buckeye gold
01-22-2011, 08:09 AM
Hello everyone,
I am a newbie here. I just found the forum last week and love it. I have already gleaned some valuable information from the threads.
I have had sugaring in my blood for decades, but never done it on my own until a couple years ago. When I was a kid we tapped and sold sap to a local sugar camp (circa 1960s) and ran 200-300 buckets. There were four of us kids and dad new how to use free labor. He drove our old ford 9N and wagon through the woods while the kids carried sap. We always carried a tin cup to dip a sample now and then to taste how our sugar was....yes we swore we could tell by taste, but the buyer used a hydrometer, LOL. Then in the late 80s and 90s my cousin set up a sugar house and ran several hundred taps on lines. Vandals burnt the shack and he quit. we sold all our gear to a guy in Virginia.
A couple years ago I got the hankering to make some syrup and boiled on a gas burner and turkey fryer in the back yard. Then last year I decide to do more and ran across an old friend who had started sugaring. He had already upgraded and had a leader half pint sitting in his shed. He offered the use of it set up in his shed, if I purchased it at season's end. I bit and here I am. I moved the boiler home as I did not like hauling sap, so now i need a shack. I Had 50 taps last year, will do 75 this year and I'm adding a small over fire blower to the half pint and building a concrete block pit to preheat and concentrate sap. The madness begins.....I know what ya all thinking, he'll be buying a bigger evaporator soon. I have already scouted my land and can do 200-250 taps right out my back door. Anyone know how to control this disease?
Oh yeah, I'm in southern Ohio. I tapped January 24th last year and I'm ready for weather to break.
I am a newbie here. I just found the forum last week and love it. I have already gleaned some valuable information from the threads.
I have had sugaring in my blood for decades, but never done it on my own until a couple years ago. When I was a kid we tapped and sold sap to a local sugar camp (circa 1960s) and ran 200-300 buckets. There were four of us kids and dad new how to use free labor. He drove our old ford 9N and wagon through the woods while the kids carried sap. We always carried a tin cup to dip a sample now and then to taste how our sugar was....yes we swore we could tell by taste, but the buyer used a hydrometer, LOL. Then in the late 80s and 90s my cousin set up a sugar house and ran several hundred taps on lines. Vandals burnt the shack and he quit. we sold all our gear to a guy in Virginia.
A couple years ago I got the hankering to make some syrup and boiled on a gas burner and turkey fryer in the back yard. Then last year I decide to do more and ran across an old friend who had started sugaring. He had already upgraded and had a leader half pint sitting in his shed. He offered the use of it set up in his shed, if I purchased it at season's end. I bit and here I am. I moved the boiler home as I did not like hauling sap, so now i need a shack. I Had 50 taps last year, will do 75 this year and I'm adding a small over fire blower to the half pint and building a concrete block pit to preheat and concentrate sap. The madness begins.....I know what ya all thinking, he'll be buying a bigger evaporator soon. I have already scouted my land and can do 200-250 taps right out my back door. Anyone know how to control this disease?
Oh yeah, I'm in southern Ohio. I tapped January 24th last year and I'm ready for weather to break.