sugaring in iowa

Hi PKerns! Welcome to the trader! Also, congrats on the new farm! I'm glad to see Iowa starting to wake up. Me? I start getting the maple crazies after the holidays and it builds from there. By the time I actually tap I can hardly sleep at night thinking of the next day! Making the jump from campfire to your new arch and pans will be exciting! I'm going to be working on a sugar shed this summer. If that works out I'd like to upgrade to a Smoky lake 2x4 corsair arch. Again I say, Welcome and I hope you have a great season. Ted

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Originally Posted by tbear

Hello prairiecreekmaple! And welcome to mapletrader! I'm in southeast Iowa and thinking of tapping next weekend. It's a little early, for me, calender-wise but I'm fearing a short season. I run 70 buckets on a 2x4 flat pan with a cinderblock arch. What kind of setup do you use? Ted

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Thanks! I love this forum. There is so much to learn. I started out two or three years ago with 8 taps consisting of home made spiles (ballpoint pens with the guts removed are 5/16 spiles) going into old milk jugs and ice cream pails held on the tree with bungee cords. Then the next year I got the 7/16 white plastic spiles with hooks and some free 2 gallon buckets with lids from a local Caseys gas station. They get their donut glaze in those buckets. Last year I had 30 buckets out but barely got anything before the buds opened up. This year I am trying the LaPierre 5/16 straight seasonal spouts with my buckets. I boil with some old propane burners that I rigged up on a air hose to my 500 gallon propane tank since $.92 propane sure beats $5 propane in the bbq tanks.

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Hello everyone. Looks like we have some more Iowans getting the maple bug. It looks like it might start this weekend. It looks like its going to get really warm fast. Its hard to get it all figured out. Last year I think I quit too early and some of you had some better runs later in the season. I'm looking forward to seeing how everyone does this year.

Prairiecreekmaple: It made me laugh to hear about your pens and bungee cords! Not in a nasty way but in a way that says I can appreciate the concept of "I've got nothing, but the desire!" Love it, man. Love it.

Hey Upmep! Good to read from you again! Yeah, the last run last year was a big'un. Hunter and I made more syrup that week (3 or 4 days) than we had all year. Personally I was glad when it ended. That stuff is for younger guys!

So, it sounds like we're all tapping this week/weekend? Okay... I'm in. I've been a little ambivalent, but Hunter, Sweet Wife, and you guys have convinced me.

Good Luck Everybody! Let us know how you're doing and HAVE FUN! Ted

Hey guys I enjoy reading about sugaring in IA. My girlfriend is from central IA and she lives here with me in Maine but she loves to hear about people making syrup back home. We have had some crazy weather here in maine this year, unseasonably warm and the record lows. We are all tapped in up here and the vacuum has been running for 3 days but coming in slow, but hey we will take it. Best wishes to you Midwest sugar makers.

Hey boondocker! You sir are a lucky man indeed! There's something very special about Iowa women. They tend to be kind, patient, supportive and loving (and downright beautiful!). I think the first four attributes may come from being raised around knuckleheaded Iowa men, but can't say for sure. The fifth? God just likes us I guess! Please tell her "hello" from back home. Ted

Hey Tbear, yes you are absolutely correct about all of that lol! Nothing like being with a farm raised god loving beautiful country girl! She thought I was nuts when I met her and I told her I owned a maple sugaring business. But once she saw that first draw off I think she understood my sickness. Best wishes my friend to a sweet season.

Hunter and I got the taps in Friday afternoon. We only collected 15 gallons on Saturday (none today) and spent the rest of the weekend getting things set up for boiling. Now it's the waiting game, checking the forum every five minutes, watching the thermometer, checking the forecast (over and over), second guessing every decision we made, you know, the "Maple Crazies". Ted

We got a quarter of our taps in today. I know I said we would tap Thursday, but there was so much stuff to do! We had to flush our gravity tubes with cleaner and fresh water, we had to bring our collection tank to the bottom of the hill and install our transfer tanks on saddle mounts on the tractor. We also had some repairs to make on our gravity tubes, squirrels chew on them, or maybe it's mice, and we had a maple tree fall on one line. We had to bring out the big saw for that one. Anyway, we finally started tapping today and we feel like we missed some great flow on saturday but hoping to get more tomorrow. Also, then we may get a cold break here in NE Iowa around Thursday. Who knows. It seems that the forecast just doesn't apply to our little sugarbush. We also took a trip to buy and pick up our new/used copper evaporator from an Amish family nearby. It is beautiful! Tomorrow after we finish tapping, we're going to set-up our boiling area and brick our arch. So much work to do, but it is great work. This evening as we were coming back from the hill, we stopped and saw the sunset in front of us and the full moon rise behind and it was stunning. This is an excellent obsession. Ted, the "Maple Crazies" are all I've got these days!

Collected 35 gallons yesterday and the sap is running today! Ted