Started Taping sugar trees this weekend

[SPIKER]

Hi All:

just wanted to let everyone know that I started sugaring this weekend, I tapped ~8 trees and already in one day got close to 25 gallons of sap, & boiled it yesterday down to about 2.5 gallons of concentrate sap. Will finish it in a day or two. I know next 3 or so days the sap will not run but wanted an early start. I still got a few pints of left overs from last year but I knew they won't last

Now i know how much I need for a ear of my own supply, and will give some more to guys at the shop and my family too. so far last year was better looking on the first runs & was almost clear at this point so maybe I'm already a bit late but the spring is worse than it was last year as we never had a hard long freeze... maybe something to that global warming huh?

Sorry no pics (maybe this week I'll snap a few pics...)


Mark M

 

[mjarrels]

Suppose to dip to 8 degrees tonight and the winds are howling... ain't nothing going to be running except the blower on the Harman coal stove!

mark

 

[pappy19]

Worst winter in 30 years here in the western states. We'll take some of that global warming, what's Al Gore's phone number?

 

[mjarrels]

Lived in Coupeville Wa. for years... Temp dipped to 0 for a week in 1991... pipes forze everywhere... I was luckey... I was in the Gulf war and the wife was in the Philippines... All water cut off and pipes drained!

mark

 

[ragkar]

I'm thinking of running up to vermont later this year and buy a mess of maple syrup. When's the best time as far as availability and prices?

 

[Wayne County Hose]

Vermont to buy maple syrup? Dude, you can drive less than 2 hours and get just as good here in northern Pa. If you want to go up there anyway, that's another thing.

 

[SPIKER]

If you are looking to drive some place it will be a few weeks at least before every thing is flowing good again in our area, up there it is hard to say. BUT most places are on-line and will ship using CC and or money orders/ paypal ect. buying & shipping is much cheaper than a tank full of gas unless you plan on getting a hundred gallons...

I know there are a few locally that sell on-line. where i buy my taps ect doe. it is "Fitch Pharm Farms" but I don't ahve the web site info, maybe try a google search for them in ashland ohio.

mark

 

[atgreene]

We're still 3 weeks from making any sugar, at best. With 4' of snow on the ground tapping is gonna be a real PITA this year. All the lines are buried and the mainlines are below the snowlevel, say nothing of trying to set tanks or gather buckets.

Here's a couple pics of our operation.

And some vids. YouTube - Boiling Syrup at Greene Maple Farm

YouTube - Greene Maple Farm

 

[SPIKER]

I WISH you hadn't posted that link to U-Tube on boiling up there I just spent a bunch of time watching people doing the stuff i SHOULD be doing right now lol

mark

 

[SPIKER]

Hi All:

I did a little more boiling this past few days, not much only got 25 or so gallons over the last week or so and only needed one good stoking of fire wood on the home made boiler & pan. I took a few pics so people can see my method or madness. I took the pics yesterday, after all the action calmed down...

Click on the pics to full size them

pan shown I made this at my old shop, the 2 dividers are not 100% welded but help to keep the bottom from heat bending like it did last year. Pan is about 42" long by 36" wide.

I know it needs cleaning, (I do that each time B4 I use it using green plastic sponge scrubbier pad, vinegar and or bleach & water. followed by a good rinse/& scrub with regular water.) After boiling I drain the Sap/Syrup (not quite syrup yet needs more cooking at this stage for my setup) pan through the valve and through a pre-filter back into a 5 gallon bucket.

Usually I then toss in some rinse water to let it heat on the fire as the fire goes out I clean the pan up to et off all loose stuff making cleaning b4 next use easier.

you can see that in pic the bottom right is actually where sap goes IN at (the black spot) when boiling is setting highest on the fire block/pit. the sap/syrup level got low this weekend and made the black burned on spot. I'll have to get out some elbow grease to clean that good next time I boil... You can also see that my fire pit is a bit small for the PAN the PIT should have built with the corners opposite as they are now, so that the pit was slightly narrower and longer. the PIT was there prior to me making the pan and was used by previous owners to burn trash. I simply removed all the trash residue and added one more block set higher as well as solid 1/2 block toppers to make it more supportive. yes the heat is not good for block but works well enough. I make sure to check out any bad spots to make sure nothing will give away when firing it ...



this is the simple dry stacked cinder block pit I use. this is all open air boiling I finish the syrup inside on the stove in large S.S. stock pot. filtering it 2 or 3 times b4 canning in good ole mason jars.

below are a few pics of how I been getting the sap from the trees, I use good ole 5 gallon buckets with lids I drilled a hole in the lids just large enough to squeeze the tubing through and connect the tree taps using the hose available at many places. the Taps and T's I got this year are 5/16" tree savers that I got locally from "Fitch Pharms" in Ashland Ohio. No I don't owe them anything just they are good people working very hard to make a living they also sell more than just taps they got just about every thing needed to make sap into syrup and if ya don't got trees then you can buy the syrup from them too (as well as candy & honey now too)








Mark M