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

I betcha DD1's hunting this weekend, but I'll talk to him this week.

Scott is right. Put a little bit of the real stuff on your forehead and your tongue will beat your brains out trying to get to it.

Been studying the long range forecast, and decided to go all in. The family and I will be putting taps in tomorrow....hopefully ice fishing in the morning while it's coldest, then hit the woods as the temps rise into the low 50's.

Things are changing quickly right now, weather wise.

According to the weather up here, you have a week before the bottom falls out of the thermometer. Get the tubing and the vaccum pump fired up!

Tapped in today. We shall see what mother nature has in store.

Hope all goes well for ya. A friend made some for the first time last yr but I wasn't fortunate to sample it.
Did the ice hold up overnight?

Thanks Bob. Ice was good this morning, not so good by evening. Hopefully will tighten back up.

Thanks for the quick response. Since you're much farther So than my place, I'd have guessed the ice to have melted down pretty bad.

Did she cooperate? I always enjoy this thread.

She did indeed, Al. We tapped in with 55 maples and 10 black walnuts, and collected 35 gallons maple sap and 6 gallons walnut sap this morning. Not a big run by any means, but just right to test out the changes we made over the summer. It was nice smelling the sap cooking and listening to the boil.

My wife along with our oldest, tapping in.


Gage, dumping sap from a bucket into the collection tank.


Offloading sap from the collection tank into the storage tanks inside the building.


Our boys, filling the tanks. So much nicer than carrying 5 gallon buckets.


Steam rising up into our new cupola. No more rain in the sugar house.

Trade you some Datil pepper jelly for some????

You're on!

Sprkplug,

I have never heard of collecting Black Walnut sap for syrup. Do you mix the maple and walnut together or make a different syrup from the Walnut?

Tony, outstanding. Keep the pics coming. I never see a picture of your boys where their not smiling, and that says a lot about the value of family activities.

Thanks Al, I'm never sure if this is appropriate content, not having to do with ponds and fish at all.

Bill, the walnut is something new for us also. Time will tell.

I have a friend over in your area that makes syrup from everything.. He posted some smoked salmon pics awhile back that he brined in his hickory syrup that looked delicious.. He also makes a vanilla bourbon I would like to try..

It's absolutely appropriate. I've never seen a pond in a bank's asphalt parking lot.

Ponds, wildlife, property activities. They all tie in together.

Oh, man, Tony, I look forward to this thread every year! Please post more pics of the process as it continues

Cool, we just need to make a big batch now.
If you haven't had Datils here is the story of them.not real common outside St augustine area... However recently I have seen popularity expanding around florida and the south east.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datil_pepper

I'll need to make my own thread I guess.. lol

Geez, I wonder if anyone travels back and forth from In to Fl.

Walnut syrup may take some effort. Refractometer indicates 1.25% sugar content in the sap. That equates roughly to 70 gallons of sap per 1 gallon of syrup, IF, the sugar content holds and doesn't drop as the season progresses.

Yikes, that's a lot of sap per gallon. Doesn't the sugar content normally decrease as the season progresses in Maple trees?

I know where plenty of black walnuts are that you can tap.. Only a 2.5 hour drive north west..

Sprkplug this post is great!!!

You got me googling today after you mentioned walnut syrup. We have tons of box elder trees on our property. When we first bought this property I was going to cut them down as trash trees. Now I see they make a very good syrup as well as producing an abundance of huge tasty mushrooms in the fall. Now I consider them a productive asset!

Yep, box elders are often considered members of the maple family, and make great syrup. Are you thinking about tapping this year, Bill?

Thanks for the offer Sean, but that's a long way to haul sap, and an even longer distance to hang tubing!

Scott you are correct. The first sap of the season is usually highest in sugar, and often makes the lightest grade of syrup. That's one reason we tapped in so early this year.

That, and the fact that I'm trying to get things wrapped up before a certain weekend in Feb.