2009 Tapped in Agawam!

[softmaple]

got the taps in this weekend. it took 2 full days to set them up. I'm happy to get the buckets out and the Hut totaly clean while i had the time this weekend. I will have enough sap for a full days boil on saturday to get back in the swing of things before the big run comes.
this year i'm trying several taps to see if theres a diffrence from the standard 7/16 spile.

[03weim]

started tapping in Billerica today and also in Brookline

[ejmaple]

tapped in westminster ma. finished my 75 tap gravity line monday, first time with tubbing, and finished an hour ago with 85 buckets. all are running slow but theres about 80 gal of sap as of today so i'll be boilling tomorow for the first time with the new rig. this year due to the dec. 11 ice storm i had to out source around 45 trees from freinds around town in order to keep my tap count to around 150. hopefully at least a few of my severly damaged trees will survive, 20 simply snaped in half. after doing some research i decided to not tap trees with greater than 50% crown loss.

[brookledge]

That sounds good for you that are in eastern and southern sections of mass.
i'll be probably tapping in about a week or around the 1st of March
keith

[Clan Delaney]

I'm still waiting to go whole hog, but I did put in 4 test taps last night. Not a drop from them today.

[SV Sugarer]

I put out 40 buckets a week ago during the warm spell and tapped about 40 on tubing today. Should be able to get the last 60 or so in this weekend. We bottled our first 2 quarts 2 days ago - great tasting medium. Looks like we could have a good run toward the end of next week.

[softmaple]

checked the buckets this morning and many of them were about to overflow! down here in agawam it didn't get to freezing last night and the buckets are showing it. we had to collect the ones that were more than half full to make room for todays run.

[Thompson8]

I think i'm going to tap this weekend, it looks like its going to be too cold this weekend but there should be good conditions during the week. We'll see what happens i just can't wait to get the season started.

[MapLewis]

Just couldn't wait any longer...tapped 90 trees Saturday afternoon... just 24 hours later, I collected 35 gallons of sap!...Tapped another 13 trees today for good measure...(103 total) so we are well on our way... I'm planning my first ever boil Wed. I should have plenty of sap by then to play with. Hope all is falling into place with everyone else...it sure came quick! I ALMOST feel like i have everything under control.

Jim & Mike, thanks again for your help and time.

[mapleman3]

Nice to see Mass is starting to get going :) lets hope for another big year to help all those with the ice damage salvage something out of this year!!!

I will tap next weekend

[Clan Delaney]

I've got 4 test taps out and they're doing... nothing. Freezing nights, check. Warm days... no more than 5 or 6 degrees above most of last week. Forecast for this week doesn't look any better. I'm taking it day by day.

[softmaple]

i made over 2 gallons this weekend. having a small evaporator it took the whole day to get to that point. being at the bottom the of the CT river valley our tempatures here are going good for this time of year. alot of our snow is melted. and most of the storms now produce only rain for us. we had to collect last night some of our buckets were full. wednesday on, it looks like we will be collecting again.

[mapleman3]

Super Mike!! sounds like things are on the go for you!

Up here in Belchertown we are a bit colder like Clan said, it takes a bit more warming to get things going. My North bush in New Salem maybe a week or more behind the trees in my neighborhood, but that will just have me boiling later in the season too which is great for business! I just hope I have enough wood !!

[softmaple]

we fixed the buckets today after the windy days we had and noticed that the trees were dripping. this week looks like another few gallons. cant complain about that.

[gmcooper]

I made a trip to West Brookfield today and saw someone tapped in Brookfield on route 148. Looks like a lot of good roadside and fenceline trees in the area.
Good luck!
Mark

[ejmaple]

looks like we'll have a 2 day run thur, fri. we need some consistant weeks!we'll got a few more buckets to put out today, try to collect as much as possable. good luck to all.

[Dill]

Just wondering since I think we have the same rig. How fast does your 2x4 boil?
I want to put out more taps just don't want to get over my head.

[softmaple]

17 gallons a hour. with a sugar content of about 55:1. it takes about 3 hours to make 1 gallon

[MapLewis]

I hope to get around 17 gph as well with my 2x4 vermont pan...I'll keep you posted as to my actual rate. I currently have 90 gal of sap collected since Sunday...going to sweeten the pans Friday eve and boil on Saturday...(1st ever!)...a little nervous ,anxious & giddy...wish me luck!

[softmaple]

this week i have only collected 75 gallons so far this week. hoping to collect over 100 today with this warm weather. i emptied several buckets this morning due to being over half full from the overnight. good luck with the evaporator

[softmaple]

well we collected 125 tonight and got to collect more in the morning we should be boiling a long day tomorrow

[MapLewis]

Collected 100+ gallons as well yesterday... amazing how it runs when the weather is just right. The pre-boiling process has been smooth so far...my Lowes transfer pump worked great, feed tank is full & now getting ready to hunker in for a long first boil. Just need to charge the camera now!

Happy boiling everyone!

[softmaple]

boiled late nights this weekend. at 17 gallons an hour its a slow process. made around 18 gallons so far. the first 8 gallons was light amber. i dont make to much of it if any so any amount is good. cant wait to see what this batch brings. im only 5 gallons off last years mark to this point. and had a chance to get my new website online. it needs a little more tweeking though. all the information is on the front page that people need, hope it helps them.

[softmaple]

were up to our necks in sap. late nights of boiling are going to start to be more likely. its a good thing though

[MapLewis]

Been busy here in Monson too... we are at the 28 gallon mark. 15 fancy, 13 grade A med.... and another 250 gallons on deck waiting. ALOT of help from the neighbors has made it quite enjoyable work. The VT pan keeps you busy and like you stated earlier "you need 3 hands" is true. We are getting 20 gph buy running it HOT..I mean HOT...we had a constant flame coming out of the stack the other night. Not sure how much longer it will run for us...but I still have a little energy left to burn. I will get caught up on sleep in April. We are having fun & learning a lot for next year.
Hope all is well in Agawam.
Bryon

[DaveB]

WOW Bryon!! You're doing great and have half as many taps as I do. That's a great production. Glad things are going well up there.

Hey Mike, I work in Springfield and found your shack on lunch one day. I wish you were boiling during the day. I'd love to visit someone during the day. Understandable though.

Glad you guys are having a good year.

Dave

[mapleman3]

Mike and Bryon, sound like you guys are doing great....

Dave I saw you today pumping sap at Pats (Clan) house, I was coming back from the north bush with 325 gals on the truck, I thought about turning around but knew I had 600gals to boil off tonight, had to motor on!! I am straight down the road on 181 about 9-10 miles south of Pat.

Stop on down if ya get a chance, I'm usually back by 5:30pm from the north.

[softmaple]

im not sure how long my season will last for. we have some red maples blooming, flowers are out on it i was like STOP. we are hardly hitting the freezing mark here at the bottom of the valley. last night i collected 11 gallons. a few days before i collected 47 form the same amount of trees. my wood supply is lowering tremendously but will have enough if the trees decide to give more. i have had no time to do anyting else last week i was so busy. its great to hear all of you guys are doing well with your operations.

[mapleman3]

Mike, Lets hope it's not the beginning of the end for you, hang in their we will be getting cooler weather soon.... this warm weather isn't staying. there's plenty of time

[MapLewis]

Things are trickling down here in Monson. Collected 50 gallons today...(2 day take) some trees were bone dry...I'm hoping for one more "mini run" tomorrow. I think I'm going to have my last boil this weekend & pull the taps.
I have approx 130 gallons on deck already for the final boil...and to be honest, i'm pooped. It has been ALOT of work...and worth every bit of it.
We had a really fun 1st year. Made 38 gallons thus far (15 Fancy, 23 A Med)...all things considered I think it went very well for us here. No disasters, burns, spills, infernos, lawsuits (did have one visit from the Fire Dept.) Lucky for us, good old roadside trees w/ lots of light and some friendly neighbors that came out to help, made it a huge success. I an convinced that NOTHING brings people together like maple syrup. Our backyard Maplefest drew 80+ people this last Sat. Good times.

Keep in touch.
Bryon

[softmaple]

We hope to also have 150 gallons to boil by this weekend. We already have around 100 gallons of sap collected for this week. We've also already made around 35 gallons of syrup thus far with grades of light, medium, and dark ambers. I'm happy your maplefest was a success. Your neighbors must have really enjoyed it!
Keep in touch,
Mike

[MapLewis]

Just came back in from collecting 130+ gallons today...it's not over yet!!!

[softmaple]

wow thats great, we collected 56gallons minus 2 locations

[MapLewis]

collected another 100 gallons today! got in a good 6 hour boil tonight, running out of wood too...still making A med/light?! when does the dark stuff come?? almost took off my finger splitting wood..had a leather glove on and it still cut me good. its been a LONG day...but, the syrup is still coming!

[mapleman3]

Keep all those digits safe Bryon, 5 fingers fit in a glove, not 4!!!

we'll see how the next few days go with the buckets. my woods sugar % is way down near 1.5... if it gets much lower than that we may be pulling those too!

I'm not boiling 60+ gals to make a gallon of super dark B or C

[MapLewis]

Now I'm really confused...

pulled 30 of the non producing taps out Friday eve...but I am still getting ALOT of sap from the old guy trees (another 85 gallons)... what is strange is my grade has now swung back to fancy again??!!...It was fancy for the first 2 weeks, A med for the next 2.5 weeks and now back to fancy. Am i being too clean, boiling too quick, keeping the sap too cool?...not to sound petty but, I really wanted some dark syrup. Would you recommend that I hold onto my last 200 gallons for several days to get the bacteria funk-a-fying?

Syrup tally to date: 46 gallons
21 fancy
25 A med

I would like a few gallons of B for personal use after all this work.

Finger is healing up good...no stitches...but it is the size of a sausage. (don't talk & split wood)

[mapleman3]

if you have some good light I will trade with you for some B, very good tasting too... I would like some light for later making candy.

[MapLewis]

Jim,
That sounds like a good deal to me .....seeing that i had my last boil tonight and finished making more fancy?! The sap i collected today looked a bit gnarlier than previous sap too. Boiled everything i had left today and flooded the pans with the remainder. Taps pulled today as well. Dunzo.

I am very pleased at my 48 gallon production... almost half fancy & half A med. A ratio of almost .4 gallons per tap. Good trees.

I burned more wood than i ever could have imagined.

Now the clean up fun.

talk to you soon about the grade swap.

[David531]

Hi,

The black birch started running this past monday. We had 6 observation taps in, put 10 more in monday. The sap ran big overnite, the 3 x 20 galon barrels are full today. We drew off the first batch tonite, will start anew in the morning. I wish I had thrown out the first of the sap, not exactly sure how long that was in the barrel. We've made some birch syrup a few times in the past and it wasn't so good. Hoping to get it down and make something nice.

A few bits I recently picked up for birch, is not not heating over 100C and not use metal buckets etc. So it's all plastic in the birch and a low fire. I'm tempted to put more taps in, but I don't think we'll keep up with whats coming out already. The pan's just a leader half pint.

We made about 15 gallons of maple syrup, but that hasn't run for a few weeks now. It's mostly dark, we were late getting in the game, too busy ice fishing. Because of the weather and great snow cover, I thought the maples were going to run into the 2nd week of april.

Last year we were late getting started ona counta ice fishing etc, but we still made 25 gallons of a good mix'o lite, med and dark. I thiink we were still boiling the 2nd week of april, and there was snow on the ground really late too.

We just lost our snow cover over the last 2 weeks.

Cheers, David

[BC Birch Tapper]

You've hit on some of the key points with birch.

As far as collection and evaporating many things are exactly the same as maple. The end product however is dramatically different. If you are anticipating getting another pancake syrup out of another tree your on the wrong track. I recall reading a scientific article in a university library many years ago which compared the different sap sugar content of the various maples and with birch at the end. They indicated that you could make syrup out of birch but why would you bother, the sugar content is so low it's not worth it. What time & history has shown however is that Wild foods are a sought after niche product that can derive a hefty price.
I recall a quote I saw recently "Wild foods are for the poor, a staple, for the rich a delicacy and for the frugal, a delight"

Some key points we've learned:

Make sure you evaporate every day, as the sap can't be stored long or it will start to ferment. Great if you're making wine but not syrup. It gets milky & smells like yeast.

Make sure you clean your pans daily to avoid burn spots on the pan which will give a corresponding burnt flavour to your end product.

Only 1 tap/tree & tree > 8 " diameter. Recognize that birches in some parts never reach that size. ( some parts of Alaska & Northern Canada)
Birches are much shorter lived than maple & have a thinner bark so less of an impact is recommended.

We use food grade plastic & stainless steel. Birch has more micronutrients than maple which is believed to react with the metal buckets & spiels.

Don't add in any lower concentrated sap to partially finished concentrate

Heat it as little as possible & as close to 100 deg C as possible. Tough sometimes on an evaporator with fluctuating temps.

Early on in the season there is a bit of sucrose so it is a bit more forgiving initially. Later on the sucrose drops out & the remainder is fructose & glucose which has a lower boiling point thus it scorches easier

Some folks add fructose after about 35 deg Brix to stabilize.

There are no standards for birch at this time. Many of the producers have adopted the maple standards but it is believed that birch can be stable at less than 66 deg brix. No testing has been done to confirm that however.

We always finish on a propane finishing stove or use your kitchen stove with a thermometer.

Some folks are talking of mixing maple & birch sap. Should be fine but just recognize that if you're selling an end product the customer should be aware of what they're purchasing.

If you're selling birch syrup you should be honest about what your product is...indicate what sugar content it is, & if it is pure or if other sugars are added.

Oh yes one more thing......enjoy, experiment & try something new. It helps keep our brains working and keep us young

[David531]

Hi BC,

Yes, there is something about eating from the wild, and it's sometimes a bit gamie, but with patience, we can often tame it. We don't sell the syrup, it costs too much to sell. We think of the sugarhouse as an extension of the kitchen. Our kitchen is physically small, but extends to the woods for maple and mushrooms, and to the pasture with sheep and bees.

I'm afraid I've got the bug now to get the birch syrup down. I think we've chanced upon the begining of the birch flow here and it's a great opportunity to "experiment and try something new".! I like your suggestion that it keeps us young, as it's my birthday Saturday. Oh, not again.

We do our finishing on a propane burner too. So I should be able to do a slow "steam" for the last mile.

Thanks for all the suggestions, there's not a whole lot out there on birch.
Would you have some ideas on getting started with birch beer.?

I'll have to hunt around and see what's available. I saw that someone on the forum had mentioned birch beer, I'll have to retrace my steps.

Thanks, David

[BC Birch Tapper]

Hey David.....People have been drinking the sap for centuries and it has been raved as a cure for a multitude of things including unirary tract infections & even as a hair tonic. Some even thought it had made some impact on cancer treatments but I don't know anything about that.

For us it's a diversification option & a chance to spend time outdoors & make something that people enjoy. Sugaring of has been apart of traditions for well over 100 years. People have been enjoying the experience as well & it helps us diversify our farm & allow people to experience that as well. Familes have been going to sugarbushes for the last 40 years. For us....nobody else can offer that kind of experience, & its fun too!

Birch has been classed as a weed in several foresty documents I've seen ( I'm a forester & work for the Provincial gov't) I've also got a list 3/4 of a page long what birch has been used for thru history.....& this is a weed???

We do sell a birch manual which includes a bunch of recipies. Check out our website if you're interested.

I've made wine but no beer as of yet. The wine took a full year to mature. I kept sampling it but it took the full year to become palatable.
There are 2 commercial wineries in Canada, one in Newfoundland & the other in Manitoba.

We call it nature's gatorade. What is gatorade.....water, micrfonutients & sugar. What is sap composed of.....water, micronutreints & sugar.
They sell bottled sap in Scandinavia & Europe....how do you spell opportunity.....?;)

[David531]

Hi BC,

Well, I think I burned it, got it too hot at the finishing. Tastes terrible.

I've got another batch we'll probably finish Sunday, just have to keep a sharp eye on the temp.

It's been flowing steady, might put a few more taps in, we're getting just enough to keep the evaporator in operation at a low fire with about 16 taps.

Cheers, David

[BC Birch Tapper]

Dont toss it David, unless you've done so already. We use some we've burnt for marinades & sauces.

[David531]

Hi BC,

Will do, thanks.

Still pretty strong, maybe burnt, it's been hard to find the time to watch it, with lambs coming and burning brush etc... trying to beat the bugs, they'll be here any minute.

Thanks -David