What’s the best piece of advice you were given when you started?

So to help kick off this area of the forum, what piece of advice were you given when you started that turned out to be really valuable? I’ve learned so much from this forum and from experts around my area it’s hard to narrow it down, but a couple that stand out:

Base all your decisions on the assumption you will have more taps next year.

Buy a hydrometer

Keep a bucket of sap next to the evaporator just in case the pan goes too low. (This one saved me more than once)

A little Homemade syrup makes bourbon taste even better!

Keep it fun was the best advice I was given and that still is the best I can give others. You need to realize, brand new is not necessary, learn on an older unit. Just make sure is is not made with lead bearing solder.

Some advice given from my father many years ago was, you better have a lot of free time on your hands to cut wood and keep a hot fire burning, his best advice was to have a pan with as much square footage you can get over that hot fire.
Man was he right, I'm still working on all these and enjoying every minute of it.

It is an addiction that will grow over time. It seems you will always want more taps, a better evaporator, etc... In the end enjoy the product that you produced, it tastes the best and you made it.

Take your time and don't save a dollar today just to spend double tomorrow.

Cheaper isn't always better.

Pumping is better than trucking.

Sap flows even if it doesn't look fancy.

Biggest one was to enjoy what you do no matter how big or small.

After one year of tapping more than I could boil on a propane burner a seasoned producer told me to decide right now if I was going to continue doing this. if the answer is yes, then do it right and spend some money now on a real evaporator and the right tools. He said three years from now you will have spent more money and suffered twice the aggravation and three times the effort. He then let me use his old evaporator which I bought after that season and realized his wisdom. The second thing I learned from another producer is, sap is not sacred. If it's bad there's no saving it, toss it on the ground. One batch of bad syrup will cost you more than you can ever recover in customers, never sell off-flavor syrup.

To this day my wife and I taste test every batch (cold) and if it doesn't pass our taste test ( we are very particular) if never sells.

Build your sugarhouse twice as big as you think you will need.(you'll end up using every square inch of it) and buy an evaporator 1/2 the size you think you need.(this will push you to buy the RO that you didn't think you would ever need).

I've seen on this forum and others how people pick days or holidays when they are going to start tapping. I was wondering myself when to start.
The best advice I got was from an old timer. I asked him when should I start tapping trees? He said ... When the sap starts to run.

thin pans will boil much more efficiently.It is hard to out boil those steam pans ...all things being equal.Some
of them are 24 or 26 gauge.The better manufacturers seem to have settled on 22 gauge.I would try and
go with 22 gauge if possible.

Take your time and plan out your operation for where you want to be and not where you are.
Over exhausting yourself takes the fun out of it.

I read it here, if you work full time keep the boiling to 60 hours per season.

Best advice I got was
" don't reinvent the wheel - they've already done it"

I don’t have any advice that I was given as I am at least 3rd generation sugarmaker and grew up making syrup. Advice I would give a new sugar maker is New and Shiny doesn’t make great syrup, attention to details and hard work does. Don’t spend more on equipment than you can afford, because great syrup can be made on old, dull equipment.

Best advice I have been given is from Snooky. Actually he was being specific about when I had ordered my first RO and we talked about how there would be an incident that would be inevitable where I would need to be drawings of syrup and the RO would need attended to so I should consider getting an auto-drawoff. I have thought about that conversation frequently. In essence he was saying that "every action has an equal and opposite reaction" (Sir Issac Newton) so before you do anything, think about every aspect that may change as a result.

Thanks Paddy Mountain. Good advice.

The best advice I received was to buy or make an RO. Cut evaporating and wood cutting time in 1\2. I'm a 40 gallon producer with a flat pan.

Some of the best advice was when I was advised to take advice!!

Don't blow shavings out with your mouth , use a wire or twig.

Chunk that ice out and don't worry about the drops of sugar it may have , its mostly all frozen water!!

This is one to ponder a little?
After making syrup on and off for 60 years it seems like there should have been some advice given. Lets see?
- Learn how to read when syrup is finished coming off of a ladle.
- At any time during a full boil your only 15 seconds from disaster.
- Always have that Aaah S**T bucket near the evaporator during a boil.
- Don't leave your boiling evaporator unattended.
- A automatic draw off is like having another person in the sugarhouse with you.
- Learn more about making syrup each year.
- Accept advice from other syrup producers.
- Have your wood dry and ready.
- Keep your wood the right size and your fire hot.
- Have your defoamer ready when you start the fire.
- Watch you depth of sap in your entire rig. 1.5 inches is good.
- Keep your operation in balance, tap count with boiling time.
- Teach and mentor others in maple syrup production.
- Find ways to reduce your labor.
- Continue to have fun making syrup.

Regards,
Chris

Whether you’re a hobby guy or have 100,000 taps, if you care about production then “the woods is where you make it or break it” is the best advice I received.
This really got me researching and eventually working in a large bush for the experience and knowledge to set up our own groves correctly. We have completed new installs on 2 of 3 areas and will complete it next year. This site has been an amazing help. We all love hanging around the sugar house in March making syrup but it’s the woods that got you there.

I'd suggest you decide how much money you want to spend on this hobby before you start. You can go cheap and inefficient and store your syrup in mason jars, or you can go nuts and buy expensive an RO, evaporator, filter, and bottling equipment.

It would cost me a lot less to go buy syrup for $5.99 a bottle at Aldi vs what I've spent, but I decided (after starting) that I'd dump whatever is necessary into my hobby.

With common sense you can make money...maybe not a lot unless you go big.
But how much money do you make golfing or fishing or whatever?

If you build a sugar house, I should say when, pour a concrete floor. I’ve done it both ways and crushed stone is hard to level etc. it’s cheaper but I will echo the others and say it’s cheaper to spend more today and do it right.
I don’t make a ton of syrup maybe six gallons last year, I look at sugaring at the hobby level like craft beer. This is the largest growing segment of the industry and the manufacturers have noticed. From the small hobby RO to the mini rigs with all the bells and whistles. Don’t focus on production but quality. Also if you find a number of taps you like no matter how low stick with that. I have 50 taps in Hudson and 1200 in Vermont I bet u can guess which one is more fun in my opinion. I have yet to meet a producer that didn’t love to talk about sugaring be it July or February.

Don't buy or build anything that you won't be able to Resell, don't buy anything Galvanized, or with lead solder, or leaded Brass. Stick with Food Grade Plastics and stainless steel. I would even be weary of stainless steel that you can't say for certain was never used for anything non food related.

I have a very small operation. I have about 12 to 15 taps and make about 4 liters of syrup on a 18" X 18" stainless steel flat pan over a cast iron propane fired burner. I have been making syrup more or less like this for 20+ years and I still love it.
My best advice is don't kill the boil when adding sap to the pan and watch the boil when it gets close to syrup, because it can burn off in an instant.
Great idea for the forum and I loved reading all the responses!!! I hope everyone has a great season!!!

I'm new to the forum. And will be my first year sugaring now that I have some land. Glad to see this thread! Thanks for all the advice,

-Juglone

Juglone, Welcome and good luck. Have lots of fun. if you have any questions feel free, we are all here to help.

I’m going to add when you cross over the 100 tap threshold, add a float leveling set up to you pan. Greatest thing since RO.

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Originally Posted by 82cabby

So to help kick off this area of the forum, what piece of advice were you given when you started that turned out to be really valuable? I’ve learned so much from this forum and from experts around my area it’s hard to narrow it down, but a couple that stand out:

Base all your decisions on the assumption you will have more taps next year.

Buy a hydrometer

Keep a bucket of sap next to the evaporator just in case the pan goes too low. (This one saved me more than once)

A little Homemade syrup makes bourbon taste even better!

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All of the above is certainly wisdom. The best advice I was personally told was to "cover your wood in November". The other wisdom was gathered from multiple sources and also listed above is to get a hydrometer.

One piece of advice I was given was to never, ever leave the evaporator unattended once it is started. Things can go from running smoothly to disaster in a flash.

One thing that I was told that was hard to do was switch to oil. Oil I said, you make syrup with oil. The guy said it is just a heat source, sell the wood and buy oil. That was a game changer, boiled faster, easier to maintain boil and syrup flow and if anything happened you could turn it off!! Yes I keep a oh $hit bucket of water there for Justin Case, he has not visited in a long time, but if he does I hope I will be ready. If he don't show, I use it to rinse the floor.