I'm tapping out today. The yard trees on gravity produced buddy syrup. It's all over but the cleanup, then on to the next projects.
I'm tapping out today. The yard trees on gravity produced buddy syrup. It's all over but the cleanup, then on to the next projects.
CE
44° 41′ 3″ N
2019 -- 44 Red Maples - My home and sugarbush are for sale.
2018 -- 48 Red Maples, 7 gallons
2017 -- 84 Red Maples, 1 Sugar Maple, and 1 Silver Maple , 13 gallons
2016 -- 55 Red Maples, 8 gallons
2015 -- 15 Red Maples, 6 Birches - 3+ gallons maple syrup
An awning over my deck is my sugar shack.
An electrified kitchen sink and an electrified steam table pan are my evaporators.
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I was pulling taps as I collected another 15 gallons of 2% sap from trees that still had tight buds. I have been "slowly" boiling down 15 gallons on the fish fryer and it looks, smells & tastes good so far. I will be firing up the evaporator one last time this weekend to finish off the 30 gallons that I have buried in the last remaining snow pile we have in our yard. It's been an interesting season to say the least. Now it's time for Turkey hunting & in a few weeks walleye fishing. Will be taking time to relax on a cruise ship with my wife of 25 years next month. I wonder if I could smuggle some of my syrup on board to have with pancakes and waffles? LOL!
Latitude:N 44° 50' 25.0463"
Longitude:W 85° 38' 57.8906"
New for 2022 (My 10th year) a 9" CDL Vacuum Filter Press
2016/2017 12' X 16' Sugar Shack 6/12 pitch roof W/ 3' X 4' Cupola.
John Deere HPX 4X4 Gator (Pop's left it to me when he died)
New for 2020 HB10 RO In A Bucket, a game changer.
2015 Purchased 50 used Bag holders.
2016 Purchased a home made evaporator and "everything" that went with it.
20 acre Sugar Bush
Never taken any on a cruise but I have take mine into a few restaurants. Wife just shakes her head.
2006 - 12 taps on open fire
2011 - 50 taps new 2 x 4 flat pan + warmer
2012 - 65 taps new 16 x 16 sugar shack
2013- 75 taps and no more, well maybe 85 now
2016-97 taps
1 Lab and my wife's Springer
Started boiling again here after the freeze. Sap started running again yesterday.
Sugar Maples are still not budding, but will be soon. Red Maples, Beech, and Poplar are starting to bud.
Warm temps turn sap cloudy pretty quick in storage. Still coming out of the tree clear and tasty. Snow is melting fast.
Probably pulling taps next day or two.
We finished up yesterday, tree buds have started to swell as of last night. Going to pull the taps Monday and Tuesday, its be a good learning curve this season.
New for 2016 Mason 2x4 XL with AUF blower. No more boiling in stainless steam table trays or pots for me.
Pulled all my taps yesterday and collected 130 gallons. Hoping for a good yield out of this last push.
2014- 28 taps on buckets = 1 gallon of syrup
2015- 35 taps on buckets = 7.5 gallons of syrup
2016- 44 taps on buckets and counting
Still running clear and 2.5% here in the northern UP. Pulled the soft maple raps yesterday.
made about 40 gallons yesterday with a slight cloudiness and a great taste still. Boiled twice in the day to keep things moving. Darker syrup than we have made all year and quite good. That might be the last of it for the year.
2011 10 taps (hooked) , 2012 346 taps (Bust), 2013 506 taps, 570 taps On Vac
2016 New 600 cdl RO All new tubing dry/wet new high vac Busch pump. Ended up with 1580 taps
2017 3500 taps +- 2018 going for 5000
5 little sapsuckers 1 hardworking wife
Kubota M6800 tractor, 121-2 Mini Ex and a couple of Stihls
65 acres of maples (going to try and tap them all)
3X12 CDL Intense-O-Fire
We pulled our soft maples several weeks ago and moved the taps to our sugar maples further back.
Located in Midwest michigsn, north of grand rapids. Hadn't any flow for 15 days to speak of, then one last hurrah last week. Collected 130 gallons from 150 taps (newest taps were solidly full (5 gal buckets), other taps half and others zero.
Curiously, our sugar has been at 1.5 to 2% all season (both sugar and soft maples in woods/swamps), but the last week shot up to nearly 4% on some trees!
COLOR WAS EXACTLY THE SAME EACH BURN.
no joke, I did a 3oz glass sampler each boil and every one was identical in color: very dark!
However, the flavor was different. First was slightly buttery and lighter, second more caramel flavor, 3rd and 4th a medium maple, and 5th a hint of cinnamon or chocolate (very slight) and 6th was a heavier maple with light floral notes (no none of my sap was flowered or budded).
Ran a 2x5 smokey lake hybrid with float box and auto draw into a smokey lake water jacketed bottler.
Gradient was dark in each level of the pan but varied in density.
I also did a test boil of some silver maple flowered sap into my electric water boiler and that also came out dark! Flavor was good thoughbut I still dumped all flowering sap just to be safe!
2014: 12 silver and red maples, metal barrel halved lengthwise set over large firepit- 2 gallons and lots of biter and paint primer in syrup.
2015: 12 black and sugar, 45 silver/red - homemade evaporator of two metal barrels attached and 3 steam table pans cut in (10 gph)
2016: aiming for 100 black maple plus 25 black walnut - homemade 2x5 steam table into evaporator to try out
We boiled the last of our sap yesterday, pulling taps and washing everything up to put away for the season. Its been a long strung out season here in central Upper Peninnsula.
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