Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Property Projects & Construction Making Maple Syrup

Was it the full bucket photo, or drinking from the bucket, that finally did it?

I've got pretty good boys Al....they would gladly share their bucket with you.

14+18=32 gallons so far. I may have overestimated the noon time on Thursday thing.....

Yeah, I'm pretty confident that I'll be firing as hard as I can go this weekend.

Temps up here next week are only supposed to get up to the mid 20's.

It was the boys sharing that legacy moment with you that did it. I like hanging around kids that enjoy the outdoors.

Only 7 gallons this evening....didn't get cold enough last night. No matter though, as I have enough sap to process.

Several hours of boiling and tending the fire this weekend. Can't wait!

I don't even like syrup but if you need help tending the fire that is something I love to do!!!

Boiling away....smells good!

12 ounces of real Maple syrup has 891.3 calories. A bottle of Peroni (12.2 ounces) has 150 calories.

You probably wouldn't drink 12 ounces of Maple syrup at once nor would you put a bottle of Peroni on your pancakes. Wait, Sunil, have you tried Peroni on ........

We have one Maple tree large enough to tap. Poor planning.

I really like Maple Syrup!

It's ranked high with bacon, butter, bleu cheese for me, but can't fix oatmeal! I know the Quaker dude from my youth. That's all we had every morning, but I suppose it got a few brain cells to stick in place.

That Cream of Wheat stuff brought things to a new low, but would probably work with Bacon mixed in.

This is a serious post!

Boiled down 44 gallons of sap today, with an evaporation rate around 6-7 gallons per hour. I was very pleased with that, especially on a homemade rig.

Steaming away.


Skimming off some foam.


What was left after the boil.....about 1/2" in the pan, which is cutting it close. Very easy to scorch when it gets that low. Nice carmel color, but it's not syrup yet...it needs a further reduction, which I will do over propane as it's easier to control the heat when things come down to the wire.
This is simply referred to as "sweet". As in: "I've got a half inch of sweet in the pan"

Looking good!!!

When I have help people in the past it has always been the open fire kettle method..

Your set up looks a lot nicer.. What is the purpose of the upper pan? Preheater so you don't lose your boil in the larger bottom pan?

The open fire is traditional, but this way you don't add smoke flavoring to your syrup. Or ashes for that matter.

Yeah, the back pan is the preheater to keep from killing the boil.

That's what I was figuring.. As for smoke and ashes, don't eat the stuff so it has never really mattered to me... lol

People do get mad at me when I take it and add it to turkey brine though.. They always say to buy the cheap stuff and give them the real deal.. Usual response is get off your lazy bum and make your own.. Kinda the same response when I make up venison jerky or find a boat load of morels in the spring..

The only maple syrup I have ever tasted is the store bought stuff...and I am sure it pales in comparison. Being from the south I hope one day I will be able to taste some real deal syrup from up north but I will say it looks delicious and the process to produce your own looks like a blast. Plus the memories with the kids you cant put a price on that. Im officially jealous as well.

Hey Spark, just curious. 44 gallons of sap will make approximately how many gallons of syrup? Is there a basic formula that to make one gallon of syrup, it takes about "X" amount of sap?

Not to step on Tonys toes and he can correct me if I am wrong, but from memory the average ratio is 40 to 1... It is a lot of time and work to produce good maple syrup.. I have helped friends do it in the past just for the comradery, well that an a reason to drink beer..

Reading this makes me want to take my boys out and tap a few trees and make some up so they have the appreciation of what it takes..

Thanks for the info. I guess if it were easy, everyone would be doing it!

40:1 is a pretty good average, although it varies some with the sugar content of the sap.....which also varies according to time of year, and the variety of maple you have tapped. 2.5-3% sugar content is considered great, and some producers will check this with a refractometer. The higher the sugar content, the less time spent boiling.

I just tap the trees and boil...I have plenty of firewood for fuel!

A trick to reduce the ratio before boiling is removing the ice, as the sugars will tend to not freeze into the ice. On very cold mornings I have gotten it down to 20:1 or so. I'm sure some sugar is trapped in the ice, but not much.

I used 3-gallon plastic (surgical) bags on holders, which allows draining the remaining unfrozen sap into buckets, and then tossing out the ice. Usually a hole remains in the ice on the tree-side of the bag. It saves quite a bit of boiling in the right conditions!

I am missing it this spring, but I am over-booked with Scouts.

“A sap-run is the sweet good-bye of winter. It is the fruit of the equal marriage of the sun and frost.”
~John Burroughs, "Signs and Seasons", 1886

Equal mariage huh? Not this eve, at least not in my sugarbush.

I was wondering about that when I was outside today. I was also wondering if trees that are tapped on the South side of the trunk will flow on days where the temps are below freezing vs. the North side of the trunk.

How old are those taps?

Wed is supposed to have a high of 8 above, Thurs and Fri around 12-15 above. Nights at or below zero....

I saw one of the Amish guys using a hydrometer to check the boiled syrup instead of a refractometer.

Esshup, I do my best to try and tap only on the south side of the trees...and it does make a difference. The tap in the photo has been in for 8 days now.

I also use a hydrometer to check syrup.....but not sap.

The taps look like they're wrought iron and OLD!

My signature in another forum I used to frequent is a John Burroughs quote..

"I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order."

John Burroughs