Maple Syrup season!

[patience0830]

Hunting my best friend’s farm and this just blew in. I wanna find this tree and put a tap in it the size of a firehose. View attachment 167473

Sycamore sap?

 

[spencer rifle]

Sycamore sap?

Yes that is certainly sycamore. But you can make sycamore syrup.

 

[phylodog]

Sycamore sap?

Haven’t looked into it but I’m planning to inventory my black walnut trees and see if I’ve got enough of them to tap. I know I’ve got sycamores at home but I don’t know if they make decent syrup.

 

[shibumiseeker]

I’ve spent the last few days doing a bottling and candy making from this year’s run. We’ve sold about $1k worth of product in the last two weeks. We’ll do the final push just after Thanksgiving. Then to wait for the first early run in January to set taps and do it all over.

 

[Bill2905]

I know zero about this topic. How much sap can you obtain from a single sugar maple in a season?

 

[patience0830]

I know zero about this topic. How much sap can you obtain from a single sugar maple in a season?

Depends on soil moisture and the size of the tree, as well as the weather.

 

[phylodog]

I know zero about this topic. How much sap can you obtain from a single sugar maple in a season?

One of mine has produced 4-5 gallons in one day.

 

[abeguzmanmarine]

Haven’t looked into it but I’m planning to inventory my black walnut trees and see if I’ve got enough of them to tap. I know I’ve got sycamores at home but I don’t know if they make decent syrup.

I tapped black walnut this year. Much higher ratio than maple. great syrup, but it was something like 85 to 1. It was ridiculous. I dont have RO, but still, 85 to 1 is crazy. Also, it had so much pectin it was almost impossible to filter. It forced me to buy a vac filter this year. upside is I sold it for $3 an ounce and sold out so fast I will ask more next year.

 

[phylodog]

Anyone taking bets on when the weather will be right for tappin?

 

[spencer rifle]

Second week of February.

 

[patience0830]

first warm day in January after this cold snap.

 

[shibumiseeker]

I put out a third of my taps (75 or so) Sunday and as of today have about 65 gallons of sap collected.

 

[shibumiseeker]

I expect another run Monday so am working to set the rest of my taps this weekend.

 

[spencer rifle]

Still too cold up here to even think about starting - no temps above freezing to the extent of the forecast.

 

[ancjr]

I have enough maples to tap, but they're all on a steep hillside and hard to get to.

 

[shibumiseeker]

I have enough maples to tap, but they're all on a steep hillside and hard to get to.

A significant percentage of mine are on a 45 degree plus slope.

 

[ancjr]

A significant percentage of mine are on a 45 degree plus slope.

I'm doing good to be able to walk out to where the slope is these days.

 

[Timjoebillybob]

I'm doing good to be able to walk out to where the slope is these days.

Tap the trees and run lines down the slope.

Still too cold up here to even think about starting - no temps above freezing to the extent of the forecast.

In the next 10 days here, there are 2 that are supposed to get above freezing. But barely.

 

[spencer rifle]

Will be tapping Tuesday or Wednesday of next week.

 

[Derbster]

First year doing this. I have one on my yard and two at the neighbor’s yard. We also had some come in on the in-laws property and a friends property we took because they were out of town.

Our first batch she boiled down to a nice thick syrup. Some of the best syrup I’ve ever had. The batch after that it stayed kinda thin. We don’t know what we’re doing really but we’re trying. So all together we boiled down like almost 30 gal.