large producers

[PATheron]

We have a producer that is in our area called patterson farms. He has an amazing operation. The way I understand it he has over 70,000 taps, mostly on vacuum and two evaps and reverse osmosis. Each of the evaps will produce 50 gals of finished syrup an hour.I know Pennsylvania is not as big into syrup as some of the other new England states or Canada but is this guy huge even by thier standards. Just wondering If there are guys like this in the other areas or if he is really out of the ordinary? Theron

[Fred Henderson]

The biggest producer that we have here is 25,000 taps and all those are leased. So 70 K is a big operation.

[PATheron]

I figured Fred that he must be pretty out of the ordinary. It's kind of neat to see his setup becouse of the sheer size. I'm pretty sure a lot of his taps are leased as well. We have a weekend each year when a lot of the producers open their sugar houses to the public and you can ride around and check out everybodies set up. It's a neat way to get ideas and a good way for them to sell syrup.

[oneoldsap]

You should see Donald LaPierre's operation up in Quebec. 160,000 taps, 3 6x16 rigs with all the bells and whistles, 10 ten horse vacuum pumps a room full of RO'S. One guy works full time moving drums to and from the evaporators. Then there is Joe Russo up in Belvedre VT. Joe has around 60,000 taps and boils with steam, his boiler burns 75Gals. of fuel per hour, which sounds like a lot but he draws off 55Gal. of syrup every seven Mins.
He also runs a 200KW generator and says he makes a Gal of syrup on every
4 tenths of a gallon of fuel burned. That's pretty good efficiency . As far as I know he is the biggest producer in VT, LaPierre is the biggest in the world.

As far as I'm concerned 5,000 taps is a big operation.

[Sugarmaker]

Wow! Nice contrast to my 400 + taps and struggle to get 100+ gallons made!

Just a little over the top for me.

Very hard to imagine a system that will handle that much volume of sap.

Regards,
Chris

[PATheron]

I feel exactly like you sugar maker. I get a real kick out of seeing this guy do things. I was over there at one point this year and he was running a new line. The roll of mainline was huge. They unloaded it off of a lowboy trailer with a large four wheel drive tractor. In the spring I've been to his place to buy fittings and in his shed he has a kitchen and there will be a bunch of guys in there eating breakfast kind of like an old fashion work camp, super nice bunch of guys. The only thing is you cant really relate to it. I have a good friend that has a real nice sugar house that he built with around 1000 taps that ive spent quite a bit of time with. That really helps me out becouse I can use his ideas directly. This web site is just like that. Its still fun to see to see the big guys, any syruping is fun.

[PATheron]

oneoldsap- I'm going to have to tell Richard that Lapierre is making him look a little sad, he better add on, just kidding.

[Maplewalnut]

PATHERON

Where is Patterson farms located? I would love to see that operation.

[PATheron]

Patterson farms is located in Sabinsville Pa. I see that you are in Northeastern Pa so you might not be to far away. I dont have a map in front of me but you go to Gaines on Rt 6, between galeton and Wellsboro and turn onto 249,I think is the route, and its only a few miles to Sabinsville. Once you get there there's signs. If you ever want to check it out get a hold of me and I'll let you know where the other sugershacks in the area are if you want. He's definitely the biggest in our area.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Bruce Bascom is also somewhere around 60,000 taps this past season and he boils with steam on a 6x16 flat pan. From my conversations with him, he runs the pan about 1/4 of an inch of liquid in it and doesn't worry about scorching since he is using steam. He has like a factory in the basement underneath his showroom and when it is busy, they run around the clock if neccessary. Never saw it, but I am sure it would be something to see in operation.

[PATheron]

WVMapler- Where is the bascom operation? The steam you are talking about using to boil, how does it not burn the pan if it goes dry? I guess the only steam application I can picture is how your preheaters work. Theron

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I don't know exactly how they use the steam to heat the pans, whether it is the underside or if they have pipes inside the pan as I have never saw it in action. Bascom is in NH and I would guess that they are the largest equipment dealer in the US and one of the largest bulk buyers also.

[chipa]

The steam goes through tubes that hang inside the pans

[royalmaple]

On the chart it showed something like 55,000 taps this year at bascoms.

It is a pretty simple looking system when you just look at his pan. Hard to imagine they process that many taps on just a flat pan and steam. Oh the RO room isn't that far away and is full of them.

He has one heck of a setup and the view from there is worth several million.

[brookledge]

with the steam pan he has the oil fired boiler is in a remote location and other than the evaporator every aspect of the operation that needs heat is pretty much done with steam, he heats syrup for canning, uses steam for washing drums, just to mane a few.
The nice thing about steam is you can control the heat better by the pressure you are running it, whereas wood or oil fired evaporator temps in the fire box are over 1200 degress so you can burn your pan alot easier than you can with steam
Keith

[Breezy Lane Sugarworks]

Yeah Matt, you're right about the view. It is an awesome spot!

Been there a few times and have seen the factory downstairs, but not with his ro's and pan in operation. But I have seen Joe Russo's and Dave Folino's steam pans going. they can really crank out the syrup in a hurry!!

[Russell Lampron]

One time when I was Bascoms I was lucky enough to see them turn the steam to the pan on to start boiling. It went from cold sap to a full boil as soon as the steam hit the pipes. I wish I had a picture for those who haven't seen it but there is no heat under the pan, it is all in the steam pipes that come down from above.

Russ

[220 maple]

On Youtube there is a 8 min. video of Hargroves Organic Maple Surgary in New Brunswick, Canada. 105000 trees taped, 10 2300 gallon holding tanks that fill up every hour when the sap is is running good. If you have high speed internet watch that video.
Mark 220 Maple

[maplekid]

that is a big operation here the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRCWvgwchmY

[Mike]

Hey Kid! You need to fix your photo album so we can look at your pics!!!!!

[maplekid]

i know it been said that i would have pics but the camera is broken and we will be getting a new one next week i hate to keep you guys waiting but someone broke the view finder off when they dropped it.
p.s it wasnt me

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Your album is private and the only person that can view it is you. You need to make it public so we can all view it!

[brookledge]

If you notice at Hargroves they have alot of small trees the whole area there looks like they are all 1 tap trees so that means to get 105K taps they have alot of trees.
I know that cetain parts of Canada it is difficult to find a maple over 3' in dia.
Keith

[Maplepro]

Most of Hargrove’s maples are second growth they are in northern NB but in Albert county a lot of maples are old growth. we had 12000 taps on all old growth with another 5000 on second growth our tress average 12-25" in second growth and 30-40" in old growth. we had some family problems in the mid nineties and we dropped back considerably i am going to tap 5000 this season and hope to add 5000 for the next 3 or 4 years before i have to start looking for more ground the biggest producer in southern NB that i know of is Les Stiles Mountain maples he has somewhere between 25000 and 40000 taps just depend on what day you ask him. but i know for a fact he has over 35k tapped

[brookledge]

Maplepro
I'm glad to hear you have a good amount of large trees. Some areas that are logged aren't able to ever get old growth.
Keith

[TapME]

I heard from a friend that Canada has a law that you can not cut down a maple tree without a permit from the gov't. has this any merit?

[Maplepro]

That’s news to me but I can tell you that it has no merit to it! there’s was some talk a while ago by some groups to do that but with hardwood being in such demand the gov't would have anything to do with it I am a forester and I would estimate that the local chip plant would harvest over 200 loads of maple and other hard woods a week. but the NB gov't does have a law that you can not clear cut hardwood on Public land unless it is salvage and no hardwood stand can be clear cut more then 50 acres at a time so most of the companies that harvest hard wood in my area strip cut take a 75' strip and then leave 150'. But I am sure every province has different rules.