Frank Ivy
01-20-2010, 10:29 AM
Hey everybody. I've just settled in on my property in NW PA (in the snow belt 20 miles south of Erie).
This is the first year I'm getting a little more organized for maple syrup.
I know just the basics, and we made sumac taps and tapped some old sugars and a few reds a couple years ago using milk jugs.
I have three areas with sugar maples. Very close to the house (400'), we have a couple two tappers and five or so one tappers. The are all on a fairly steep incline on the north bank of a creek that runs east to west, and all within about 200 feet of each other. There is about a 12-15 drop from chest height on tree to ground next to creek.
Then there are six-ten more trees in a second area that are way back (5-6 hundred yards) and somewhat scattered over a few acres.
I have purchased cast aluminum spiles and 2 gallon aluminum buckets from a place in Canada (I assume - it's been a while and no order verification!).
I have also purchased tubing and fittings from leaderevaporter.
So here's my plan . . .
Use 5/16 line on the trees by the creek, tie 4 taps to one line and 5 taps to the other line and have the two lines feed down into a 5 gallon collection bucket. I bought the standard plastic taps, the Ts with the cup (I assume for capping taps if not needed), end Ls with rings built in. I have food grade 5 gallon pails. For the back trees, I plan to just hang buckets the old fashion way - while a few trees are close enough together to warrant using tubing, the rest are fairly scattered, and the grade is not conducive to gravity flow. Figure another 10-12 taps there.
I plan to collect every day, and I am going to boil over wood in a 25 gallon Stainless Steel stock pot. I'll boil 20 gallon batches at a time, I figure, and remove the syrup when we're close in order to finish on range inside. I'm going to use a candy thermometer to check for density, and I'm going to gravity filter through prefilter and orlon, reheat and store in mason jars.
The goal is to have about 4-6 gallons for our use through the year.
I'm home full time, so sap collection is not an issue - the sap can be collected several times a day, if needed, and I plan to boil any time I have 20 gallons or more.
Questions -
1. In terms of syrup flavor, would it be worth my time to set up a chimney to vent smoke up over the pot to reduce exposure of the syrup to smoke?
2. Do you see any issues with the tubing set-up? I haven't used tubing before, and I'm not sure if there's more to it than drill/connect/collect.
3. When should I have the taps in by? I'm a bit south of Erie PA, and the weather is about the same as central CT.
4. Would it make sense to thin out competition around the sugar maples over the next few years? We heat the house with wood, so it could be a 2-birds with one stone, but would there be any drawbacks (e.g. exposing the sugars to wind, weed growth, and so on).
5. Most of the trees are sugar maple, but there may be one or two black maples. My understanding is that, for the purposes of syrup, the two are equivalent. Is that true?
6. Will using a SS pot with a 7mm bottom of Aluminum encased in SS present any issues over an open flame? I have a beautiful 40 gallon cast iron pot that I could use, but I'd worry about the flavor being affected (it's old, and I'm not sure of it's history and the metal on the inside is pitted).
7. Will the tubing need to be cleaned or otherwise maintained after installation, during the sap run?
8. Is there any advantage in running the tubes to a lower point?
9. Around here, Sugar Maples never look particularly healthy after they get to about 2 - 2.5 feet in diameter. My largest tree is 108 inches in circumference, and has no dead branches on it, but the bark doesn't look as healthy as all of the smaller trees, which have tight, beautiful bark. All of the bigger trees on the neighbors properties have bark that is in bad shape (patches where the outer bark has come off, soft looking material, and so on). Other than the bark, the trees leaf out every year, produce seed, and so on. Any issues using the sap?
10. Does the 10" minimum diameter rule hold if the tree in question has few lateral branches because it has lots of competition? If it's ok to tap, is it worth tapping?
11. I plan to collect the syrup from the second area using a tractor with a cart on it. What is the best container to use? Figure 12 taps and I empty once or twice a day. It will be a fairly bumpy ride.
Any other thoughts?
EDIT - Oh yeah, and when should I tap????
Thanks.
Frank
This is the first year I'm getting a little more organized for maple syrup.
I know just the basics, and we made sumac taps and tapped some old sugars and a few reds a couple years ago using milk jugs.
I have three areas with sugar maples. Very close to the house (400'), we have a couple two tappers and five or so one tappers. The are all on a fairly steep incline on the north bank of a creek that runs east to west, and all within about 200 feet of each other. There is about a 12-15 drop from chest height on tree to ground next to creek.
Then there are six-ten more trees in a second area that are way back (5-6 hundred yards) and somewhat scattered over a few acres.
I have purchased cast aluminum spiles and 2 gallon aluminum buckets from a place in Canada (I assume - it's been a while and no order verification!).
I have also purchased tubing and fittings from leaderevaporter.
So here's my plan . . .
Use 5/16 line on the trees by the creek, tie 4 taps to one line and 5 taps to the other line and have the two lines feed down into a 5 gallon collection bucket. I bought the standard plastic taps, the Ts with the cup (I assume for capping taps if not needed), end Ls with rings built in. I have food grade 5 gallon pails. For the back trees, I plan to just hang buckets the old fashion way - while a few trees are close enough together to warrant using tubing, the rest are fairly scattered, and the grade is not conducive to gravity flow. Figure another 10-12 taps there.
I plan to collect every day, and I am going to boil over wood in a 25 gallon Stainless Steel stock pot. I'll boil 20 gallon batches at a time, I figure, and remove the syrup when we're close in order to finish on range inside. I'm going to use a candy thermometer to check for density, and I'm going to gravity filter through prefilter and orlon, reheat and store in mason jars.
The goal is to have about 4-6 gallons for our use through the year.
I'm home full time, so sap collection is not an issue - the sap can be collected several times a day, if needed, and I plan to boil any time I have 20 gallons or more.
Questions -
1. In terms of syrup flavor, would it be worth my time to set up a chimney to vent smoke up over the pot to reduce exposure of the syrup to smoke?
2. Do you see any issues with the tubing set-up? I haven't used tubing before, and I'm not sure if there's more to it than drill/connect/collect.
3. When should I have the taps in by? I'm a bit south of Erie PA, and the weather is about the same as central CT.
4. Would it make sense to thin out competition around the sugar maples over the next few years? We heat the house with wood, so it could be a 2-birds with one stone, but would there be any drawbacks (e.g. exposing the sugars to wind, weed growth, and so on).
5. Most of the trees are sugar maple, but there may be one or two black maples. My understanding is that, for the purposes of syrup, the two are equivalent. Is that true?
6. Will using a SS pot with a 7mm bottom of Aluminum encased in SS present any issues over an open flame? I have a beautiful 40 gallon cast iron pot that I could use, but I'd worry about the flavor being affected (it's old, and I'm not sure of it's history and the metal on the inside is pitted).
7. Will the tubing need to be cleaned or otherwise maintained after installation, during the sap run?
8. Is there any advantage in running the tubes to a lower point?
9. Around here, Sugar Maples never look particularly healthy after they get to about 2 - 2.5 feet in diameter. My largest tree is 108 inches in circumference, and has no dead branches on it, but the bark doesn't look as healthy as all of the smaller trees, which have tight, beautiful bark. All of the bigger trees on the neighbors properties have bark that is in bad shape (patches where the outer bark has come off, soft looking material, and so on). Other than the bark, the trees leaf out every year, produce seed, and so on. Any issues using the sap?
10. Does the 10" minimum diameter rule hold if the tree in question has few lateral branches because it has lots of competition? If it's ok to tap, is it worth tapping?
11. I plan to collect the syrup from the second area using a tractor with a cart on it. What is the best container to use? Figure 12 taps and I empty once or twice a day. It will be a fairly bumpy ride.
Any other thoughts?
EDIT - Oh yeah, and when should I tap????
Thanks.
Frank