. Coffee filters are a prime example. Don't use a coffee filter holder as your filter system unless you like coffee flavored syrup.

On edit: here's a vid of sap flowing from about 75 taps. YouTube - Sap flowing at Greene Maple Farm March 26, 2008

 

[SPIKER]

I do notice that mine has /had a slight smoke flavor in one of the batches. I like it even better than the others. The stuff I made this year tastes differently than last year and the first batch that was re-boiled several times is much better than the later batch which had only one or two boils before canning it up. I use a digital thermometer to measure temp of boiling water then switch to the + 7 degree method. I HAD a hydrometer that broke on the first use, I actually use 2 different thermometers one with a remote reading end and a smaller hand held unit. I try to keep it boiling good just prior to canning and keep it going with a warm simmer while canning and use a glass pyrex measuring cup to dip it out of the main finishing pan.

I use a semi commercial filters that I bought from "Fitch Pharm" farm & syrup store/company locally (same place I got the taps and hydrometer that I dropped.) They sell syrup, Maple candy and honey as well as the supplies for making them all. some bee keeping stuff I think too>? The Filters are the semi washable paper type and a washable felt type. I use 2 paper/media type filters as it flows OUT of the main pan and into the bucket this removes any small bits of stuff that may have been in the sap and or blown in during cooking. The final clarifying filter is used with 2 of the same paper type pre-filters and actually works well but traps a good bit of syrup so making a lot of small batches is not very wise using one of these. I made several small batches and kept them frozen/refrigerated until I had enough saved up to make a good caning batch worth running it through this filter... anyhow I think the batch that was less good tasting this year was maybe due to the damp popular wood I used. last years and the first batch this year was done using all better grade woods, Elm, & Maple and Oak. I had one or two burns this year using the DRY Maple & Elm then ran out of the good dry stuff and went to the standing dead popular top that was wind blown over a few weeks prior to production. While it still is syrup and still GOOD it is not as good as last year and the first batch this year.... It may be that the first batch (was actually 4 or 5 boilings to make the first batch and warmed up all the smaller batches each time and ran through a stacked pre filter system each time before putting it back in cold storage. this maybe why it tastes SOOO much better than the last batches...

I try & keep the smoke away from the sap as much as possible but it is inevitable that some will get into the sap / steam area... I also use sheet metal to keep the block top heat up against the sides of the pan. these are left in place until stoking the fire and then I have to remove them ans slide pan over some then remove a few of the side blocks and load wood.. this makes a little ash some times, but usually it is not too bad, I do have some covers that I plan on using next year to keep out all smoke & ash as best as I can. also I'll be switching to all maple and elm for next years batches. IF I get enough time...

Mark M