how u started

[peacemaker]

in more detail what did your first setup look like ...

[Buckeye mapler]

Peacemaker,
While I can't quite comment on this one since mine is still in the process of development, this thread should be interesting for me to compare to. Can you edit your post and add, "what would you have done different?" I could learn alot from this!

[davey]

With milk jugs stuffed over the end of broken branches after an icestorm and held in place with strings, a sauce pan and my kitchen stove I was able to produce nearly a half cup of syrup my first year!

[tuckermtn]

jumped right in with a 2x6 set of grimm pans and a homemade arch that did a good job of keeping the sugarhouse warm...140 taps first year, made 25 gals.

[maplecrest]

walked in the sugar house one day and had lots of sap and no one to boil it. my dad put out 800 buckets and never boiled or walked in the sugar house. that was my mothers gig. she got badly burned boiling and never boiled again. while i was in college they hired a boiler. after leaving school i have sugared ever since. this will be my 29th season comming up.5350 taps and growing.my first set up was a wood fired grimm 4x12 drop in a shack that the water ran thru as the snow melted. the mud was a foot deep around the evap. and the ashes sizzled under the arch as they fell in the flowing water under the arch. two 20 barrel tanks fed the rig. and had a 3 cone filter tank to can with. the building is still standing. i see pictures of it every where i go that people have taken of it.not a fun place to work unless you had a few boiling sodas in you.

[briduhunt]

My first boil was on a single turkey fryer, I made 3 quarts of syrup. The next year I used 2 turkey fryrs and made some very expensive 5 1/2 gallons of syrup at the cost of $210.00 in LP. Then and there I started looking for a wood fired rig. I found a used unit in Ohio for a good price and I am currently still working on putting up my shack and re-bricking my unit. My goal this year is 30 gallons of syrup. I have about 3 face cords of wood, and more to come for my first year boiling. I want to test fire my rig in the next 2-3 weeks so I can hopefully work some of the bugs out.
Thats my story and I am sticking to it.

[Jeff E]

These are always fun stories. I had a guy helping me shingle the house and he looks into 40 acres of Maples, and says, 'You ever make syrup?' I had been cutting down maples to free up the ocasional white oak, the keep the deer happy. (boo!). I said I had never thought of it. So he talked me through the process, and like others, tapped my first 10 trees and made syrup on the LP Grill. Next year, hauled about 100 gallons of sap to his house and used his home made pan over a bock arch. I then bought a 2x4 flat pan arch, used this for 4 years, up to 75 taps. Then the 2x8 vermont set, up to 350 taps.

What would I have done different? Listened to others when they said, "Plan on expanding when making purchases". Like buy and hand pump filter and wishing I would have a higher capacity filter now. Now I am trying to make purchases and changes based on what could be 10 years from now, rather than just next spring. Every year I have expanded, and during each expansion I think 'thats it, no bigger', and I have been wrong each time!

One other item. I wish I would have taken managing the woods better for maples 8 years ago, rather that really going after it now. I know now getting the most sugar content from each tap is a huge efficiency opportunity that I totally overlooked before.

500 gallons of 1.5% sap makes the same amount of syrup as 250 gallons of 3.0 sap, and takes a lot less work for it to happen. Evaporation, cutting wood, hauling sap, etc. Think about that a while.

[paul]

We bought 144 acres about 20 years ago, when I say we I mean my self,my wife and a freind we both grew up with in Long Island NY. Didn`t know anything about sugaring we just bought some woods. We spent about 8 years logging it and trying to bring back the old sugar bush, it was very over grown, there was an old sugarhouse on top of the ridge that took us 3 months to find, we must have walked by it a dozen times just too thick couldn`t see it. We turn that old sugarhouse into a deere camp and then I ran into a guy some of you know Gerry [beenie] Masterson he was selling maple equiptment and he said he would set me up with all the tubing,mainline, and taps in return for us to sell him our sap for 3 years. Another freind of mine at the time set up 750 tap on about 8 acres. we had all the set up payed for in 1 1/2 years. Gerry started splitting the syrup with us after that. Than we had another sugar maker offerd us a 5x14 arch,pans, stack,hood and 2 tanks for a seasons worth of sap. WHAT A DEAL but we didn`t have a sugar house to put them in.Well you know we built one 24x50and now have 2200 taps and growing. I didn`t know it was addicting and I`m glad I didn`t because I`m having the time of my life sugaring.

[fred]

started at 13 ,21 milk jugs, a pan and propane burners - what i would have done different gone straight to 4000 taps

[Russell Lampron]

When I was 16 I tapped some swamp maples and made 1 gallon of really dark but good flavored syrup on a block arch in an old wash tub. Fast forward about 30 years and I did it again with a roasting pan on a gas grill. Made 3 gallons that year and spent a lot of money on propane. That fall I bought my 2x6 Algier evaporator with the plan to do about 200 taps. I ended up with a little over 300 taps and made 57 gallons of syrup, most of it light. After finding still more trees to tap and trying to fill orders for the syrup that I made I took the plunge 5 years ago and bought my RO machine. I also added 200 more taps on vacuum and am continuing to grow.

If I had looked into my crystal ball back then I would have built my sugar house bigger and purchased the RO machine and vacuum pump right from the start.

[maple flats]

My first year (in modern times) was started slowly. I started with a 2x3 half pint, wood fired and 25 taps. As I found how many i could handle I kept adding and by the end of the season I had 70 taps in, all sugar maples. I collected in a collection of gal milk jugs hung under the taps with twine around the tree, and some tubing run into 5 gal recycled cooking oil jugs from restaurants. The jugs were 1 per 1 or 2 trees, teed together and drops into the jugs. I made 11 gal that year. The next I got a used 2x6, sold the 2x3, added tubing, went to 120 taps, most on tubing, 2 runs from 60 and 38 taps on mainline and the rest on an all 5/16 setup with 4-7 taps on each of 4 legs feeding into a star fitting and then dropping into a plastic trash can.
Year 3 went to 240 taps if I remember on mainline and I still had (and still have now) the star fitting setup section.
Now in my 7th season upcoming I plan to have 800 taps, still all gravity on a 3x8 I used for the last 2 seasons. For 2010 I hope to have an RO, Vac and over 1000 taps, but that is still in the dream/planning stage.

[Revi]

We started by looking around for a good woodlot that had some maples on it around 2000. We found one only three miles from home! Started stringing tubing. In retrospect it would have been better to do a cut first, but we were anxious to get started. We found a sugarhouse design and the local vocational school built our sugarhouse in sections. We had a slab poured and brought in the shack. It was really fun. We got an evaporator and started up with about 100 taps. We're over 250 on tubing now, all gravity to the shack.

It helps to do this with a bunch of people who really know the business around here. They have given us a lot of advice.

I'm a teacher and my partner in this venture is a forester. We tag team with the boiling. I start around 3 and he takes over for the night shift on big boils.

It's really the boys club. All our friends show up and we hang out during the midweek boils. The wives aren't as enthusiastic for some reason.

It's pretty addicting.

[JohnsSugarShack]

Started in 1998 with 2 coleman camp stoves and 2 canning kettles, made about 4 gallons. The next year used a propane stove that has 2 150,000 btu burners and a 20"x20" aluminum syrup pan that my grandfather had, used this setup for 5 years and made and average of 6-8 gallons each season. Then I purchased a leader half pint for 2004, 65 taps, made 12 gallons. In "05" I made 22 gal and in "06" made 16 gal. I sold the half pint in "07" and placed an order for a Leader 2x6 American, but had to cancel the order, daughter went to college and the funds ran out. I can't take it any more, told the wife I'm going to have another evaporator. Only have 6 gallons of syrup left over from "06". Planning on a 2x6 for 2010 season but not sure now whether it'll be a drop or raised flue. Doing a lot of research and looking for opinions.
John

[Sugarmaker]

I would have been rich, handsome and had a 1000 hard maples 3 foot in diameter on the side of a hill given to me.
Instead I have had to claw my way to this point, but it has been fun!

Chris

[jrthe3]

i helped my dad and grandfather make syrup from the time i was little till the old man who owned the land that our sugar house and bush were on died his daughter got the land and did not want us on it anymore so we quit then about ten years later i taped a few trees got my dads stainless steel corn cooking pot put over a fire and made 3 quarts of the blackest syrup i have ever seen just keep dumping more sap in the pot till the season was done

[sapsick]

I started for real after my wifes grandfather died and left us"holding the bucket". had 25 taps the first year then 50 and this year a 100 taps with a new homemade evap and many new sled trails for hauling. its been a privelege to continue with my boys what he started.

[sapsick]

hey Revi where are you in Skowvegas. I live in Norridgewock?

[adk1]

I ahvent actually started, but when I do it will be with a new Evaporator, probably the Leader Hobby, with new buckets and spouts the first year. I havent planned out my trees that I would tap yet though. My second or third year I may graduate up to putting in some form of mainline tubing system to dump buckets into to have it go down my hill into a holding tank. Although I might do that my first year too, I havent decided yet.
To tell you the truth, I guess I am just not interested in makign my own evaporator, for me the fun is going to be in having the equipment, working it and watching my kids haul buckets for me :) My guess is I will have about 60-100 taps

[ennismaple]

I was born into the maple syrup addiction! When I was born we were tapping about 1100 buckets using chainsaws and a left hand bit. By the late 70's we added gravity tubing to a hill we hadn't tapped with buckets because it wasn't practical to gather everyday. That bush got put on vacuum, buckets got converted to tubing and we expanded more over time. By the time the '98 Ice Storm hit we were at 4000 taps. The Ice storm wiped out almost half our taps and the droughts we had in the early part of this decade killed a lot of already weakened trees. Since 2002 my father, brother and I expanded a lot to our current 4000 taps on vacuum. We've got future plans to expand by another 1000+ taps but we've got some things to figure out first.

[adk1]

From the looks of things, you have the equipment, land etc to go that big, wow! Farmers by trade I take it?

[adk1]

Now mees thinking maybe just going with the Leader 2x4 evaporator, that would be as big as I would ever go with my number of maples tapping at 100%

[Homestead Maple]

When we were in the eight grade, a friend and I tapped some neighborhood trees and boiled on a flat pan in a small shack behind my friends house. We had 25 taps. When I got into high school I helped a family friend that had 350 taps. When I got married and bought a piece of property I tapped a few of the maples around the property and boiled on a discarded stainless steel french fry friolator pan because it had a drain in the bottom of it that I figured would work really well once I got the syrup to the right density. I took over my kids play house to use as a shack. I made probably a couple gallons that year. The next year I bought an 18x36 flat pan and used that. The following year I added more taps and bought a 2x4 Leader drop flue evaporator. A couple years later, more taps and a 2x8 Vermont evaporator. A couple more years and more taps and I bought a 3x8 Leader evaporator. More taps the next year and a Steamaway. More taps the next year and a RO. Next year...................................

[gmcooper]

In Jr. high I made a little syrup at home on wood stove. That must have been mid 70's. In 88 wife and I made about 5 gallons on our wood stove in the house. We had about 40 taps and quit mid season as we had more syrup than we thought we ever needed! Or was it my wife said no more in the house! That fall we bought a well used 2x8 vermont with a new stainless syrup pan. Built a 12' x 28' sugar house and put in about 300 taps. After a couple years we bought a new 2 1/2 x 8' King and were off the races! Think we got up to 900 taps for a couple years. Went smaller for a few years due to lack of time and desire to tap more than 500. 2006 we bought new 3'x 10' King added on to the sugar house a 16x24 room to bottle and sell out of. Somewhere we added vacuum and are at about 1100 taps. Some are great trees and some are culls.
Mark
Shooting for 150,000 in a couple years!

[brookledge]

I started out in 1974 at the age of 10 and boiled on an outside fire place with an old kitchen pan and made about 5 gallons of very dark syrup. After a few years I slowly began to expand and today I'm at 1150 taps. I think if I was to start over I probably wouldn't do much different although it is easy to say now that it would have been nice to go bigger sooner
Keith

[ennismaple]

From the looks of things, you have the equipment, land etc to go that big, wow! Farmers by trade I take it?

We used to have up to 100 head of beef cattle but my uncle sold them all about 4 years ago when the price went to half what it used to be. The farm was 750 acres when Grandpa was running things. My father got 250 of it for the sugar bush when it got divided amongst the sibblings.

[dano2840]

i started 4 years ago with 1 bucket on the stove, the next year i did 4 still on the stove, they were stripped maples i think cant remember, made nice fancey though, then we moved in w my moms boy friend who was a farmer and i had worked for him for 3 yrs already he was the one who showed me how to tell when syrup was ready, my dad had gotten me hooked on sugaring he started when i was 10 but any way we were in with my moms boy friend he has a real nice thined out bush behind the house the nieghbor owns half though i tapped 13 trees and boiled on a outdoor brick fire place/BBQ had a ss 20x32 pan made 8 gals of syrup, then last year i tapped 80% of the taps in our bush on a 18"x6' 2 section flat pan evap my uncle lent to me, this year i got premission from my mom's boyfriends aunt to tap the bush across the road hasnt been sugared in 45 years, the sugar house is still there and is held up by a 2"x2" post pretty much, big thinned maples, i also got premission to tap our neighbors side of our bush and my mom hired a carpenter to build me a sugar house 20x30 which has most of the rafters up at this point, i am looking at 2 rigs a 4x12 w/ 304 sspans for 4500 and a 3 1/2 x 14 with ss pans hoods preheater and ss stack for 3500, i probly wouldnt use the hoods cause i like to watch the steam go off the pan and up and out the coopala, i will keep them though for when i smarten up in 5 r 10 years and realise i ought to have them on the rig, its costing alot of money i have to borrow from my mom but i should be able to pay it all back by the end of the season, i found my other neighbors old sugar house whats left of it... and was able to pull a G.H. Soule 2x4 arch and flat pan from the wreckage he said i could have it if i restored it and planned to use it i said i would and we gotit with his tractor the next day, i will run the lil 2x4 next to my big evap next year i need to retin the archand find new pans for it not bad for a 16 yr old and a jr in high school whish me luck
DanO

[Brad W Wi]

About 12 years ago bought 6 pails to make some for the family. The next year was up to 15. It kept growing up to 50 in a couple of years. 6 years ago I bought a 40 acre parcel, cleared an area off and poured a 24x40 slab and put up a building. I got a new Dallaire 2x8 bought another 350 pails, filter press and the rest is history. I also retired at 56 years young 2 years ago so I have the time to do it. I also have 3 good friends that are retired as well that help. We have a great time making syrup, telling lies, and feeding wood into the bottomless fire box.

[dano2840]

walked in the sugar house one day and had lots of sap and no one to boil it. my dad put out 800 buckets and never boiled or walked in the sugar house. that was my mothers gig. she got badly burned boiling and never boiled again. while i was in college they hired a boiler. after leaving school i have sugared ever since. this will be my 29th season comming up.5350 taps and growing.my first set up was a wood fired grimm 4x12 drop in a shack that the water ran thru as the snow melted. the mud was a foot deep around the evap. and the ashes sizzled under the arch as they fell in the flowing water under the arch. two 20 barrel tanks fed the rig. and had a 3 cone filter tank to can with. the building is still standing. i see pictures of it every where i go that people have taken of it.not a fun place to work unless you had a few boiling sodas in you.

Do you still sugar those same woods that your parents tapped and walked away from?