Nope , it was a little squirrel Not very old
Nope , it was a little squirrel Not very old
skin him, get an aluminum foil pan, place in pan and set on stove pipe exit. Ladle in sap from the pan as you boil. In a few hours you have candied squerrel. As buckeye gold said. Ring that fur out. Sap is worth its weight in gold.
Crazy River Sap
55 sugar maple, 15 walnut taps on plastic buckets and tubing
Block arch on driveway
Light and buttery, with a hint of squirrel..
This last week brought me 88 gallons on my 60ish taps. Much better than the week before. So far I'd say a great Jan despite the odd weather start.
Keep us posted on the walnut trees, I always wondered about those. I have just a few, and don't want to run a separate batch just for them.
Lots of trees, bees, rocks, firewood, and syrup.
20200202_091935.jpg
I finished a batch last night, and noticed it has good color, but it is cloudy. Uniform throughout the container, and all of the containers. I filtered with Smokey lake orlon filters and pre filters. In my several years of doing this I have not had this happen. Using same equipment, same filters. Any ideas?
Last edited by oldcabin; 02-02-2020 at 09:50 AM.
Lots of trees, bees, rocks, firewood, and syrup.
I'm also getting that, however, I'm just doing a single pass through (what is guess is?) an Orlon Filter. I'm not selling it, so just 'splaining to family that it's Maple Syrup sediment and won't hurt you. Is this niter/sugar sand?
MapleSyrupSediment.jpg
John
Some years it shoots right through filters and is crystal clear others it's slow and cloudy. your not doing anything wrong.I just got in the habit of double filtering all of it and I get all clear. Sometimes the cloudy doesn't show up for a day and I hate bottling and discovering cloudy syrup. even at that it will settle and won't hurt anything. We are all self-conscious of losing syrup in the filters, especially early in our sugaring days. I have come to accept it as part of the game and something that needs done. I do rinse my second filters in the flew pan to save some sugar. It's a choice of what you want as a finished product.
125-150 taps
Smokey Lakes Full pint Hybrid pan
Modified half pint arch
Air over fire
All 3/16 tubing
Southern Ohio
Well, the stupid trees were dripping well at 72 deg F yesterday. They're not supposed to do that! Fortunately we had collected most of the sap already. There is some that sat in sapsacks thru that warm weather; I tasted it and it tasted OK, and was not cloudy. Then the night got chilly, like 40 deg. So I think I might be able to salvage that sap when it is diluted in the next run.
So far we have made about 14 gallons of beautiful gold syrup. Good luck to all!
2020: 220 trees, most smaller than 20" diameter, made 25 gallons
remote location in western Cole County
5/16" plastic spiles, drain into plastic buckets or sapsaks
haul sap out of woods using atv & trailer
wood-fired pans on concrete blocks
one Leader Half Pint 24 x 33" plus 24 x 30 ss pan from a junkyard
cook batch process then finish in the kitchen;
we dont sell our syrup; its for family & friends
see website www.mosyrup.com
So, my fellow Missouri Tappers, as a rank newbee, I've got a question about the 'End of the Season'. Most, if not all, of my trees are Silver Maples; probably like many of yours. This crazy weather has been all over the board, with some good temperatures finally coming back, at least for a few days. I'm also seeing buds popping open on my trees. I had read somewhere that you should pull taps when buds start popping, as hormones will give the syrup a funny flavor. I've read that you can sugar Silver Maples until they go 'dry'. Tasted some the sap and flavor seems fine.
When do I HAVE to quit? I can get a better picture with my DSLR; this was out of my phone, zoomed in. Humph! This picture does not show sideways on my computer; sure does when I upload it!
MaplesBudding.jpg
Thanks!
John
Last edited by JayTee; 02-07-2020 at 03:10 PM. Reason: Picture editing
Soooo, knowing I had more time that some might and to aid in answering my question, here's more pictures. Maybe 1/3, or less, of my trees have buds popping:
MapleBudPopping.jpg
The rest are still tight:
MaplesTightBud.jpg
Trees are making great sap; my 'favorites' already have 1/2 a gallon.
Thanks for looking.
John