This is my 3rd year sugaring. 1st year 5 taps just for our own use. 2nd year 30 taps and had some to sell. This year 80 taps. I cheat on the boiling, a neighbor does it on shares(1/2).
Show us your sugaring
- Thread starter Ohiosam
- Start date
Looks good. The woods on my property are virtually all uphill from my current house. The long term plan is to turn my current house into "my" barn/workshop/butcher shop etc. I have a lot of sugar maples in the woods and my brother wants to tap them and let it run downhill into the house and set up a sugar shack. This is at least 2-3 years away but i look forward to learning on here.
We have some neighbors that do it big time that I'll probably also pick their brain.
I'd only want to do it for personal family use and to make maple sugar for curing.
We have some neighbors that do it big time that I'll probably also pick their brain.
I'd only want to do it for personal family use and to make maple sugar for curing.
This was the setup at Funks Grove Maple Sirup in Illinois, they had 4 or 5 of these and one was huge.
We're gonna start tapping Saturday 8 taps. Gonna buy a new 2 burner camp stove to put my big army surplus aluminum pan on instead of single burner setup. It's time!
This is on my bucket list, pun intended. We have plenty of maples on the farm to get enough for personal consumption. I love Sam's neighbor. That's the definition of a "the fucking around is over with" investment!
I wish I could run tubing through the woods but my maples are in small patches spread around the farm. The first 2 pics I posted are 6-700 yards from the 3rd one.
Stressless
Active Member
Maple syrup. I've not read up on maple sugar, is that a thing?
Wife and I were with a bunch of old people on a bus tour of Northeast for fall foliage, one of the stops was a maple syrup farm. Been doing a a gallon or two every year since. Fun hobby, and the syrup is better than that corn shit ya buy in the store.
But like venison, homemade syrup can be very expensive ounce per ounce, gotta do it for the love of it. Plus it's a great shtf skill and capability to have. Pretty easy.
And if you wanted to do it on the cheap, you could, just not as easily.
And if you wanted to do it on the cheap, you could, just not as easily.
I doubt I'll make money this year even without having the expense of the evaporator and everything that goes with it.
Propane be expensive. And ya gotta boil 40 gallons of sap to make a gallon of syrup. A big flat shallow pan is a lot faster/better than a regular stock pot like what comes with a turkey fryer.
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My first batch of sap was 150 gallons @ 1.9% sugar and the yield is 3.4 gallons of syrup. So I'll get 1.7 gallons.
Theres way to much to do in life. I tapped my few maples and a few at my friends house 2 seasons. Its worth the effort but its just another some day thing ill have time to do it later i hope. That list is a mile long and never gets any shorter. Tap on.
Maple sugar is made by boiling the syrup down even further until its crystals.
The people near us that do it had a gas evaporator but got rid of it, they say the flavor is better with wood. I'll trust them because theirs is darn good.
My uncle got into this year, been doing a few batches by the looks of it.
Cool setup from Smokey Lake Maple Products.
Cool setup from Smokey Lake Maple Products.
Buckmaster
Senior Member
Sap started to run again today, I expect tomorrow to collect a decent amount of sap. Forecast looks good for the next week or so.