MapleCreekFarm
02-18-2021, 05:57 PM
Hi you all,
I've learned a lot from all you folks that have posted your tidbits and more over the years for us newbies to glean thru. A big shout out and thanks to all!
This will be my second season getting my feet wet (and sweet) in the maple syrup business. I think the bug has bit pretty deep and is going to hang on for a while.:lol: Last year we had 250 taps in our woods on our 46 acre property near the town of Columbiana, OH. This year we expanded the tubing to the rest of the woods and a small patch on a neighbor's property to bring us to 650 taps. To my knowledge, the maples were never tapped before. They run to the smaller size (8-20") and are about half sugar and half soft maples. Last year on 250 taps we got nearly 3 qt of syrup per tap running high (24-26") vac.
As far as the sugar house side, we are currently taking our sap to Dave Hively at Misty Maples to run it thru his RO and evap on the half, although I did purchase a used Deer Run 500 RO from Ray Gingerich so that we don't have to haul so much water this year with more taps. Last year we hauled 12,438 gal (1.2% average) of sap in 600 gal batches on our dump trailer. Not practical to nearly triple that volume and still haul it a half hour. Within several years, I would like to set up my own sugar house but for now the investment is plenty high enough and the learning curve is steep for someone who started out knowing practically nothing about it.
I am using 2 Airtech HP200V oilless air cooled vac pumps. Each pump is rated at up to 8 cfm and a max of 27" Hg but do not know whether they are running to spec since I bought them used. In testing this spring after I tapped and during the tiny run of sap I collected I was able to hold 24.5"Hg. Which I am happy with for now. I have a few tiny leaks that I know of and few more suspected that I will fix once the season starts for real (hopefully next week).
This year I also buried an electric line and sap line from my collection point to my one pole building which I eventually plan to convert into my sugar house. All told I'm probably around $15,000 in investment and you all know better than I do the ROI of maple sugaring. :o But its fun and something to do in the winter when my regular job (tree service) is slow. I also figure that if I get the investment pain done now while I'm young (37) it is something I could do for many years yet.
Well, this is probably long enough for my first post! Best wishes to you all in 2021!
Eric Kurtz
I've learned a lot from all you folks that have posted your tidbits and more over the years for us newbies to glean thru. A big shout out and thanks to all!
This will be my second season getting my feet wet (and sweet) in the maple syrup business. I think the bug has bit pretty deep and is going to hang on for a while.:lol: Last year we had 250 taps in our woods on our 46 acre property near the town of Columbiana, OH. This year we expanded the tubing to the rest of the woods and a small patch on a neighbor's property to bring us to 650 taps. To my knowledge, the maples were never tapped before. They run to the smaller size (8-20") and are about half sugar and half soft maples. Last year on 250 taps we got nearly 3 qt of syrup per tap running high (24-26") vac.
As far as the sugar house side, we are currently taking our sap to Dave Hively at Misty Maples to run it thru his RO and evap on the half, although I did purchase a used Deer Run 500 RO from Ray Gingerich so that we don't have to haul so much water this year with more taps. Last year we hauled 12,438 gal (1.2% average) of sap in 600 gal batches on our dump trailer. Not practical to nearly triple that volume and still haul it a half hour. Within several years, I would like to set up my own sugar house but for now the investment is plenty high enough and the learning curve is steep for someone who started out knowing practically nothing about it.
I am using 2 Airtech HP200V oilless air cooled vac pumps. Each pump is rated at up to 8 cfm and a max of 27" Hg but do not know whether they are running to spec since I bought them used. In testing this spring after I tapped and during the tiny run of sap I collected I was able to hold 24.5"Hg. Which I am happy with for now. I have a few tiny leaks that I know of and few more suspected that I will fix once the season starts for real (hopefully next week).
This year I also buried an electric line and sap line from my collection point to my one pole building which I eventually plan to convert into my sugar house. All told I'm probably around $15,000 in investment and you all know better than I do the ROI of maple sugaring. :o But its fun and something to do in the winter when my regular job (tree service) is slow. I also figure that if I get the investment pain done now while I'm young (37) it is something I could do for many years yet.
Well, this is probably long enough for my first post! Best wishes to you all in 2021!
Eric Kurtz