Hi All:
Had to see if anyone has started tapping trees yet? It seems like the temps snow and all are about right and I'm seeing a lot of buds starting to swell already!>:o I stopped into the local syrup shop & picked up 10 bags to try out. Late time I used 5 gallon buckets with 3 or 4 trees into one bucket. this year I'm gonna try these here fancy plastic bags. Sounds like it might be early but then someone said the temps up in Main area was getting conducive to flowing sap.
BBTOM how is it down there at your place? trees doing the same?
Mark
Mrs Captain is boiling again tomorrow. She has made about a gallon so far.
No one around here has tapped yet! That I know of!!!!!!!!!!!
My brother has a maple grove and says that within the next 3-4 weeks they'll be tapped.
My sugar bush is on a north face - cold up there. I will tap in about 2 or 3 weeks.
We are going to have reverse osmosis this year . That will speed up things a bit I think that the tapping has started by now . I haven't spoken with the hilltop rednecks in a week . We will head down there in a week or two to help out Close to 500 taps this year . Most of them will be on a pipeline .
Today is the first day over freezing (35°F) for about a month, and long term forecast doesn't show anything much above freezing until March. Frozen sap don't run very well, so I am going to wait till it warms up a bit before tapping.
Don, You will love that RO, I find that mine doesn't mind working at night (while I sleep) making a bunch of 8% sap for me to run the next day. Saves lots of boiling time.
Next week may look completely different, but I am not looking forward to slogging through 16 to 20 inches of snow to check lines and tap trees.
It is to cold in wis. but Ican hardly wait. last year Ihad 75 taps out and finished with13 gal. of pure pleasure 8). this year Iam building A sugar shak it won't be done in time so Iwill be working on it during the boiling prosses. to much steam Last year so I need A specific place with vent hood. Then I can store the equip. in there when not in use
I was getting A GOOD LOOK today at the farm driving by, much of the trees I tap are on south facing creek bottom. they are all red budding up now. even though we had some cold temps still, the south facing is better for the early warm up at my place. I live maybe 25 miles away from BBTom been to his place but been a couple years.
Anyhow I picked up some bags, 1st year for trying them do they need some other type of TAPS? The Bags look like they need some sort of clip on connection. I didnt take a long time checking them over though.
I cleaned off the fire pit today and a few other little things getting ready. I need to clean up the buckets and tubes from last season storage, (cleaned after boiling last time but stored I want to clean prior to use.)
Snow is soggy and still about 12" around the fire pit got to clean up some into piles for helping to cool & store partly boiled sap this year.
all the snow should at least make for plenty of flow!>?
Mark M
Dad and nephews are to start tapping this weekend if it can be not too cold , it wont be running for a few weeks yet , but for those who want to tap now and sit for a while , you can get a tapping alcohol that you spray in the tapped hole as to keep it from drying out till the weather gets ok for sap to run. It is available at most tapping equipment outlets.
I put in about 20 taps today, I had full flow out of about all the south side of the trees taps, before we had the final taps in I had about a gallon in the first 4 taps. Ran well enough to push out the small wood chips.
Anyone familiar with the sap bags.? I picked up 10 to try on some of the more isolated trees and dont seem to have an idea as to what is required for the taps/attach them to the trees. Seems like they need some sort of hook & loops thing and a smaller tap than what Ive been using.
anyhow here in Ohio we will have to boil Monday or Teusday at the rate it was running today. We started tapping them at 12 noon or so and was ready to drive through the woods on the tractor. we left the tapping area about 2pm and in that time the first bucks was 1/4 full it has 4 taps flowing into that 5 gallon bucket.
I want to make enough to keep for 2 seasons this year like the 2 years ago was...
Mark M
Mrs Captain finished about 12 gallons of sap into about 24 oz of grade A yesterday. Not running well yet....
What I ran into 30 yrs ago was the squirrels would bite holes in them and would go from bag to bag. Hope this don't happen to your bags.
The bags should have a 2pc.metal top that the bag slides into and that hangs on the tap . Holds the bag open and makes it easy to pour or spill if you get in a rush
FordMan you were supposed to take care of the squirrel problem in the fall
No one has struck a tap here yet, but it's been mild all month as if it was March. I can't see why they won't be early here, the snow is under a foot in the hardwoods already. It will be over before they get going.
Maple syrup has more nutritional value than other traditional sweeteners including corn syrup, brown sugar, white granular and honey.
Source: NBMSA Link (http://maple.infor.ca/publications?send_file=1§ion=12&subsection=56&file=08064_Corporate_Brochure_%28E%29.pdf&dir=Website_Assets&PHPSESSID=6asfns5ku99e9u0t5bf1k1t2t6)
I got about 15 gallons today out of 15 ~17 taps. that is sense yesterday at 2 pm or so. and was checked today at about 4:30. All & all ok for first day :) I will go pull some more tomorrow and see if I have enough for one good boil. I have to clean the pan yet, I split some wood today in prep. I had one that was leaking pretty good, ( TZ fitting where I have 3/8" tubing dropping into a 3 or 4 taps into one line for the bucket. It has been leaking but was much worse when I looked at it today and I had to try & adjust it. It appeared to have leaked enough to melt a hole into the 12" snow all way to dirt :(
Anyhow hope others are getting ready, COLD for rest of week after Wed here. So I'll gather & boil one good time prior to having a few days rest.
Mark M
Mild here all week into the weekend with rain. It's not getting cold enough at night though for good sap flow, don't freeze up.
Had word yesterday that some folks are tapping up here already. Said it was running well. It should because it's been mild for 3 weeks.
I didnt check today, below freezing, but went & picked up more taps and tubing. Had all kinds of hose problems, step daughters elec. power died, pipes at home sprung leak so didnt even bother checking today...
Main breaker in SQ D panel died, (HOMLINE) which is bottom of line but better than the cutler hammer stuff, hers is a rental & I had to fix it, had water in from electrician who re-wired the panel didnt use no-lox/anti-oxide compound or seal putty as water ran down service line and into panel and onto/into main breaker corroding it pretty good.
at home I need to find repair parts for old sink fixture all rotted up...
Just another day in the unlucky life of mine...
Mark
I had one of them sinks to. I replaced with porcelain, which isn't expensive at all. I bet that sucker will never rot. :)
Swamp, it may not rot, but don't drop something to heavy in it.... you'll have cracks to deal with.... don't ask how I know this..... I was just doing another one of my redneck repairs that required some washing. ;) ;) :D
Your wife is too forgiving to allow anything like that into the house. The women folk around here would have you and heavy weighing object out in the front yard before you got anywhere near the sink. :D
I added a few bags today & boiled for a batch down, I collected about 12 gallons and boiled the 15 from the other day all down to about 10 gallons of condensed sap/syrup. I took some pics & need to DL them yet. I'll get them puton --Photos MUST be in the Forestry Forum gallery!!!!!-- and size them down for a clip here too.!
anyhow does anyone have an idea as to best use the bags? the place I bought them suggested cutting off the collars and slip the bags over the taps.
thanks
mark
If you hang the bag by itself on the spile you had better put a bucket under , the weight of the sap will rip it off the tree . You should have a two piece metal collar that slips together and supports the bag . The collar has a hole for the spile to fit and drip into the bag.
Quote from: SwampDonkey on February 25, 2010, 02:43:01 PM
Your wife is too forgiving to allow anything like that into the house. The women folk around here would have you and heavy weighing object out in the front yard before you got anywhere near the sink. :D
No she ain't. :D I gave her the ultimatem that either she builds me a shop stocked with all the tools I need right quick or she lets me use the sink. ;) Don'tcha worry I slept in the dog house for a while over dat one too. I never cleaned the mess up good enough to her standards. :-\ Nothin' like that even gets within 20 paces of the house anymore without a good old fashin whoopin from her. And what I don't like about the whole thing is she keeps usin' that ugly stick on me. :D :D
Brad.
Quite a few around here are either tapped already or tapping now!
One local tree farm said this morning they have been sapping since the 20th of February. Earliest they ever tapped.
all my sap storage is full up as of today. I put 35 gallons in cold storage till tomorrow, getting about 1~1.5 gallon/day/tap if not more depending on the tree & tap site. 1 tap on a bag & 24" tree got 3~3.5 gal sense late sunday!
8)
mark m
Going to tap Wed. or Thurs. Looks like the weekend will be good 8)
Nick
took vacation day boiling all day tomorrow!
should end up with a gallon of syrup by days end...
In this corner of the world, southwest corner of New Hampshire I have been helping a friend with some of the 12,000 taps they put out. There was a good run or two about a 10 days ago. As of last night he has made only 400 gallons of syrup.
The nights have been too warm the last week or so for a good run. We need nights in the 20's it's been in the 30's at night around here.
Randy
Been hovering around 28 F at night and 40 in the day. 55F on the south side of a building where I place my lounge chair to soak up some sun. ;D
Getting daylight at 6:30 am now and dark at 7:00 pm. 8)
ok I got some time finally to upload some pics.
tree with single tap & sap bag
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/12855/1247/sap_bag_24hrs_of_time.jpg)
several taps into 1 bucket
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/12855/1247/0221101341.jpg)
bucket close up
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/12855/1247/0221101402.jpg)
boiling the sap down & pulling off into bucket cleans & sterilizes bucket & I do this for all buckets each time I rotate the buckets into sap catching production and into storage
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/12855/1247/0303101401.jpg)
closeup of the pan boiling
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/12855/1247/boiling1.jpg)
bridge I cross walking this day with woman
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/12855/1247/bridge___helper_woman_in_snow.jpg)
heading home looking back up creek towards the tapped trees area.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/12855/1247/tap_trees_ahead.jpg)
hope this helps people out!
sap flowing good today and this weekend, might end up pulling taps as already have close to 2 gallons of syrup ! that should hold me over a year or so:)
Mark M
Pulling your taps already ??? :o. I just tapped yesterday 8)
Nick
I washed and sanitized all the lines on Thursday, then tapped about 250 on Friday. I hope to finish the tapping today so I can collect sap on Sunday. Looks like it will be a great run this week. I am hoping that the lows will keep getting down below freezing for a while. We will see what mother nature gives us.
Went in the back yard to tap one lone tree with my portable drill. Got about 1/4" in and no more juice. :D Used to have a hand drill around here, but stuff disappears over time. Borrowed and not returned is most probable. :D
Yesterday I got A dairycool bulk tank (all stainless steel about 300 gal.) for holding the sap until it is ready to cook down. Around here that is what the sapers use, ;D it should work good I have to build A stand for it and put it along side my sugar shak.
The sap isn't runin to good yet, my trees are slow to get goin the temps have been good this last week but my trees are still sleeping yet. pics will come later.
Kevin
The maples are running good here, but my lone back yard yellow birch has not woke up yet. They are later to run sap. ;D
I have a few small sugar maples that the squirrels, or something, have gone around to and made tiny breaks or chews in the bark for the sap to flow. Darn things are smart. :-X ::)
Kevin, your about to get serious. :D
SPIKER,you have some snow still. Out in the open is just about bare,in my area.The woods,maybe a foot.
I noticed some trees being tapped the other day.I have no idea how it's flowing.Should be good.Below freezing at night and in the 40's during the day.The wind has been blowing some.That will slow things down.
I've lived here among the maples my whole life and never made syrup, so yesterday was my first foray into syrup making at home. My oldest son and I set 12 taps, we got used buckets from a sugarhouse that converted to plastic lines, and got an old freebie, 55-gallon drum evaporator with a couple of galvanized pans from a friend. Set the taps about 4 yesterday afternoon, one of them was flowing so fast it was like a continuous drip, not quite a stream. I set them all on south faces and low, about 30" off the ground. We still have a few inches of snow left but it's supposed to be in the upper 40's all week and below 30 at night. I've been around this stuff my whole life, I'm still trying to figure out why I've never tried it before. The only thing I wish now is that I had more maple trees. I can realistically only put in about 15 taps before I run out of my own trees. Three of my taps are on little tiny maples (6-8" dia.) that are marked for removal, figured I'd get something out of them besides firewood before they get cut later this year.
Now I just have to dig out my mason jars for canning. We're doing this on the cheap, I expect that I'll have about 2 gallons, maybe three, by the time I'm done and that will pay for everything I've bought so far and then some. With good syrup around here at $45-$60 a gallon, and a couple of my kids who would just as soon drink the stuff like water, I think this may pay off.
I boiled down yesterday a good bit again, but am pretty worn out as my setup is heavy on the manual labor and lite on the mechanical work. I have been using the tractor to drive back & collect but the near 40 degrees f yesterday has really started to melt some snow. This with 4K+ lb tractor really ruts up the yard. I walked back at 4pm with 5 gallon buckets (I had collected at 1 pm & got 25 or so gallons) & I hand carried 4 gallons from my 17 taps in that time & tossed it into the pan & boiled that plus all I had down to less than 5 gallons by 530PM when the fire was down and was low enough on sap volume in the pan to let the fire die down and put out what was left. I extinguish the fire rather than let it burn out, and end up with a good bit of nice hardwood charcoal for BBQ later! :)
There was about 24" of snow in the woods when I first started the taps. the tractor drug bottom on the axles on way back. It cut a pretty decent path which iced up but the path also melted away and catches the melt making the path very mucky. Where I boil is in a corned under large white pines and beside the house which shades the area. the yard still has about 6 or so inches where it is undisturbed.
I think I put my taps a little too high this year on most of them, snow may have made it seem like I was in a good spot at the time???.
Someone asked about the BAGS vs the TUBING into Buckets. I'm starting to think that the tubing does slow the flow some as I'm getting a lot more sap from the gravity taps into bags over the restrictive tubing into the buckets.
I have not got a good method of draining yet I did like suggested cut corner of bag & rotate around the tap & pour into the bucket. This works but getting the sap into the bucket I'm loosing some sap & getting more bark floaties in the buckets...
Not boiling today going to collect it later and store it until Monday and get the fire ready for monday as well.
heading out to do that about 330 or 4 pm probably
Mark M
what causes sap to turn brown? i have a couple of trees that are giving me brown sap rather then the clear i get from the rest. it is rainy and in the 40's days 30's at night sap not running well right now
If it's cloudy, then it's bacteria. But when it goes cloudy in my experience it's like the color of 2-in-1 epoxy when stirred. Maybe the sap is touching a rotten compartment in the wood to make it brown or some type of extractive or mineral if the sapwood is real narrow. Probably what is likely happening is stem flow from the rain running down the bark, dripping off limbs. Is the sap pale covered and the lip of the pale not tight to the tree bark? Assuming your not using pipeline. You can get a lot of stem flow from a large tree in rain.
I've made a little over 50 gallon of syrup so far this year, will make another 20 gallon or so today.
We need some freezing at night, and the weatherman is not cooperating. I can just hope that the trees don't start to bud before the temps drop again.
Good luck to all!
mis-typed "stem slow", should be "stem flow".
it must be flow off of the tree, it has been rainy and wet for the last week. i have a jug on this tree and rain could be following the bark down, the other one though is tubed into a jug on the ground and the tube is tight. i suppose that the rain could be following the tube down. it just seemed strange that i only have two trees doing this. the sap isn't cloudy just colored.
the weatherman better watch out his getting on my bad side with this nasty weather lol
To warm, the sap has not run all week, 55 degrees SW WI.
We have made a concrete block boiler, works okay.
Does anyone have pictures of smaller 55gallon-ish boilers that they have made or bought or any other tips or suggestions?
We can not afford a professional arch, any pictures would be appreciated.
Should the fire lick the bottom of the boiling pan or should it sit on some sort of boiler plate?
Thanks, LazerDan
i would also be interested in any ideas on making a boiler.or any such info thanks
I picked up this one from an oil bunker a few years ago but haven't had time to use it. The door and the smoke stack vent are from one of those barrel stove kits. The pan is the only thing you would have to fabricate.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11820/evap1.jpg)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11820/evap2.jpg)
Hi all
It has been warm all week with no freezing nights so the sap is sloooowly running thurs. I got 35 gallons over 4 days(I like 50per day), not so good next week is looking bad too.
What I use to boil sap in is A wood stove I got from A friend (free) ;D A piece of stainless I got off A job dumpster(free) ;D had it bent into and weldedup for A pan. Once I got the pan back Icut the top of the stove off,welded A new top on so the pan would fit snugly. Sothe top had to widen out A bit now the flames do lick the bottom of the pan.it boils nicely once I giter ripen hot. It takes time get to get set up when on A budget.
Gettin tired of this week long rain/fog storm.
all for now KEVIN
Thanks guys for your replys Brad That looks great. how did you attach the fire brick?? where does the smoke exit,can't quite see from the pic. No sap today, very warm and heavy rain. 8" of snow last night nothin but the dirty piles left this mornin. Now for the mud O well thanks Lazerdan
I actually ended up buying that off of ebay. The lining isn't brick, it's a product called "Insboard 2300", a fiber like material and isn't rally attacched, it is just cut so well it stays up against the sides. The smoke vent is located on the top at the rear, behind the pan. I can get you more photos if you like but it will be a bit as I am working in Maine at the moment.
Hi All:
Been really bad this week, I'm glad I got my taps in early and got a good run but I still need to can the stuff I have boiled down. I have close to 20 gallons that is probably 85~90% in cold storage. Was planning of finishing it and canning it today but raining out here in Ohio. I will be up and out to can tomorrow and pull my taps for the year & get ready to clean every thing up.
BBTom sounds like you got going late The weather is not gonna cooperate this year :(
I put up a retaining wall block fire pit last spring and use that to boil over, I fired it 3 or 4 times last year for BBQ and have burnt for sap probably 6 or 8 times this year. The standard concrete basement type blocks seem to hold up better than the retaining wall block. The Sap boiling with all day HOT fire is cracking them pretty bad. The are good for maybe just a year or two now. I had 7 or 8 years out of standard Block... When I rebuild I think i'm going to have to line the next one with some Clay Brick which is fired at or above 2300 degrees F. If I was still working up in my old fab shop I would make up a nice steel one with a wood load door. Maybe I can still get them to make me one up cheap...
Mark M.
Best sap season in years in these parts. Been sun and moon around the clock, freezing good at night and into to 30's-40's in day. Cousin is putting in larger diameter hose this year to carry more volume. ;D 8)
Well I finally gave up today, I pulled the taps about 12noon for the year. I only ended up with 3 gallons & a bit. Hopefully enough to last me till next season. We had about 10 gallons of sap left in the bags that ants got into and flys were heavy into the buckets so I gave up & dumped what was in there & basically said too much work for the syrup ... I had one good fire left in there with the nearly done sap I had in cold storage which was all good I had some nice clear VERY sweet candy left in the pan when we had all the S 8)yrup canned up. we enjoyed the candied sugar for sure... Dinner tomorrow is going to be waffles and hot sausage maybe some good bacon as well;) I took a pic on my phone of one of the 8oz jelly jar size we plan on putting into x-mas baskets this year IF we still have them left by then;) ;D :D
Mark M
I just finished up my winter logging job and was going to start tapping today but with the forecast I am having second thoughts about this season. My sugarbush is on a north face and will run later in the season but there is no freeze predicted for the next 7 days with highs in the upper fifties. Doesn't look good for this year :(
Climbed to over 50F today and going to approach 60F the next couple days, then a little rain shower coming for Thursday. Was 30F this morning.
The weather has not been good for sap runs, in the 40/60 deg. range here in western wis :(. I'm not given up hope for A cool down yet it is still early.
kevin
Here in Southwestern New Hampshire I think the season is over. We had several days of rain and the temps at night were too warm. Looks like this season is going to be a little below average in yeild. The syrup is already turning dark, unless we get some cold weather this may be it.
Randy
check out my photos of my sap boiler, it's the only one that looks like the johnny cash song psychedelic cadilac.
it works really sweet, the boiler pan is the bottom part of a food grade steel drum the fire pot has a draft door from a old oil furnace. the bracing on the pan is from an old gas grill, the fire door is part of lawn mower discharge shoot, there is even bracing from an old film drying rack.
it took my partner two days to make, it's awesome -j-
Nice Job How bout some action photo's when the fire is cookin lazerdan
when i do the next cook off i'll take more pics, ended up with almost a gallon of nice med. amber not bad for my first time.
-j-
Well I boiled down sap yesterday ;D in the partialy completed sap shak. the weather looks like good sap runs this week hope to have500 gal. by this weekend to boil that wood be the most ever for me hope I can boil that much down ;) ???
Icut my finger with Ahand saw yesterday 9 stiches so no bricklayin for me today, i'll go back to work tomorro.
here are some pics ???(//)
i am having an awesome sap run unfortunetly i'm running out of storage :o my question is when exactaly should taps be removed?
hello evergreen,
what I do is take the taps out when the trees start to bud out.
This will be the only week I will be geting sap from the looks of it :-\
hopefuly the weather man is wrong.
When the sap run is over the sap becomes cloudy. That is time to pull them. Actually you can pull them any time , we used to plug the hole , we dont any more sap will continue to run out of the hole just like it will from a broken branch.
I am A slow learner because I cann't post pics from my album to this thread still (cool steamin shak from boilin sap). :'(
could some one explain to me one more time how to do this?
Open the picture in you photo gallery. Scroll down to where it says "Click here to copy this photo code directly to your Forestry Forum post window"
like this
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20845/2697/100_1645.JPG)
my sap is still clear, a couple of the trees seem to be budding but are still running hard, had one i had to change from a gallon jug to a 5 gallon jug. :)
thanks for all the help!!
now if i could just get someone to carrie jugs ...................... :-\
-j-
We got 300 gal of syrup this year . Were hoping for more . May expand to 2000 taps for next season .Now on to honey bees and veggiees and other farm chores.
Looks like it might be a good weekend here 8)
Nick
It'll probably freeze up at the spout, going down cold Friday night. ;D
That's what we need to get it going again.
I will be pulling taps this weekend, trees are starting to bud and sap is slowing down. end of the season for me. had just 20 taps and got about 150 gallons not bad for a first time, sounds pretty small compared to some but was fun
-j-
well it looks like the sap season is coming to an end I'll be pullin taps on saturday
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20845/2697/100_1646.JPG)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20845/2697/100_1643.JPG)
looks like I did it 8) with the pics that is ;D
385 gallons of syrup so far this year from 1400 taps and it should run today.
delbert
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/SD_yellow_birch_sap-005.jpg)
Yellow birch just started flowing since the rain that ended yesterday. It's not running all that fast though. But I also think I am loosing some sap down the trunk from around the tap. Don't know why though, but the bark is all wet. I cut a bunch of brush today too and the stumps are spouting sap from other trees and shrubs. My striped maple are breaking bud now to. Colts foot are in flower.
SD
Don't you have any sugar maple? I thought Canada produced more maple syrup than the US
Stonebroke
Yup, all kinds of'm. But, I'm making birch syrup. Actually, I only got enough sap to make a couple ounces so far. I saved this mornings run for my dad to taste when he gets back from his trip to PA. Said I didn't know what I was do'n. Proof is in the bottle. ;)
It's turned to summer up here, almost 80 degrees in shade. :)
Quote from: SwampDonkey on April 03, 2010, 04:10:31 PM
Yup, all kinds of'm. But, I'm making birch syrup. Actually, I only got enough sap to make a couple ounces so far. I saved this mornings run for my dad to taste when he gets back from his trip to PA. Said I didn't know what I was do'n. Proof is in the bottle. ;)
It's turned to summer up here, almost 80 degrees in shade. :)
So you just want to be different?
Stonebroke
Different because of the flavour is all. ;D
The Scots here in the "Colony" tapped birch during the first world war because of rationing for the war effort.
so what does it taste like i've heard it's minty?
A somewhat spicy molasses taste. No mint or evergreen taste because that is vapourized out by the boiling process, you'd have to distill it to capture that oil. Like birch beer.
Is it harvested at the same time as maple?
Mine didn't run at the same time maple did. It was about a month later. But this was a real odd ball spring.
Right now, everything is turning green, we had about 5 days of birch run from where I am.