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Oh,how I wish I would have paid more attention to what my mother and father did. I'm glad somebody still knows how to do it. Thanks for starting and continuing this thread.

I haven't been involved in maple syrup since the early 1960s. But, it seems like this would be a great year for lots of production. For the last several weeks our temps have been going between the single digits and into the mid-30s/lower-40s nearly every day. It sometimes varies as much as 10 degrees either way. With these temperature swings, I'm sure the maples are moving a lot of sap. It has also been two very wet years for us, so there is a lot of moisture in the root systems.

We used a team of Belgian horses to collect the buckets, using what my family called "sledges" -- not sleds! My dad and my uncles put boards where logs were usually loaded on the sledges, and they put large sap "boxes" on top of those. The "boxes" were the size of the top of our sap stove. When there was lots of sap running, they hung smaller (3-4 gallon??) buckets above the boxes.

We sold most. We split the rest with the family.

My mother and aunts would cook around the clock over a big wood fired flat top stove that my uncle welded from steel plates. It was in our smokehouse -- as the bacon and hams were done by syrup season. It was definitely a labor of love.

It sure all looks delicious,and sure brings back a lot of memories.


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Dang Sparkplug, the frozen sap is very interesting but IN ground with no snow just plain baffles me.


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No snow here Bob, been gone for a few days. Now I'm finding flooded roadsways to be my biggest travel impediment.


"Forget pounds and ounces, I'm figuring displacement!"

If we accept that: MBG(+)FGSF(=)HBG(F1)
And we surmise that: BG(>)HBG(F1) while GSF(<)HBG(F1)
Would it hold true that: HBG(F1)(+)AM500(x)q.d.(=)1.5lbGRWT?
PB answer: It depends.
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Note to self: Before NEXT tapping season, design, fabricate, and install a steam hood.....it's monsoon season in the sugar shack today.



"Forget pounds and ounces, I'm figuring displacement!"

If we accept that: MBG(+)FGSF(=)HBG(F1)
And we surmise that: BG(>)HBG(F1) while GSF(<)HBG(F1)
Would it hold true that: HBG(F1)(+)AM500(x)q.d.(=)1.5lbGRWT?
PB answer: It depends.
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Ya mean you don't have a huge cupola on top to let the steam out?


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Sparky, does it get warn enough in there to keep that steam from freezing? I know absolutely nothing about this process.


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No cupola, but I do have a ventilation fan right above the evaporator. It's hard to see in the photo, but the floor in the building is split level, and correspondingly so is the roof. The fan blows through the short "end" wall onto the lower section of roof. It works, but it just can't keep up. These things make a lot of steam.

Dave, there's no freezing fog inside the building.. grin It's not like a wood fire in the stove, this thing is wide open all the time. No damper in the pipe, and the draft control cranked open. The flames start at one end of the barrel, and are pulled all the way to the stovepipe on the other end, a distance of about five feet.

It roars pretty good, and keeps me toasty.


"Forget pounds and ounces, I'm figuring displacement!"

If we accept that: MBG(+)FGSF(=)HBG(F1)
And we surmise that: BG(>)HBG(F1) while GSF(<)HBG(F1)
Would it hold true that: HBG(F1)(+)AM500(x)q.d.(=)1.5lbGRWT?
PB answer: It depends.
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Never mind that puny cup, my sap bucket runneth over.... During the last five days I have managed to collect another 50 gallons of sap, enough to boil again this weekend.

Then tonight, I gathered an additional 52 gallons just in a 24 hr period.

Going to be a long weekend of boiling.



"Forget pounds and ounces, I'm figuring displacement!"

If we accept that: MBG(+)FGSF(=)HBG(F1)
And we surmise that: BG(>)HBG(F1) while GSF(<)HBG(F1)
Would it hold true that: HBG(F1)(+)AM500(x)q.d.(=)1.5lbGRWT?
PB answer: It depends.
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You'll have to start checking the buckets more often. The sap will really be running now! Good weather for it, and moisture in the ground.

It'll be raining in the sugar shack with all the steam!!!!!


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How much syrup does a gallon of sap make?


It's not about the fish. It's about the pond. Take care of the pond and the fish will be fine. PB subscriber since before it was in color.

Without a sense of urgency, Nothing ever gets done.

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Originally Posted By: Dave Davidson1
How much syrup does a gallon of sap make?


It depends upon the sugar content in the sap, which varies according to different times of the season, which species of maple you have tapped, and even from tree to tree within the same area.

Last season in Indiana, the AVERAGE amount of sap needed to make 1 gallon of syrup was 42 gallons.


"Forget pounds and ounces, I'm figuring displacement!"

If we accept that: MBG(+)FGSF(=)HBG(F1)
And we surmise that: BG(>)HBG(F1) while GSF(<)HBG(F1)
Would it hold true that: HBG(F1)(+)AM500(x)q.d.(=)1.5lbGRWT?
PB answer: It depends.
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With the warm temps down there (compared to here) any idea how many more days you'll be able to collect sap before it turns bitter?

You're going to go from making syrup to morel hunting!

Last edited by esshup; 03/08/14 11:40 AM.

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Originally Posted By: esshup
With the warm temps down there (compared to here) any idea how many more days you'll be able to collect sap before it turns bitter?

You're going to go from making syrup to morel hunting!


Usually, you quit when the trees start to bud out. I don't think that time's very far off, either. Fortunately, we intend to boil next Sat and Sun and then we'll be all done. We boiled 14 hours this weekend, and reduced a total of 107 gallons of sap.

As of right now we have made almost 3 gallons of syrup, with another 4 gallons of sweet ready for final reduction. That should put us up around 5 gallons total. If we get another 2-3 gallons of syrup next weekend, that will do it.....already beyond what I intended to produce.

Checking the finished product with the hydrometer. Notice the red line just above the liquid's surface... this batch might be a little heavy, but we'll blend it with what we produced earlier and should be fine.



Finished product....bottled sunshine.



"Forget pounds and ounces, I'm figuring displacement!"

If we accept that: MBG(+)FGSF(=)HBG(F1)
And we surmise that: BG(>)HBG(F1) while GSF(<)HBG(F1)
Would it hold true that: HBG(F1)(+)AM500(x)q.d.(=)1.5lbGRWT?
PB answer: It depends.
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That looks great! Now who's going to design the labels for the jars?


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Tony,
That looks great, well done sir, well done!!! Now if you had 2000 pancakes, you would be set!!


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Well done...this makes 8 hr lump charcoal burns seem more like a trip to the Quik Shop! Impressive, and great documentation...

How long will it keep? Do you freeze it for use throughout the year?


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Tony, very cool thread. I really like more of the old school homesteading stuff on the forum. I doubt most of us have a pond in an urban backyard, so branching out to various agricultural/gardening/horticultural stuff makes a lot of sense. Our ponds are just a part of the total package. A big part, but just a part nonetheless.


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Seems like maple syrup is a bargain at almost any price.

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I hope you teach this craft to a younger generation to keep the torch burning (pun intended). Good job continuing this process.

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Originally Posted By: FireIsHot
Tony, very cool thread. I really like more of the old school homesteading stuff on the forum. I doubt most of us have a pond in an urban backyard, so branching out to various agricultural/gardening/horticultural stuff makes a lot of sense. Our ponds are just a part of the total package. A big part, but just a part nonetheless.


+100


Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. ~ Henry David Thoreau

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All done....pulled the taps this evening, and will wash the buckets and put them away. I'm glad to be finished, but it did sting a little to dump that 35 gallons of sap tonight.

My goal was to make 2-3 gallons of syrup, just to have some for us and be able to give the rest away....well, after boiling down 280 gallons of sap, we ended up with around six gallons. Already planning to increase production yet again next year.

It's bittersweet. One one hand it's good to be done, but on the other it's kinda' sad.

My wife, skimming foam:



My family, with the ash door open on the evaporator so they could make smores: (Boil got so violent with door open it worried me)



Sunset on syrup:



"Forget pounds and ounces, I'm figuring displacement!"

If we accept that: MBG(+)FGSF(=)HBG(F1)
And we surmise that: BG(>)HBG(F1) while GSF(<)HBG(F1)
Would it hold true that: HBG(F1)(+)AM500(x)q.d.(=)1.5lbGRWT?
PB answer: It depends.
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Strong work Tony! Great thread from tap to bottle.


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Congrats on your work, a great write-up and a successful season! The sap here just started running less than a week ago.


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Well done, Uncle Jamima! PM for my home address, I'll whip up some flapjacks this weekend. Appreciate your thoughtfulness and generosity in advance.


Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. ~ Henry David Thoreau

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Tony, that has to be a very proud feeling for you and your family, well done indeed!!


Brian

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A dry fly catches no fish
Try not to be THAT 10%
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