New(ish) hoping to start this spring!

[TheNamelessPoet]

So... I'm 36 (37 by the time the season starts) Married with 1 daughter who is 3. We just bought our 1st home in CT and I think we have enough trees for maybe 8-10 taps.

I did a little sugaring as a kid, about 30 years ago with my grandfather, and always thought it was fun. Delicious of course as well! Also, my Great aunt (Grandfather's sister) still does it a little in Maine with her grandson. My uncle also did it for a year or so with his kid in CT as well but it was short lived and just minimal like I will be. So I never got too far away of Sugaring. I'll just be mostly messing around with it, and HOPEFULLY I'll be able to come home on my lunch break and collect. I most likley will have to freeze what I've collected until the weekend and boil it then unless I can take care of it after work. I know it's not ideal, but I will see how it goes this year. Truthfully I want to make Maple Sugar and a little candy instead of syrup. Unfortunately, I'm a type 1 Diabetic so I REALLY have to limit how much of it I eat. Being my 1st time, I'm sure I'll be on here with TONS of questions, and I might start a journal thread. I know from the meetings I've been to about it, one of the most important things is to keep a journal about EVERY aspect, weather, Yeild, barometric pressure, wind, all that stuff.

One thing I'm not positive about, is how to care for the trees. what branches to trim off that are low, but make sure there is a good crown at the top, but you want to promote growth of course. I'll take a few pictures and post them soon to get an idea.

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[maple flats]

Welcome to The Maple Trader. The most important thing to remember is to keep it fun. Your daughter will really like helping and before you know it, you will be packing fancy glass wedding favors for her wedding (yes, it comes before you know it).
Only trim the branches that interfere with mowing if these are yard trees, and also remove any that don't look healthy. If your new property includes some woods or a hedgerow, show us some pictures and someone on here can help you decide.

[TheNamelessPoet]

Thanks for the warm welcome :-)
I finally got a chance to go through my yard/woods. I THINK I have 8-10 taps. here are the trees. (incoming a bunch of posts) is this hole a problem?https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190907/d5fa166f61986df48d38b37562ad0c64.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190907/cd2e70ee7a158b2f7908f8066f2cc3e8.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190907/0a13aa3c6f5ac986f5593aca768adf9c.jpg

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[TheNamelessPoet]

I think this one is big enough.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190907/96a90cff49329c7ddcbbd85c94c60890.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190907/4ec396dce5a88a325f746ff80eb1a216.jpg

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[TheNamelessPoet]

this one is still too small for 2 taps in pretty surehttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190907/f529b92c600638ec14b24fb3857f2603.jpg

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[TheNamelessPoet]

is this some kind of maple?https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190907/76d0d9d67b241cfea2bd33ed7ee067b1.jpg

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[TheNamelessPoet]

this is too right?https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190907/92713598f5563d2cc527ba3adfa0a08b.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190907/858f6d36fd25e7bbd007d6d8e5e6d6aa.jpg

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[TheNamelessPoet]

and lastly this one.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190907/51a9e86c80c21d975af16c1bafb8692c.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190907/e62a601a7cd667accb24be692f7334b3.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190907/8e7efeb4e6486c38057d3d1b319dbe51.jpg

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[maple flats]

For tapping, if using 5/16 taps, you can tap 1 at 10" and 2 taps at 18-20" and 3 if over 28" on a healthy looking tree. Those are the diameters. Those are on gravity collection, if you ever go with vacuum (even a 3/16 line on a slope for gravity vacuum, go to a 2 tap max. The first picture is a silver maple. The old hole looks fairly high, try a tap 7-8' below it, if you get brown drill shavings, don't tap under the hole, if white shavings it it good. Often with a hole like that, water gets in and rots a column down quite a long ways. The rest of the tree should be ok.
While any maple (including a box elder) can be used to make maple syrup, generally only 4 are used routinely by maple producers, they are the sugar maple, black maple, red maple and the silver maple. There is also a freeman maple which has 2 of those as parents, I forget which 2.
Start by searching for i.d.'s of those, leaves are best, but growth characteristics and bark also help. With practice it gets much easier.
With a sugar maple the bark changes a lot as it matures. When young the bark only has rather small ridges in the bark and it it a light grayish color. As it matures the bark thickens and "plates" start to form, vertically. The plates will start to curve away from the trunk on one edge.
You also show at least 1 sugar maple. Most of the other pictures are not clear enough. Thye pic showing a spiral notebook with a roll of orange marking ribbon is too small.
Onse you get an identification on each tree, just use the size to decide on taps.

[Galena]

I would say that the one shown in the long shot with what looks like a compost bin to the right is too small to tap, as is the one in the shot already mentioned. Clearer pictures would make tree ID easier but it looks to me like you have 1-2 sugar, a Norway and probably other soft maples.

[Pdiamond]

Get to know your neighbors and invite them over while you are boiling off next spring. Maybe they will let you tap some trees. Start small and grow as you learn once you catch the bug it becomes addictive.

[TheNamelessPoet]

Get to know your neighbors and invite them over while you are boiling off next spring. Maybe they will let you tap some trees. Start small and grow as you learn once you catch the bug it becomes addictive.I've already got the bug that's the "problem" lol

the guy to one side of me has no trees. the other side I THINK has 2 maples, and that was actually my plan PDiamond lol.

my father in law is about a 10 minute ride away from me, I was thinking about tapping a couple of his along the edge of his property that are easily accessible. the problem becomes collecting. I cant collect until 1-2 PM and I wont have time to go both places.

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[maple flats]

How do you plan to boil the sap?

[TheNamelessPoet]

How do you plan to boil the sap?Out door grill.
I want to get a stainless pan to boil in.
I'm just going to keep adding to it until it's close. I'll be making granulated sugar out of most of it so I just have to get it to about 220-225 or so (if my memory is working before I have my coffee) and I can finish inside on the stove. it should still be solvable then i think.

though now that i think about it... i should probably be closer to 217 shouldn't I? I'm trying to have the least amount of water in the house, but make it as easy as possible.

once I get to syrup I can store it right? I wish I could make an inexpensive RO lol

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[TheNamelessPoet]

something like thishttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190908/3b433fd623bccf3eeceb3a5c5dbe863e.jpg

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[Galena]

Out door grill.
I want to get a stainless pan to boil in.
I'm just going to keep adding to it until it's close. I'll be making granulated sugar out of most of it so I just have to get it to about 220-225 or so (if my memory is working before I have my coffee) and I can finish inside on the stove. it should still be solvable then i think.

though now that i think about it... i should probably be closer to 217 shouldn't I? I'm trying to have the least amount of water in the house, but make it as easy as possible.

once I get to syrup I can store it right? I wish I could make an inexpensive RO lol

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Ok *cracking knuckles* ...first, get yourself a whole lot of propane tanks and be ready to make many runs to the nearest refill station. Is there any way you can contain the heat so you aren't heating the great outdoors? Then get to a restaurant supply store and get a couple stainless steel hotel pans. How deep is up to you - how strong are you? My 4in deep hotel pans hold some 4 US gallons of sap. Also get a big stainless steel pot for finishing in, cause syrup comes roaring up the sides in a hellish froth when it's almsot ready. Get some welder's gloves too so you can lift the pan when it's freakin hot.

You're in the right range for finishing syrup at 219-225...but I would caution against trying to do it out in the open. In order to take it to sugar you need to go to around 265. I very much doubt you want to do that in a big ol unwieldy hotel pan.

Yes you definitely can store the syrup....in fact you should plan on it. Ice is the poor man's RO. Ditch the ice, keep the liquid that is left, boil that. Good luck.

[TheNamelessPoet]

oh boy... I had a nightmare last night about sugaring... I was trying to finish in. Wok of all things and after I started boiling it, I could carrots and zucchini in it... never took it out and when it got close to being finished I started in the mixing bowl and realized the veggies were still in there.

that was after boiling the 1st batch to 0% water lol... what a mess

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[maple flats]

Calm down, maple should be kept fun for everyone.

[TheNamelessPoet]

Calm down, maple should be kept fun for everyone.bah, made it before so I'm not nervous. just funny I had those 2 dreams last night lol.

I least I didnt spill it on my 3 year old!!!

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[Galena]

Maybe that dream with the wok and veggies is actually a premonition ;-) Oh and keep your little helper out of the kitchen when you're finishing off a batch - it takes only a moment's distraction for a batch to boil over and create a truly hellacious mess.

[TheNamelessPoet]

Maybe that dream with the wok and veggies is actually a premonition ;-) Oh and keep your little helper out of the kitchen when you're finishing off a batch - it takes only a moment's distraction for a batch to boil over and create a truly hellacious mess.oh yea for SURE. I did know that (but ALWAYS better to assume it isnt known)

plus... I'm not totally convinced she is a helper as much as we think lol.

going to take lots of pictures of the process so she can see in 30 years when she buys her own house, she was doing it too 😍

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[TheNamelessPoet]

Maybe that dream with the wok and veggies is actually a premonition ;-) Oh and keep your little helper out of the kitchen when you're finishing off a batch - it takes only a moment's distraction for a batch to boil over and create a truly hellacious mess.oh god I HOPE it's not a premonition lol. at least I'll probably have the most delicious carrots and Zucchini EVER

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[Galena]

oh yea for SURE. I did know that (but ALWAYS better to assume it isnt known)

plus... I'm not totally convinced she is a helper as much as we think lol....

Yeah you can't be too careful...I know of one 5yr old boy who was trying to *help* in the kitchen around Thanksgiving some years ago...he got underfoot, someone tripped over him and a large pot of boiling oil got dumped on him. Incredible amount of 3rd degree burns. He survived and still undergoes reconstructive surgery.

And on a lighter note, yes those veggies would taste awesome! ;-)