A recirc line seems to make all the difference with the cheap two-diaphragm pumps. By keeping the diaphagms wet I could get a consistent 24" Hg with them.
Type: Posts; User: Cedar Eater
A recirc line seems to make all the difference with the cheap two-diaphragm pumps. By keeping the diaphagms wet I could get a consistent 24" Hg with them.
I have only had a small amount of tubing damage and only one fitting damaged by squirrels, but I've had one line that gets disconnected by deer moving through them. Flagging the line seems to help.
Well, you specifically mentioned an odd popcorn butter flavor and that's what I meant was the precursor of buddy sap. Sorry that I wasn't clear about that. I get the good butterscotch flavor from my...
Could be a sign that your silver maple is getting close to making buddy sap. I've read where that happens and silvers supposedly are known to bud earlier than sugars.
I disagree. We're helping a newbie get his first batch boiled without indoctrinating him on how to make syrup according to our personal preference. At least we should be.
Again I disagree....
The guy only has eleven trees tapped and I told him to make one batch from 10 gallons and get a taste of what his trees are producing. You are way out in left field with your method. First of all,...
There's plenty of time to get fancy later. Put two gallons of sap into your pot and bring it to a boil. Measure the depth with a wooden spoon and the amount of time that it takes to boil away half of...
Lots of people have had slow runs lately, so that's a possibility, but I routinely walk my lines from the bottom tree and watch bubbles go through tees. It isn't always obvious if the drop leg of a...
If I was you, I would report the situation to the DNR and ask for permission to trap it out of season. They can do that for animals causing property damage.
A well developed crown is usually a good indicator that sugar content and sap volume will be higher than average for a tree. That's why yard trees tend to do very well. They get lots of sun and have...
This really makes me wish that I had natural gas to my house. Propane destroys the economics of doing this. Good job!
You're welcome! Glad to see that you're trying something different. You might want to run with your level down close to the top of the elements to maximize your boil rate. Also set your pan in a...
It needs to be slow at the end of the boil, not at the beginning. You could probably boil 100 gallons down to five before you would need to slow the boil down to a simmer and approach the final...
How long you can hold it without spoiling depends on how cold you can keep it. The closer to freezing that you get, the slower it will spoil. If you set it up to concentrate overnight, you should be...
Filtering small volumes is a waste of time. The only products that work well for small hobby operations are used in conjunction with each other. That's paper prefilters and an orlon or wool felt cone...
I made birch syrup a few years ago, but I did a lot of reading before I did it, so I wasn't as surprised by the results as some seem to be. First, it is not pancake syrup, nor would it be good for...
Thanks very much. I may have seen both on my hunting land, but if so, I don't think any are larger than 6" diameter. One of the most prominent species that I have on that land is speckled alder,...
Apparently there are at least two kinds of ironwoods in the northeastern US; American Hornbeam (Carpinus caroliniana, blue-beech, musclewood) and Eastern Hophornbeam (Ostrya virginiana). Now I'm...
I had to look that one up. I haven't seen an ironwood big enough to tap around here (MI) and I've never heard of anyone making syrup from it.
The reading on a flowmeter is scaled for a particular liquid at a specific temperature. In this case, it's probably for water at 60F. The reading will be inaccurate for concentrate (because it's not...
If the number inside the recycle triangle on the bottom is 1, then the bucket is HDPE and there will be no recycled plastic used in the manufacture of it. However, the mold release agent used to help...
4' is not enough to protect from deer damage. If a deer doesn't have to lift its forefeet off the ground, to get over the barrier you've put the best part of the tree where it will see it and smell...
It needs to be above freezing, but it processes faster if it is warmer, but the condensate spoils faster when it is warmer. I keep mine in my garage. I can open the door to the house to warm the air...
I have only reds on my property and I have tasted buddy syrup from them, but only after I put them on vacuum and it only happened because I deliberately kept producing on one small sapline long after...
What pump? And can that membrane housing really handle that pressure? It says it's only rated for 100 psi.