Filter capture; what is this stuff and what do you do with it?

[Sapling]

My son and I filtered and bottled for the first time on Saturday. I was surprised at the quantity of material the filter captured. I am using an Orlon sheet with a separate pre-filter. The pre-filter clogged quickly. The material captured looked like wet grainy sugar paste. It tasted very sweet but not much like maple. The syrup is very clear and tastes great. What do you do with the stuff the filter captures? Is it simply waste to be rinsed down the drain?

[Galena]

Welcome to the wonderful world of sugaring! It sounds like good ol' niter, aka sugar sand. It's leftover minerals, it is inert and safe to eat but like you said, is somewhat grainy in texture. Most people just toss it.

I usually end up with a teeny bit at the bottom of my jars, I am a hobbyist so not trying to sell it though I do give some away and keep the rest.

Hope this helps!

[Snowy Pass Maple]

Someone was selling unfiltered syrup as a health product... maybe save it, clean it up, call it all-natural super minerals derived straight from the maple tree, put it in little vials and sell them for $10 each at your local health food store :lol:

Seriously, I have also thought there has to be some marketable use of that waste stream... after seeing guys in Canada selling maple sap derived RO water for something like $6/bottle, anything seems possible... at that price, they could have just tossed the sap as all the money was in their permeate!

[Galena]

Dang, wish I still had that newspaper clipping, a table of nutrients and vitamins in natural sweeteners, showing how maple syrup blasts all others out of the water. Honey comes a very distant 2nd compared to our liquid gold. Must try to find it, or is it already on here somewhere?

And actually according to my brother who just visited from BC, apparently there ARE plans afoot to sell straight maple sap as a health drink in healthfood stores out there!!! Ah well, what else can you do when you only have bigleaf maples with a 72/1 ratio? :rolleyes: