Tapped some black walnut trees... what an interesting flavor syrup!

[mantispid]

I had read that one can tap black walnuts. Finally did it yesterday. They flow just as well as maples, and have quite a bit of sugar in the sap to boot. When finished, the color was a very light yellow color, similar to vegetable oil. The taste... sweet, with the essence of walnut. It's unfortunate I don't have access to more than two trees...

[Run Forest Run!]

That's really cool! What do you estimate your ratio of sap to syrup ended up being?

[mantispid]

Hmm.. 3 gallons turned into just shy of a pint of syrup.

[Holliemac]

I had read that one can tap black walnuts. Finally did it yesterday. They flow just as well as maples, and have quite a bit of sugar in the sap to boot. When finished, the color was a very light yellow color, similar to vegetable oil. The taste... sweet, with the essence of walnut. It's unfortunate I don't have access to more than two trees... Interesting, thanks for your post

[sugarmangraham]

This is kind of interesting. I had know idea you could tap walnut trees. I have access to several large walnut trees I could tap. To bad I am to busy with maple to try it. Between my real job and family and maple it doesnt leave much time for anything else.

[Run Forest Run!]

I got to wondering about something. Why not mix the maple and walnut saps together and sell the new product as Maple Walnut Syrup? I bet there would be lots of people wanting to buy some.

[mathprofdk]

The flow isn't always the same, nor is the sap content. My dad tapped some in MN, and we found the sap content at below 2%. He also didn't get any flow at all last year, and hasn't had any so far this year, either. They've had a bit of a drought, and it hasn't been great sap flow weather yet, but they're definitely not the same as maples. Good syrup, though!

[rayi]

Do black walnuts run at the same time?

[Run Forest Run!]

You could always boil down to a concentrate, freeze if necessary, and then add the two together at a later date if they didn't run at the same time.

[mantispid]

Oh they certainly run at the same time!

[PerryW]

Aren't Black Walnut trees worth seriously big money for lumber?

[happy thoughts]

Aren't Black Walnut trees worth seriously big money for lumber?

I was thinking the same thing. I've heard of people leaving on vacation and finding their trees gone when they got back. Was wondering what tapping them does to their value. Would still be interesting to taste syrup made from them. I bet you could sell it for a very good price to high end restaurants and foodies if you had any quantity.

[sg5054]

Find a way to produce enough and then sell it to the granola's in California. It could be your retirement...:lol:

[mathprofdk]

Yes, you'll lose the veneer wood by tapping. Definitely loss of value. If you'd like to make money, sell the trees for lumber instead!

[TreeTapper2]

Has anyone tried tapping Hickory?

[ericjeeper]

Ain't no way I would ever tap any of my walnut trees. Would ruin the veneer value.

[mantispid]

I figure that the walnut syrup would eclipse the lumber value over the tappable life of urban trees. The offers I've heard of for fully mature trees here are about $600 per tree (these are 60+ year-old trees, and urban.. so lots of large low branches resulting in lower-quality lumber... but lots of sap!). I figure that one could likely sell walnut syrup at around $15-20 a pint to a foodie (that $8-$9 a pint stuff online is sugar syrup infused with roasted walnuts, not true sap syrup), and a single tree could easily produce a few pints of syrup per tap per season. The older trees can support 3-4 taps easily...

[tberryer]

This was my first tree to tap because I read about it in GRIT magazine! It wasn't a great tree. Probably too close to the garage and in not great shape. i did get 5 gallons from it though which I'm reducing right now. The sugar was around 2% so I won't get much.

[Mimaplefever]

I have had some hickery syrup it is sweet with smokey flavor it's not bad

[jow]

We have aprox 600 black walnut trees.None of them are super straight. We might tap a bunch next year as a test to see what's up....

[maplerookie]

You might want to be real careful here because some people have very bad reactions to walnuts . not just the nuts either. exposure to the wood that can cause an allergic reaction as well( I am not sure what the reaction is ) I have heard it can make their throats swell cutting off their windpipe. might consider boiling on a separate pan . Just food for thought .