first ever tap

[trappercharlie]

well this weekend was the first time i've ever tapped and it was better than I thought .I tapped ten trees about 8 Saturday morning and checked them at 4 in the afternoon I just couldn't wait I had almost six gallons of sap! I was surprised how much I got in such a short period of time .yesterday I got about the same amount and I noticed they weren't dripping like it was Saturday i've put all of it in the freezer until the weekend when we plan to boil it . i'm sure ill have some more questions before then.

[unclejohn]

hi charlie- i am curious as to what kind of maple trees youhave. also you have to be careful about sap quality in these recent warm days in missouri. if your trees are silver or soft maples, you may get 1 gallon of syrup for 60 gallons of sap. if you have sugar maples, maybe its 40:1 or less. if your sap is frozen it wont decompose or ferment but i have learned that late season sap may not taste as good. that said, there is someone here in liberty mo who makes syrup from silver maples and it tasted almost as good as that from sugar maples. im no expert but i have visited 13 missouri syrupmaking operations in missouri on a film project this year, and our family made about 15 gallons of syrup this year near jefferson city. with these warm days this week we removed our taps and called it quits. the closest syrupmmaker to you on mapletrader is riversap, and i think he would be happy to help you. he lives in extreme north florissant. keep posting or send me a private message on maple trader, id be curious how your project turns out. uncle john

[trappercharlie]

john I boiled my sap yesterday and it turned out great it is a little thin but the color is beautiful and the flavor is incredible. after a loss of almost half of my sap(we aren't going to bring this up again) I had a little less than 16 gallons of sap and I finished with almost 4 pint jars of syrup so id say the sugar content was pretty high . I only tapped the hard maples on the south side of the hill where next year I plan to have a lot more taps I figured on the farm where I hang out there are literally hundreds of hard maples ,the place is 480 acres,and I have use of the whole thing I cut firewood and squirell and turkey hunt and now tap the maples in exchange for keeping the beavers trapped out of his fishing lake and the coyotes and bobcats so they don't eat his deer.

[RiverSap]

Greetings Charlie and welcome. We in Missouri have a pretty active forum here and I have learned a lot in the last two years from the good and crazy sap heads on here. I am probably as crazy as any. Check out other posts for this year from the Missouri folks. I have quite a few pics I have posted of my setup on the driveway. Check out my gallery. This is my third year and I tapped 35 trees and had moderate luck this season. I have ended up with about three gallons of syrup from about 170 gallons of sap I collected. I was hoping for twice that much. Yes I am a greedy sap head. Hopefully from the posts you read you get some good ideas for your operation next year.

Definitely stop collecting sap now. The buds on the maple trees have formed and that means that any farther sap you collect will not have any sugar content. It will be mostly starch which does not make syrup. Enjoy.

[trappercharlie]

yeah I pulled my taps last Tuesday I had all my sap in gallon jugs in the freezer I took them out Saturday morning to thaw so I could boil on sunday I'm definatley hooked

[unclejohn]

charlie- you live in maplewood, kinda ironic isnt it, but where are your trees?

[trappercharlie]

The farm where I hang out is about 45 min away in st charles county but there are a few trees across the creek from my house that I could tap if the Dadgum kids don't bother my stuff