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Hi all -
This will be my first year - cannot wait. I will be tapping ten reds on my property to start. I was wondering what schedule other backyard hobbyists follow for collecting sap and boiling it. Are there set days of the week or do you just play it by ear?
Thanks!
There are quite a few variables to consider when making the decision about when to boil. How many gallons do you have collected? How quickly can you process sap? What is the weather forecast?
Sap is a perishable product. It can spoil and generally the longer it sits there is loss of sugar content and you will produce darker syrup due to bacterial action. My first year on a 2x3 pan outdoors I would save sap and have marathon 12 hour boils on weekends. Now that I have RO and bigger pan indoors I try to boil more frequently during weekday evenings. This is true especially later in the season when the weather warms.
I would recommend collecting everyday or certainly checking the buckets? daily. The short answer is to process as fast as you can. As others have said time is your enemy. When the season is in full swing, I boil about every night. I dream of the weekend boil but like clockwork it never happens. The trees will not respect your schedule. It always runs the best on a Wednesday and for me I boil as soon as I have enough which is anything above 5 gallons. My rig will do about 10-13 gallons per hour so if I collect over 5 I boil as I don't want it to sit around. I will store about 5 gallons in the fridge on the nights that it does not run well but that is as much as I will store. There are ways to get around this. You can freeze the collected sap to prolong storage. So much will depend on how you will process, what kind of storage you have available etc. I would suggest that you talk to or stop in to see a smaller producer if covid allows. You will gain some knowledge and I will guarantee you will gain friends in the process. You will see what works for them and what has not. I have yet to meet a sugar maker that did not love to talk maple be it February, March or July.
My experience with Reds on buckets has not been all that positive however I have talked to many people that have had good luck with Reds. Mine tended to be very finicky. Have fun and be careful this hobby has a way of snowballing out of control in a hurry. In three years your thread will say moved to Vermont 1000 taps high vacuum living the dream!
Kamina
You want to treat the sap like you would treat milk. As previously said the longer kept, the sugars become less, bacteria more. check buckets daily. On heavy run days you could potentially have over flowing buckets on all the trees, multiple days in a row. You will need to have at least twice that amount of storage capacity and plan on boiling as often as you can. Most importantly have the best time of your life, include others and have FUN!!!!!!!
If there is a good freeze thaw cycle going and your buckets are big enough so you can time it, I like to gather an hour or 2 after it starts running in the morning. This thaws the ice out enough so it's easy to get the ice out so you can toss it out. With work for me I'm usually gathering when I get home from work though after the ice has thawed.
My Dad always made a rule to never hold sap for more than 24 hours. I saw Him many times dump sap which was held for less time than that(warm temps). His point of view was that if your going to burn the wood make good syrup. He took pride in the flavor and appearance of his syrup. We also spent a lot of late weeknights boiling down. I remember being tired but also remember those nights as some of best with Dad, Family, and friends.
you can hold sap for a few days if it is kept cold, like almost frozen. That is if you can only boil on weekends. If its warm then it can sour rather quickly. We tend to get rid of it right away but for 10 trees you should be ok. You might even be able to put in the house freezer? I know some people do that to save it. If you have some snow pack the gathering buckets in the snow outside in the shade.
I started on a backyard rig on just 10 taps or so and collected sap during the week and boiled only on the weekends. I kept the sap in a 55 gallon drum, in the shade, packed by as much snow as I could shovel. Did that for 10 years or so and never had a problem with spoilage. And since you're batch boiling anyway, it's not like you're sacrificing the color or flavor of the sap by letting it sit. It is what it is when you batch boil...dark and flavorful syrup.
Have fun.
I collect mine in 5 gallon buckets and boil it within 72 hours. Doing a smaller mid week boil helps break the marathon weekend up a bit.
I try and check daily and boil ever other day if and when possible. I’m not a fan of letting it sit around but then it depends on your schedule. A lot of work to be dumping sap. Brings tears to my eyes lol. I also start to feel like it’s work and not a hobby when I get to real far behind so that’s why I boil as often as I can. Plus who doesn’t like the sugar shack time. My buddy can only boil weekends and he seems to be able to keep it with no troubles. Like others have said he uses snow and leaves the ice in his buckets whenever he collects. I think put around 60-80 out every year When in question taste it. Lol