Making maple syrup

[ARHinAK]

I just tapped a few trees yesterday then got hit with another 10 inches of snow last night with another foot or more on its way. I guess I can cool my jets for a while before tapping more trees. Maybe next week.

 

[Flbt]

WAS WONDERING JUST THE OTHER NIGHT HOW MUCH SAP YOU GET FROM A TREE.
GOTTA BE HONEST AS A SOUTHERN GUY WAS PROBABLY THINKING HOW MUCH SYRUP YOU GOT FROM A TREE LIKE MAPLE SYRUP JUST POURED OUT!

So I take it you never made cane syrup in the south then?

 

[SETH RINGER]

So I take it you never made cane syrup in the south then?

NO. YOU ARE A BIT MORE COUNTRY (A GOOD THING) THAN ME.

 

[Racer00]

As a little back story, my family owned and operated a large sugar bush in Michigan's Upper Peninsula for many years. A good years production was generally between 8-12,000 US gallons. Most years saw between 25,000 and 33,000 taps all hooked to a vacuum system to bring the sap flow to the house.
An average tree on an average season will produce between 15-18 gallons of sap with no vacuum and 20-35 gallons under vacuum.
Amount of sap need to produce a gallon of syrup varies by sugar content of the sap. Generally a 2% sugar content is the figure most use. At 2%, it takes 40 gallon of sap to produce 1 gallon of syrup. % varies by time of year, type of trees and weather conditions. We have seen sugar content exceed 3.5%. Once it falls below about 1% (as the season nears it's end and the trees tire) it becomes unprofitable to continue production.

 

[Flbt]

NO. YOU ARE A BIT MORE COUNTRY (A GOOD THING) THAN ME.

Oh ok
It’s supriising how much cane juice needs to be boils down I think it’s 10 to 1 or there about

 

[C.W. Richter]

Very cool. I used to help neighbors as a kid (there are just too many Big producers-farm/commercial operations nearby that I don't waste any time on it as there's always work and then maintenance and land work to be done.) They also produce many other variants, including Hickory and Black Walnut, which are a 50:1 deal, and local Amish make molasses out of a sorghum-sugarcane cross. Deer love it too in the early season, but that variety lays right down in the first heavy rain/wind or snow of Fall. *Just getting walnuts is a fairly involved (smelly/black) task! lol The area is loaded with sugar maple, blk walnut and hickory. With the small-scale tapping/collection (plastic/poly/buckets) they have today, collection is the easy part. Processing takes time and energy and we share the firewood between 2 houses (1 w/ a woodstove and the other w/ a wood furnace and water heater!) e-bills are 6x less than at home. *Sry, 7.5 since the Gulf of Trump crisis. (NOT opposed, and I too like Lobster.)

 

[Flbt]

NO. YOU ARE A BIT MORE COUNTRY (A GOOD THING) THAN ME.

Oh about being country
My grandpa was born in the 1880s I think 87
My dad was his youngest being born in 1940
And I am his youngest 14 years between me and the middle kid
So yea I was raised bacilly at least a generation behind
I know very few of my class mates were living on a working farm.

 

[Flbt]

Very cool. I used to help neighbors as a kid (there are just too many Big producers-farm/commercial operations nearby that I don't waste any time on it as there's always work and then maintenance and land work to be done.) They also produce many other variants, including Hickory and Black Walnut, which are a 50:1 deal, and local Amish make molasses out of a sorghum-sugarcane cross. Deer love it too in the early season, but that variety lays right down in the first heavy rain/wind or snow of Fall. *Just getting walnuts is a fairly involved (smelly/black) task! lol The area is loaded with sugar maple, blk walnut and hickory. With the small-scale tapping/collection (plastic/poly/buckets) they have today, collection is the easy part. Processing takes time and energy and we share the firewood between 2 houses (1 w/ a woodstove and the other w/ a wood furnace and water heater!) e-bills are 6x less than at home. *Sry, 7.5 since the Gulf of Trump crisis. (NOT opposed, and I too like Lobster.)

The black walnut is interesting
Have a small stand of them behind the house
Do you think terpinte taps would work?

 

[C.W. Richter]

probably, but they're probably bigger as the viscosity is even higher/lower flow rate (typ. conifer sap). The plastic ones for syrup are cheap. there are youtube videos on everything discussed above! i've cleaned up turpentine factories...it's not the turp (or the boiled veg oil into polyurethane) that's the issue, it's the petroleum solvents they add to it (and spill in the process) to keep it liquid that's the problem. My Dad RIP used metric shit-tonnes of ALL wood preservatives, and it was part of his downfall (Cuprinol, Phthalates, Creosote-no bueno getting on your skin or breathing it in regularly! And, par for the period, he washed it all off his skin with leaded gasoline and kerosene.) He'd drink all the stuff we're mentioning for breakfast...lol All the fam houses had cedar shake siding, and then barns with "oil" paint, sometimes leaded. The oldest taps I saw were simply metal tubes with a diag. cut at the end, so if you get to the right depth, it'll work (not too small.) Tannic acid and Methyl Alcohol production were a BIG deal in the forests around here once upon a time. There are still areas called Methol or Acidalia...GL

The black walnut is interesting
Have a small stand of them behind the house
Do you think terpinte taps would work?

 

[C.W. Richter]

I myself really love Marula Syrup!

 

[BnC 04]

One of the more interesting threads I follow. Hats off to yall making your own syrup.
That being said if anyone is selling some homemade jars/jug through outside channels please let me know as Id be interested in getting some for Easter.

 

[MS 9x56]

Wow, no wonder it's so expensive in the store. Didn't realize it takes that much sap to make syrup.
How much sap do you get from a tree?
Thanks.

It varies widely from year to year depending on the weather.

 

[MS 9x56]

I should elaborate, we tapped all our trees on the south side of the trees with one bucket each. During the warm spell earlier this week we were getting 2-4 gallons per tree per day. It was looking like it was going to be a very short season but it has cooled off again. Only Mother Nature knows for sure.so far we are still making light amber syrup. This is the first time any of these trees have ever been tapped. My new sugar bush is on a south sloping hill also.

 

[MS 9x56]