Beginner with 35 new acres... Help!!?

[LegendsCreekFarm]

Hello everyone. I just joined the forum because I have always wanted to make maple syrup, and I just got 35 acres and a new farm here in Rhode Island.

I was unsure about if I had maple trees on my new property or not because I bought the place after the leaves fell off the trees. I recently had a forester come to my house to do a walk through, and he showed me where I had tons of red maple trees on my property, and how to identify them. It seems that I have hundreds of the trees, and I am very excited about it.

This winter has been very mild here in RI, and the forester told me that the trees will be ready to tap in Feb, instead of waiting until March, can anyone confirm this?

I need to start this as cheaply as possible, and was hoping for a good place where I can buy cheap taps? I plan on using recycled bottles to collect the sap, just have no idea how I am going to evaporate yet. Very exciting to start, and glad to be a new member here!

[spencer11]

Welcome to maple trader! I have heard about some people tapping now around your area but don't know about your specific trees are budding yet? As far as supplies I would check out leaderevaporator.com to get some bacisics- taps, candy thermometer or hydrometer, maybe filters. As far as an evaporator, what undid last year was get 2 steam table pans from sams club and put them on concrete blocks and built a fire under it. I don't know how many taps your planning but my 25 or so was to much for it last year but it's a good place to start.

Spencer

[peckfarm]

Are you looking to sell or just make it for personal use? In my mind that decision guides the rest of the planning process.

[LegendsCreekFarm]

I am looking to sell the syrup in small quantities at my farm stand I plan on building (along with all the other stuff I am selling).

I love the idea about the concrete blocks, and getting some of those steam trays!! Would 25 taps be enough to start out small and expand? Would it give me enough syrup to start selling?

[spencer11]

when i had 25 taps last year i made about 4 gallons(should of had 5 but burned one). i would come home every day after school at 3 and collect about 20 gallons of sap and boil with my block arch and 2 steam trays until 9-9:30 at night and could hardly keep up. f you have enough storage for sap (like 55 gallon drums) a block arch like mine would work great. and i had all 4 gallons sold a couple weeks after the season and had people asking for more.

spencer

[foursapsyrup1]

Save yourself a lot of agravation trying to reinvent the wheel.
Align yourself with a sugar house in your area ( I believe that there is one in Gloucester and maybe in Richmond). There is one guy that has lines right across from the state police barracks in Scituate ( HE DID A FIRST CLASS JOB SETTING THAT ONE UP. i USED IT AS A MODEL FOR MY TUBING)
They will give you lots of tips that will save you tons of time and expense. Wish I would have done that 15 years ago.
If you'd like, I would also be glad to spend some time with you, either at my place or yours.

[spencer11]

you are also welcome to come check out my operation if your ever in NH.

spencer

[rinert]

If I were you I would look at getting a pan made. I don't sell my syrup but go through about 20 gal a year. Try contacting your local schools shop class to make you a pan. My SS pan (2x5) cost me 130.00. Good luck and have fun.

[spencer11]

rinert- is your pan flat or flue? where did you get you material? how is the cost so low? i would look into having a pan made to, but it may be a little lat this year.

spencer

[rinert]

It is a flat pan, they got the materials cheaper than I could, they were looking for a different project and did not charge labor. It took them about a week so if you look soon who knows it may take that much time to build the arch.

[sugar ED]

Hello everyone. I just joined the forum because I have always wanted to make maple syrup, and I just got 35 acres and a new farm here in Rhode Island.

I was unsure about if I had maple trees on my new property or not because I bought the place after the leaves fell off the trees. I recently had a forester come to my house to do a walk through, and he showed me where I had tons of red maple trees on my property, and how to identify them. It seems that I have hundreds of the trees, and I am very excited about it.

This winter has been very mild here in RI, and the forester told me that the trees will be ready to tap in Feb, instead of waiting until March, can anyone confirm this?

I need to start this as cheaply as possible, and was hoping for a good place where I can buy cheap taps? I plan on using recycled bottles to collect the sap, just have no idea how I am going to evaporate yet. Very exciting to start, and glad to be a new member here!
Hello LegendsCreekFarm ,I've been were ur at ...and wished I'd ask myself back than ... How many trees/taps could I tap if I tapped them all amd maybe even my nabors ? Why because, I'd a built a bigger unit back than .lol I used a 55 gal home made evap. for 10yrs., 5yrs without fire brick ,what a diffrence!& saves a lot of wood, but still up for hours/days & nights with 25 taps. So if there's a chance of more trees ,as sugaring is additing,more more lol.
As I see it ,The cheap and fast way, is the block arch.(3 blocks high) lined with fire brick .Start with a 2x6 and add on if needed .look for a metal shop in your area and most will bend and weld a set of pans (stainless steel) I have a used $150. rear flat SS 2'x4'x18" pan and had made a SS divided 2'x2'x8" made that ended up being 2'x28"x8" with inlet & outlet ,So I had to fix (make longer) my arch this year.
Also if your handy ,and can find an old wood stove or wood /oil gun furnace (look 4 used ,craigs list) cut up for front and stack area ,torches and a welder is also handy. Also alot of used units around ,and with that many trees/taps possible ... a good flow thru set of pans will pay for themself with out the headach/time it takes to pan for syrup/hard way to do it for selling, great way for hobbie 10 to 20 taps and at 20 to 25taps, hope u don't need sleep. lol
(foursapsyrup1 Has a great thought.....and may help u out ,and sugarshacks will even buy ur extra sap(if in proper storage tanks) And maybe! Hay if they want to put up 1200 taps/lines/tanks in (your trees) and 200 taps/lines of them are for u ,you will have more sap than you know what to do with and you'll learn just how it's done or what not to do! lol
Good luck and have lots of fun ! Ed

[sugar ED]

by the way my front SS 2'x28'x8 divided syrup pan with inlet /outlet cost me $220. and can be seen on u tube ,lol, as I thought I'd burnt it my 1st year of uses ,felt dum when I found out it was niter build up ! now I can turn the pan around and keep on cooking (instead of doing a pan clean up job, in the middle of sugar season )
video in u tube under [Maple Syrup Pan "what not to do " webcam video March 30, 2011 03:57 PM ] But pan still looks brand new now after a good cleaning

[peckfarm]

Start backwards from the farm stand and build from there.
-cans/ball jars/syrup jugs
-canner(lots of guys use coffee urns) costco
-filter (cone felt with cone liners) online
-hydrometer and hydrometer cup, online
-boiling rig (look for steel supply yard and ask about stainless)
-sap storage (food grade barrels, check craigslist)
-buckets (lots of guys are getting icing buckets from bakerys or costco)
-taps, get the health spouts online, also there is a guy on ebay with some good deals on aluminum buckets and spouts
-trees, you got em.
-overwhelming desire to involve yourself in something that requires effort, time and minimal return other than DIY gratification and bragging rights...check

[Daren]

Good list Peck. Legend, We have all started like you are or been lucky enough to talk to one as we were finding out we wanted this illness badly. My best advise would be for this year, get the book that really is the "I think this sounds fun" watch list. Backyard Sugaring. That book will ensure you are bitten pretty hard. Then this year, tap 15 trees. That book will get you thinking in the right direction. As many have already said, steam table trays work well, but I can tell you that 3 of them (as my first rig was) still max out at about 7 to 8 gallons per hour evaporation. Reds tend to run about 1.8% sap (at least here at my place). Thats nearly 48 gallons of sap per gallon of maple syrup made. Thats about 6 hours or more of boiling for each gallon. The math can go from there. The most important thing is having fun with friends and family around boiling it.

Not sure you were asking....but with what you describe for woods and you have at least 100 or more trees and you are building a farm stand? I would make the stand right by the road, and it would have a steam coupola sticking up a coupe of feet. Even with a homemade evap in it, the steam coming out the top will get people to notice your farm stand even if the growing season is a bit away. They will also ask about syrup. Turning them away is never a great idea for lack of product. Find that guy with the tubing down the road and tap as many trees as you can (by the way....now in your area is usually a pretty safe bet, even if two weeks it gets pretty cold on a snap). Any extra sap would be easy to offload and could help fund the whole project. ask to be paid in syrup so any extra you need to meet requests on the days people stop in to see you boil can be covered until you get to where you can supply yourself. I will guarantee that once you get bitten by this sickness, you will want to get at least a 2x6 rig and see where that takes you. All this is a little late for this year but if you had a person or two to help, you could make a couple of gallons on anything you cob together for this year. I hope to see some pics of what you come up with this year. That steam smells SOOOOOOOOOO good!

[spud]

Welcome Legend,

Is there a way of you selling your sap to someone in the area. If so you could do that and be payed in syrup. This will free up some money you would have spent on pans and allow you to tap hundreds of trees instead of 25 or so. You should advertise on Craigs List right away to see who buys sap in your area. Right after the sugaring season you will find dozens of little evaporators for sale from people looking to expand their operations. I have seen 2x6 in good shape selling for as little as $1500 Always remember the money is made in the woods. Good luck to you and i hope you and your family have a great time collecting sap.

Spud

[LegendsCreekFarm]

I would love that. I really want to start out small, and then expand but I need to learn everything.

[LegendsCreekFarm]

Sounds great~!!~ Luckily I have a lot of these things already, my biggest concern is getting the pans, cinder blocks, and fire brick!!


Start backwards from the farm stand and build from there.
-cans/ball jars/syrup jugs
-canner(lots of guys use coffee urns) costco
-filter (cone felt with cone liners) online
-hydrometer and hydrometer cup, online
-boiling rig (look for steel supply yard and ask about stainless)
-sap storage (food grade barrels, check craigslist)
-buckets (lots of guys are getting icing buckets from bakerys or costco)
-taps, get the health spouts online, also there is a guy on ebay with some good deals on aluminum buckets and spouts
-trees, you got em.
-overwhelming desire to involve yourself in something that requires effort, time and minimal return other than DIY gratification and bragging rights...check

[LegendsCreekFarm]

I beat you to it, and have already bought and read Backyard Sugarin' before i was able to close on this property, and was still living in MO with a small house and NO trees. haha. You say to tap 15 trees, how much sap will I get from that little amount? How long will they produce sap before they dry out?

I love your idea of setting it up as part of my farm stand. The house is literally on a VERY busy main rd, and thousands of cars pass each day. I would love to start out just making enough sap to produce a few gallons. I really am interested in this and have been since I was a kid.




Good list Peck. Legend, We have all started like you are or been lucky enough to talk to one as we were finding out we wanted this illness badly. My best advise would be for this year, get the book that really is the "I think this sounds fun" watch list. Backyard Sugaring. That book will ensure you are bitten pretty hard. Then this year, tap 15 trees. That book will get you thinking in the right direction. As many have already said, steam table trays work well, but I can tell you that 3 of them (as my first rig was) still max out at about 7 to 8 gallons per hour evaporation. Reds tend to run about 1.8% sap (at least here at my place). Thats nearly 48 gallons of sap per gallon of maple syrup made. Thats about 6 hours or more of boiling for each gallon. The math can go from there. The most important thing is having fun with friends and family around boiling it.

Not sure you were asking....but with what you describe for woods and you have at least 100 or more trees and you are building a farm stand? I would make the stand right by the road, and it would have a steam coupola sticking up a coupe of feet. Even with a homemade evap in it, the steam coming out the top will get people to notice your farm stand even if the growing season is a bit away. They will also ask about syrup. Turning them away is never a great idea for lack of product. Find that guy with the tubing down the road and tap as many trees as you can (by the way....now in your area is usually a pretty safe bet, even if two weeks it gets pretty cold on a snap). Any extra sap would be easy to offload and could help fund the whole project. ask to be paid in syrup so any extra you need to meet requests on the days people stop in to see you boil can be covered until you get to where you can supply yourself. I will guarantee that once you get bitten by this sickness, you will want to get at least a 2x6 rig and see where that takes you. All this is a little late for this year but if you had a person or two to help, you could make a couple of gallons on anything you cob together for this year. I hope to see some pics of what you come up with this year. That steam smells SOOOOOOOOOO good!

[Daren]

I think the first year I tapped 8 trees and made about 1.5 gallons. The next year I tapped 20 and made 5. So.....15 could net you about 3 maybe? It really does depend on how sweet the sap runs. That is a huge variable and can change from tree to tree literally 5 feet apart. I had one red maple last year that ran one day at a tick over 3 percent. that is really high for a red maple....now....that particular tree was about 5 feet from another tree of similar diameter (12 inch or so) and that one was needing a bit of help to break over 1 percent! Go figure....I tested the bulk tank after all was mixed together and got about 1.8 most of the time. Oh....and by the way....if you were reading backyard sugarin way before moving and having any trees.....your DOOMED! LOL! You got it just as bad as the rest of us! Get your check writing hand in shape and look for that 5th job to pay for it all! Love this hobby.

[ctjim]

welcome aboard. start small learn everything you can and then expand just like most of us that have caught the maple bug. those reds will be finicky on buckets and gravity and thats something you need to realize from the start. some will produce well and some little, thats the nature of the reds. they will make some nice syrup though and thats all that matters in the end. good luck.

[Dave Y]

Legends Creek, Farm,
All the advise you have been getting is good. But just be careful what you wish for, you may get it. I too was in your position once. only I owned four trees. I started with milk jugs for buckets. Tapped the four trees in my yard and then proceeded to ask friends and neigbhors permission to tap their trees. I ended up with 56 taps and twelve gal of syrup. I gave it all away.Fast forward 9 years, this year I will have 5400 taps have a sugar house an evaporator that cost more than my house. Four trucks tanks out the bleep. and more equipment than I care to mention. Last year we made 1100 gal of syrup.
Go to your woods and tap a few taps boil a little sap , find out if you like making syrup. If you do after the season is over start planning for next year and beyond. Decide where you want to be in 10 years. then develope a plan to get there. It sound like you could have as many as 1000 taps to 2000 taps depending on the size and density of you trees. If your woods needs thinned do it before you put up any lines. I could go on but the main point is make a plan and then get started. Give away your first years crop that way you will have customers in the future. Be warned if you put out a sign selling syrup not only will you invite customers but goverment over site. By the way There are a number of maple companys out there. Lapierre USA, CDL, Dominion and Grimm, Thor, and Leader. There are also a fair number of custom fabricaters. Good Luck and have fun

[Maple Hobo]

If your starting on the cheap and are using plastic bottles... try to use at least something like a 1 gallon or 2 liter containers.
I would find a source for new milk style jugs.
http://www.freundcontainer.com/product.asp_Q_pn_E_37508_A_cn_E_58
1 gallon, about a buck each, with a cap.

You can get away with using the leader sani-tips as taps for about 15 cents each.
http://www.leaderevaporator.com/p-57-sanitary-516-tree-saver-plastic-spout-extension.aspx

Just take and cut a small X in the side of the container and push it over the fitting.
It does a better job then the open buckets at keeping extra critters and rain out of the containers...lol

You can put a twist of wire on it to hang bucket handles.
The buckets with holes, the collection bags... they all hang from them too.

Next season when you want to expand... they are reusable...