why do you make syrup [Archive]

Brad W Wi

11-13-2008, 05:33 AM

Something to do that time of year. Gets you out of the house. The White house doesn't call me for advice anymore. I gave up brain surgery. Snows to deep to plow up ground. All thats left other wise is beaver trapping. When it's all said and done ,It's geat fun, it gets into your blood, and when your finished you can look at the syrup you made and feel good about making something so good and natural. I also like to give some away to people that mean something to me and see how they like it, and to answer the questions they ask. It has also helped me make new friends. Also I personally like doing things that my grand parents might of enjoyed doing when they were alive.

firetech

11-13-2008, 05:35 AM

Because it tastes so GOOOOOOOOD! My grand kids come over to help. The outlaws show up for free pancake and sausage dinners. There is nothing to hunt and I don't ice fish (I've never fallen thru the bottm of my boat). Its a hobby that kinda pays for itself. Its great to get out and burn some winter fat. Lets keep the list going.

Thompson's Tree Farm

11-13-2008, 05:44 AM

"Like a fiend for his dope,
Or a drunkard his wine,
A man will have lust
for the lure of the"...Maple
Thanks to Merle Travis, Dark as a Dungeon

Maplewalnut

11-13-2008, 06:45 AM

if I knew why I do it, I could figure out how to stop...

mfchef54

11-13-2008, 07:09 AM

It's part of my whole farming package. Right now thinking about trying to collect it all and find the time to boil I ask my self the same question, but come that first sign of "big sap" I just want to be outside.

3% Solution

11-13-2008, 07:10 AM

Well let's see ............
Started when I was 17 yrs. old with Morris Putnam at Putnam Farms.
Dabbled a little now and then.
Then in 2000 got set up they way we are now, well almost.
It's a great thing to do in the spring when there is nothing else to do.
It's agreat family thing to do, almost everybody likes making syrup and everybody likes the smell and taste!!!
The neat thing is, no matter how many times you run it through an RO, you still have to boil it, just like the Indians did 200 years ago!!
This happens to be one of those things technology hasn't changed.
I enjoy the questions that folks have, especially the about where do you put the sugar in.
It's fun and it's a New England Tradition (if you live in New England).

Dave

peacemaker

11-13-2008, 07:50 AM

cause we are crazy

Amber Gold

11-13-2008, 08:02 AM

1. Can't get enough of it. It's goood stuff.
2. New England tradition.
3. Fun for the family.
4. Only hobby I've had where it won't cost me money.
5. Safer than motocross!
6. Something do to in the Spring.

RileySugarbush

11-13-2008, 08:06 AM

Because if I didn't, Theeeeron would be disappointed in me.

DaveB

11-13-2008, 08:09 AM

I make maple syrup because I love the process. I grew up in a farming town and I like the fact that I'm helping contribute to the preservation of that. I like the fact that I can drill a hole in a tree, boil the liquid that comes out and get this awesome product in the end. I like listening to the sound of the sap boiling and the steam rising. I like the sound of sap hitting the bottom of a bucket (though I have mostly tubing, I keep a few buckets just for this purpose!). I also like that I can make a few bucks on the side.

Did I mention that I love maple syrup and that I think my maple syrup is the best tasting maple syrup ever? ;)

Dave

OGDENS SUGAR BUSH

11-13-2008, 08:34 AM

1. did it with my dad 55 years ago and stayed in my blood

2. enjoy being in the woods all year.

3. one of the few hobbies that have some kind of pay back

4. and it is just fun

5. the list could go on and on

RICH

Haynes Forest Products

11-13-2008, 10:59 AM

I love the process,the tinkering and the end result. I think because its the only thing I THINK THAT I CAN CONTROL. I can share with people year round and if you give a person a bottle of syrup no mater how small the container you will have something in common and conversation for as long as you want to talk.

Valley View Sugarhouse

11-13-2008, 11:17 AM

Why do I make syrup?? hmmm well it started as a cool thing in 02 with a few buckets, and nothing to do.. Now I am a Mapleholic so what can I do but try and support my habit...

Russell Lampron

11-13-2008, 11:22 AM

1. It tastes great with a boiling soda.

2. It gives me something to do at that time of the year when I'm sick of plowing snow and can't quite get the Harley out yet.

3. The whole family is involved in one way or another. My trees are now my wifes trees!

4. I've met and talked to alot of nice people on this web site.

5. It is hard work but fun work with a nice finished product that is worth some money too.

I could go on and on.

MaplePancakeMan

11-13-2008, 03:16 PM

Had a syrup lesson in 4th grade and it stuck with me

Girlfriend prompted me to remember around it

Grandfather gave me antique taps

The rest is history.

Clan Delaney

11-13-2008, 04:57 PM

...because crack is still so dang expensive

...because nowhere else will people be in awe of your ability to boil water

...because it's not gonna make itself!

but seriously, I realized that I actually consider it a waste to not make it. It's the same reason that we pick and make jam out of the violets that grow in the yard in late Spring, or why I make cider, or why I go out hunting blackberries in the late summer. Because if I didn't it would just go to waste. Well, maybe it's more like a missed opportunity thing. All the other stuff applies as well: nothing can beat the smell of a running maple operation, big or small.

maple flats

11-13-2008, 05:38 PM

1. I need to get outdoors and be doing something.
2. I love the aroma while boiling.
3. I love the taste of the finished product.
4. I really enjoy showing how I make it and encouraging others to do it too.
5. I love teaching kids about making syrup and watching them get their first taste.
6. It is now in my blood.

Dennis H.

11-13-2008, 06:15 PM

Nothing better to waste my money on, well maybe there is something else, but nothing that I can say I made my self.

Put some of those trees to good use.

Because it is just so dang cool watching something boil!

Grade "A"

11-13-2008, 07:04 PM

Because it's another excuse to tell old stories to friends that have already heard them all before.

peacemaker

11-13-2008, 07:52 PM

as a friend said how much better does it get u put sap in a pan boil it till its almost gone ad more and so on all night

TapME

11-13-2008, 08:04 PM

Because I want to get rich.

The family has been doing it forever. But the bet reason is that it puts smiles on peoples faces.
And We Like Making Fires And Burning A Lot Of Wood.

Sugarmaker

11-13-2008, 08:54 PM

Some thoughts on why I make syrup:

Playing with a fire, thats slightly out of control,
Watching water boil, that has a slight sweet taste,
Knowing my grandfather and his too, sampled the maple sweet as it got closer to syrup.
Watching a kids eyes light up as they open those arch doors, see the roaring flames and throw in a stick of wood.
Toasting marshmallows in about 3 seconds in the arch (Suggested by a 6 year old visitor)
Boiling eggs in the sap to hard boiled stage them pouring hot syrup over the yoke.
Finding another and another full bucket of sap and grinning like a kid.
Encouraging others to participate in this addictive hobby too.
Having a place friends and family can come in a visit while making syrup.
Sending the grand kids out to gather the sap with a smile.
Making and sending a local natural quality maple product across the country and around the world.
Making new friends,
Welcoming spring,
Telling stories and listening to stories about making syrup,
Taking time to visit friends sugarhouses,
Maple Taste and Tour weekend where 300-400 folks come into the sugarhouse to visit, and challenge my sugar making knowledge.

Chris

danno

11-13-2008, 09:03 PM

Sounds like allot of us, among other reasons, produce because there is not a whole lot else going on that time of year and we're looking for a reason to get outside. Myself included. What if those trees released their sweet necter during hunting season or mid summer - how many of us would still produce? Interesting!

I love boiling, but it certainly does conflict with some great spring skiing. I can work around that - but if syrup season was in the middle of a hot, humid summer - you might find me out on the lake and not sweating it up in the sugar shack. For that matter - I much prefer to boil on those good, cold clear days/nights way more than those last couple boils when it's 65 out.

220 maple

11-14-2008, 07:53 AM

Being a diabetic I don't get to eat the product I make, however I taste every batch for quality control. You gotta love that reason. I enjoy the part of syrupmaking that requires working in the woods. The most enjoyable part is meeting other sugarmakers, believe it or not I've never met a true A-hole yet. apparently anyone who has the patience to work with the land and be at the mercy of the weather are naturally a good person. I been looking for nine years now. I'm still learning new things. The list goes on and on.

Haynes Forest Products

11-14-2008, 01:46 PM

It is a good time in the woods without the Skeeters.

davrhods

11-14-2008, 03:32 PM

It will hopefully make up for lost work while i'm out spring sking. play during the day and boil all night.and the taste of fresh syrup can't be beat.

brookledge

11-14-2008, 04:02 PM

Because I do. I started out small with about 25 taps when I was 10. Now 34 years later I'm still loving it and up to 1150 taps. I also found it gave me alittle income as a kid. As some one else said it is a hobby with some payback. Unlike some hobbies that you put alot of money in and get a 25 cent ribbon back. I like the outdoors also.
As for splitting wood on a hot day in the summer, one would think I'm crazy but I enjoy it and to me it is not work.
When it becomes work then I'm done.
Great to see so many good comments
Keith

maplecrest

11-14-2008, 04:21 PM

i grew up in the sugar house. not very much fun as a child. but as i got old enough to tap trees and gather sap and then go to the sugar house to see the end result from all the work was different. then came the day i bought my first chainsaw. well then i was moved to first firewood cutter. oh boy!after college i got bite hard by the maple bug and every spare dime i can find goes into my high priced toys to feed that bug.i am a mapleholic

WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER

11-15-2008, 07:34 AM

As the old expression goes, "FOR THE LOVE OF THE GAME". I remember a time when I started aprox 15 to 18 years ago that I was the only producer around that I was aware of. Now there are several that I know of within an hour of me but probably 80 to 90 percent of the population in WV don't even know what maple syrup is or how it is produced, it is maple Aunt Jermima from Walmart or Krogers and no I am not trying to be funny. It is a good education tool to educate others becuase many years ago WV was a big producers(way back in the dark ages LOL).

It's a tradition and heritage that I can teach my kids and educate others on.

JohnM

11-15-2008, 01:44 PM

Cabin Fever Reliever.

I like to get outside and mess around.

This definitely makes a mess!

Sweet Blessings......

Cardigan99

11-16-2008, 05:10 PM

Because it makes me smile.

gator330

01-07-2009, 08:27 AM

I was reading back and came across this. I thought I would like to add my thoughts and give other a chance to refreash in it as well.

Why do I make syrup? There are lot of reasons that fast come to mind. But it's a lot deeper then just being outdoors or making a little money. The look on a child face is priceless. When you tap a tree and out comes the sap. As they watch it turn to syrup and then to candy on a stick as you pull it off the snow. Keeping tradition alive, that is why I keep a team of drafts and grow a garden that could feed a town. Just to give it all away. Why we have apple trees and peach trees. Our jam is made from the mullberrys and strawberrys we grow. It means more and the taste is better when your the one that did it from the start. My great Grandfather made Cream and grew weat and corn on this farm. They cut there own meat and made there own sausage. I hunt the same woods and harvest it as well as from it each year. I even use the same augar and bit that he did, to tap the maples. And when I'm done I rap it in Burlap and set it back where it has been for 50-60 years. We grow mellons, best I have ever tasted in all my 38 years. The guys at work call me the Mellon King. I just came across a papper. It turn out the man that settlled this farm in 1803 came from Conneticut on a team of Oxen. He was well known for growing mellons and was called the Mellon King. How things have a way of repeating. Even as small as this may be. Making Syrup is a small part of it that I hope will repeat in my Children and in thiers as well. So maybe some day my Great Grandchildren will stand in the same woods and Tap a maple tree and feel me standing next to them as I Feel others now. Its doing things the way it should be done when working hard ment you had the things that mean something. To me a mason jar or two of syrup each year means a lot. This fast pace world has me running all the time. When it's time to make syrup with all the work it demands the rewards couldn't be any better. So lets get going and make some more!!!

01-07-2009, 08:56 AM

We started when my son came home from school and wanted to make syrup.
We bought 10 set of buckets and some stainless soup pans. We made the darkest syrup ever produced but tasted great to us.
Now we have a small sugarhouse and 150 buckets. We make great tasting , great looking syrup. But like alot of you the reason is family. My two boys look forward to sugaring more then I do. We also make the best syruo in the world according to them. Hopefully I will be able to afford to keep our 23 acres in the family so they will always have a place to be a country boy at heart.
Take care,
P.S. How do we inset pictures here anyways?

Jeff E

01-07-2009, 11:45 AM

It started with a 'why not', when a freind said ' Hey, you got sugar maples everywhere, do something with them!'

I will never forget the look on my wifes face, and the kids faces when we filtered and tasted the first batch!!! We stood there like idiots grinning at each other :)

I love the process, the tinkering, the expanding, I only dread the day that I cant do it, so I am trying to build a system that will let me do it a loonngg time.

white mt

01-07-2009, 12:25 PM

I like to spend and spend and spend and spend some more.just kidding. Its in the blood know cant stop.

maple flats

01-07-2009, 01:02 PM

You already answered the question. You and most of us make syrup because we enjoy it. What other answer do you need?

Father & Son

01-07-2009, 01:08 PM

Al,
When you post a reply, right under the submit button there is an area that says Additional Options, in that it says Attach Files, click on Manage Attachments and let the fun begin!

Jim

maple flats

01-07-2009, 02:59 PM

I don't find the options usually because I almost always do a quick reply. However if I go advanced I see the attachment option

01-07-2009, 03:37 PM

Let's try this. This is last year's first boil and our tractor.

jason grossman

01-07-2009, 05:26 PM

my brother and i were born with the disease. third generation. grandad helped in the thirtys and my dad ran a 4000 tap operation on a 6x18 back in the fifties, took a break in the sixties then started small again when were born, now were are slowly building up again. developement and Mcmansions have ravaged many good sugarbushes in our area.

dano2840

01-07-2009, 06:06 PM

my dad started when i was 10 and i only would get up there once or twice during the season and thats when i got addicted and started doing it my self. Ive goten bigger and bigger every year, and dont plan to stop, i do it for alot of reasons, i love doing it, it gets me out in the woods and gives me some thing to do in the winter and spring, i like all the people it brings me to, and all the people i meet, plus the bragging rights, i really like when the girls in school come over to help, (starting this year now that ive got a reall sugar house) :D i like the money, and i like the wild life i get to see, i like the smell of boiling syrup, i think the prettyest site is steam rolling out of a coupala and riseing as far into the air as you can see on a cloudless night with a full moon, and stars shining

caseyssugarshack93

01-07-2009, 08:36 PM

THis is how it started One year i had a feid trip to parkers maple farm and i had a doctors appoinment so i missed it and when i got home my dad tapped about 10 trees and the next year we bought our first evaporator 2x4 leader evaporator with flat pans ( didnt know much about pans) had that for about 3 years with around 250 taps maybe longer i dont really remmember, sold it two summers ago bougut a 2x6 and had 1100 taps last year on gravity and this year have a 250gph r/o and should have around 800 on vac and therest on gravity should have around 1700 taps and more for next year if i can tap this new bush i found 20 acrers of maples. alot of taps. Hoping for some BIG SAP this year last year was the worst year ever.
first year on vac for me. next year maybe a new evaporator if needed with the number of taps..

nate

tapper

01-08-2009, 06:43 AM

For ALL of the reasons mentioned above haha. Wow and there are so many more reasons I like it.
Syrup season is something to look forward to. Cant wait till it gets here but then sometimes after a long season glad its done.
Syrup season keeps you guessing. When will it start when will it end? Will mother nature give us 10 gallons or 1000 gallons? The highs and the lows of the season and from season to season is the thrill of it.
There is a never ending list of equipment to add for the next season. That aspect of it wether you build it or buy it is wayyyy fun too.

fred

01-08-2009, 07:36 AM

cause its the best get rich scheme out there. hehehehehe or maybe its so much fun

dano2840

01-08-2009, 08:31 AM

best get poor scheme you could ever imagine too, hehe,
say has any one ever seen that paper called THE REAL COST OF MAPLE SUGARING?
that has all the doctors bills and devorce settlement and all that added into the mix? if any one has it i would like a copy, it ends up totaling like 120,000 for like 300 tap operation, its funny to read

jtthibodeau

01-08-2009, 08:54 AM

I was 9 years old when Mom and Dad divorced in 1959. I stayed with Dad and, I'm sure, the 16 X16 ft. tar paper cabin we built on my Uncles land, was a form of therapy for both of us.

He built a sled (pulled by hand) with a removable, galvanized tub w/cover that could hold about 30 gallons of sap which, was nearly impossible to pull when full.

we put out 30 or so taps, boiled on top of the wood stove and made a couple of gallons or so of syrup. The seasonal ritual lasted until I got my drivers license at age 16 when I thought I had more important things to do. Sadly, 3 years later, Dad passed away.

Today, I have a Son-in-law and three grandchildren to pass along the tradition to. Thanks Dad.....

Specklefield Farm

01-08-2009, 09:29 PM

To catch my 8 year old sneeking into the fridge to slug it right out of the bottle. That's reason enough for me to make some more!

michiganfarmer

01-15-2009, 09:21 AM

March is a beautiful time to be in the woods. The sun is warm on your skin, and the air is still cool. The sun is getting higher in the sky, there is less cloud cover, and the days are nice and bright.

Ive always been an employee somewhere, taking orders form others, and the sharpening business I own I bought from my dad, but the syrup operation is all mine. I cant quite explain it. I just love it!

stevepipkin

01-17-2009, 07:52 PM

Its a big boy's trip to Disneyworld.

sugarnut

01-21-2009, 08:51 PM

it started out from curiosity. once i found out you didn't need sugar maples, i had to try it. that first taste of your very first syrup is awesome indeed, lol. it does fill a void in the dead of winter. it seems i always have something to do now. :) mushroom hunting>gardening>harvesting>hunting>making syrup>mushroom hunting...

i think it is a good skill to have. i live too far north to grow sugar cane, so now i know how to make sugar if times get tough.

KenWP

01-21-2009, 11:08 PM

One of the reasons I moved to Quebec was to make maple syrup. I actually grew up where there were very few trees. This will be my first time trying this and am worried that its will not work out. My better half has all these horror stories about people who tried and failed at makeing maple syrup.

WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER

01-22-2009, 09:31 PM

Kevin,

It will work out fine and you will be a pro in no time. Maybe find a decent size hobby operation around you and hook up with owner when he is tapping and maybe the first time he boils and look around at his tubing, buckets, setup and ask lots of questions and in a few hours you will know more than you could have thought possible in just a few hours. Might even offer to help tap one day for a little while and help him with boiling the first boil or two.

Specklefield Farm

03-01-2009, 05:42 PM

last night we fired the new evaporator for the first time with sap. My girls have been chomping at the bit for a couple of weeks to get it going, but I keep telling them that this is different this year, we need more sap to actually make it worth while to fire it up. anyhow, they talked me into it, and I finished off the first 1/2 gallon from our "homegrown" barrel evaporator this morning. I spilled some on the counter top while bottling, and my youngest got a chair from the kitchen table and licked it off the counter!! That, my friends, is why I do this crazy hobby!! LOL!

JohnM

03-02-2009, 07:39 AM

Dear Specklefield Farm

To a "crazy" hobbyist like me that sounds kind of like..... poetry.

Sweet Blessings to you all!

hholt

03-02-2009, 04:03 PM

I'm in it for the money LOL....a picture says it best for me.

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b163/hholt/saphaul.jpg

rob1640

03-02-2009, 08:04 PM

Because I can, I think.

This will be my first year and I am already addicted. I was planning on starting with 25-50 taps now I'm thinking of 200. Who knows how many by the time I tap!

heus

04-03-2009, 08:11 AM

Why do I want to get started making maple syrup?
1.A reason to get my wife and kids outside
2.I've always wanted to do it.
3.I will be tapping the same woods and some of the same trees my great grandfather and great, great grandfather tapped beginning in the early 1900's. I'm lucky to have 26 acres of possibly virgin forest in Ohio. Sugar maples up to 5 feet in diameter, although many have died in the past 10-15 years, Altogether probably 200-300 sugar maples and many more soft maples to tap in the future. There is even the remains of a sugar house that was used 100 years ago until around the 1930's. The doors for the arch of the evaporator are still there.