Downsizing for 2019 (well, sort of)

After much consideration I will be making some major changes to my operation. I currently have about 1000 taps on 21" of vac. I boil with a newer Smoky Lake 2x8 on a newer Leader oil fired arch. I have a D&G 600 gph RO and Wes Fab full bank filter press. I have averaged about 300 gallons of syrup the past few years and sold most of it in bulk (I hate selling retail). Due to a variety of reasons, I will be mostly selling sap in the future. I will actually expand my taps to about 1150-1200 (about the max for my woods). However, the evaporator, RO, and press will be sold. I plan on buying an A&A 2x8 or 2x10 (my last rig was an A&A 2.5x10 and it did great) and making only enough syrup for my extended family. It will be a major step back going from oil and boiling concentrated sap to wood and raw sap. I dont care because I will only boil when I feel like it, the rest of the time the sap will go from my electric releaser to my holding tanks to be picked up by truck. My arch will not have forced air. I will boil and only be able to hear the crackling of the wood and the boiling sap. No RO running, no oil burner running. I actually miss this. My sugarhouse will become a sweet cabin for family and friends to hang out. My boiling room will be under an overhang where my current sap tanks are located. It's gonna be great. Dont get me wrong, boiling concentrated sap with an oil fired rig is awesome. I never boil more than 2-3 hours at a time. However, like I said there are a variety of reasons for this change. One is that I want to have a cabin. Two, looming FDA inspections are a factor. I just dont want the federal government on my property. Three, I want to return to a time when I wasn't worried about the commercial aspects of all this. Most people will not understand this "downgrade," especially in a time when most people upgrade from year to year.

I understand, we milk one cow by hand --- on purpose.

Jason,
Heard rumors of this. The syrup world is small and news travels fast. Sounds like a great plan to me! Some nights when I shut off all the noise it is nice to just hear the fire. Boiling raw sap still has its place too! Your family will like it! Good luck. You will still be busy in the woods too. Have fun!
Regards,
Chris

Somebody is going to end up with one honey of a used evaporator, good luck with your new direction, I tell people all the time that I think I had more fun when I ran 300 taps and boiled slow and filled a trash barrel with beer cans every spring.

Totally understand.Been sugaring since the early '70's...back then; sugarhouse 1/2 mile out in the woods,running water was from a spring up on the hill,light @ night was from coleman lanterns and when you started to nod off you threw some hemlock into the firebox so the crackling would keep you awake! Enjoy!

I'm convinced no one is ever happy with where they are in the maple world. you either want to do more or you want to do less.

my favorite time of the night is listening to the final boil as we let the fire die-down, and then just the HUMMM of the blower motor. actually fell asleep twice this year out in the shack waiting on cool down.

When you want to sell your gear let me know, i'm looking to upgrade to an oil fired arch. i have an older 30x10' wood fired if you want to swap partially.

BSD the equipment is in the classifieds here.

You've got to do what makes you happy with this sugaring stuff. I watch guys keep growing every year until they are so big that it isn't fun for them anymore. They end up getting burned out, selling their stuff and getting out of maple. I applaud you for doing what it takes to make it fun for you again.

I purposely have kept my tap count around 700 taps because with a full time job doing more would be too much. I have enough trees in my woods to more than double my tap count but choose not to because I want to keep it fun.

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Originally Posted by Sugarmaker

Jason,
Heard rumors of this. The syrup world is small and news travels fast. Sounds like a great plan to me! Some nights when I shut off all the noise it is nice to just hear the fire. Boiling raw sap still has its place too! Your family will like it! Good luck. You will still be busy in the woods too. Have fun!
Regards,
Chris

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Thanks Chris. I'll have time to come see you boil next year.

Thanks for all the support guys. :)

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Originally Posted by heus

Thanks Chris. I'll have time to come see you boil next year.

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Jason,
Looking forward to having you stop by. That is one thing I enjoy: going to other's sugarhouse's, visiting and or helping a little. BTW. I was boiling on your old rig today. Bob made at least 5 gallons with it this afternoon. The A&A rigs are good I boiled on their pans for 15 years.
Regards,
Chris

I get it. At just over 200 taps; this is manageable. A normal boil is 4 hours spent loading wood into the arch, checking temps throughout the pan with temp probes and drawing off about every 45 minutes.
The highest tech device is the Marchland temp monitor. One for the stack and two for the syrup pan. Makes no noise at all. After that it’s a preheater in a steam hood. All add up to making good product- none make a sound. Loudest thing in there is an occasional Neil Young or Grand Funk Railroad track, via Blue tooth, playing off my phone....and the occasional snap of a pull tab...it’s all good.

Hey I know where your coming from, considering the exact move my self and for nearly all the same reasons.

I understand too, in fact I recently only had 225 gal of 2% sap to boil and I didn't even use the RO. I also didn't run the H.P AOF/AUF, I just opened the draft door and listened, and enjoyed the time. It was so quite, both the RO and the HP blower are loud.
Now I don't plan to do that when I have a lot of sap, but it was relaxing and reminiscent of simpler times. I did still use the auto draw, which is more relaxing than monitoring the temp all the time.

Welcome to my world heues.Attachment 18436Attachment 18437Attachment 18438Attachment 18439

Just revisiting my thread from last spring. Although the bulk sap selling is still a possibility, I think I am going to keep my evaporator and boil next year. I have worked out a deal with a fellow maple trader. He is getting my oil fired arch and I am getting his wood fired arch. I have sold my 600 RO and filter press. I am thinking that I will cut back from 1000 taps on vac to around 200 or so on vac. Make just enough to keep my retail customers and family happy. My 200 taps will be only the best sugar maples in my woods, and mostly all can run on gravity if for some reason my vacuum is not working. Hopefully I can get my average sugar content up to 2% from the terrible average of 1.3-1.4% when I tapped lots of telephone pole sugar maples. One regret is selling my filter press, though. I may be looking for a short bank one in the near future.

Not gonna lie, I am getting pleasure from seeing my tubing come down in my woods. Never really got used to its appearance. Excited to use my new toy (2019 Kawasaki Mule Pro MX) to gather sap this coming season. Going to pick up my 2x7 evaporator at A&A Metal Shop in a couple of weeks. Ordered a 9" CDL vacuum filter. Looking forward to seeing how well it works. I guess I am one of the few that went from high tech (ro, filter press, vacuum, fuel oil fired, etc) back to low tech. Call my crazy but I am excited about maple again.

Jason,
Change is good! Keeps things fresh! We are not far away from syrup season too. Looking forward to your updates!
Regards,
Chris

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Originally Posted by heus

Not gonna lie, I am getting pleasure from seeing my tubing come down in my woods. Never really got used to its appearance. Excited to use my new toy (2019 Kawasaki Mule Pro MX) to gather sap this coming season. Going to pick up my 2x7 evaporator at A&A Metal Shop in a couple of weeks. Ordered a 9" CDL vacuum filter. Looking forward to seeing how well it works. I guess I am one of the few that went from high tech (ro, filter press, vacuum, fuel oil fired, etc) back to low tech. Call my crazy but I am excited about maple again.

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You're not crazy Jason, you're going to make some really good tasting old-fashioned syrup again...that's what you're going to do. I never got to your level of tech and have always been wood fired, but after only a year with vacuum, air injection and an RO, I'm also beginning to think about doing a 180 before it's too late.

Chris and John, Its going to be weird going back to boiling raw sap. Good luck in your seasons.

You for sure really have to be passionate about your operation, hi tech or low to tech. For me its about being efficient and always trying to find better ways to do things, while still enjoying the craft. Then again i think i might be wired a little differently cause the hustle is what keeps me going, just be sure what ever it is to enjoy it, and Keep Living the dream!!

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Originally Posted by heus

Chris and John, Its going to be weird going back to boiling raw sap. Good luck in your seasons.

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Jason, how's it going over there these past two weeks with the new rig and raw sap?

Jason,
I think I just saw one of your buckets go past the window! Hope things are good!
Regards,
Chris

Chris I have made about 10 gallons so far. I am used to collecting sap from buckets but the hardest adjustment is boiling raw sap.

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Originally Posted by heus

Chris I have made about 10 gallons so far. I am used to collecting sap from buckets but the hardest adjustment is boiling raw sap.

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Jason, amen to that! With the RO this year I was able to get to 6% with Tuesday's run....geez we were getting big draws every 15 minutes and making 2 gal/hour...used to be 30-45 minutes between draws.
Don't miss that at all...my wood pile lasts longer too <grin>

Crazy changes again :lol: After removing 1000 taps worth of tubing from my woods a couple years ago, and downsizing to only buckets last year, I am putting up some new tubing to get around 135-150 taps on gravity. Will still be doing around 100 buckets I think. Also just got my 4th RO, a NextGen 100HPRO. The craziness never stops here, I guess :emb:

heus,
I am just wondering how big are the trees you are tapping being that you are now in the 7 or 8 generation. I have to imagine that some of them must be quite large.

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Originally Posted by Pdiamond

heus,
I am just wondering how big are the trees you are tapping being that you are now in the 7 or 8 generation. I have to imagine that some of them must be quite large.

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Never measured them, but several are probably in the 48" diameter range. About 175-185 years old.

I have a few like that in my woods and one double out by the road that may be almost 6 ft across at the base. To bad it is so old it is dying. Going to be difficult to cut up and split.