Introduce yourselves....

[Kevtmiller]

Welcome, Kevin. WOW, what a great find, and what is even better, you have a very good and it appears to be in very good shape front for the arch. The rest will be just fun. I am glad you are going to be resurrecting an old battlewagon to live on and boil another day. Are you planning on using it or are you going to fix it up and sell it so that you can get something smaller to run for yourself?

I’m definitely not going to rebuild it to original spec which as you point out would be way too big for my needs. I was thinking of making it something like three feet by six feet or thereabouts.

[Kevtmiller]

…The trick to taking pictures that have the correct orientation when you post them, is how you hold your phone when you take the pictures. I alway hold the phone sideways, (landscape) with the bottom of the phone on the right side.

Thanks for the tip!

[Trends]

Hi All,
As the title mentions I'm a new member to the Trader Forum and am hoping that somehow I can be a small help to someone along the way as you all have been to me.
I've been reading and using your shared knowledge in an effort to learn and hopefully over time improve my sugaring experience (albeit Walnut syrup rather than Maple) over the next few seasons.

As I figure out the forum I'll certainly be posting pic's and related information on what I work with and such.

Cheers all.
Dave
Southern Ontario (Scotland)

[Frankies Family Farm]

Hello all

Frankies Family Farm is excited to be part of this Maple community. 2024 will be our second season and are looking forward to more liquid gold! A family of 4, we believe in teaching our children all the wonderful outdoor adventures available. 2023, my 2-1/2 year old absolutely loved 'helping' us in tapping our first trees, cooking and enjoying the final product. The process was anything but efficient but hearing her say 'its really good' as she took her first sip was worth it all! Our season was started very late (3.4.2023-3.21.2023), tapping 3 trees and using a turkey fryer 30qt to boil. We made approximately .25 gallons total from 3 boils, with the final boil having almost no sugar crystals due to better filtering. BUT, we have been super busy preparing for the 2024 season:

-Identified/marked 20 SM, SilM & RM trees
-Cleared more straight efficient paths to the trees, less turning and less driving and less fuel used.
-Spreadsheet created noting location of trees and type. I will also use this spreadsheet to track rough sap estimates
-Been collecting taps and 5 gallon buckets
-Collection will be a 20gal tank on back of ATV and a 10gallon tank on front. Transferred to a 30gallon tank at the house.
-Sticking with Propane still this year, but plan to use a 3-bruner stove that will be hold 3 stockpots/pans (which are better??). Itll run on 1 tank and will allow the most efficiency out of my propane and once its 100% empty I can switch out for a new one.
-Finally been READING and researching so much this offseason. Lots of great information on here and youtubers!!!

Tentative tap date 2.5.2024 in NE Ohio


Thoughts and ways to improve are definitely welcomed!

[220 maple]

Welcome Trends,
Always good to see another Walnut Syrup producer, the research that is being done on Walnut Syrup and Pectin is going to be eye opening, I helped a friend start up a 800 plus tap walnut operation, the value he gets per ounce literally paid for the complete set up in one season, maple will pay for the tubing system the first year usually, his walnut operation paid for the Evaportor and everything else, the pectin at 20 dollars a half pint is gravy on the home fries!
Good luck this coming season.
Mark220maple

[C13A]

Hello all,

I'm trying to make maple syrup one source of income for the farm in Eastern Kentucky. Figured I'm hoping to be around this for a while so I should actually go ahead and introduce myself... I'm Eli of the Ewens Family Farm. We are originally from Eastern Washington but moved here about four years ago. We have 100 acres of almost entirely hills that were logged a while ago. No major logs for timber. Most of the maples are Reds with just a few Sugars. As far as the rest of the farm goes, we are starting to raise Kune Kune hogs, clearing for an heirloom apple orchard (90 trees on the farm so far), have a small sawmill, and will start mushrooms and a few Christmas trees in the spring. Everything is fairly early on, but I’m hoping I can build something for the kids or future grandkids to work with.

I ran 70 or so buckets my first year and made a couple gallons of syrup to sell. I started late and the weather only gave me a few runs before things started shutting down. Last year I put up 120 or so taps on 5/16 with high hopes for a jump in production. The winter was horribly warm and I probably could have made two gallons of syrup if I'd saved the short runs of sap. I kept thinking I had a long season left and that run barely fills my pan so I dumped a few short runs when it was about to get too warm. Found out everyone in the area had a bad year. Two iffy weather years doesn't feel great, but I know people do it successfully around here.

This year, I'm working on putting in 1" and 3/4" mainline and trying some 3/16 on a few sections. 3/16 makes me nervous but we have the slopes everyone gets excited about with it. I’ll run my current 120 taps and add sections off the mainlines as I make progress. I’d be content with 200 taps for the bulk of the season but am hoping for 300 to 400 taps this year. I’m just not sure I’ll get it done in time. We had some health issues earlier in the year so I'm late on everything. I have a dirt floor 11x10 sugar shack with a divided 2x4 pan on clay chinked cinder blocks. I have an RO Bucket that I didn't get to use last year. I've only cone filtered and have no interest in doing so for any decent amount of syrup. I'm not buying another filter this winter but will be hot-pouring and storing the syrup in stainless milk cans. I’ll figure out my options for filtering by next summer before the Farmers’ Markets open.

So I will be a small producer compared to many folks. I know this is a larger post, but I actually edited it down. I started it when I was tired after cleaning/sanitizing all day so I kind of droned on (more so…). Anyways… I hope everyone has a good Christmas. Thanks.

ETA: Doesn't look too big of a post now that it's posted. I wrote it out in word so it was looking huge...