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Started this 10years ago with my kids. We took a school field trip to rockwoods reservation where the conservation dept. was making syrup. Been hooked ever since. Today we tap 50+ trees mostly sugar maples some blacks and reds on our property in southern St. Charles county. We plan on tapping more but need to create some trails thru the woods. My evaporator is homemade from a discarded oil tank, bought a new pan last year 2x4 flat continuous flow. Finally got the whole continuous flow thing all figured out, wanting to make a float box but that will have to wait till next year. I filter and bottle the syrup on a steam pan heated bottler. That was a huge upgrade over cone filter way easier. Looks like we will have another good run over the next few days, am planning on cooking all day Sunday if all goes well. I know of only one other syrup producer in my area
John
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I'm not too far from you. In fact, I was up in St Peters last night for my monthly beekeeping club meeting. Though at just a few gallons of syrup per year, it's a stretch to call me a producer.
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Small world, I took the bee keeping class early last year at the St. Peter's extension center. I've been meaning to attend a few meetings and learn a little more before I decide to get bee's
John
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This year I upgraded my sap collection system with ¾ inch mainline tubing suspended from 12.5 gauge fencing wire. I have two main lines. One has 10 trees on it and the other has 18 trees. The trees tie in with laterals made of 5/16th tubing. When I am out and about this week I will try to get some pictures. At the beginning of each lateral I used loop fittings so that I can tighten the line. Those work very well. At the tie in point to the mainline I used the fittings with the little clip that catches the wire then a saddle fitting on the ¾ inch tubing. It looks really good. Now if only some sap would flow. I am behind a few weeks this year because of figuring out all of this new stuff. In the end I tapped 35 trees. I also tapped 12 walnut trees. The walnut trees are all on buckets. I am anxious to boil down that sap to see how the walnut syrup tastes.
I am still using a concrete block stove on the driveway. I did buy a new canopy. I got one that is snow rated. The ones I used the last few years did not hold up under wind and snow conditions.
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RiverSap, pictures of your tubing setup would be nice to see. I keep thinking there has got to be a better way of collecting than the way I am doing it. Looks like we are both on the Missouri River bluffs, I am in southern st Charles county defiance area. Collected 75gallons this evening.
John
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hey johnnyf and river sap....maybe both of you can provide photos of your trees, taps, helpers, and evaporator and i will do the same. we harvested 60 gallons on monday feb 15 and put it in the big fridge, and harvested 130 gallons today from sap run yesterday and today. now starting to cook tonight under the stars before it sours. (no sugarhouse yet!) the flow will probably decrease for a while with these 50 degree nights. john
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You guys are big time for southerners. My 19 taps have produced around 30 gallons this year. The flow has been the best the last 2 days. Reds aren't giving me much but the sugars are flowing! I have a boil down planned for sunday using my home built wood fired evaporator. Should be doing around 20 gallons.
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I added some pictures of my tubing setup in my gallery section. I will get some pictures of my mainline setup this week. I had my camera with me but I got bust collection sap and forgot to take pictures. I collected about 30 gallons over the weekend. I hope to collect 60 or so gallons this week and cook up a batch this coming weekend. I have also collected maybe 25 gallons of walnut sap.
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I did my biggest boil of the year yesterday. Turned 40 gallons of sap into exactly 1 gallon of syrup, for a textbook 40-to-1 ratio. May get a bit more sap over the next week or so, but I suspect the trees are about to start budding since my bees are starting to haul in a lot of pollen (maybe from silver maples and/or elms).
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We noticed that the sap and syrup is getting darker now. And the buckets had more insects in them due to the warm days last week. After filtering and cooking, it looks and tastes great. A few more colder nights this week and we should get another batch that will raise our total to over 20 gallons for the season. I tried to attach a few photos of our operation- hope they appear OK. Hey RiverSap tell us about the walnut sap and syrup. John
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