Maple Sugar Season

[Russ]

I was setting up a new evaporator and was wondering if anybody else did any sugaring ? If anybody did maybe we could exchange some thoughts.

[tnlogger]

https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=10372.0
  here ya go Russ they done already got the jump on ya  :D :D

[Ron Scott]

Also see:

https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=671.0

[Ed_K]

 Also look at www.Mapletrader.com

[Sawyerfortyish]

Russ I bought a 3x10 leader evaporator this time last year and have not got it set up yet. With the fueloil going up the firewood business has kept me busy. Wow what a year for the sap to run. Now you got me wanting to go have some fun cooking syrup and I don't have the time :'(. Like  Ed_k said go over to mapletrader them guys know there syrup and how to do it.

[Ed_K]

 I have that feeling also  :(. I have 35 cords of log length to work up, 230 cords to cut, (next job) and I'm getting itchy to start sugaring. We had a warm spell the 1st of Feb, then it got way cold and started snowing again.
My logging job we're doing right now is a steep climb up to the landing and the woods road is so frozen the skidder just spins  >:(.
I'm ready to have a few weeks of sitting around the arch ans keeping warm  8).

[Russ]

Thankyou guys. I made some syrup during during that warm spell, So I put out more taps, now I'm like a kid waiting for Christmas. Gee Ed Sounds like you could use some help! When you get all that wood cut you can get a new skidder.

[jjmk98k]

anybody interested in selling maple sugar?

I sure love maple sugar in my tea and my grits!

[Stump Jumper]

O so grits is good with maple surple :

[maple flats]

You should not tap until the weather is right and the sap if flowing. If you do the holes can heal up too soon and you will not get as much as if you had waited. Long spells of below freezing all day is not good for the highest flow, as is it not good to have above freezing with no overnight freeze for very many days in a row. In central NY this means about 3/1 for typical tapping but this year it will run later because we have a forcast of only 1 above freeze temp. for the next week. Therefor I plan to tap about 3/5 this year and as that date nears I will watch the forcast, tapping may be delayed further. If one has all of his tubing and taps ready, installed, leveled and all that is needed is the tapping one man can tap over 50 taps / hour without even hurrying and if the maples are ideal spacing sometimes over 100 an hour. Just drill, let the hole flush briefly with the sap flow to clear shavings and lightly tap in the spout then move to the next. It goes fairly fast. of course I'm talking small scale, but I plan to grow. The experts say you should not retap once you loose flow.

[jjmk98k]

Stump jumper,

Maple sugar is great in Grits, just ate some this morning before splitting some firewood...... It's also good in Oatmeal and hot tea with fresh cream from the Dairy.

[Ed_K]

 Russ, the new skidder is posted in my photo gallery. Along with the old one too  :D.
I sell syrup too, but the shipping is the killer.

[Stump Jumper]

now i gotta find me a sample of real grits  : :D ;)

[Russ]

Ed, sometime you gotta tell me your secret. The maple guy site is pretty cool picked a few things up when I visited. Last year I tapped early too and got a 1 1/2 week run everybody else  missed. Everybody complained it was a short season . Mother nature likes to keep us guessing.
Gitts huh, does Betty Crocker have the reciepe ?

[sawguy21]

I have some home made maple syrup from Ontario put away for special occasions. Can't buy the real thing here.
Some of you are putting it on gr-its??? WAAAH :D

[jjmk98k]

sawguy...

the granulated maple sugar is great in just about anything.... just hard for me to find it around here  :'(

[pigman]

Visited Sugarbush farm near Salem In. yesterday. Very interesting and helped me understand this thread better. :P







He had some sort of device to check the syrup , but was showing us the old way of checking it.

Bob - the maple syrup eater   ;D