I guess having too many trees is a good problem to have, but biting off more than you can handle could be a bad thing.
This will be my rookie year and an argument can be made for starting off with just a few trees and learning what to do and when, and another argument can be made that the more opportunities to boil and finish, the more you can learn.
There are also other factors that come into play that will be different, for different people.
The more trees you tackle, the greater the time required, the greater the effort, the greater the cost, the greater the amount of wood you will need and if you are not selling it, how much syrup do you really need.
For me time isn’t a restraint, I am retired and my Sugar Bush (for the moment) is right out my back door. It will put a crimp in my end of the year ice fishing though. (Which is right outside the other door)
I like working hard, so the effort won’t be a factor, unless I go really crazy.
Now my two constraints are cost and firewood. According to my wife, I have already exceeded my budget, but buying more pails/lids and spouts are still okay as I can get them half price from another syrup maker. There is still the cost of the jars and bottles, but that is 6 months from now, so that should be okay. (Now when I go to buy the $500, 2x4 pan with a ball valve and temperature gauge next year, that is where the discussions will start.)
Fire wood is gold for me. I heat my house 95%+ with wood. I need 15 face cords each year and I always find a way to scrounge it. Now that we have an ice hut, I have to scrounge at least another face cord. Now for the evaporator, I built a wood rack that holds 2.5 face cords. That was good for when I was tapping 16 to 21 trees. I am up to 32 taps now and will be over 40 next week and could be over 50 the week after, if I want them.
I made myself a table on excel, of how much wood I would need, depending on the number of taps I had. I based it on getting a litre(US quart) a tree and made two tables one with a cinder block efficiency of 10 US gallons made, per one full cord and the other 12 US gallons made, per full cord.
Going with an efficiency of 10 gallons per full cord, I could tap 30 trees with the wood I currently have stacked. I would need another 1.5 face cords to tap up to 49 trees.
With an efficiency of 12 US gallons per full cord, I could have 38 taps with the wood already stacked and I would need an additional .75 of a face cord to have enough wood to do 49 trees. So how much seasoned wood I have stacked before the snow flies will be definitely be a determining factor in how many trees I tap.
Now the big question, as a backyarder and not a seller, is how much syrup do I really need. I would like to give my two adult kids 4 litres (1 US gallon) each. I have 7 neighbours that I would give a total of 8 litres (2 US gallons) and if I use other properties, that could cost me another 4 litres (1 US gallon). Now there is 7 siblings and 3 people who shared their syrup with us, that I would give 500 ml to, so that is another 5 litres (1.25 US gallons). I would like 8 litres (2 US gallons) for ourselves.
That adds up to 38 litres, or almost 10 US gallons. That would mean 38 taps required, if all went right. There will be inefficiencies and bad years, so doing up to 49 trees would not be out of the question. I better get cutting and splitting. I can rob my house seasoned firewood for this year, but would have to have the replacement wood already split and stacked in another location.
All of my friends here, would laugh at me for this post, as they would say I am way over thinking it.
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