who's ready to make some maple syrup?

[thecfarm]

I kinda wonder about Maple Sunday this weekend. This is when the public will tour the sugar shacks. Will there be enough syrup for the public to buy? I am a very small scale,but even my 6 trees have not produced much. I have been to two of this yearly event and it's quite a turnout at each shack and that was just in my area here.

[Chuck White]

Maybe the producers will have time to explain things to the attendees since they won't be real busy boiling!  :

[BBTom]

I have cut back to about 450 taps this year and just finished tapping sat afternoon. 

Got almost 350 gallon of sap in that afternoon, and have collected about 75 more since then.  Today and tomorrow look good for sap flow and I will be cleaning up the Evaporator and RO so I can get the sap processed tomorrow.

I am normally shutting down around the 20th of March, this year it might be the first day of boiling.  Sooooo Strange. 

[21incher]

Made my wood cooker. I plasma cut 5 plates and welded them together and added a chimney from a old outdoor fireplace. Then set it on blocks like thecfarm.


 
Fired it up yesterday and was able to boil 20 gallons in a little over 10 hours so my wok throughput went up. Had to add a couple of wind deflectors to keep things boiling in the wind.


 
I think what really helped was being to pre-warm the sap in the 30 quart turkey pan set on the corner


 
Adding the smell of a wood fire makes the whole experience better.

[thecfarm]

Good job!! That looks good.We somehow got a quart of sap today.

[21incher]

Good job!! That looks good.We somehow got a quart of sap today.

I put out my jugs this morning and had 6 gallons by 4:15 and it will stay warm tonight so I should have 12 more gallons overflowing by morning. I only taped my sugar maples and think that helps. We must be a little warmer then you and the trees don't really start to drip until the sun warms them. I am hoping to hit over 2 gallons of syrup this week and then will pull the taps and plug the holes and pack everything away until next year.

[thecfarm]

We was barely above freezing today and maybe for all of 2 hours too.  : We have really only had 3-4 good days. and the most was 2 days than if froze up and 2 more days.

[loggah]

I'm going to tap out tomorrow, the holes should be good For the rest of the season, no one around here has had any real runs yet!! we still got a foot and a half of snow.

[BBTom]

I got about 450 taps in and started collecting saturday afternoon.  It was running good and I collected 350 gallon of sap by the time it froze up that evening.  Sunday didn't thaw out, Monday got about 75 gallon in the whole day.  Today was sunny and warm, the lines thawed out about noon, and I now have over 1000 gal of sap to run.  It should keep running all night, so I could have the entire 1700 gallon tank full by morning.  Now I need to clean out the RO and get it working.  Also need to rinse out the evaporator and  I should be boiling on Thursday. 

Good boiling to all!

[Chuck White]

Good job!! That looks good.We somehow got a quart of sap today.

I put out my jugs this morning and had 6 gallons by 4:15 and it will stay warm tonight so I should have 12 more gallons overflowing by morning. I only taped my sugar maples and think that helps. We must be a little warmer then you and the trees don't really start to drip until the sun warms them. I am hoping to hit over 2 gallons of syrup this week and then will pull the taps and plug the holes and pack everything away until next year. 

Why are you going to pull the taps?   No need to pull the taps until the Maples start budding!

Furthermore why are you going to plug the holes?  The holes don't need to be plugged, they will stop running and heal a lot before they get tapped next Spring!

We had 50° here, late this afternoon, so we'll probably start getting enough sap to boil each day, until Sunday, when it's supposed to start cooling off again!

[21incher]

Chuck my original goal was to make 1 gallon of syrup and I have over doubled that. Every day it is getting muddier and muddier in my back yard making it harder to get the sap up the hill to boil. and it is starting to become more like a job then hobby, so I am quitting for the year. I figured that plugging the holes would keep the sap from pouring on the ground and attracting ants that may like the moist wood. I got 12 gallons this morning, 5 gallons at noon and probably another 5 gallons this afternoon and then I quit until next year. The sap also seems to be getting a little cloudy today. I am really surprised to have gotten over 90 gallons of sap from 12 trees over the past couple of weeks.

[thecfarm]

You did good. And,yes,keep it fun. We boiled down a batch from about 4-5 days ago.

[Chuck White]

21Incher, you've done good!

What the heck, with the outfit we have, we've only made 2 gallons.

When the sap gets cloudy, bacteria is starting to form (sap's still good though) and the syrup will be a little darker!

We should be getting a good run tomorrow or Friday and by the end of the weekend it's supposed to turn cold again!

[JohnM]

Well I got my "arch" (using the term quite loosely  :D) done and did a test burn with just water.  I lucked out, all I had to do was remove the 'chimney' from last years set-up and the barrel fit just right! 8)  The 8 or so gals I have in a cooler outside is frozen solid and so are my collection jugs.  Hoping to do my first run Saturday but will only have maybe 15-20gals of sap. :(  We'll see what happens.

  

  

 
The pans are crooked and cock-eyed but it seems to work. ;D

And congrats 21!  Fun ain't it! ;D  Btw if you stop now it'll haunt you the rest of the season knowing that there is sap flowing and you're not collecting. ;) :D

[Stephen1]

Chuck, we are very similar. No sap yet. We have everything tapped, 265 taps. And the weather doesn't look like it will break till next late...fingers are crossed

[Chuck White]

All we can do in this area is hope, but I think that once it breaks loose, it'll be fast and furrious!

If everything ran like it did on the big runs last year, we'd gather around 800 gallons per day, and sometimes may even 1,000!

[thecfarm]

Looks good John. Did you put sand in bottom of the barrel? Are those cement blocks the same you used last year for a fire? Mine are all break up and hay wired together. But I'm still a boiling.   ;D  I might build one out of metal just about the same size as the cement block one. I will use fire brick inside. Use some thick metal inside and sheet metal on the outside, Fill in between the 2 metal with sand.We'll see,she is not done this season yet. I do plan on going around on Maple Sunday this week. Who knows where we will end up.
We did buy some lids to cover the buckets.Good thing with the mist we are getting. Last week when it snowed we just tied plastic grocery bags around the cans.

[21incher]

Nice arch John. I really like the idea that the combustion chamber is sealed. I tried mine again in the high winds yesterday and could not get it to boil so I am now finishing up with propane in my garage. Next year I will rebuild my arch to be like a woodstove like yours. The funny thing is last fall I sold a double barrel woodstove on craigslist for $40.00 because it got so hot I was afraid it would burn my pole barn down. It always happens that the minute you get rid of something you have a use for it. Hopefully you get some warm days soon but from the long-term forecast I saw they are calling for the cold to stay around until Easter. I really got lucky with those couple of 50 deg sunny days and warm nights that filled my jugs quickly. Taps are out, holes are plugged and I am enjoying the syrup. My wife has been making cookies, cakes, & frosting with it. I no longer feel that $50.00 for a gallon of syrup is expensive, It should be twice that !

[BBTom]

Today being March 20th is the day that I normally am boiling my last batch of sap.  This year I am boiling my first batch of sap.  What a year it has been so far. 

Got everything cleaned up and started the burners at 12:30 this afternoon,  I am having some problems getting the syrup through the filter press due to very fine sugar sand that I normally get at the beginning of the season.  I shut down at 3:45 with about 15 gallon of syrup made so far. 

It is true that I have a nice sugar shack and all the fancy equipment, so on and etc, but I envy you guys that are making a couple gallon of syrup and shutting down when you have enough.  When it becomes a business, it isn't near as much fun as when it is a hobby. 

Good luck and great boiling to all.

[JohnM]

Did you put sand in bottom of the barrel?

No but I'm gonna now! ;) :D  Was going to get some fire bricks but in the interest of saving money this year it's going to be the one bag of sand I already have.  The bottom of the barrel was glowing red. ;D

Are those cement blocks the same you used last year for a fire?

Yep, didn't move a thing except the one that held the pipe.   I'm going to get some stove door gasket to fill the gaps between the bottom edge of the pans and the barrel.  Try to keep the heat right against the pans.  Going to tap several more trees cause I'm guessing once the weather breaks the sap season will be pretty short.

BBTom, the post office called me this afternoon, the taps went to the wrong address (721 instead of 722) and they said it was short 20 whole cents. ;D  My wife will pick them up in town tomorrow.  Why our carrier couldn't make the simple correction and put it in our mailbox we'll never know. :   (I worked for the PO one summer years ago, I can say without a doubt it is the most poorly run organization and toxic working conditions (mental not physical) I've ever seen.  There's a reason for the term "Going Postal!" )

I no longer feel that $50.00 for a gallon of syrup is expensive, It should be twice that !

:D  Yup!

[thecfarm]

The reason I asked about the cement blocks,is that mine are all cracked already. Wire is my friend. I did put the sand into them as you said. Maybe town sand is diffeant than play sand.  :D
Above freezing,but the wind is blowing and some dark clouds out there. Might get some snow today.

[Chuck White]

Cinder blocks, used to make a fire pit are usually temporary, they won't take the heat but they will usually last long enough to get your syrup made!

Putting a few wire twists around them makes them last a little longer!

If you were to make something permanent, it would need to be lined with fire brick!

[thecfarm]

Yes chunk,see post #116. I just want to make sure the wife wants to do this, She gets all fired up to do something,than I pour money and time into and than she says Oh this is way too much work.     Yep,just as I told her.  : I really don't have the time to do it. But than I am the one that has to cut the wood up for it.
The blocks I brought are really taken a beating. They may not last the season. I think we only boiled 4-5 times. And than no more than 3 hours at a time. Just about to go out and start it up. We have quite a bit to boil. What I mean is we have saved it for 4-5-6 days. Than most times we did not get much more than a quart.

[21incher]

I don't know if it makes a difference but I used 4 inch solid blocks for mine but only burned it twice. Once for 12 hours and then again for 6 hours and the blocks did not crack or crumble. Final total was 22 pint mason jars hot packed and 1 quart in the fridge  . The last batch of sap had a much higher sugar content then the first batches and made more syrup with less sap. Took 80 lbs of propane and about 1/4 face cord of slab wood. Thanks for all the help everyone.

[thecfarm]

21incher,I noticed that. But someone suggested I go 3 block high so I could get more wood in and have more heat. Seems to be working fine. As long as the wire holds it all together.  ;D