Transporting sap

[termolly]

I have a bit of a dilemma on where to put my sugar shack. The 2 possibilities are where I live and where my trees are. My trees are about 30 miles away at a camp that is atv accessible (about a mile off highway). The trip takes about an hour each way. I work staight days mon-fri. I am currently running about 150 taps, My evaporator is 18x66 drop flue. The reason i would like my evaporator at home is security,having time to boil and saving gas. The reason I would like to have it at the camp is so I don't have to transport sap so far. Any advice would be welcomed. Thanks.

[PerryW]

find a local sugarmaker who can keep an eye on your tanks during the week. The local sugarmaker can gather during the week and boil if necessary (like if there is a warm spell or extended where sap needs to be boiled). You can give him a call or email on friday and find out how much sap to expect. I'm sure you could work out a financial arrangement where he can get a good deal on some sap in exchange for his labors.

Then you can head up there on friday night, and come back home with a full tank to boil at home.

[TerryEspo]

I dont know what is best for your particular situation, but, it is nice to boil close to home.

A simple hour to get your sap home and now your home sure sound nice.

Maybe Friday after work is a collection day and then Wed too. Maybe on Wed. you find some overflowing, but oh well. Get larger collection buckets or holding tanks. Do you run tubing or buckets? Run tubing into 45 gallon barrels, 15-20 trees max.

Lots of options, but once again, doing the boil closer is better than farther.

Necessity is the mother of invention.

Good luck.

Terry

[termolly]

That sounds like a good plan but where the trees are there is no people around for a long ways. thanks for your input

[termolly]

TerryEspo thanks for you reply. I was thinking something like that but was worried about the sap spoiling. Does the sap come out of the tree cloudy or does it turn in the container? How long does sap store for?

[PerryW]

TerryEspo thanks for you reply. I was thinking something like that but was worried about the sap spoiling. Does the sap come out of the tree cloudy or does it turn in the container? How long does sap store for?

Sap can become cloudy by sitting too long at warm temps or sometimes the tree will produce cloudy sap after warm weather. Also, end of the season sap can be cloudy.

Sugarmakers think of sap like milk. It the sap is sitting at refrigerator temperatures, it would keep for a week. If the temps warm up in the 50's for a few days, it would spoil in 2-3 days. Placing the tank in a shaded area and piling snow around the tank will also help.

You also have the additional problem of freezing temperatures, especially if you tap early. If you are expecting a multi-day freeze, you have to deal with the sap or it will freeze into a solid block and be difficult to deal with.

I like Terry's idea of a midweek trip up to the sugarbush, but you might need to be flexible on which day (midweek) you take a trip up there.

[termolly]

Thank you both for your help. I think the shack will be built at my home and transport the sap to boil. That is good to know about sap being treated the same as milk. thanks again