maple flats
04-04-2021, 12:13 PM
I made maple syrup as early as 1975, but only for family use, tapping 1 large sugar and 3 multi-stem box Elders. We repeated that as a family about every 2-3 years. Then my son who was active in Boy Scouts (I was the scoutmaster) asked if he and 2 scout friends could camp out in my woods where there were several sugar maples during winter break in 1985. I said yes, but they would need to get letters of permission from their parents acknowledging that they understood it would not be a scout function and that all three would have no adult supervision (2 of the 3 are Eagle Scouts). I then gave them permission. That week, (last week in February) the set up camp on Friday late afternoon, and put out 25 taps and buckets. Each day and into evening they boiled the sap over their camp fires. By the Sunday following 9 days of collecting sap and making syrup, each came home with about 1.5 qts of rather smokey tasting syrup. That was their final syrup adventure.
Then in 2003 I got the thinking I needed something to do that time of year, so I bought a used Half Pint, bricked it, and set up my sugar operation on my concrete slab patio next to my house. I assembled a canopy (10x10) over the evaporator and leaned the stack back about 30 degrees from vertical and held it in position using 2 lengths of 1/2" EMT, bracing up from the ground. That year my wife and I started with 29 taps. After the first sap flow I tapped more. Adding 5-8 taps each time as I kept saying "I can do more". Then when at 78 taps, the sap really started to flow. I soon realized I needed to boil longer hours. (Having sold my business 3 years earlier and started driving school bus) I decided we needed to boil 24 hrs. I had the boiling going as I left to drive bus, while my wife tended the boil. When I got home shortly after 9:00, I went to gather the sap. After that I tended the fire until I had to go drive bus again about 1:40 and my wife again took over. After the P.M. run I again collected the sap. Then we boiled all evening, then slowed to fire, added about 2" extra sap and set a timer to get up every 2 hrs, fuel, draw off any if ready, add more sap and set alarm again for 2 more hrs. Doing this we managed ok but 3 days of that really got hard. During the day times we were evaporating about 6.5 gph, over nights averaged about 2.5 gph.
I then pulled about 30 taps and at that point we could boil from 5:30 AM til about 11:00 pm, shut down, add extra sap and sleep until 5:30 again. We were glad when the weekend arrived.
That season we made 10.5 gal of necter of the Gods. We kept about 4 gal, gave some away and sold the rest. I was hooked. That summer, 2003 I decided to get a bigger evaporator. We bought a used Leader 2x6 drop flue which was 2-3 yrs old and it had labels saying "lead free", the owner was moving to a 2.5x8. That summer I also started cutting hemlocks on our property. As I got a trailer load, I hauled them about 3 miles to a guy who had a Wood-Mizer sawmill. I gave him a cut list and in 6-7 days he called saying it was ready. I hauled the lumber back, unloaded the lumber and put another load of logs on the trailer, hauled them to be cut.
The next day or 2 I went to get a building permit (not realizing at the time that farms in NYS do not need a permit to build a sugarhouse). They refused, saying, since I had no principle structure on the property I had to get a variance. This all started in mid May, 2003, by the time I jumped thru all of the hoops, I finally got the OK and the permit on the Tuesday (2 days before Thanksgiving). I called a neighbor (the sawyer again) who came that Wednesday and dug a trench for the perimeter of my 16x24 sugarhouse and a pit where I was going to pour a concrete base and set concrete blocks to support the evaporator. Planning to continue to grow, I made the base large enough to accommodate and evaporator up to 3x10. I then started setting poles and erecting the walls, to be 10' tall. Starting in early Aug. it began getting hard to get my lumer cut when I needed it so I ordered a Sawmill. I then constructed trusses and recruited enough family and friends to set the trusses in Dec 31, 2003. At the time I only had a 20 HP tractor with no loader. I built a lift on the 3 pt hitch with a long arm made of 2 rough cut 2x6 and with that I was able to raise the heavy (all rough cut, full 2" hemlock, 2x6 top cord, 2x4 bottom cord 3 2x4 webs and 3' overhang on each side) trusses enough that we got them somehow up on the top plate. From there we moved each to position, starting at the far end, and attached them to the double top plate, added cross bracing and repeated. At lunch we had a quick picnic lunch and went back to work. Before sunset we had all trusses up, attacked and cross braced. I then asked my oldest son (the Eagle Scout) if he could return to help me put the roofing steel up, he said yes. By the time Saturday came I had all of the purlins attached and we attached the roofing. Had I known then what I later learned I'd have added plywood , tar paper, then roofing, because I learned how cold rain from the cold roof steel is cold down you neck.I still left an opening, the cupola was not yet built.
My sawmill arrived From then on, I worked every day, from between bus runs, and then into the evening, often until 10:30 or 11:00. Sometime in Mid February my wife suggested I finish that summer and boil starting in 2005. I refused to wait. I was hooked. I didn't want to wait. Even though my pit was still empty (4' deep) and I had no finished floor, I sawed lumber to support a wooden floor, with big chunks of old sidewalk in the pit, I built a 16x12 platform in the middle of my 16x24 space, favoring towards the man door end. Under the platform I added support posts for under the arch. I set the arch non a layer of 8x8x16 concrete blocks with a large apron of blocks in front. I capped that with a sheet of 24 ga galvanized sheet metal, and I built a ramp in to get up to the platform, That year I filled around 3 sides using pallets and it became a Sugarhouse.
Along with the above, I built a 2.5 x 6 cupola, roofed it and had a large door on each long side, hinged and made it so I could open and close it from floor level by ropes. That method remains to this day.
I soon learned I needed a hood to get the steam out, so I made my second hood (I had made one for over the first evaporator, just for overnight, with a steam stack) to get the rain to quit. I made it out of aluminum flashing and pop rivets. It had a gutter system out of aluminum C channel, welded together, 1x1x1 and the hod was pop riveted to the channel, it had a drain spout which dumped into a bucket on the floor, It gave me some hot water.
Then in 2003 I got the thinking I needed something to do that time of year, so I bought a used Half Pint, bricked it, and set up my sugar operation on my concrete slab patio next to my house. I assembled a canopy (10x10) over the evaporator and leaned the stack back about 30 degrees from vertical and held it in position using 2 lengths of 1/2" EMT, bracing up from the ground. That year my wife and I started with 29 taps. After the first sap flow I tapped more. Adding 5-8 taps each time as I kept saying "I can do more". Then when at 78 taps, the sap really started to flow. I soon realized I needed to boil longer hours. (Having sold my business 3 years earlier and started driving school bus) I decided we needed to boil 24 hrs. I had the boiling going as I left to drive bus, while my wife tended the boil. When I got home shortly after 9:00, I went to gather the sap. After that I tended the fire until I had to go drive bus again about 1:40 and my wife again took over. After the P.M. run I again collected the sap. Then we boiled all evening, then slowed to fire, added about 2" extra sap and set a timer to get up every 2 hrs, fuel, draw off any if ready, add more sap and set alarm again for 2 more hrs. Doing this we managed ok but 3 days of that really got hard. During the day times we were evaporating about 6.5 gph, over nights averaged about 2.5 gph.
I then pulled about 30 taps and at that point we could boil from 5:30 AM til about 11:00 pm, shut down, add extra sap and sleep until 5:30 again. We were glad when the weekend arrived.
That season we made 10.5 gal of necter of the Gods. We kept about 4 gal, gave some away and sold the rest. I was hooked. That summer, 2003 I decided to get a bigger evaporator. We bought a used Leader 2x6 drop flue which was 2-3 yrs old and it had labels saying "lead free", the owner was moving to a 2.5x8. That summer I also started cutting hemlocks on our property. As I got a trailer load, I hauled them about 3 miles to a guy who had a Wood-Mizer sawmill. I gave him a cut list and in 6-7 days he called saying it was ready. I hauled the lumber back, unloaded the lumber and put another load of logs on the trailer, hauled them to be cut.
The next day or 2 I went to get a building permit (not realizing at the time that farms in NYS do not need a permit to build a sugarhouse). They refused, saying, since I had no principle structure on the property I had to get a variance. This all started in mid May, 2003, by the time I jumped thru all of the hoops, I finally got the OK and the permit on the Tuesday (2 days before Thanksgiving). I called a neighbor (the sawyer again) who came that Wednesday and dug a trench for the perimeter of my 16x24 sugarhouse and a pit where I was going to pour a concrete base and set concrete blocks to support the evaporator. Planning to continue to grow, I made the base large enough to accommodate and evaporator up to 3x10. I then started setting poles and erecting the walls, to be 10' tall. Starting in early Aug. it began getting hard to get my lumer cut when I needed it so I ordered a Sawmill. I then constructed trusses and recruited enough family and friends to set the trusses in Dec 31, 2003. At the time I only had a 20 HP tractor with no loader. I built a lift on the 3 pt hitch with a long arm made of 2 rough cut 2x6 and with that I was able to raise the heavy (all rough cut, full 2" hemlock, 2x6 top cord, 2x4 bottom cord 3 2x4 webs and 3' overhang on each side) trusses enough that we got them somehow up on the top plate. From there we moved each to position, starting at the far end, and attached them to the double top plate, added cross bracing and repeated. At lunch we had a quick picnic lunch and went back to work. Before sunset we had all trusses up, attacked and cross braced. I then asked my oldest son (the Eagle Scout) if he could return to help me put the roofing steel up, he said yes. By the time Saturday came I had all of the purlins attached and we attached the roofing. Had I known then what I later learned I'd have added plywood , tar paper, then roofing, because I learned how cold rain from the cold roof steel is cold down you neck.I still left an opening, the cupola was not yet built.
My sawmill arrived From then on, I worked every day, from between bus runs, and then into the evening, often until 10:30 or 11:00. Sometime in Mid February my wife suggested I finish that summer and boil starting in 2005. I refused to wait. I was hooked. I didn't want to wait. Even though my pit was still empty (4' deep) and I had no finished floor, I sawed lumber to support a wooden floor, with big chunks of old sidewalk in the pit, I built a 16x12 platform in the middle of my 16x24 space, favoring towards the man door end. Under the platform I added support posts for under the arch. I set the arch non a layer of 8x8x16 concrete blocks with a large apron of blocks in front. I capped that with a sheet of 24 ga galvanized sheet metal, and I built a ramp in to get up to the platform, That year I filled around 3 sides using pallets and it became a Sugarhouse.
Along with the above, I built a 2.5 x 6 cupola, roofed it and had a large door on each long side, hinged and made it so I could open and close it from floor level by ropes. That method remains to this day.
I soon learned I needed a hood to get the steam out, so I made my second hood (I had made one for over the first evaporator, just for overnight, with a steam stack) to get the rain to quit. I made it out of aluminum flashing and pop rivets. It had a gutter system out of aluminum C channel, welded together, 1x1x1 and the hod was pop riveted to the channel, it had a drain spout which dumped into a bucket on the floor, It gave me some hot water.