recently I have found out that an acre of my land is mid-sized maple trees I have been interested in tapping them so I have bought taps and have buckets and barrels for storage but I'm lost on when is a good time to start collecting the sap of the trees and what are some good ways to process this stuff down only using dry wood?
This is an older thread on small scale saping.
https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,73175.0.html
You can click onto my gallery and see the pictures that I have posted about sap. We have a good time doing it.
We boil it outside and than bring it inside to finish it off. We bring it up to about 212-214 than she brings it inside on the kitchen stove and brings it up to about 218°. Sap will not boil like water. After you do a batch or two,you will know what to do. Our batch is not more than a quart at a time. I try to keep a container on the back of the stove that is hot but not boiling. I pour that into the one that I am boiling from.
You need above freezing temps during the day,freezing at night for the best run. but it runs when it wants too. We are having a warm week in Maine,it might run this week!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I actually ended up throwing my taps in over the weekend when its been hitting 60s and 50s for me and my soda bottle fill up in just 24 hours its great only thing holding me back in collection is bugs and some random kids that dumped my collectors ooh if I get my hands on them >:( but it doesn't really matter to much thanks for the thread :P :D
Sap will become syrup when the temperature reaches 7°F higher than the boiling point of water!
The boiling point changes a lot over time, sometimes even within a couple of hours!
It'll seem like it takes forever to get the last few degrees on the thermometer to get syrup. But when it happens it's like an explosion of foamy bubbles almost and you better be there ready to pour or it'll burn or boil over. I used to keep an eyedropper of pure vegetable oil to keep the foaming down. Couple drops works wonders. Strained/filtered the hot syrup through a pair of clean denim folded over several times and filtered all the sugar sand out that way. Made fantastic tasting syrup. Be careful boiling it all in your house, humidity levels are wicked that way.
Funny you should say that Ox , It made me remember the time we steamed all the wall paper off the kitchen walls finishing syrup on the stove . :)
:D Wait....no, that's not funny. At all! :-\
How long was you finishing? :D
Like I said,we are only doing a quart at a time,maybe every day,but it only takes about 5 10 minutes. We get it just about done outside,then bring it in on the gas stove. Don't take long,sometimes get it back up to 212° and it goes up to 218-19-20 quick. It cools off by the time we get it into the house and then we put it into a cold pan too.
I am thinking about getting one of those infrared temp gauge. The one with the red beam of light. Than we could really get it up to temp outside.
I was just a kid. It seems like we were doing quite a bit. I do remember mom wasn't impressed. It was ugly paper. ;)
keep your sap as cold as possible and or boil or freeze it. How many taps have you put out, and how do you plan to boil it? A coarse strainer metal or cloth takes out the bugs, or leave them in for more 'robust' flavor. What size (diameter) spouts are you using and can you describe your tapping method depth, location, anything more?
Quote from: thecfarm on February 21, 2017, 08:26:00 PM
This is an older thread on small scale saping.
https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,73175.0.html
Thanks for sharing that is a very useful thread I just gained access to some maples I am going to give this a shot can it be tapped after we are past the freezing temperatures?
Quote from: TreesLogan on May 03, 2017, 10:45:02 PM
Quote from: thecfarm on February 21, 2017, 08:26:00 PM
This is an older thread on small scale saping.
https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,73175.0.html
Thanks for sharing that is a very useful thread I just gained access to some maples I am going to give this a shot can it be tapped after we are past the freezing temperatures?
Since I am not familiar with your area I hope this makes sense to you;
Once the trees start budding it is too late to tap for that season.
Small Sugarmakers watch the weather closely and try and tap to get the first sap run with the freshest tap holes posible.
The longer the taps have been in the less productive they are as the trees try to heal.
If you are going to tap using tubing the tubing can be installed most anytime.
Gerald