I Finally Did It

[Randav]

This is my first attempt at sugaring and it turned out great. I started with 35 gallons of sap and 3 hours later, I had 1.5 gallons of almost syrup. I will finish it off tomorrow night on the turkey fryer. I want to send a big thank you to WCPROCTOR, from Uxbridge, for all his knowledge, advice, and support.:cool: I can't wait till next weekend!

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[Maplesedge]

Wow, nice set up! What's the blue barrel, spark arrester? And is that a blower piped into the arch door? Are you ladling pan to pan, or is it all one batch?

Your off to a great start. Happy mapling?

[Randav]

Maplesedge, you are exactly right, a spark arrester, my compost and brush pile are directly behind the arch and I don't want the fire department around for free samples! And yes, I'm using a 50 CFM bathroom exhaust fan for a blower. I started out lifting and dumping the back pan forward, but that lasted for two cycles, the fire was just too hot, so I was ladling forward after that. I was concerned that the finished product would be too dark, but It finished at a medium amber.

[Maplesedge]

That's great. I've never been able to make dark syrup, but the I always pull my taps by the end of March. Maybe if I went into April when they bud out? I think it's more the sap than how you cook it.

[Randav]

I wasn't able to boil this weekend and my sap was backing up. I decided to take today off and get it done before the snow tomorrow. I went to bed last night knowing I had 45 gallons to boil down today. I wanted to gather this morning before I started to boil, hoping to get another 10 gallons or so. What I found in my buckets was incredible. I collected another 50 gallons, after some buckets were overflowing and spilling a few gallons down my leg. I started boiling at 12:30 and cooked off all by 6:00. Someone warned me about too many taps my first year, but I wasn't satisfied with the sap production a few weeks ago. I wanted more taps for more sap, but now all I want is a nap! Everything went well again, and I'm the proud owner of another 2.5 gallons of the worlds most expensive medium amber syrup.

[Starting Small]

Ran, how many taps do you have?

[Randav]

I have 79 taps. I have 6 magic trees with 14 taps that gave me 27 gallons in 2 days.

[sams64]

79 taps in your first year? I cannot wait to see what you are doiing in a year or two.

Nice work on your set up and syrup. I'll be boiling for the first time this year on Friday or Saturday. I should have 100+ gallons of sap by then.

Sam