thats crazy. im next to rolling hills golf course.Originally Posted by helptheold
thats crazy. im next to rolling hills golf course.
Neat! I heard the township & school district got their hands on that property, are you tapping any trees on it?
Looks like the weather you're getting is similar to ours down here in Pittsburgh. I put out one last Saturday to see what other stuff I needed & was thinking of putting out 10 taps tomorrow when it's slightly nicer.
Tapping trees on a golf course....never....ok I did. haha. They are my early test trees. Put 10 taps out up there. My main trees are around my house. Im putting 30 more taps out around my house this weekend.
Why not? At least someone is using it then, makes my husband sad to see it not being used (he loves golf) I think I'm going to put out taps behind my house tomorrow and then wait a week or two to tap the rest that I've marked in our common areas. Need to say hi first to the people who live in the houses I'm going to tromping around behind firstDon't need the cops called on me!
Looks like we have some cold weather coming in the next few days and may last for a week or more. That should put us into early February. So the next warming spell after that cold snap should be when we tap in NWPA. I have gone to 5 sugarhouses in the area. Three were making syrup and the other two are just getting set up for the first time this season. Nice to have some additional sugarhouses coming on board in the area.
We have a annual maple meeting this Saturday in Sagerstown.
Regards,
Chris
Casbohm Maple and Honey
625 roadside taps + Neighbors bring some sap too!
3x10 King, WRU, AOF and AUF
12" SIRO Filter Press.
2015 Ford F250 PSD sap hauler
One Golden named Maggie, Norwegian Forest Cat named Lucy
Too many Cub Cadets
Ford Jubilee and several Allis WD's, and IH tractors
1932 Ford AAB ton and a half, dump truck
www.mapleandhoney.com
#helptheold Are you ready for this week? Temps look good for some sap. I got 70 gallons this week that I am boiling up on Sunday. Sunday looks good so Im planing on starting my boil mid day then collect the days sap. Hoping to get 2 gallons of syrup w Sundays run added. This will be my biggest boil so far....and should be even bigger next week.Why not? At least someone is using it then, makes my husband sad to see it not being used (he loves golf) I think I'm going to put out taps behind my house tomorrow and then wait a week or two to tap the rest that I've marked in our common areas. Need to say hi first to the people who live in the houses I'm going to tromping around behind first
Just an heads up...That Cookie factory on Mayview Road (near the old mental hospital) has 55 gallon food grade drums for sale. $20. Some smell of olives...some arent bad. I got one...need to get another.
Still cant believe you live a couple miles away! Peters Township!!!!!
I too am from the Pittsburgh South Hills area but I travel 100 miles north to our other property in Greenville to do my maple stuff.
I gave a small jar of syrup to my Pittsburgh neighbor and now he has the bug to at least collect sap from large trees in his grandmother's property in Bethel Park.
So I gave his some tapping supplies.
Only problem --- he expects me to cook it for him instead of his enjoying the entire maple process. (I'll assume he knows what a Maple tree looks like)
I looked at Weather Underground on-line and their graph of forecasted weather looks like a nice roller coaster of temperatures for the next week, so Sunday should be my day to hit the trees.
Since my tap openings should remain active for 4-6 weeks, I hope I'll be right in the band of good maple sap production before that window of tap viability closes and/or the buds sprout.
Last year was my first attempt at sugaring and I tapped around February 20ish. I was introduced to a neighbor up north who has been tapping "commercially" for a few years, and he was surprised I waited that long last year.
It gets a bit challenging traveling back and forth between two locations and not miss or harm the sap collection (temperatures for storage), not to mention many hours devoted to cooking on my version of an arch and evaporator.
This is my second year using a heavily modified file cabinet that has been lined with fire brick and wool blanket; and three full size buffet pans placed in a heavy 6" C-channel frame on top of the arch.
I swap sap between the three pans until I start to run out and minimize into one pan, stopping just before I hit 66 Brix. I then save the Nearup in my fridge and finish a bigger combined batch in a turkey fryer, with a coffee urn to aid in keeping the syrup hot as I use the urn's spout to do my bottling. The arch includes a small fan that provides air-under-fire, and I can't believe the minimal amount of ash I have left after a long day of cooking.
Last year I stole ideas from another poster and built a temporary shack using Amish roughcut 2x4's and blue tarps. This year I built a 10x10 shack addition on back of a small barn that has served as my base of operations -- i.e. sap storage, wood storage for immediate use, source of electric power, yard hydrant outside, etc. Among all the other construction materials involved, this year's shack includes a Class A flue that easily wipes out any thoughts of making my own syrup being a cost-saving move.
My collection system consists of (40) 2" PVC pipe segments and blue bags hanging on 5/16" Tree Saver spiles.
I tried to post a few photos last year but I'm not computer literate enough to make it work. Maybe wifey will have better luck if I beg for her help this year.
As I said, last year was my first attempt at this hobby, so everything I mentioned seems to work well for a novice.
This site was a big help in providing info to read, photos to devour, and lots of kind-hearted folks who provided answers to my numerous and sometimes seemingly ridiculous questions.
We collected and boiled 54 gallons last weekend,which made 1.25 gallons of syurp. Collected around 150 gallons of sap this week, started boiling at 6:00. Sugar content was pretty good last week, hoping for more of the same this weekend.
Just a hobby.
2012 Don't want to talk about it.
2013 6 Buckets 2.75 gallons
2014 20 on 5/16 ,10 Buckets 7.75 gallons
2015 30 on 5/16 , 10 Buckets 9.5 gallons
2016 43 on 3/16 , 0 Buckets , 623 gallons sap, 11.89 gls.
2017 43 on 3/16 527 gallons boiled, 9 gals. Syrup
2018 43 on 3/16 453 gallons sap 9 gallons syrup
2019 30 on 3/16 9.5 gallons
3 Burner propane
Almost done, going to head out tomorrow morning to finish putting in taps. I managed to trip & fall the other day so I've been moving slow, the ibuprofen is finally kicking in. I will check out that place tomorrow, gotta feeling that I'm going to need it. Told my husband he can start looking into making a fire pit for the summer but it'll have to double as place I boil sap in the future!
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