More Trees to Tap

[tessiersfarm]

As I have said in other posts I stopped by a Farm last Saturday to inquire about tapping a few of his roadside trees. He gladly offered them to me and when offered to be paid in syrup, per tap or whatever was agreeable to him he said he would just be glad to see someone use the trees because he didn't have time to himself. He called me back tonight to offer use of his 100 or so taps, several barrels, tractor to gather sap at his place and firewood that he had cut to boil sap. The guy seamed to be very excited. He said it was always his dream to tap his maples but he never had the time. Hopefully this turns into a good working relationship for both of us.

[Revi]

Sounds like a great place to tap Jason. You are going to have a lot of sap this year. Good thing you have that bigger evaporator.

Your dad is going to need an easy chair near the boiler.

[baconfarm]

Jason,
Have you boiled at all yet? I know that it has been cold and then it warmed up this weekend. Has everything been working for you? If you ever have questions and want to come down and watch us and ask questions you are more then welcome to. Sometimes seeing it and asking as we are doing it is not as scary. Have a great syrup season. Sounds like you found some more trees and will have a great time with the kids making syrup. Lets hope that it turns into a greta working relationship.

Shelley Bacon

[dano2840]

hey thats just like me, good working relationship with a local farmer- check, borrowing his tractor to collect sap-check ( and log, run splitter, brush hog, etc) allowed to tap his trees if i wanted to- check (theres only a few in his door yard though and i dont have a truck so i didnt do it this year

[KenWP]

I wish I could afford all the pails I need to tap all the trees. I have a hundred more I could tap but thats a bit too much money to put out right now. next year. Its too bad these trees are right beside a good road thats paved and very quiet.

[tessiersfarm]

Just got off of work and I am going to collect right now. If I have enough to boil I am going to sweeten the pans either tonight or tomorrow.

Thank you for the invite Bacon Farm. I think I am ready to go. I did a test boil with water so that part is all set. Only one way to know for sure.

[Revi]

Time to boil and boil! Our taps runneth over. We have over 200 gallons of sap to boil now, and it's still coming in. I'm headed over there right after school, and John will tag team me so I can eat dinner.

I checked some of it and it's 2 and a half, so we'll get some syrup going tomorrow, God willing and the creek don't rise.

[TapME]

I'm back and ready to start. Should be all taped in by Friday. I have to adjust to the climate again. Good luck to all.

[sapsick]

hey jason just wanted to catch up on the sap count. im gettin about 13gals from my 6 trees per day on my trees in town. the ones in newburgh are giving up about 25 gals per day so far. gonna fire up the monster this weekend.

[tessiersfarm]

hey jason just wanted to catch up on the sap count. im gettin about 13gals from my 6 trees per day on my trees in town. the ones in newburgh are giving up about 25 gals per day so far. gonna fire up the monster this weekend.

I collected maybe 4 gals from the 15 here at home, they always run late anyway because of all the pines around them. I got 80 gallons from my brothers woodlot yesterday. Maybe another 10 from the 16 taps at the Farm.

I hope to get out the remaining 16 - 20 here by the weekend and I plan to finish the ones at the farm sunday. I think I am going to have to boil saturday, wish I could before that but I gotta pay the bills.

I had a minor set back this evening. I got home and was informed that we had to go to Winslow to look at a Pony. There is no looking at really, only hauling the thing home.

[MapleME]

I'm back and ready to start. Should be all taped in by Friday. I have to adjust to the climate again. Good luck to all.

Lou I called and left you a message to say hello and see how things were going. Give me a call when you get a chance. I have 20 of 40 in with another 40 in up the road.

[Revi]

Boil and boil...

We had over 230 gallons, but now it's down to a managable 50 or so.

Patrick Phaneuf ate up the rest of it at around 25 gph.

We poured off and made our first half gallon of syrup tonight.

The season has officially started. Sweet so far.

More boiling on Saturday. It's supposed to be a nice day.

[RickinFarmington]

Christmas Day arrived yesterday when I sucessfully boil my first maple syrup.

Did 2 batches over a 12 hour day and made two and a half gallons. What a thrill to see all the hard work pay off. Not quite as good as my first sex, but close.

The barrel arch with forced air performed well. I am using two converted SS sinks, so the pour off was not too harrowing. Will finish up on propane stove today and bottle.

Need more sap!! Thanks again to all the help I received on this site.

Rick:

[Revi]

That sap should keep until Saturday as cold as it is. We still have over a hundred gallons to do this weekend. I think we'll get some more if the weather holds. It will be frozen into a sapcicle if it stays this cold though.

[MapleME]

can I ask you guys something- after you pour off from your evap- do you pull the pans off the fire, or do you throw snow into the fire- I cant figure out how Im going to keep the pan from burning. I thought I could pour off the evap and then put a few gallons of sap back in the pan just to keep it cooled off.

Thanks fellow mainers.
Josh

[tessiersfarm]

I do my last draw when I have enough sap left to flood the pans. I stop firing when I get close. I then fill the pans to a level higher than normal and cover them with a sheet of sheet metal. They will evaporate down several inches while the whole thing is cooling off so make sure you have enough sap in the pans or watch them for several hours. As long as the flues don't expose then you will be alright because once the firebox temp gets below 200 degrees it can't scorch the pans anyway. I close the valve between the flue and syrup pans to try to keep some gradient.

[tessiersfarm]

Awsome weather forcast for next week. Great news for Maine Maple Sunday, looks pretty good from here. Good luck all and if you haven't tapped yet today is the day to get them in.

[Revi]

We just flood the pans as we are drawing off. The cold sap in back forces the almost ready syrup forward. Sometimes it even gets hotter up where we're drawing off because of the forcing.

When we're ready to stop we flood the pans and put it to bed. It will steam off a bit, but not that much in an evaporator.

The evap cools off pretty quickly once the fire is down.

When we're done we plug like Jason does to keep the gradient, and I dip a bunch from the back pan to the front to leave about 5 inches in both pans when we shut 'er down.

[TapME]

MapleME, Just got back and have been working hard to get all maple things on line. Have 90 now on tubing and will try for the last 30 today. will try and call you later today. The buckets will be the priority for the weekend. We have a lot of them to put up and have some of saphaulers friends to help. I can't wait to tap them big rock maples and see them fill 5gallon buckets in half a day. We should be on line and boiling by Sunday and should have 4or 500 gallons to play with for the first boil if things fall in place. Happy boiling

[KenWP]

I put in 10 more taps yesterday also. Just in case.

[MapleME]

I got up to 40 today and finally ran out of buckets. I cleaned Lowes out of 5 gallon bucket lids, so I may just stop at this point. My buddy who I am boiling with also has 40 in his red maples. So we should have enough to keep us busy.

Thanks for the advice on the evap. Sounds like I need to hold 5 gallons in the wings- or I imagine water would be ok too and once it cools I can just pour it off since I boil on a flat pain in batches.

MAPLEME, JOsh in Brunswick!

[TapME]

Hey boys and girls it time to make some donuts. I will be out of wood by the end of this run for sure.Setting 200 more today in buckets on huge old trees. I can't wait for the big sap.

MapleME, did you get an evaporator this year?

[Revi]

Careful what you wish for! This next week looks like it will be bigsap time for sure! We are headed into big sap territory now.

We just boiled off what we had today, but it looks like more is coming today and tomorrow.

40 degrees and sunny for the next 4 days at least.

This is the weather we waited in vain for all last season!

[tessiersfarm]

I just finished boiling what I had. I guess I am going to have to drain the pans and finish on a turkey cooker tomorrow because I have to work In New Hampshire next week and will not be able to tend the evaporator. My brother is going to collect for me and hold it until I return Hopefully Wednesday but maybe as late as Friday.

The New Evaporator worked great. Only real problem was I put the steam stack joints the wrong way and had condensate running down the outside of the steam hood all day, easy fix.

[MainelyMaple]

we boiled for the first time on wed and thurs. we realized our evaporation rate is pretty pitiful, we had 160 gallons of sap, we boiled for 25 hours in the 2 days and we made just shy of 4 gallons of syrup. but it has begun for sure

[tessiersfarm]

That sounds like exactly what I was running last year. I had 76 taps and a 27"x40" Flat Pan on a barrel evaporator. I had a boil rate of around 10 gal per hour not including start up and shut down. If I were you I would try some sort of blower to force air into the fire box. I used an old bathroom exhaust fan which worked quite well for me. At times I was up over 12 gals per hour for short periods. I had several All Nighters last year. This Year I up graded to a 2x6 (roughly) homemade evaporator with a 48" Flued Pan.

Good Luck To You!!

[MapleME]

Hey boys and girls it time to make some donuts. I will be out of wood by the end of this run for sure.Setting 200 more today in buckets on huge old trees. I can't wait for the big sap.

MapleME, did you get an evaporator this year?

Lou, I did! Ended up with a Mason 2x6 flat pan (see my icon)- Tried it out today for the first time- we boiled somewhere between 50 and 60 gallons and it worked well. I was in the 12-15GPH area which I was very pleased with.

I boiled down to the last 5 gallons and pulled off what I have because I thought the pan was getting low. Im going to hold on to that and not finish it off until next weekend. Do you think it will last if I keep it cold?

[Revi]

It will keep fine if you have boiled it down.

We are going to have a lot of sap this week. We are planning on a midweek boil on Wednesday, but we may have to start up earlier if the sap flows like it looks like it will. We are into the huge sap now.

[TapME]

Josh; Revi has got it if it is boiled it will keep fine, just keep it cool. Glad to see that you are getting sap and having a good time. Saphauler and I and a class mate of him helped to gather this after noon. 150 gallons from the 160 taps. Wow Need a break to put in the next batch of taps.

[tessiersfarm]

Well I got home early from New Hampshire. Would have 150 gallons this week but I dumped 50 in the driveway, because I was too stuborn to ask for help, so I have 100. I think there is more to come so I am pretty excited for the weekend. I talked to Father tonight and it sounds like Revi has been having a good week, Good Luck to everyone!!!

[Revi]

I'm glad you got back in time to catch the best run we've gotten in the past 5 years! This is the longest sustained good sugaring weather we have ever had.

We keep boiling it down and it re-appears.

When we get done with this run we'll have made as much syrup as all last year.

[tessiersfarm]

Didn't get a chance to check the sap today so I don't know if it ran or not today but it is piling up and the forcast is like a dream for maple fanatics. I think it is going to make up for last year. Weather even looks good for Sunday.

How are you guys doing revi, are you able to keep up with it all. I have an extra 55 gallon drum or 2 if you need them give me a call, Father should have my Cell # or Lana might have it. The new 115 gallon stainless feed tank I hooked up this year is working great, I guess I owe the guy who gave it to me some syrup.

[TapME]

Revi; it's been great here also. The best part is it looks good for the next 7 days. Just keep smiling and before you know the season will be over and we will be tried. Two weeks later we start to talk about next season. May the sap run clear and hard for all.

[Revi]

We are just about keeping up. We boiled about 150 gallons today, 100 yesterday. We are going to let it pile up for the weekend now and we'll boil all weekend. We have to make hay while the sun shines!