sugaring in iowa

[bnbmaplesyrup]

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

[IowaSap]

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!!!!!!!

Frank

[upmep]

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

[bnbmaplesyrup]

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

[tbear]

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

[bnbmaplesyrup]

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

[Sugarmaker]

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

[tbear]

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

[tbear]

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

[upmep]

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.