Birch Tapping one Month Away

[spud]

I tapped a couple of my birch trees on the 18th of April. I have gotten 3 gallons of sap per tap so far. I am not going to boil the sap but just showing the kids how it works. I have noticed that the sap runs different then maple trees. Somebody told me it's not the cold nights and warm days that make the sap run but the thawing of the ground that makes a birch tree run. Does anyone know for sure? Thanks

Spud

[KenWP]

Thanks Ken, I should probably bite the bullet & buy a hydrometer anyways

what do they go for?

The CO-Op had then for less then $12 dollars this year. And like I said in another post I use a SS thermos which seems to work well. I am cheaper then a kilt wearer most times.

Birch trees seem to run day and night and if it freezes they stop till they thaw out again.They don't need frost to run just warm days. I have some big paper birchs that will run 5 gallons a day and I have the mother of all yellow birchs that will give gallons also. The sweet birchs do well also. Mine is a melange of three or four kinds of birch sap.

[vikingHB]

I used a 10" stainless steel water bottle. You can buy them almost anywhere for $5 - $8.
Worked great for me.

[BC Birch Tapper]

From the lab work we've had completed 60 % appears to be a food stable product. There's a link between PH water activity & sugar content. The lower PH seems to have an impact.
We use a refractometer. Got thru Ebay, around $100,
much easier than dealing with the cup & hydrometers which I invariabley break.
As far as sap goes, it will run as long as it gets some good daytime temps. If it stays warm overnight, it will continue to flow

[BC Birch Tapper]

Well most of the buckets are cleaned, dried & put away. Still a bit more clean up to do on the sugar shack & plan on putting on a batch of birch wine this weekend.

Pulled in approx 5000 litres of birch sap on 250 taps. Not great flow as the temps were quite cool at both day & night. Had to tap at a lower elevation as there was still loads of snow at our farm & poor access. Could have likely tapped some more trees here & kept things going for a few more days but I'm done. Have to go back to my day job to rest up...I'm bagged.

The season lasted for 2 weeks & individual tree flow was quite variable. Some buckets overflowing & some just a small amount.

Some syrup already made and the rest is in concentrate form in the freezer. I'll make it into syrup at another time. Plan on making some BBQ sauce & salad dressing as they are good sellers. Still need a good BBQ sauce recipie though. Anyone got any favourites??

[BC Birch Tapper]

Getting Ready for 2012
I finished the remainder of the concentrate from last year to make room in my freezer & put in an order to our supplier in Quebec to get a few more items for the upcoming season.
Birch sugaring season here in central BC Canada usually starts in early April. The weather conditions vary from no snow to a fair bit, but hey that's just the weather. It gives us all something to talk about. I'll spend some time over the next few weekends getting the sugar shack ready for "the sleep deprivation exercise".
I do enjoy it so as it connects one back to things before spring planting.

[BC Birch Tapper]

Just talked to some folks in Mnaitoba who are getting into birch in a big way, over 1000 trees with an RO & wood pellet evaporator. Their trees are starting to flow & equiptment is due to arrive in the next couple of days. Oh what fun they are about to have. It is good to learn new things as we age, gives us something to talk about.

[BC Birch Tapper]

Well the geese are flying over and the snow is going day by day. This I'll weekend get things ready to go & tap a few test trees early next week. I would think things will be happening here by the Easter weekend.

Got a call from a fellow who is interested in tapping birch & will see if he wants to come & learn about the whole process first hand. It is always nice to have some extra help to pull buckets & it's good for folks to see all aspects.

[BC Birch Tapper]

The water levels are increasing in the smaller creeks and a few test trees are running. It will be time to tap on Friday, so let the fun begin.

[Azitizz]

Were about finished our maple season here it seems. Starting to turn towards the birches. Never done it before. But as we have plenty of wood left and arent sucked dry of energy with the aple season I want to give it a try.

It sounds like you have to be careful with the initial evaporating? I thought I read somewhere you may have said boiling an evaporator at full tilt to 20% brix? and then transferring to a stovetop or a finer more controlable heat source?

Whats a ballpark guess of how much volume decrease 20 brix would be down to. We dont have a huge amount of stove space so Im wondering how to manage that. And a double boiler is also what i read. Let it simmer all day?
Thanks for any pointers
Michael