Summary of My Season

[TooManyIrons...]

2014 Summary.

This was my second year. The first year (2013) I produced 3 gallons of syrup.

Details:

13 Silver Maple Trees
24 Taps
16 Collecting Buckets

Total Sap Collected and Processed: 348 Gallons
Average Collected: 26.77 Gallons Per Tree
Average Collected: 14.50 Gallons Per Tap

Total Syrup Yield: 13 Gallons
Average Yield: 1 Gallon Per Tapped Tree

Sap/Syrup Ratio: 26.77:1

Total Processing Days: 6
Average Syrup Yield Per Processing Day: 2.17 Gallons

Approximate Firewood Usage: Two wheelbarrow loads per processing day, split small.

Average Boil Rate: 4.7 GPH (This is 58% higher than what I understand to be the average expected boil rate of 1 GPH per square foot of surface area.)

Notes:

Sap run was spotty and inconsistent, and ended very quickly. I am glad I got the amount that I harvested, was just enough to meet my goal of doing six processing days.

Injuries: Minor. Scalded backs of hands once, which taught me to wear gloves at all times when near boiling sap and steam. This was my most serious injury and hurt quite a bit for a couple of days. One finger burned through glove from boiling, bubbling sap. One finger smashed while splitting wood. One wound from a rather impressive wood splinter.

Total Investment for Season: Approximately $100 (Arch Parts, Stainless Steel Stock Pots, Filter Material, Canning Jars/Rings/Lids, Miscellaneous). This equates to approximately $7.69 per gallon of syrup yielded, or 6 cents per ounce. I find the return on this investment to be acceptable.

First batch yielded syrup similar in color as last season. Rest of batches ended up dark. Decent flavor. This year I finished off the syrup to nine degrees over local boiling temperature of water rather than the recommended 7 degrees with idea of concentrating the flavor a little more and making it a bit thicker. Am satisfied with the results.

Each batch was filtered six times at various stages, using different methods, from sap collection to bottling. Overkill, but result is a very nice clear product that I will be proud to give away to family and friends.

New home-built, wood-fueled, air-under-fire arch worked very well, and I am quite satisfied. Some design flaws will need attention prior to start of next season. Firewood usage was quite manageable, in fact I have way too much firewood left over that needs to be used because I have more that is already cut and seasoning for next year. The unit needs to be stoked more often than I would prefer, but I consider this to be a minor, manageable issue.

My goals were mostly achieved - some were not quite met, some were surpassed, some were clearly impractical as it turns out. My main goal next year is to achieve a 10 GPH boil rate. The numbers tell me a 16 GPH boil rate should technically be possible with my layout if I were to acquire custom-built pans. If I can achieve 10 GPH then I have no reason to improve on it any further as this will remain a small one man operation. The only drawback with custom-built pans is the expense, which I feel I could justify if I were to be able to get double the yield in the same amount of processing time (taking the sap to syrup ratio into consideration of course).

Everything is cleaned up and put away. The last step will be to process some of the syrup into sugar, will do that at a later date.

Well, I think that is everything. Hope everyone has had or is having a fun season. As for me, it is on to the gardening preparation...

[Birddog]

Congratulations - sounds line you had pretty good results


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[SDdave]

Nice work! Looks like you had about a 3.25% sugar content on average. I'm glad you did a summary, I keep a journal so I don't forget mistakes/improvement ideas from year to year. Any expansion for next year?

SDdave

[TooManyIrons...]

I plan on improving the system by acquiring custom-made pans manufactured locally, in order to increase my boil rate so that I can expand to an efficient yearly production of 20-25 gallons of syrup. I would be very happy to achieve that goal and have no plans to ever expand beyond that. I still have not quite got the design down regarding the preheat pan configuration I am going to use. It sounds strange but I actually think that a three pan arrangement would be best for filtering purposes and so as not to affect the boil rate of the main pan in the least. Will have to do some research, have plenty of time.

I have 30 trees on site with another 50 or so that I have access to on neighbors' property if I would ever need them, so sap supply for a 25 gallon yield will be readily available, even at 35:1. Which reminds me that I will also need to increase my temporary storage capacity a bit. That's the thing - expand one aspect of the process and things down the line have to be expanded as well. I see this is how the hobby can get a bit out of control. LOL

BTW I saved the nice clean hardwood ash from the arch so I can learn how to make home-made lye soap. Have always wanted to learn how to do this - my Grandmother used to do it using the wood ash from the wood-fired cook stove. I remember as a child the big homemade cake she always had by the mud sink. Another piece of knowledge that did not get passed down the generations (because it was no longer necessary due to the new availability of manufactured soaps and detergents).

[SilverLeaf]

Average Collected: 14.50 Gallons Per Tap
...
Sap/Syrup Ratio: 26.77:1

Boy - you've got some pretty good trees over there. Not bad!

[lyford]

Looks like u had a great season, congrats! If it were me I'd add a syrup hydrometer to your list of equipment for next, it's cheap and you won't be sorry!

[Leinie]

I'm glad to hear someone's report of high sugar content from silvers. 35-40: 1 ratio was not close to my yields as I've always been much closer to 25-26 : 1
I never posted that for fear of being called full of sap.

[SDdave]

I'm glad to hear someone's report of high sugar content from silvers. ...I never posted that for fear of being called full of sap.

That's a good one! Yes typically silvers aren't known for their higher sugar content. I also had an above average sugar content this year about 3.2%, typical year 2 and lower. And I've been called full of other stuff, but never sap!

SDdave

[lastwoodsman]

Rod Hale in Cottage Grove consistently gets 3.5% on his 600 silvers. This yr he boiled off around 5000 gallons of sap.
For the last 20 years.
Woodsman

[TooManyIrons...]

Yeah, I hear people talk down my silver maples all the time. They are what they are, silver maples are what I have available so I use them. I would tap my boxelders if they were all I had available. Use what you got, ya know? Thing is, in my area easily 95% of the trees that are tapped are silver maples because that is the predominant maple variety (although quite possibly it is boxelders that are actually predominant but rarely, if ever, tapped around here).

That is what is kind of fun about being a newbie to this hobby - I have no biases and simply want to keep accurate records and report accordingly. Last year I got around 26:1 which I thought was amazing and would never see again. This year I estimated for 30:1 but was realistically expecting anywhere between 30 - 35:1. Was pleasantly surprised again this year but it would be unwise for me to start expecting such a good a ratio from now on. That is when I will surely get slapped with a reality check. This is also why I want to improve my system so that I can still get a decent yield with a similar amount of effort in a low sugar content scenario - I want a system designed for 35:1 so to speak and if the ratio is better I simply have an easier time of processing or I get more product for the same amount of effort. I hope that last sentence makes sense.

Syruping hydrometer is number one priority on the list. Actually wanted to acquire one after last season and completely forgot until I was finishing off my first batch this year. Am tired of the guessing, this "degrees over local boiling temp" thing is a pain and is open to different interpretations. Good thing about batch processing is that I can dial things in on the first batch and double check my work before finishing off the next batch. After that it becomes familiar repetition so no big deal. I probably would not even use the hydrometer after the first batch, but I still want one. Why do all that work just to risk ruining things at the end for lack of such a simple tool.

Would love to continue to hear such data from all you other folks - it really helps new people get an idea of expectations and helps in planning things such as number of trees to tap, number of taps, etc. Being a one man operation I am really glad I did not overwhelm myself with too many trees tapped, etc. but I admit I had enough interest, energy, and capacity that I could have used a couple hundred more gallons of sap to do several more batches. Was getting tired but the whole thing was so much fun I easily would have continued processing. I did my best estimating based on information I found on this and other web sites, and was ultimately satisfied with the results.

Thanks to all for posting replies!

[TooManyIrons...]

Boy - you've got some pretty good trees over there. Not bad!

Dan (SilverLeaf), do you have any numbers? I am curious what you are getting in the Marshall area. A couple people I talked to around here are getting similar results as me, I am actually quite surprised at the similarities because I have read about how variable things can be. And I compared a pint of my syrup with a pint from another guy and you could not tell any difference, although my jar did not have any niter settled at the bottom. ;-)

BTW some of my silver maples are now blooming already. That went fast...

[SDdave]

Yeah, I hear people talk down my silver maples all the time. They are what they are, silver maples are what I have available so I use them.

Didn't mean any disrespect. That's what I got to tap as well. I'm down by Sioux Falls and trees in general are hard to come by, let alone maples.

As for numbers, I had 40 taps in this year, collected 250 gal. and made 9.5 gallons of syrup. The average sugar content was 3.25%. By far the best season I've ever had. Normally my silvers pump out the sap (15+ gal/tap), but the sugar content is low, right around 2 and lower.

SDdave

[SilverLeaf]

Dan (SilverLeaf), do you have any numbers? I am curious what you are getting in the Marshall area.
I'm all on silvers, like you. This year I averaged about 4.5 gallons of sap/tap (about 50% of "normal"), but my sugar content was about 2.5% (35-ish gallons of sap to 1 gal syrup), which was better than normal (usually I'm just under 2%).

I don't know where your trees are located (open/woods) or how big they are, but about half of mine are somewhat spindly things stuck in the middle of a farm grove. So that brings my averages way down. The rest of my trees are either bigger yard trees or else healthy ones in a row out in the open and they definitely perform better, both in sap quantity and sugar content. That said, with maybe the exception of a couple behemoths, even in my best year (last year) my "good" trees have never broken out of the 14-15 gallon/tap range. So you can feel pretty good about your numbers!

Even though Marshall/Redwood are only 30 mi apart, I wonder if there weren't some big differences this year. My sap numbers were way down, whereas your numbers look like they probably were more "normal". Since mid-Feb we hardly had any snow, and it seemed like you always had some. Our air temps were close to the same but I think our soil temp warmed a lot faster and wonder if that had anything to do with it - all our tree buds popped early last week.

[TooManyIrons...]

SDdave, I took no offense against you or anyone here, and I have appreciated your posts. I was talking about a couple of locals who are critical of silvers. One local old coot has a son who owns a sugar bush up north consisting of sugar maples and he told me not to bother tapping silvers because they make junk syrup. Whatever, you meet all kinds of people in life. Comments from blowhards like that used to bother me but I just ignore them now, life is too short.

Silverleaf, I live up on the exposed prairie. Snowiest winter here since 1996. My best producers were the big old specimen trees in the yard where the microclimate is much more conducive to earlier runs and higher yields. The big ones in the woods were delayed but finally ran nicely as well. The trees up to 30 inches diameter produced rather poorly IMO. I tapped a couple small ones just because I planted those trees twenty years ago and was excited that they were now large enough to tap. Only got around 8 gallons from each of those small ones - I feel it was not worth the effort so I will not tap them again for a couple of years. Don't need them anyway as I have large trees on site that have never been tapped.

Thanks for the information. From what the two of you are reporting I guess I should be very satisfied with my results. I had nothing to compare to so I did not realize I had quite decent numbers. Tells me the numbers I got this year are most likely not the norm and to adjust figures to the bad when estimating for next season.

[4010]

It is my second year also I pull my last taps today. Had some of my smaller trees make it to this last cold spell. I made 5 gallons of syrup last year going to get about 14 gallons this year. Thank you all for great information and a good place to hear how others are doing. This year I made a home made ro and was able to reduce my sap by half. Next year looking to have more sap storage. Had a fun year and learned a lot.