Maple syrup season

[ploverwing]

We tap our Bigleaf Maple trees from as early as November until as late as March, but usually in a given year not for that long! Often we'll tap for a 6 to 8 week stretch sometime therein. My daughter and husband set up the taps a week ago and we already have just under 2 litres of finished syrup at about 65% sugar. The sap comes out, at best, around 1% from the tree, so it's a lot of evaporating. A few years ago Dave bought a proper evaporator pan and pre-warming pan and it's made evaporating a lot easier. A couple of years ago, in time for the season, Dave built a level concrete platform for the bricks that we set up to build the fire in and place the evaporator pans on top of. He also built us a beautiful Sugar Shack to keep us out of the weather while we tend the fire. It's a pretty awesome place to hang out and play ukulele in during the warmer months, too.

We are working through about 30 gallons of sap right now and likely more to come! It's been a really good year so far.

 

[badhabits]

Very cool! How much syrup will that 30 gal yield?

 

[Wiggy]

Yum! Accept no substitute.

 

[ploverwing]

Very cool! How much syrup will that 30 gal yield?

I'll have to get my math-y husband to calculate for you although we'll have a closer approximation after we've reduced it all a little bit, say to 10%. That's a lot easier and more accurate calculation than 30 gallons at max 1% probably less sugar concentration.

 

[Mike $]

That makes me jealous. I would love to live where I can do this. That's a pretty great setup you have there.

 

[ploverwing]

That makes me jealous. I would love to live where I can do this. That's a pretty great setup you have there.

Yup we are pretty lucky.

 

[EDW]

I love maple syrup!

 

[frets alot]

My husband and I have been producing pure maple syrup in Northern Michigan since 2008. We produce 100+ gallons of maple syrup in March-April. We tap over 800 trees.

 

[hands_on_lanzon]

I thought the Seasons theme came early and I was just gonna start thinking of syrup songs to play.

 

[KohanMike]

I always have a bottle on hand of Whole Foods organic dark maple syrup that shows it comes from USA and Canada.

 

[mjh42]

Made maple syrup at a couple of places that I worked. March April was more of the time around here. Best Maple syrup I've ever had. Had a local source for a couple of decades. But the couple making it aged out of the process and I don't know who took over the farm. Now I try to buy maple syrup made in my state, several suppliers keep me in the sweetness.

 

[Wiggy]

Made maple syrup at a couple of places that I worked. March April was more of the time around here. Best Maple syrup I've ever had. Had a local source for a couple of decades. But the couple making it aged out of the process and I don't know who took over the farm. Now I try to buy maple syrup made in my state, several suppliers keep me in the sweetness.

Yes! Local syrup, local honey.

 

[frets alot]

A bit of family history in our maple syrup business too. We tap the trees and produce on the property that my great grandparents settled on, when they immigrated to the US in 1889. I love being out on the property, thinking of my heritage, knowing they and my grandparents and dad worked this land. They'd be proud it's still being farmed.

As for local, most definitely!

 

[frets alot]

We tap our Bigleaf Maple trees from as early as November until as late as March, but usually in a given year not for that long! Often we'll tap for a 6 to 8 week stretch sometime therein. My daughter and husband set up the taps a week ago and we already have just under 2 litres of finished syrup at about 65% sugar. The sap comes out, at best, around 1% from the tree, so it's a lot of evaporating. A few years ago Dave bought a proper evaporator pan and pre-warming pan and it's made evaporating a lot easier. A couple of years ago, in time for the season, Dave built a level concrete platform for the bricks that we set up to build the fire in and place the evaporator pans on top of. He also built us a beautiful Sugar Shack to keep us out of the weather while we tend the fire. It's a pretty awesome place to hang out and play ukulele in during the warmer months, too.

We are working through about 30 gallons of sap right now and likely more to come! It's been a really good year so far.

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I love your operation and the fact that you are out there doing it. Family maple syrup production is the best, regardless of its size. It's an interesting process that is complicated, demanding and full of hard work. Yet, some how we find joy in it.

 

[Patty]

You two, @frets alot and @ploverwing, are terrific. This looks exhausting, but oh so rewarding.

This makes me homesick for our years in Connecticut, when we looked forward to seeing the buckets show up on all the maples each year, and loved the sight of the little (and big!) sugar shacks, and the smoke curling up into the winter woods. How we miss the north!

Amie, I cannot imagine a nicer place to sit and play the ukulele than an open-sided sugar shack in the woods.

 

[don_b]

Guy at work just brought this over to my desk. Harvested from his neighbor’s yard.

 

[casualmusic]

We tap our Bigleaf Maple trees from as early as November until as late as March, but usually in a given year not for that long! Often we'll tap for a 6 to 8 week stretch sometime therein.

Out east the sap only goes up and down during +/- 0*C for a couple weeks in Feb-Mar. It’s interesting to hear about west coast maple sugaring for a month or so mid winter.

We tapped a few sugar maples to entertain kids and have a reason to hold sugaring and snowshoeing parties

Our boiling moved from the indoor wood stove to the outdoor bbq after sticky steam condensed on walls. Converting 40 litres of sap into one litre of syrup was lotsa work so we got most of our syrup from farms.

The local maple sugar coop had bottles and labels for our “Cousin Caz” gift bottles

 

[casualmusic]

I love your operation and the fact that you are out there doing it. Family maple syrup production is the best, regardless of its size.

yup!!

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Sugar bush - Wikipedia

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Maple syrup - Wikipedia

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[KevinFL]

I love maple syrup, it was a staple where I grew up in Pennsylvania. Both of your sugar shack setups look awesome. None of that made here in Florida that I've ever heard of, but there's some good cane syrup made in the area. I haven't yet got any sugar cane planted on our property but it's on the to-do list.

 

[4Quince]

We tap our Bigleaf Maple trees from as early as November until as late as March, but usually in a given year not for that long! Often we'll tap for a 6 to 8 week stretch sometime therein. My daughter and husband set up the taps a week ago and we already have just under 2 litres of finished syrup at about 65% sugar. The sap comes out, at best, around 1% from the tree, so it's a lot of evaporating. A few years ago Dave bought a proper evaporator pan and pre-warming pan and it's made evaporating a lot easier. A couple of years ago, in time for the season, Dave built a level concrete platform for the bricks that we set up to build the fire in and place the evaporator pans on top of. He also built us a beautiful Sugar Shack to keep us out of the weather while we tend the fire. It's a pretty awesome place to hang out and play ukulele in during the warmer months, too.

We are working through about 30 gallons of sap right now and likely more to come! It's been a really good year so far.

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How exciting!! I too love maple syrup!