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The True Cost of Making Maple Syrup

Started by BBTom, March 06, 2007, 05:37:45 PM

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Mrs.Captain

Well it is now 11:pm and I have finally finished 8)!!  Pancakes for the boy tomorrow!!! 

By the way Will for pan boiled the syrup looks pretty darned fancy to me.  I bet we could compete with the big dogs... not in quantity (ended up with 8oz.) but in quality!! 

What is the best way to filter the finished syrup?  We put a coffee filter over the mouth of a mason jar but the process was extremely slow.  We did not however get any sugar sand only a couple of small bugs that flew in there for the final taste test.
Captain works for me! (or maybe it's the other way around)

Coon

Sawdust, I made some of the best DanGed syrup one could ever try and Yup it was from white birch trees.  Look it up on Google and you'll find that it is worth a better fortune than that of the maple variety.  I am not sugaring this year due to getting ready to move along with the project I got going in the garage.  I am keeping rather busy without it.  The doctors tell me  to take it easy with my back and that as far as they are concerned I am still doing to much.  But a guy has gotta do what a guy has gotta do. 

Norwood Lumbermate 2000 w/Kohler,
Husqvarna, Stihl and, Jonsereds Saws

sawdust


I have a few big birch out at Pigeon Lake, I will go take a shot at bleeding them later in the week. I will have to build myself a couple spouts.

time to search google.

sawdust
comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable.

SwampDonkey

Black birch or yellow birch would make some interesting syrup I bet, with a mint taste.  I got a great big old bruiser of a yellow birch on the woodlot, but I'd hate to spoil the veneer in it. ;D
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

Tom Sawyer

Eating pancakes with syrup that you boiled from your own trees:  Priceless ;D

Stephen Alford

Sap started to run on ol PEI today and you fellows talkin about it for the last couple of days got me all  motivated an all so I started tappin  but I have a felling there is somthin wrong wit my technique (maybe I need more trees!) ::)
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Greenedive

Hah!!!! I finally get to see what a pickeroon is used for!!! ;D

sawdust


Ahve had willows squirt up from the stump. I should bring a pan to catch it in!

comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable.

Sprucegum

I don't know about the flavor but willow syrup should be good for you. Its full of that ASA(I'm not even gonna try to spell it) you find in Aspirins.  :D  :P

SwampDonkey

Aspen has it also, since they belong to the family of willows Salicaceae = acetylsalicylic acid, a derivative salicylic acid

I also recall it in the bark of Viburnum trilobum, especially the root bark.
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

Sawyerfortyish

I made 8 1/4 gal of syrup last weekend. I got somewhere around 225 taps between buckets and pipeline. Boy is gooood. Oh yea I did hear something along the the lines of the D word but I was busy trying not to spill any buckets and had to let go in one ear and out the other. I did get tired of cooking my dinner at midnight tho.

ID4ster

You can tap birch. Folks up in Alaska have been doing it for a long time. You would do it just like a maple but the sugar concentration is lower something like 80:1 vs 30-40:1 for maple syrup. I haven't tapped birch myself since I'm too far south for it but the taste is supposed to be very good and in real high demand from certain gourmet chefs. Don't fill in the hole. Just let the wound heal over. It'll do that pretty quick once the tree starts growing in the spring.
Bob Hassoldt
Seven Ridges Forestry
Kendrick, Idaho
Want to improve your woodlot the fastest way? Start thinning, believe me it needs it.

Daconant

Quote from: Mrs.Captain on March 11, 2007, 11:05:23 PM

What is the best way to filter the finished syrup?  We put a coffee filter over the mouth of a mason jar but the process was extremely slow.  We did not however get any sugar sand only a couple of small bugs that flew in there for the final taste test.

I have used coffee filters for many years. If you try to use them for finished syrup, you will wait forever for it to flow through the filter. I try to filter the syrup when it is still at least twice its final volume. At this point it is much thinner than it will be and flows through the filter much more easily. Keeping it hot will also help as it thickens up as it cools. After filtering, I boil it down to finish. Little or no additional sugar sand appears.
David Conant

Sawyerfortyish

The 8.25 gallons of syrup I made took 530 gallons of sap to make. Thats 64 to 1 ratio I have no red maples taped if I did that ratio would be even higher. The ratio will change lower as the season goes on the sap picks up more sugar as it goes up and down in the tree.

Sparty

I've been running sap from 4 trees for about a month now.  Had taps in two small straight trees and two big gnarly ones.  The 2 small ones were pumping out about a galllon a day on good days and the big trees weren't dripping at all.  I was just about to pull the taps on the big ones, but two days ago they started pouring out syrup.  One tree is literally pouring, not dripping sap.  I boil in my kitchen with a ceiling fan and have not had problems with moisture.  I think my ratio is pretty close to 30:1.  I just use a fine cloth of any kind to strain it, but its just for my own pancakes, so I'm not  picky.  The best is to boil it down to honey thickness and put it on toast.

Don't ask my wife about the syrup, especially the batch that I forgot about and burnt to a crisp.  I just now got rid of the burnt sugar smell in the house.

SwampDonkey

Fell to sleep in the recliner , eh? ;)
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

Sparty

I...uh,  got tied up with some important business.  Or at least thats my excuse.  I always set an alarm so I come upstairs to check it regularly.  THis time I stepped outside...for just a second.  Well that turned into 45 minutes and you know the rest.  Now I don't leave the vicinity without turning burners off, and I still set an alarm to check it regularly.

Tony_T

Quote from: sawdust on March 11, 2007, 04:23:56 PM

Living out west I have never seen a sugar maple.
I have heard that you can tap a Birch. How do you know when it is time? How deep a hole and how do you plug it afterwards to keep bugs out?

sawdust

You tap when the nights are below freezing and the days warm just above freezing.  You drill the holes about an inch under the bark.  A healty tree will heal over the hole in one summer.

Yes you can tap birch (black/sweet birch I believe) but you need more sap to make a gallon of syurp.

Concerning costs.  I made an evaporator out of an big old stainless steel sink (free).  Built a hearth around it with stone/mud and used a piece of old stovepipe for a chiminey (free).  I brought taps/plastic tubing at local hardware store and collect into pickle buckets I get for free.  Use my old 9N ford with a new plastic garbage can(s) mounted on the 3 pt. to collect/store the sap. For fuel I use scrap wood from spring cleanup and let it boil down as I'm pruning the fruit trees.  I put up the syurp in canning jars I get for free when I buy spagetti sauce.  Not high tech or high volume but cheap.  Have not made any the last few years as I've still quarts left from the last run  ;D

WDH

Tony_T,

If you get overstocked, let me know and I can take care of the stuff that is past the use-by-date on  the label 8).
Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

Mooseherder


BBTom

That was a totally uninformative news article. 

What are the new standards?  is it 65.5, 66 or  66.5 Brix (% solids)?   

I thought it was controlled by USDA at 66 Brix minimum.
2001 LT40HDD42RA with lubemizer, debarker, laser, accuset. Retired, but building a new shop and home in Missouri.

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