Maple sugaring 2021

mike_belben · February 09, 2021, 02:54:25 PM

I think i can tap about 10 more smaller trees on my place and then vacuum will be the only increase option until additional trees grow in from my hardwood removals.

But vaccum doesnt make any sense yet. I maintain a 5 acre lot my dad bought a few doors down for retirement and cruised it the other day pretty thoroughly. it has WAY more sap potential than my place. There are probably 20 trees of this size to my one or two (note my walking stick and squatting paper for scale)

And this fat boy is the one in the background above..

My current evaporating would be overwhelmed by his sap supply.

Trees are harvested here before they get to this diameter unless they are inaccessible or undesireable. Only yard trees are fat in rural tennessee. Im guessing this spot was passed over because of mushy ground when it was last cut before subdivision, as i have no maple this big and my yard was once the same parcel as his yard. Mine are mostly stump sprouts grown to skinny tree clusters. Anywhere a skid trail was ...maple, poplar and black gum tend to win the spot over but stay overshadowed and stunted in the trail bed. I suspect the boundary line path werenarrowly cleared for fencing at some point based on perfectly straight, even aged maples in a row on my place.

Ive been thinking about and looking harder as i drive around and i suspect red maples' lack of strength compared to oak and hickory are what prevent it from being a dominant tree. It can grow very big but it doesnt seem able to take ground from oak. I think its our tendency for ice storms. Oaks.. Especially WO.. rarely lose a limb from an ice storm while red maple snaps the entire top off routinely.

A young healthy oak almost never blows over here so they remain standing tall while the competitors get pruned shorter. Our oaks blow over only when they get huge, due to the big broad wind curtain, sopping wet ground and shallow clay over rock. Big blowover and selective logging that passes over a maple seem to be the only way a maple wins. But i suspect when released they can grow like mad. I cut one with 1/2 growth rings from getting its root system to a gutter in open sun.

mike_belben · February 19, 2021, 10:30:13 PM

I put the last of my taps and tube in at my dads place today. Weve been in a cold spell that is to break up soon so i hope they get pumpin. I think i have 29 taps total into 21 trees draining into 10 buckets. id need 100 more taps and another 1000ft of tubing to exhaust his place. which is probably more sap than i can handle this year.

doc henderson · February 20, 2021, 03:10:09 AM

great start! Sweet! as they say.

SwampDonkey · February 20, 2021, 03:46:03 AM

Mike, by the end of April you'll be glad it's over, but by next February you'll be just as keen to gather more of the sweet stuff. :D

mike_belben · February 20, 2021, 12:17:32 PM

Yeah probably true. Deer season and sugar season are good for getting me thru the winter doldrums.. So i can get back to being tired of the garden!

mudfarmer · February 21, 2021, 08:27:16 AM

Finally strapped on the snowshoes yesterday and got out while it was nice to check lines. Got a bunch of fixing to do, in a hurry

I don't know if this green D&G tubing tastes good or what but sure got chewed up.

Sauna freak · February 21, 2021, 11:51:04 AM

Getting ready to tap my trees today here in central MN. I just produce a small amount from mine and the neighbor's yard trees for personal use, gifts, trades. My limit to doing it for profit is boiling capacity and marketing.

Contemplated going small time commercial a few years ago. A neighbor was running a large farmers market, and offered me $8 per pint wholesale pricing. Doing the math, it worked out, and I went so far as to secure tapping permission on 80 acres of bottomland silver maple, secure necessary boiler fuel, reserve necessary capital for boiler, tapping supplies and miscelany, and put my day job on notice that I'd be taking March off. I was looking at an estimated production of 2000 or more pints, and a net profit of around $6k after start up costs. Well, fast forward a few months and a divorce dissolved the neighbors business. Fortunately I didn't jump in with both feet, or I'd be stuck with a lot of capital investment struggling to market my syrup around my day job.

There seems to be a stigma surrounding silver maple for syruping. There is some misinformation on the internet (whooda thunkit right?) that it makes an inferior quality syrup and that the sugar content of the sap is too low to process efficiently. I strongly disagree with both statements. I'm getting between 20 and 30:1 yield from silver maple sap, depending on timing during the run. Open grown trees with high crown ratio are running even higher, right in line with typical yield from sugar maple. It produces a syrup of equal or IMHO better quality than sugar maple. The trees tend to run larger and grow in sunnier locations with wet soils making for an earlier and more intense run...huge sap yield. Anybody else tapping silvers?

mike_belben · February 21, 2021, 01:11:57 PM

I think its trade protectionism. Ive read you cant tap this far south, you cant use reds, you cant tap small trees, etc etc. Then done it, and its the best thing ive ever tasted. Im finding claims a natural buttery taste is somewhat unique to TN pure red maple sap. A friend of my wifes from northern michigan who grew up sugaring hard maple tried mine last week and said the buttery was strong and she never tasted such a thing. Its pretty encouraging.

When i first started working for quarries i asked a lot of questions about my rock and without ever seeing it, the standard answer was 'that rock out there is no good.' Now i know rock and where most of it comes from. those same guys have quarry leases nearby. They just dont want new competitors.

Not that i have aspirations of making money in syrup, its just something to look forward to about winter. Im still trying to figure out my season. On paper today should be epic, but ive had my best days so far defy northern weather logic so we will see. My dads lot has been tapped a few days and mine since january. If his runs but mine doesnt ill assume my holes healed up and will move taps to see what happens. Oddly i guess, some tiny trees have been my best producers and a few big ones duds. Maybe the big ones are slow to thaw?

mike_belben · February 21, 2021, 08:59:07 PM

I got about 8 gallons today combined. Not every tree ran so i will try retapping some of the first ones to see what that does.

I need a much bigger evaporator pan. The firebox is easily big enough to go 5x bigger. With a raging boil i can maybe do a gallon an hr.

Brought the clearing saw out to my dads to make a some trail. What an incredible improvement it is to cull off dead understory. Dang coyotes are right in the back yard teasing me right now. Never out in daylight.

Tacotodd · February 21, 2021, 10:22:19 PM

Sounds like night vision is called for

Stephen1 · February 22, 2021, 08:19:42 AM

Mike the barometer is the key, I have seen it raining and the sap pouring out of the trees, the barometer was rising, it had frozen the night before. The tap holes will generally heal in 4-6 week.
Maple is maple, and it all boils to maple syrup. It tastes the best on buttermilk pancakes!
I am going to start our season today. I have the bobcat loaded on the trailer and am heading over to open the Sugar Shack yard. We are getting heavy snow for the next 3 days, with rain predicted in the middle of the mess. I will hoepfully get some of the snow moved so we can get to the Shack .The snow is the deepest I have seen in years. I went into the bush last week and the snow was up to my crotch! It will be a challenge to tap this year for sure. The taps will be 6' &7' up on some trees , because of the snow pack.

mike_belben · February 22, 2021, 09:35:48 AM

i will have to remember to look up the barometer more often. but that still doesn't explain why one big tree is peeing out and another 20 feet away is dry. maybe its just designed to drive you nuts!

i hit rolling boil at 6:15 last night. by 1am i put slightly over 1 cup of delicious, highly addictive syrup (my biggest haul yet, welcome to the big leagues right?) in a mason jar in the fridge then had to get up at 5:30 to put kids on the bus. i wish i didn't calculate the boiling ratio just before going to bed because i have concluded this is the most illogical hobby ever and now i can't stop. plus i have to wash all my smoky clothes and a pile of extra dishes for it. oh and split more wood and order more tube and build a ....

woodroe · February 22, 2021, 09:49:58 AM

You've discovered that slippery slope called sugarin' Mike. There is no end to
the improvements needed to making it easier.
I dug out my block arch from 1 1/2' of snow yesterday and sanitized my spiles gearing up
to tap 18 trees. Shooting for March 1st tapping.
Skipped boiling last year and still have a gallon of syrup in the pantry but
would like some fresh stuff and a spring time project outside in the sun and other elements.
Hoping to make a couple gallons of the liquid gold in 2 boils. We'll see how it goes.

DeerMeadowFarm · February 22, 2021, 11:50:13 AM

We tapped yesterday in Warren, MA. 242 taps in all. Sap was starting to run by the end of the day as things warmed up. Weather looks promising for the rest of this week. Fingers crossed!

mike_belben · February 22, 2021, 01:05:44 PM

Yeah ive been on slopes. This was a greased trap door.

DMF You did 242 taps in a day? Is that tubes or buckets?

DeerMeadowFarm · February 22, 2021, 04:25:41 PM

Quote from: mike_belben on February 22, 2021, 01:05:44 PM
Yeah ive been on slopes. This was a greased trap door.

DMF You did 242 taps in a day? Is that tubes or buckets?

All 3/16 tubing. About half of them were simply just tapping trees we used before and replacing the dozen or so squirrel chewed drops. The rest were new lines or extended lines that I had to cut in drops and that takes time. We did 5 lines from 9:30 - lunch and the remaining five after lunch finishing around 4:00.

We have between 50 and 80 feet of elevation drop from our "top" trees to the collection tanks. We get real good natural vacuum. Of course, all the lines run down away from the sugar house since we live close to the top of the hill here so I need to take a tractor and transport it back up. :(

But, we had power near the house and none at the bottom of the sugar bush so there was some logic to our madness. I will happily report that we added a 12-tap line this year that does feed driectly into the 400 gallon tank behind the sugar house. The problem is nearly all of our maples are below the sugar house.

mudfarmer · February 22, 2021, 06:33:20 PM

DMF I wish you could check out the neighbors' wild setup. They are also uphill of most of their trees. Tubing runs down hill to tanks then they have scabbed together a bunch of scrap service entrance wire and tubing running a long way down the road from sugar house to lowest tank, with a well pump pushing to head tank at sugar house. Something like you or mike or I would come up with ;D

mudfarmer · February 22, 2021, 06:35:43 PM

Quote from: Sauna freak on February 21, 2021, 11:51:04 AM
Getting ready to tap my trees today here in central MN. I just produce a small amount from mine and the neighbor's yard trees for personal use, gifts, trades. My limit to doing it for profit is boiling capacity and marketing.

Contemplated going small time commercial a few years ago. A neighbor was running a large farmers market, and offered me $8 per pint wholesale pricing. Doing the math, it worked out, and I went so far as to secure tapping permission on 80 acres of bottomland silver maple, secure necessary boiler fuel, reserve necessary capital for boiler, tapping supplies and miscelany, and put my day job on notice that I'd be taking March off. I was looking at an estimated production of 2000 or more pints, and a net profit of around $6k after start up costs. Well, fast forward a few months and a divorce dissolved the neighbors business. Fortunately I didn't jump in with both feet, or I'd be stuck with a lot of capital investment struggling to market my syrup around my day job.

There seems to be a stigma surrounding silver maple for syruping. There is some misinformation on the internet (whooda thunkit right?) that it makes an inferior quality syrup and that the sugar content of the sap is too low to process efficiently. I strongly disagree with both statements. I'm getting between 20 and 30:1 yield from silver maple sap, depending on timing during the run. Open grown trees with high crown ratio are running even higher, right in line with typical yield from sugar maple. It produces a syrup of equal or IMHO better quality than sugar maple. The trees tend to run larger and grow in sunnier locations with wet soils making for an earlier and more intense run...huge sap yield. Anybody else tapping silvers?

St. Lawrence Nursery up here by me sells (sold? No longer same owner) what they called Sweet Sap Silver Maples. Incredibly fast growing, super high sugar content sap. Can vouch for the fast growing part but have not tapped any.

mike_belben · February 22, 2021, 10:34:55 PM

Quote from: mudfarmer on February 22, 2021, 06:33:20 PM
DMF I wish you could check out the neighbors' wild setup. They are also uphill of most of their trees. Tubing runs down hill to tanks then they have scabbed together a bunch of scrap service entrance wire and tubing running a long way down the road from sugar house to lowest tank, with a well pump pushing to head tank at sugar house. Something like you or mike or I would come up with ;D

Im scheming on a tractor pto vaccuum collection system for next year.
This affliction just keeps getting worse. Evaporator 2.0 should be running tomorrow. It better be cuz my maples got the runs today and i have no means to store.

DeerMeadowFarm · February 23, 2021, 08:42:45 AM

Quote from: mudfarmer on February 22, 2021, 06:33:20 PM
DMF I wish you could check out the neighbors' wild setup. They are also uphill of most of their trees. Tubing runs down hill to tanks then they have scabbed together a bunch of scrap service entrance wire and tubing running a long way down the road from sugar house to lowest tank, with a well pump pushing to head tank at sugar house. Something like you or mike or I would come up with ;D

It's kinda scary you mentioned this. My buddy has a well pump, band new in the box. We are scratching our heads on how we can use it to pump sap up to the sugar house. Problem is, over 2,000 feet you end up leaving a lot of sap in the line to drain back!

mike_belben · February 23, 2021, 09:49:47 AM

Air pressure ontop a tank full of sap is a very easy batch transfer method. I did it with waste vegetable oil and C02 tank many times which is as thick as finished syrup.

The air will clear the line. Minimal drainback.

mudfarmer · February 23, 2021, 01:14:44 PM

The next time I see them I will try to remember to ask how they handle that? It seems to work well. Definitely a lot of sap if 2000ft of pipe! Looks like ~326gallons for 2". If you use 3/4" though it is only 45.9g

DeerMeadowFarm · February 23, 2021, 02:23:06 PM

Quote from: mudfarmer on February 23, 2021, 01:14:44 PM
The next time I see them I will try to remember to ask how they handle that? It seems to work well. Definitely a lot of sap if 2000ft of pipe! Looks like ~326gallons for 2". If you use 3/4" though it is only 45.9g

The pump calls for 1" pipe.

Corley5 · February 23, 2021, 05:56:18 PM

The 1,000' run of underground 1 1/2" from our releaser/pump house to the sugar house holds around 60 gallons of sap. We've had bacteria build ups late in the season and back flush with fresh water to clear it up. The warm ground invites bacteria colonies. The next sap run goes into a 55 gallon drum and then we start checking with a sap hydrometer for sap before switching the valves to the collection totes.

The line is back flushed at the beginning and end of season too. Our releaser has a submersible well pump in the bottom controlled by a float switch

Sauna freak · February 23, 2021, 07:53:31 PM

Still zero run here in Central MN despite 2 days in the 40's. Just got off 2 weeks of subzero, so the stumps are probably still frozen soundly. Once the frost starts letting go, might be looking at a floodgates kind of year.

Last year was about perfect as we got a slow and steady run and I was able to keep up boiling about the same rate as collecting. I just have a slow batch system of a 6-7 gallon pan that is continuously topped off until I'm ready to take it down and finish boil. The wife doesn't like to handle more than about 3 gallons at a time inside. She's the expert on finishing and canning so her word is law

.

I'd like someday to advent a more efficient boiling system, but never seem to get around to it.