Introduce yourselves....

[Smitty]

Hello everybody,
My name is Allan Smith, been sugar'in since 1993. I have a small brothers
lightning 2 x 6 wood fired evaporator. My grandfather got me and my twin
brother (smitty76) into maple syrup. Started with a 30 x 38 homemade
evaporartor i built when i was 15. My grandfather and dad made maple syrup
40 years ago, when my grandfather seen our little homemade rig, he
jumped in to help. When we had our first season under our belt, he loaned
the money and thats when we realized how deep the water was, and we
have been swimming in maple creek for 17 years now trying to get to the
otherside (just can't shake this maple bug). So now it is just me, my dad,
my brother, and some really good friends (and i am very thankful for).
Looks to be alot of experience and knowledge on here, i am very happy to
be able to have access to a wonderful group of people. I guess i could just
keep going here for ever, i look forward to conversing with all of you.

Thank You
Smitty

[Davydd]

Hello all,

I am very new to all this. I have an acre and a half of a mostly natural wooded lot but my sugar maples are just coming into size large enough to tap. When I started building my house 27 years ago I took some neighboring saplings and scattered them around my lot and now some are ready. The lot was mostly oak, linden, basswood, cottonwood and long gone elm. I decided at the end of last year's season after following what the University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum (just south of me) was doing that I should try it this year. So I monitored them and they started tapping Friday. I did the same in my yard with three trees. Here is a "phototorial" of what I have observed so far that I posted in my Facebook albums.

http://tinyurl.com/7fd8f8

The Aboretum sells plastic sack kits, spiles and books. I bought my stuff there and have a 7.5 gallon home brewing kettle and propane burner already.

Later this month the Arboretum will have a pancake breakfast served with maple syrup of course and will be giving the public tours of their maple syruping operation. Any novices in the Twin Cities should check it out.

[VoterVale Farm]

I have started my own farming business and Im trying to be as diversified as possible. I grew up tappin trees with my dad until I was 14. Im now 39 and have purchased an old farmhouse and figured life was waaaay to short to work a 9-5 job and have someone else raise my kids (daycare). we are a very small syrup producer. We had some old buckets in the hay loft (50) and have been putting out 10-15 each year. This year we have put them all out and need more as we have access to over 200 acres. We are trying to make it a go in the farming business and are in it for the long term and are willing to be patient. Here is our website http://www.votervalefarm.com
We have an old homemade evaporator and I lug the sap out of the woods in 5 gallon buckets, I am essentially a camel. I am willing to work and learn about the syrup business and the process. Our farm is located in beautiful Avon, Maine population 500.
Darren Allen
VoterVale Farm

[RileySugarbush]

Davydd,

We too got started after a visit to the mn landscape arboretum, back in 1995 or so, and bought our first 12 sacks and holders from them. We are tapping this afternoon down in eden prairie and will be putting in about 120 this year. It looks like the next week is going to be perfect for a good sap run, and we need it after that last arctic blast. We are only a couple of miles down the road from you on Riley Lake if you want to stop by.

btw, I think I recall your name from the PowerDraw/PowerCadd discussion groups. Same guy?

[KenWP]

I will have to pack sap with pails if the snow melts to much to use a sled for a half mile from my best trees. I moved from out west to Quebec just because of the weather and the fact I could mke syrup and grow fruit trees.

[Davydd]

Davydd,

btw, I think I recall your name from the PowerDraw/PowerCadd discussion groups. Same guy?

Yep, same guy.

[slammer3364]

Hello my wife and I just came in we boiled all day made about two gal of syrup. This is our second year started last year on a homemade arc and a sspann which we use for a pre-heat this year. We are right next to the Allg. Nat. Forest in St. Marys Pa. Got about 1oo taps on milk jugs use a 4 wheeler and my Jinma tractor to haul sap. Our son and grand kids help when their around. We have mostly reds tapped on our two acres of woods. We enjoy making syrup,also raise beef,goats chickens,and turkeys.We built a 14x22 shack and got a 18x48 D@G hobby evap. made 6 gal of syrup so far.Good Luck to all Tony and Joyce Sorg

[DanE.]

Hey guys, just giving a quick intro. Its been 20 years since I made maple syrup. Finally bought a place with some land and young maple trees. All winter long I have been making an evaporator. 18" x 36", with a divided finishing pan upfront and a divided drop flue pan in the back (18x18). I'm getting a 6-10 gph boil rate, but i made my pans too short, 5" and have to keep the demper closed most of the time. I sure I will be able to get much better once I weld up some taller pans. I have 30 taps in all on tubes. I never got the future sugar house cleaned out in time, so the arch is sitting in front of the garage. I have struggles with a few thing this year, including taking a sap bath when I transfer the sap to the back of the tractor, Not all self priming pumps are created equal; and getting the syrup from the pan to the bottles, right now it is a clumsy mess at times. After this season there are a lot of changes for next year, hopefully I won't wait until the last minute. Dan...

[wally]

hello.

i've been afflicted with maple sugaring for over 30 years. started out with a concrete-block arch and 2x2 flat pan set up in my folk's driveway when i was 8. been slowly improving it ever since. the current iteration of the sugar house was built circa 1987, and the pans were purchased new in 1992. it's still located at my folk's place, in sutton nh.

the setup is a homemade arch with stainless Grimm 2x2 syrup pan and 2x4 raised flue sap pan, wood-fired natural draft. we've averaged about 18 gallons of syrup per year since we started. today, we only run about 240 taps, all on tubing, but in the early 90's, we probably had close to 350 taps, with 75 buckets. we've never sold our syrup, just use it ourselves and give it away as gifts. we usually make medium to dark amber.

the majority of our 'bush is on north aspects, so we get a later run. brix scale has been pretty consistent over 30 years at 2.1 to 2.0 to start the year. best start was actually 2008, with content of 2.6 to start.

we always enjoy hot dogs, in the syrup pan no less , since we don't sell any of the syrup. i've also cooked a few porkchops in the syrup pan, and potatoes in the sap pan.

we collect the sap in 45-55 gallon juice drums, and load it onto either my '48 dodge or dad's ranger.

looks like this year's syrup will be a dark variety.

enjoy the run,

wally

[Taggart78]

Hello everyone. New member here. What a great source of information this site is. This is my third year sugarin' . My brother in law and I started out with ten taps and a pan on top of an old woodstove in the driveway. The sugar house is now up(But not finished), we have thirty five taps and are boiling in a 24" x 16" flat pan on top of a 55 gallon drum arch I made. I just bought a used set of D&G pans with drop flues in the sap pan. I won't get to use them until next year after I build a bigger arch. I can't wait!

We are located in Bow, NH on about 3.5 acres with a variety of maples. Hopefully next year we will be tapping the trees next door as well.

Oh ya, we also have five laying hens for eggs and two dwarf goats that serve no purpose but my wife wanted them.

-Marc