Tapping Black Walnut

[maple brew]

While I was visiting the local metor parks sugar shack this weekend the old timer running the show told me about how his black walnut in the back yard is producing 2%. He added afterwards that you can't taste the difference between maple and walnut sap? Any one else try this?

[Sugarmaker]

You got me! I had to read this one. Only 50 years into this hobby and had not heard that one. Let us know how it turns out!
Chris

[yarg]

You can tap butter nut as well

[ca2devri]

Really?

I have a lot of nice black walnut trees. I'm skeptical, but want this to be true!

Chris

[ennismaple]

You can tap butter nut as well

We've done it by accident a few times! We have 2 butternuts that are twinned with a maple and someone mistakenly tapped the wrong stem once or twice.

Butternut is now listed as an endangered species in Ontario and we can't even breath on one without a permit!

[talahi maple products]

There's alot of info about this online, Didn't find where it said it tasted like Maple.
I had some large black walnut and thought about tapping them till I saw the price of walnut. Now theyr'e lumber, and I used the money to install pipeline to tap Maples.
(there's still some real nice lumber left if anyone is interested)

[Tonka Grove]

Interesting. When I was young my folks tapped some box elder trees and made some syrup but it was not as sweet as maple syrup. I've never heard of tapping black walnut.

[mathprofdk]

Interesting. When I was young my folks tapped some box elder trees and made some syrup but it was not as sweet as maple syrup. I've never heard of tapping black walnut.

We also made box elder syrup when I was younger. Stronger flavor and not as sweet as maple. My dad made walnut syrup last year, and it was definitely good. I can't remember flavor details, though.

[bmiller]

i remember reading a book in school about people tapping sycamores, walnut ,and even red oak,i did try tapping a sycamore just for laughs but never got any sap but i have tasted walnut sap before ,it was dripping off of logs that were on the skids to be sawed ,they were fresh cut and brought in to sawmill, it was really sweet i thought,but never tried the red oak.wish i could remember the name of that book.

[ComputerSteve]

Last year i had only maple tree sap and my son had some box elder trees. This year we added a bunch of box elder trees. I can tell that the box elder sap sugar content is lower than maples. However I find only a little difference in taste. When I have family members taste test they can't tell any difference.

I had heard of tapping birch trees, but had not heard of walnut trees. Do all these other tress get tapped similar to maples? I'm referring to such things as: spiles, tap depth, time line for tapping (before budding happens), boiling methods, etc.

[splendid]

Hi, we plan to tap black walnut this year, as our first tapping experience. (I have a neighbor who will simultaneously be doing sugar maple.) Using the conservative diameter guidelines for sugar maple, we have potential for ~50 taps within about a hundred yards of my house. From what I have learned so far, it seems as though black walnut (a) has good sugar content but less than that of sugar maple, (b) has a distinctive taste, (c) flows on about the same schedule* (some say a bit later), with less flow change when temperatures fluctuate than sugar maple, and (d) produces less volume of flow over time.

Has anyone got additional information or advice for how black walnut might be different? Thanks.

* Looking to graft some black walnut, too. As I research it, everything I can find says that sap flow persists much later in black walnut, and can be a problem for grafts. That kind of implies that the flow goes on longer into the spring. Guess we'll find out.

[Homespun]

Splendid: I have a few postings here about tapping my Black Walnut trees last year (you've probably already read them?).

My Black Walnut trees averaged 3.5% sugar vs the 2.0-2.5% of my Silver Maples. The Walnuts started flowing heavy about a week before the Maples thawed out, so they run about the same time. Once my Maples started flowing strong my Walnuts slowed down a little. On cooler, marginal temperature days my Walnuts always flowed when the Maples did not.

I blended all the sap and the resulting syrup had a tasty butterscotch-caramel corn-maple flavor at first. After sitting a few weeks the flavor became "just maple".

[maplefarmer]

Homespun, do you know how much sap total you got from the walnut trees, compared to your maple trees? and you are comparing walnut to silver maples correct? because I think silver runs later than sugar maple, and doesn't produce as much sap total.

[TonyL]

I've also noticed that my walnuts will run during marginal weather for maples. As the day warms up, the walnuts are always the first to start running.

[Homespun]

Maplefarmer, many days my Black Walnuts produced 4-5 times the sap at 50-100% higher sugar content. Other days they produced 1/4 the sap, but still had higher sugar content. This could be them running strong at different times, like you mentioned. It might have been a fluke...I will see if this year is similar with different (new) tap holes.

[Helicopter Seeds]

last year was first year for me, one maple tree (I think Silver) and one butternut. Syrup tasted the same, but butternut has pectin in it, which thickens it up sooner, but when I filtered through a cloth, I got the syrup. Yield was much less for butternut. 1 pint Butternut, 3 quarts maple.

This fall I picked up the butternuts (white Walnut) off the ground, pain to shell, but if I do, I can make some maple nuts. Probably won't bother the butternut this year, I have access to 7- 10 more maples and work 80 hours a week, so less messing around.

[MeadowlilyFarm]

Last year was our first attempt at tapping - we tried a few maples and a few Black Walnuts - we found that the Black walnut produced a much nicer syrup than the maple. an earthy robust flavour with a nutty taste. It almost seemed that we got more syrup from 20 gallons of Walnut, than we did from 20 gallons of Maple - this year we are tapping 25 Black Walnuts - and bought a used eveaporator - We will pay close attention to the amount tapped vs the amount of syrup and document it all on our YouTube channel and our Facebook page. One thing we did find out from a local Maple guy...The Walnut is worth almost twice as much due to the fact that its so rare...most Walnuts are harvested for the wood - up to $600 for a 50 yr old tree - but if you can harvest syrup - every year - why would we cut it down.... The Walnut syrup was a huge hit with friends and family - this year - fancy bottles and even a waiting list for our batch of syrup - Cant wait to do the numbers.. It certainly raises eyebrows when we mention it... this is fun for work.. www.meadowlilyfarm.com www.facebook.com/meadowlilyfarm - any hints from old timers or professionals will be much appreciated!