Tapped 64 trees today. Sap is running well. Will tap 20 more tomorrow.

Kinda sad this year. I lost my 4 legged furry shadow of 12 years on Thursday. Not the same in the woods without Duke.

Sorry that you lost your friend. That’s always so hard.

Nice! Sorry about your buddy. :(

I tapped my 4 today and they're going as well

I wish I liked most people as well as I like most dogs. A good dog is something special and it hurts when they pass. But one of the great things that dogs help us with is teaching us how to deal with loss and how to grieve.

I'm tapping trees tomorrow. That's a beautiful German Shepherd!

Sorry for your loss Frenchy.

awbrown: "I wish I liked most people as well as I like most dogs."

Me too. I'm very sorry for your loss. He is a very fine looking boy. I love German shepherds.

If we're lucky in life, we have more than one shadow. There's the dark one we cast and the bright ones that trail us through woods and meadows.

Good to hear the syrup is flowing, but sorry to hear about losing your sidekick. It really is hard.

Cherish the moment's you had and the moment's you now have. Cause no matter what you say, another dog will find his way to your home. Trust me. You'll need this time to prepare.
Looking forward to maple syrup season. Enjoy that...

I am trying my hand at making maple syrup. I live in northern California so we have the bigleaf maple. It's my first attempt and I haven't even met anyone else who has made maple syrup in my area. It's going to be a small batch, in my case.

Ronnie, the dog, helped me locate the trees.

I just finished my first attempt at Maple Syrup and WOW! What a treat. I only have two maple trees on my small subdivision lot in the Twin Cities and only one of those is large enough to tap, but I tapped it this morning and had two gallons of sap after work this afternoon. Boiled it up tonight and I'm sold. Looking forward to seeing how much I get before the season is done.

Tapped 35 trees yesterday and very little sap flowing if any. Western WI near Osceola.
Jon

Going to put a few test taps out with kids tomorrow. Once they start flowing I’ll put the rest out.

Doing 100 taps and hoping for 20 gallons of the real deal.

It is tradition at our sugar shack for my dad to show up right as we are finishing up our boil. Usually 4-5 gallons of finished syrup in the pan at this time. My dad says the same thing every time. I don’t know why but it cracks me up every time. After a long day of inhaling sap steam and splitting wood your mind gets a little looney.

“Ok boys, now is when we pour the bucket of bullheads in.”

I planted 21 sugar maples a couple years back. I'm still waiting to tap!*

*Seriously, I doubt I'll ever tap them as I'll die before they're big enough to tap, but I smile when I think of someone someday tapping them.

My son put in 500 taps this weekend and says it is running well he is looking at a good production season.

Okay, I just read this: "Yes, "other" trees can be tapped for their sap to produce syrup: soft maples (silver and red), walnut, birch, hickory, and even elm."

So, has anyone ever tapped a non-maple for sap and boiled it into syrup? I would love to try walnut syrup or birch syrup.

I really wanted to tap my 2 maples in the back yard. They are both big enough to support at least 3 taps each. In the end I determined I just don't have the time this year to handle the boiling process. Maybe next year, or the year after, or the year after... or maybe it will just become one of those things I annoy my wife with by saying "this will be the year" every year for the next 30 years.

A friend made birch syrup last year. The boiling process is different than with maple syrup.

Tastes a LOT different than maple syrup. More of a bitters type tase. Like, Bitters. The stuff grandpa used to give me for the hiccups.

I really miss syrup time.
I've been away from northern Minnesota two winters now.
This was one day of syrup with my neighbors:

commercial operation?

It's an impressive setup either way!

MrBadExample: "A friend made birch syrup last year. The boiling process is different than with maple syrup.


Tastes a LOT different than maple syrup. More of a bitters type tase. Like, Bitters. The stuff grandpa used to give me for the hiccups."

Interesting: That bitterness must be why most folks tap maples. Thanks for the info.

Tapping began in earnest around Perham this week.

Making maple syrup fo the first time and having a blast! I tapped 12 trees, only 6 producing. About 8-14 gallons a day and 3 gallon are making a pint(yes I’ve tripled checked to make sure it’s syrup). I’m loving it.

Should be a good weekend here in central Wisconsin.

riverrunner: "commercial operation?"

Semi-commercial. They did about 1000 trees. Gave away to family and friends but also sold large batches to some companies who gave them to clients for Christmas.
The operation paid for itself during their retirement years.
Their "Amber" won 1st place at the Minnesota Maple Syrup Producers annual event in 2016.

If they are tapping a thousand trees and have that kind of set up it is a commercial operation.

No matter what they tell you.

We have 31 trees tapped for a week and we have about 50 gallons of sap frozen in the snow bank. We are thinking of staring cooking it down Saturday

Anyone got a good reference for a tree-tapping newbie?

stupid questions like "does it matter which direction of the tree you tap?" and "what if I don't WANT to get 30 gallons of sap?"... stuff like that.

Is there a go-to web site I can follow directions from?

BWPaddler: "Anyone got a good reference for a tree-tapping newbie?


stupid questions like "does it matter which direction of the tree you tap?" and "what if I don't WANT to get 30 gallons of sap?"... stuff like that.


Is there a go-to web site I can follow directions from?"

South side of the tree is supposedly best.
With the bigleaf maple that grows wild out here in the Pacific Northwest, 30 gallons of sap will cook down to 3 quarts of syrup (40-1 for this species). Ten gallons would equal one quart. I found that with small batches, you lose a noticeable amount to the filter and pots too.

I just found a small batch website. Hope it helps.

Small batch

missmolly: "Okay, I just read this: "Yes, "other" trees can be tapped for their sap to produce syrup: soft maples (silver and red), walnut, birch, hickory, and even elm."


So, has anyone ever tapped a non-maple for sap and boiled it into syrup? I would love to try walnut syrup or birch syrup. "

I bought some birch syrup once. It was not suitable for pancakes and I never found another use.

The last time I was at a particular orchard farm store, they had walnut and pecan syrup on hand. I have been wanting to stop by and buy one or the other (or both) if they are still on the shelves.

Alder is another tree that can be tapped. Unfortunately, I don't have very many near me and they are far apart. Besides, that's a lot of work just to satisfy one's curiosity. If I find the finished product on the Internet, I'll give it a try. Same with sycamore.

riverrunner: "If they are tapping a thousand trees and have that kind of set up it is a commercial operation.


No matter what they tell you."

They're 80 years old and retired. They do it for fun. It costs them more than they make.

BWPADDLER,

I have no references for you. But, I’m more than willing to answer questions for you.

How much syrup would you like to make?


Feel free to email me with any questions. I’m certainly no expert. I’ve been making syrup for 10 years. Started with 10 taps. On Sunday I’ll be putting my string of 100 out.

Lots of work. Well worth it when you see the looks on the faces of the people you share it with though.

I work at a store in a small town. I secretly slip small jars of syrup into the bags of customers I like.


Mr. B

Yikes... I tapped 15 trees today anticipating the warm weekend and it was flowing good already. Let the work/fun begin... First real above forty temps. Was 0 this morning to start.

wibowyer15: "Should be a good weekend here in central Wisconsin.
"

Very similar to my rig with the exception of mine having a coil around the smoke stack. No preheat pan.

I’d like to upgrade to a preheat pan like yours.

Questions.....

Do you run fans into the firebox?
Is yours firebricked?
Fiberglass style fireproof insulation?

What would you say your gallons per hour of evaporation is?

Just curious..........they’re kind of like race cars with all the stuff you can do to make them faster.

BWPaddler,
Here's what I did for my first small batch.
First, I collected the sap in 2-liter 7-Up bottles. As the fridge began getting crowed with 7-Up bottles, I would put the sap into a medium sized pot which I put on the wood stove that we use for heating the house. Over-night, the 5 liters of sap would be reduced to one liter which I would put into a one-liter drinking water bottle and label it "5-liters." In other words, 8 one-liter bottles of concentrate would represent 40 liters of sap. Reduced in volume as it was, the concentrate could be further processed in a household sized pot when I was ready, adding 1-liter bottles as the liquid was further reduced in volume. I was able to finish the process in a large pot on the kitchen range.

Jeriatric: "

missmolly: "Okay, I just read this: "Yes, "other" trees can be tapped for their sap to produce syrup: soft maples (silver and red), walnut, birch, hickory, and even elm."



So, has anyone ever tapped a non-maple for sap and boiled it into syrup? I would love to try walnut syrup or birch syrup. "

I bought some birch syrup once. It was not suitable for pancakes and I never found another use.


The last time I was at a particular orchard farm store, they had walnut and pecan syrup on hand. I have been wanting to stop by and buy one or the other (or both) if they are still on the shelves.


Alder is another tree that can be tapped. Unfortunately, I don't have very many near me and they are far apart. Besides, that's a lot of work just to satisfy one's curiosity. If I find the finished product on the Internet, I'll give it a try. Same with sycamore. "

Some friends of ours made boxelder syrup (another type of maple). It was clear, sweet and a little smokey from processing. Not very exciting in my opinion.

KarlBAndersen1: "

riverrunner: "If they are tapping a thousand trees and have that kind of set up it is a commercial operation.



No matter what they tell you."

They're 80 years old and retired. They do it for fun. It costs them more than they make."

They do for fun and money you don't place a thousand taps have thousands in vested in equipment.

Just for the fun it is it fun yes is it a lot of hard work yes.

80 year old retired people can't make money.

A good business owner know how to write stuff off so they are "not making profit"

I am sure when you ask them they well tell you they are not making a dime.

But my son runs an operation about half that size now and at about 65 to 80 dollars a gallon whole sale they are making money. A lot more if they are selling on the retail side.

You believe what you want I well believe what I want.

MrBadExample: "

wibowyer15: "Should be a good weekend here in central Wisconsin.
"

Very similar to my rig with the exception of mine having a coil around the smoke stack. No preheat pan.


I’d like to upgrade to a preheat pan like yours.


Questions.....


Do you run fans into the firebox?
Is yours firebricked?
Fiberglass style fireproof insulation?


What would you say your gallons per hour of evaporation is?


Just curious..........they’re Kind of like race cars with all the stuff you can do to make them faster."

Hi, we have the inside lined with fire brick about half way up. No fans on the firebox,and no fiberglass insulation. We can cook 65 gallons of sap in 10 hours,that's from lighting the fire,to draining from big pan. I finish on the stove in the house. That's usually another 1-2 hours after clean up. Hope this helps!

wibowyer15: "Should be a good weekend here in central Wisconsin.
"

I just started this year with maple syrup and I’m hooked. I really like your set up, is any of it custom made or prefab? If prefab where did you buy it?

Wibowyer15,

Thanks for the info.


I took the fan off of an old, beat up wood boiler and put it blowing into the firebox. Really helped my cause a lot. Went from roughly 7 gallons an hour up to 10.

I never seem to have seasoned wood. I cut roughly 50 cord of firewood this winter and maybe have 1 cord at home. But it’s tamarack. Which gets the stove hotter than a 2 dollar pistol.

Still no taps out. Lots of snow in the woods still. I’m sure the trees in my yard would have ran over the weekend though.

CanoeViking: "

wibowyer15: "Should be a good weekend here in central Wisconsin.
"

I just started this year with maple syrup and I’m hooked. I really like your set up, is any of it custom made or prefab? If prefab where did you buy it?"

Looks very similar to mine. It’s a fuel oil tank that was converted. The same tanks you would see sitting next to a house to run a fuel oil furnace. Around these here parts they are fairly common to see sitting in scrap piles. Many people also convert them to smokers.

I had a friend with a welding shop make mine for me. It’s a very common design and they work VERY well. It’s a LOT of fun. With many hours sitting around tending the fire, you can come up with some ingenious plans to make it run more efficiently. Folks in my town brag to one another about how many gallons an hour they can boil off.

You can purchase factory made setups as well.

Maple Syrup

Thanks Jeriatric and MrBadExample!

I don't know what I want to make... I really just want SAP. I helped a community ed program collect it one year and I drank the extra sap from my own water bottle for some weeks. Yummmmmm! So, will start collecting until I get tired of that and then see whether I want to cook any or freeze it or what.

Got some 2-liter bottles and some gallon jugs. Meant to get out there last Friday, but been swamped. Hopefully tomorrow!!

CanoeViking: "

wibowyer15: "Should be a good weekend here in central Wisconsin.
"

I just started this year with maple syrup and I’m hooked. I really like your set up, is any of it custom made or prefab? If prefab where did you buy it?"

it's all custom except for the pans. Good luck!

MrBadExample: "Wibowyer15,


Thanks for the info.



I took the fan off of an old, beat up wood boiler and put it blowing into the firebox. Really helped my cause a lot. Went from roughly 7 gallons an hour up to 10.

I never seem to have seasoned wood. I cut roughly 50 cord of firewood this winter and maybe have 1 cord at home. But it’s tamarack. Which gets the stove hotter than a 2 dollar pistol.


Still no taps out. Lots of snow in the woods still. I’m sure the trees in my yard would have ran over the weekend though."

we've talked about a fan,but no power where we cook ,so it's old school for now! :-)

3.5 gallon made this weekend!

Our 1st cook down gave us 2 gallons of syrup so far :)

wibowyer15: "

MrBadExample: "Wibowyer15,



Thanks for the info.



I took the fan off of an old, beat up wood boiler and put it blowing into the firebox. Really helped my cause a lot. Went from roughly 7 gallons an hour up to 10.


I never seem to have seasoned wood. I cut roughly 50 cord of firewood this winter and maybe have 1 cord at home. But it’s tamarack. Which gets the stove hotter than a 2 dollar pistol.



Still no taps out. Lots of snow in the woods still. I’m sure the trees in my yard would have ran over the weekend though."

we've talked about a fan,but no power where we cook ,so it's old school for now! :-)"

My neighbor Sarah knows it's maple syrup season when she goes for her hair dryer in the morning and it isn't there. It is duct taped to a long pipe for a couple weeks every spring. She'd need six foot arms to use it... Haha.
I've got a few gallons of sap. We'll see how much I can get before going out to my kids.

My trees have slowed from a 5 gallon bucket a day to maybe a couple inches...
Got 25 half pts thou.

yogi59weedr: "My trees have slowed from a 5 gallon bucket a day to maybe a couple inches...
Got 25 half pts thou."

We're just getting started.

Work commitments prevent me from tapping in the city anymore, used to have 150-200 taps and produced up to 50 gallons of syrup. Sap is running sporadically on the north shore - one boil as of last weekend ~4000 gallons of sap collected over a few runs by a good friend who has ~3600 taps near Lutsen. Beautiful day last Saturday - 48 degrees, sunny, no wind. Perfect for performing routine maintenance on the the collection system, vacuum setup and clearing downed tree limbs from recent wind. It was spectacular snowshoeing in one layer of fleece and connecting with the maple woods. I look forward to this time of year as much as I do the fall. There's a lot of work, but it doesn't feel like work to me and the first smell of maple to come off the pan and the finished syrup is to die for. It bites you and you can't escape!

Sap volume and sugar content is typically much lower than what I've found for the trees I tapped in the suburb of Maple Grove. 2-2/2% sugar content is average in Cook County, around Maple Grove 31/2-4%. Cleanliness of the tap hole and tap is critical to slow wound closure and maintain the best volume of sap.

Wow, a whole month after you southern Minnesota folks made maple syrup, we're finally cooking up here.

nctry: "Wow, a whole month after you southern Minnesota folks made maple syrup, we're finally cooking up here.



"

I’m finishing my final boil today in western WI as the sap is cloudy now. Very weird year.

primitiveguy: "

nctry: "Wow, a whole month after you southern Minnesota folks made maple syrup, we're finally cooking up here.



"

I’m finishing my final boil today in western WI as the sap is cloudy now. Very weird year."

Very weird year. I wonder how people who make a living at it did...

primitiveguy: "

nctry: "Wow, a whole month after you southern Minnesota folks made maple syrup, we're finally cooking up here.




"I’m finishing my final boil today in western WI as the sap is cloudy now. Very weird year."

Just killing the quote. Jealous of you people that make your own syrup....

another attempt....

this should be the one.

ok, THIS should be the one.

mirth: "

ok, THIS should be the one." I give up.

nctry: "Wow, a whole month after you southern Minnesota folks made maple syrup, we're finally cooking up here.



"

this one is particularly tough to eradicate

I tried too... I went back and thought in the quote I'd just put spaces where they should have gone. But nope... Kill the thread I guess.

nctry: "I tried too... I went back and thought in the quote I'd just put spaces where they should have gone. But nope... Kill the thread I guess."

No, it's not that bad. You just have to tilt the computer screen to one side to read it :)

We did our last cook down and got a total of 13 gallons this year

Canoearoo: "We did our last cook down and got a total of 13 gallons this year"

Wow! That's a lot of sap and cooking! Up here everyone struggled to get much of anything. I'm going to see if Mr bad example did OK. Just finishing up tonight here. Love to do more, but lots to do before I can't do anything for awhile.

I don’t know what’s going on with the the quoted replies but this was a really bad season here. I tapped 35 trees after tapping 25 last year and made about half as much syrup. And I thought last year was bad!
Jon

I sure wish I had trees to tap. My sister's neighbors do it and they make some good stuff.

I wish I had had trees to tap this year as well. I went out and measured my two maple saplings and the widest is 8" so I'll have to wait another couple of seasons! BTW, I cleaned up what I was trying to edit to get rid of the italics. It allowed mirth's fix to work finally :)

primitiveguy: "I don’t know what’s going on with the the quoted replies but this was a really bad season here. I tapped 35 trees after tapping 25 last year and made about half as much syrup. And I thought last year was bad!
Jon "

Yup, a fairly poor season ,because it went from too cold to too warm very quickly. I finished boiling sap two days ago from the ten trees I tapped and got less than half of what I typically produce.

arctic: "

primitiveguy: "I don’t know what’s going on with the the quoted replies but this was a really bad season here. I tapped 35 trees after tapping 25 last year and made about half as much syrup. And I thought last year was bad!
Jon "

Yup, a fairly poor season ,because it went from too cold to too warm very quickly. I finished boiling sap two days ago from the ten trees I tapped and got less than half of what I typically produce."

Yep. I made all of mine in march. April was pretty much worthless.