I've tapped 4 trees in the past week. So far I've only recovered about a quart of sap. *sigh* Oh well, hopefully the weather will cooperate in the next couple of weeks.
I've tapped 4 trees in the past week. So far I've only recovered about a quart of sap. *sigh* Oh well, hopefully the weather will cooperate in the next couple of weeks.
Jax, welcome to the trader!! Have you made syrup before? How is the weather there, sap weather or are you froze up still?
100 taps
Percheron draft horses
Back out side and to small of
an evaporator!
This is my first time doing anything. Never tapped a tree or made syrup before in my life, but I've been very interested the past couple years. This year we decided to give it a try. I marked a few maples in our woods and bought 4 taps from a local environmental center for 25 cents each.
So far the weather has been lousy and I've been really researching what I'm supposed to be doing. I recently found out that a couple of the trees I tapped are too small, only about 6-7 inches in diameter. Unfortunately, most of the maples in our woods aren't much bigger. I also tapped a very large silver maple in our yard, but only in the last couple days. It hasn't produced anything yet.
I'm hoping the weather might cooperate soon. So far it's been in the 30s or 60s, and only at long stretches. The weather usually settles down in the next couple of weeks and I hope to get some good sap flows by then.
Got a little bit of sap today, but nothing to get excited about. I have received no sap at all from the biggest tree in my yard, a 50 year old silver maple. I've read that silvers don't produce as much sap as sugars, but I would have thought I would have something by now.
Unfortunately, it's supposed to get cold again for another week, so I'm freezing the little bit of sap I got today and what I (hopefully) will get tomorrow.
We're going to double our taps in the next couple of weeks to ensure ourselves a better yield. I think I've found some bigger maples further down in our woods. I just hope that my ability to identify trees isn't completely wrong.
I'm still pretty excited, but am anxious to see some real sap flows. Here's hoping March brings us better weather!
Jax
It will all come in time. Be sure your in maple and the sap will come!!!! Get as many taped as you can. Have fun with it.
100 taps
Percheron draft horses
Back out side and to small of
an evaporator!
Jax; I will be the first to admit that I did see a tap in a Oak tree awhile back dont know how it got there. I would say keep your head up and check out the branches. Moss on the trunks can fool you every time. Some day that nice stright veneer oak will yield a nice surprise at the wood yard.
Welcome to the tapping experience. Hopefully it will turn into a sugaring experience. Where abouts are you located? We are in the Easter Panhandle and got a couple good days but the weather has been crazy. This is our first year of running lines so we are getting a lot more sap. Good thing, people have been calling us since December to get their orders in! Hopefully it will be a good year, gotta pay for all those lines I bought and put in so the wife will be okay when I order supplies!
I'm near Wheeling in the northern panhandle, and the weather has been crazy up here as well. The good news is that I've collected 2 gallons of sap in the last 2 days. The bad is that I'm not sure I've tapped all maples (lol). That's alright, though. Gotta learn somehow.
Bought another couple of taps and tapped the biggest tree yet. It seems to have opposite branches, but it's so tall its difficult to see. There are a ton of sugar maple leaves on the ground around the trunk and the bark looks very similar to the smaller trees I marked earlier. Plus it is yielding a lot of clear, sweet tasting sap, if that tells me anything. I didn't think our forests had a lot of maples, but to look at the ground you'd think we have nothing but.
The next week looks bad weather-wise, so I'm not expecting much. I've frozen our haul from the last 2 days to save for boiling. Next Tuesday looks like the next possibility for some sap. For the next week I've got to figure out how I'm going to boil.
I sure am glad I found this site. It has been a huge help. Thanks everybody.
So I'm guessing I picked a pretty lousy year to try this out(lol). The weather has been as uncooperative as you could get, and when you only have 5 taps, that can mean disaster. I was originally hoping for a half gallon to a gallon of finished product for my family, but I don't think I'll even get that much.
I'm not too torn up about it. As I said before, we don't have a lot of good-sized maples, but in 2-5 years I'll have close to 50 that will be just the right size. Unfortunately my big silver maple has NEVER given up any sap, and I've completely stopped checking it.
The weather has been either in the 50s with no freezes at night, or in the 20s. The couple of days we got the perfect weather were my best sap runs, with over a gallon from my 5 trees. The next week we're in for a warm-up, but it's not supposed to freeze at night. Considering our season should end around the first day of spring, I'd say I'm just about done.
I'm not giving up, though. I knew NOTHING before trying this year, and I've learned a lot. Next year I need to tap some bigger trees and try to find a few more down in our woods. 5 taps on smaller trees just isn't enough.
I'm going to keep reading about what everyone else is doing, and if anything good happens I'll post, but I think my season is coming to an abrupt end sooner rather than later.
I tap silver maples and have had good luck with them. On a good day I'll collect 5 gallons from a double tapped tree and the sugar content runs at about 2 percent. I have also tapped box elders, but I think the silver maples make a better syrup. One thing for sure the tapping season is much earlier with silvers. They leaf out early, and my season here in Illinois is almost over.
Leader 1/2 pint
43 taps on Silver Maples
and a blood tracking weiner dog
“Harmony with land is like harmony with a friend; you cannot cherish his right hand and chop off his left”
Aldo Leopold