sugaring in iowa

well we have been in the sugar house until 10pm every night this week. We are at 22 gallons of syrup - looks like we will have a good run today and tomorrow then the night temps do not fall below freezing- How is everyone else doing? Bill

Wow sounds like you guys are coming out alright! I just pulled 100gal today for a grand total of 250 so far. Most of my trees are just starting to run decent, but some have been dry all year. Hoping for a gusher Saturday, looks perfect on the forcast. If not, this will be my worst season ever. If I could get three good days the season will turn out pretty good. TOMORROWS THE DAY!!!!!!! :mrgreen:

Frank

I pulled most of my taps today. I drilled the trees on March 7 and think maybe the holes were sealing up. The sap was running out of the holes when we removed the taps better than it was running out of the taps. I didn't have too great of a year though. I made almost 2 gallons,which was a little better than half what I made last year. That is more than I will need for my pancakes this year though. I have been having trouble filtering. I use a thick felt filter with a linen prefilter inside it. It still seems to have a little nitre in it after I'm done. It also gets clogged up really quick and won't run through. Does anyone have any advice? I'm not ready to quit but the trees say its time. How is everyone else doing this year? upmep

Done for the year - We had a great run on Friday and Saturday ended up with 170 gallon of sap and cooked all day Sunday. We ended the season right at 30 gallons of syrup- Now all we have to do is get everything cleaned up - Bill

Hi Everyone,
I'm done. I made just under 8.5 gallons this year which is the most I've ever made. All but two gallons were in the AMBER range. The two darker gallons were just inside the DARK (grade A) range. I've been making sugar, my goal is to be sugar independent this year. I think I can make 30 pounds and still have plenty of syrup to use and give away. The last 50 gallons of sap I ran as mostly an experiment. My trees (silver maple) had actually flowered but the sap remained clear. I thought I'd end up with "buddy" syrup but wanted to see for myself what that looked, tasted, and smelled like. It ended up being 5.5 quarts of syrup that was lighter than the batch before! Five and a half quarts from 50 gallons of late (last of the season) sap? Obviously the sugar content was still high. As strange as the season has been it went well for me. I was hoping for 10 gallons but 8.5 isn't bad all things considered. I sanitized/sterilized my taps this year with a bleach solution ( I'd not done that before, just washed and rinsed previously) and I do think it helped as far as keeping my tap holes open longer. I also replaced my small fan with some flex duct and a shop vac. That made a BIG difference in the boil. It was irritatingly loud but, it did create a almost frightening boil.

Upmep: Did you try to "help" the syrup through the filter? Scrape the sides? Squeeze it just a little? In the past when I did that it did make for cloudy syrup. This year I just let it run through on it's own, then when it quit dripping (there looked to be about a quart +/-) still in the filter) I salvaged the remaining sugar by soaking in a pot of hot water and squeezing the filter, not wringing but squeezing. I'd then add the salvaged sugar into the pan of my next batch. On the last batch I did the same thing then got the salvaged to almost syrup on the stove and am letting it settle now. I'll decant and make sugar out of it (about 3/4 quart).

bnbmaplesyrup: Sounds like you had a good year! You guys in the north seem to have a longer season than those of us here in the "Florida of Iowa". But then, maybe we start a little sooner.

jeffeich: how many taps are you running? My wife and I go through your area from time to time. By the time we hit New Hampton we can already see a difference in the scenery. It has more of a Norther feel to it.

IowaSap: How'd you make out this year?

I'm going to start the process of cleaning up this week but will be checking in from time to time, just because! Have a good and safe year everyone. Ted

Ted
Can you put the process that you use to make sugar? We would like to try and make it and the instructions that I found were not very specific.

Thanks Bill

Folks,
I read most of these posts. We are a long way from you folks (North west corner of PA) but share the same maple passion. We just finished our season early this morning!:) tapped Feb 20, about 1100 taps (friends brought sap) we made 260 gallons of syrup, boiled 17 times. Sugar content was above 2.5% all season. gathered 12,241 gallons of sap, but who's counting:)
Hope the rest of your Iowa maple season is good.
Regards,
Chris

Hi Everyone,
bnbmaplesyrup: I heat a quart at a time in a large (I think it's seven qt.) heavy bottom pot. If you don't go large on the pot it'll boil over, so be careful! I've also heard you can rub butter around the top inch of the pot and this will keep it from boiling over. Anyway, I heat the syrup to 260 degrees then pour it into our mixer bowl. We have a Kitchen Aide counter top stand-up mixer. I've heard that if you try to make much more than a quart at a time it can burn your mixer up. I did do a quart and a half the other day and I could hear the mixer groan. Just sayin. Set the mixer on "stir" and watch it happen! It goes from this molten thick syrup and slowly becomes crystallized sugar! I do scrape the bowl a few times as it begins to turn. What I end up with is a moist sugar that resembles brown sugar. I get approx. 2 pounds of sugar per quart of syrup. I was and still am somewhat concerned about my packages of moist sugar drying into a solid lump so I've put some (about half) into a 200 degree oven (on a cookie sheet) for fifteen minutes then let it cool. This dries it out nicely. You do need to let the sugar cool in any case as I've heard it will create condensation in the container. Also, in the maple candy section of the forum there is a video (I think the guys name was Moser? Moser's Maple maybe?) on making sugar. You might want to check that out. Again, 260 degrees, stir (it takes 5/10 minutes in my mixer), let it cool, and package. I realize that I'm not always clear in my writing so please let me know if I need to explain or clarify anything!

Sugarmaker: DUDE! 12,241 gallons?! Dang!

Have a good and safe year everyone, Ted

Bnbmaple syrup,

I'm not sure how important this is ,but, I heat the syrup on medium high. It takes right at 50 minutes on my stove. Good luck! Let us know what you think of the sugar, everyone here really likes it.

Ted

Sounds like everyone had pretty decent years. Tbear do you bake with the sugar you make? Does it add a different taste to baked goods etc. I wasn't ready to quit but the trees quit on me. If I made as much as casbohms I would be ready to quit. I will have to try your advice on filtering next year tbear. Its great to hear everyones kids and grandkids are getting involved. upmep.

Upmep: My wife does most of the baking and she's a little gimped up right now (surgery next Monday) so I can't speak about the flavor of baked goods. However, Think about homemade pumpkin pie with maple sugar as opposed to white sugar! Or maybe apple pie? Oh wait, apple crisp with maple sugar in the crumbly stuff on top! How about sweet potatoes? As soon as my darlin wife can get around better I'm going to request some peanut butter cookies using maple sugar and see how they turn out. I can say that the sugar is good in coffee, tea, Raisin Bran and oatmeal. On another note, I pass a house north of New London (on my way to Burlington) who had 6 or 8 trees tapped in their yard. I was wondering if that was you? I finally decided it wouldn't be creepy or anything to stop and talk to them but they weren't home. Also, about filtering, I noticed a small cloud in the bottom of the jars from the second and third batches today, so maybe I shouldn't offer advice on filtering. Anyway, it's been a fun season and you're right it's good to spend time doing this with family. All the best, Ted

tbear, I live in between you and Des Moines so that wasn't me in New London. I was wondering what everyone else had for an evaporator. Mine is a barrel with a 2x4 pan I had made for it with a preheater. It doesn't boil very fast but it does the job.

I've got a flat 2x4 batch pan on a block arch. No pre-heater, but I used a shop vac as a blower this year. It was loud but made a big difference in the boil. I think I'm going to try a squirrel cage blower for next year to cut down on the noise. Upmep, how does your pre-heater work? If you could describe the setup I'd like to have one made. Ted

Done hear in NE Iowa, started to pull taps and buckets, pretty good year once all the snow melted, make close to 120 gallons of good quality syrup. I have made maple sugar before, made 200 lbs last year, pretty simple to do, takes some time to do it right. Hope everyone had a good season.

Well we made sugar this weekend - turned out great!!! Thanks for the recipe Ted - We run a 2X6 flat pan on a slanted arch - we average right at 25 gallon evaporation an hour - Jeff how many taps do you put out to get to 120 gallon of syrup - next year we are going to shoot for 50 gallon of syrup - that was our goal this year but the sap did not run all that great - Bill

tbear, My preheater is about 1 foot x 2 feet that sits right on top of my main pan. It has a spigot on it that I can adjust to whatever drip I want depending on how fast its boiling. It holds several gallons of sap. I sit it at the back of the pan and fill it with sap as it drains into the main pan. I had mine made in Wisconsin. It was one of the more reasonable dealers on ebay. I haven't tried the blower. How close does everyone try to get the fire to the bottom of the pan? Mine is probably several inches. I don't get the best boil rate but I'm usually not in a hurry.upmep

Hey everyone sounds like a good year for most. T-bear not ignoring your question just a bit busy right now. Between new pigs twice a week, taking kids shed hunting and turkey hunting and cleaning up sap stuff and then oh yeah work! I forgot about posting.
It wasn't a very good sap year here. Collected 450, made a little over 7 on a little over 100 taps. Second worst year ever only to last year. I should of made closer to ten buttttttt...... I had a small mishap:emb:
Boiled 120 down to about 5-6 gal of near, let the fire go out late one night. I got up the next morning pulled the pan off and started a new fire, pushed the pan MOSTLY back on the stove. Then the sap sloshed forward and back and flipped the whole pan off and onto the ground faster then you can blink! At least it wasn't hot cause I took a GOOD bath! GRRRRRRR!!! It seems I always have some strange thing happen, it's just the nature of my operation. But it gives the kids a good story to laugh at later.
I've never made sugar. Can I use some of my old stuff? I'm curious about this, thanks for the info.
I have a small squirrel cage blower on my cooker and love it. It's quiet and boy does it pump up the boil, but it devours wood!! Mine's mounted onto an old header pipe on the front of my stove.
Well hope all is well with everyone, type at ya later.

Godspeed!
Frank

Hi Everyone,

IowaSap, sorry to hear about the mishap. Glad the syrup wasn't hot, man, that would have been bad! It wasn't the year I was hoping for either but, you get what you get. Sounds like you're having fun with the kids. Those are some precious moments. Also, last years syrup will work for sugar, the first batch I made was using the last of last years.

bnbmaplesyrup: glad the sugar turned out for you. I made some more this morning and it still kind of amazes me to see it change.

Upmep: I have 12 inches from the top of my grate to the bottom of my pan and I load wood as high as I can without touching the bottom of the pan, getting the flames up there really helps. So, concerning your preheater, does it sit across your pan using the steam from your pan to heat the sap? How hot does the sap get? One foot by two feet, how tall is it? I apologize for all the questions, but a preheater of some form will be the only upgrade (that I can see) I can make without buying an evaporater. That of course would be expensive and I'd have to change the way I'm doing most of the process and what can I say, I'm just now getting the process down.

Jeffeich: x2 on bnb's question! How many taps for that kind of production?

Ted

upmep, Does condensation drip back into your pan from your preheater pan?

On the preheater, its about a foot high also. It has brackets on the bottom to keep it on my main pan. The steam warms it,so it doesn't stop the boil. It does get condensation on the bottom of it. Its made with stainless the same as the pan. I think it helps. It holds quite a few gallons. upmep

Sanitized, sterilized,or at least cleaned my spiles today. Boiled them for twenty minutes, soaked them in bleach solution for twenty minutes, scrubbed the outside with a green scratchy pad, soaked in bleach solution another twenty minutes, scrubbed the inside with a bottle brush, soaked in bleach solution again, tossed them in the dish washer then boiled them again. Over kill, I know. But cabin fever knows no bounds. I don't like to say things like this as it sounds like I'm wishing my life away, but, I wish it was March. Insert heavy sigh. Ted

In Iowa I'm sure it warms up enough in February to start. Here in Maine we sometimes get a little run in late February. So the season could be about a month away, depending on the weather!

Thanks revi! I've not had much luck tapping in February, the buckets tend to just hang there as the holes begin to dry/heal up. But maybe this year will be differant! One more month? I'd like that! Ted

Ted

I am seriously thinking of tapping some trees - we have had 7 days of good weather and the next 10 days look great

Hi Bill, good to hear from you! Ya know, I've tapped at the end of January, the beginning, middle and end of February, and the beginning of March. I've just not had much luck (sap) before March. It seems, no matter what the weathers like, my trees just don't give until March. We're prepping for a couple weeks vacation (starting a week from tomorrow) so, I couldn't tap now anyway. That all being said I'll be interested in how it works out for you! Good Luck and have fun! Ted

This is upmep. Has anyone started tapping yet? The weather has been off and on warm. I was looking at the notes I've made over the years and the best for me has usually been during March. What does everyone else think. I ordered 25 more taps and got them in the mail yesterday. I'm ready to start.

We held off tapping due to it really cold again. We will keep a close eye on the forecast going forward. It is looking to get really cold again late this week again. Will probably be 10+ days before we tap. We are trying to get a hood built for our evaporator so would like to get that finished. We are looking at 200 taps this year if all goes right. Will definitely post something when we get ready to tap. Thanks Bill

Okay, so I'm looking at this coming Sunday to tap. Forecast looks good. But then, that can change. Anyone else? Ted

Thinking about Monday here, it does look to be getting close. Hate to miss a drop!!

We are going to try and tap Friday after work - We got the new steam hood in place this weekend and just need to install the drip pan - tonight we are starting to wash buckets - Should be running hard by early next week after seeing the forecast this morning - Good luck everyone Bill

It looks by the weather forecast its about time to start tapping. I have Friday off work and might start then. It looks like late next week it is supposed to be very warm. I hope it doesn't make things go too fast. In this you take what nature gives you. That's what makes it interesting. I hope everyone has a great year. Looking forward to hearing how everyone does.

Well we were able to get 204 taps put out Friday thru Sunday - we are done tapping but very concerned with the temps for the next 8 days. We collected about 60 gallons on Sunday. We did get down to 27 last night so hoping for a big run today. It is not to drop below freezing for the next 8 nights. Bill

Put in little over a 100 today. Most every one was running hard. Never tapped in a T-shirt before!

I'm about the middle of the state Montour, IA I tapped 1st time ever last Sunday. Maybe to late, but watching the weather we were below freezing until last Saturday.
I checked yesterday afternoon (Monday)and with only 6 trees (All Sugar Maples) tap, 2 of the trees I had 2 taps in, total of 8 taps.
I collected 10 Gallons in 2 days.
Tuesday morning the low was 32 not sure we are going to have many more days below 32

Just wondering what everybody going to do with these temps. Keep going or stop.

Other question is storage of sap. I have it 5 gallon food grade buckets in garage and was going to boil down this Sunday with furture temps will it go bad?

I started tapping last Friday and Saturday. I have maybe 60 gallons of sap from about 40 taps. Its starting to tail off already . It is getting too warm too quick though. I think us maple syrup people are the only ones who wish winter would hold on a little longer. As for the storage, I don't think I would wait till Sunday to boil. They say it will spoil like milk. I have been keeping mine outside in the shed in a redneck refrigerator. I have filled a bunch of icebags with snow from some drifts that are left and putting these on the buckets of sap and I put a tarp over that. I took off work tomorrow to boil as much as I can. Its nice to see how everyone is doing.

Hi iowathumper, and welcome to the forum! Upmep is spot on. If you can't keep the sap cold it can go bad. It's pretty ugly when that happens. Also, even if it doesn't go bad the microbs will lower your sugar content. Try to avoid keeping it around too long. As for the weather and what to do? My taps are in and I'll keep going for as long as the trees allow! Again, welcome. And good luck! Ted

Well we have had really good sap flows until yesterday- only collected 70 gallons on 204 taps - we are up to 6-1/2 gallons of syrup with another 100 gallons to get cooked down today -
we plan to leave the taps in until the trees turn buddy - we are to get cold again Saturday night so hopes that we regenerate them. Bill

I checked mine this morning, the container is very cold to the touch.
I removed the lid from the oldest bucket and it looks o.k. And does not smell any different then when I first put it in there.
I'll try and stick a thermometer in there to see what the temperature is.

Thumper. You'll know its to warm when it starts to yellow. Next step is cloudy. Then it goes to some strange moldy jelly stage! My dog couldn't even lick it out of a bucket. Just slid right off his tongue!! You know you went to far when the dog can't eat it! I've cooked slightly yellow sap with no problems. Everything else i pour out.

Thumper. Also you may smell a fermented smell:cool:. Just charge more for that batch!!!:lol: