Backyard Syrup

[mike rousseau]

Good day

 

So as we all have a bit of cabin fever the family decided to make a bit of maple syrup

 

Looked and found that home hardware sells a 5 pail kit with taps and lids for $40... For $40 I figure it's about the same as going to the movies so if we have some outdoor fun and get a few litres of syrup it'll be money well spent

 

So we got the kit and tapped some trees at our cottage

 

We put 2 pails on the biggest maple and single pails on 3 other smaller maples... all the smaller trees were running fast enough right away but the big maple didn't give up a drop... I'm going to go check Wednesday to see how things are flowing and relocate pails if they aren't producing... cause if that big maple doesn't produce that's 40% of my production lol

 

I'm not even sure what kind of maples they are... if I understand right it doesn't matter what kind of maple but anything other than sugar maple requires more sap to get a litre of syrup... 40:1 sugar maple and 60:1 other maples

 

Anyone have any tips?

 

I've been told not to add to much sap to the pot at a time cause you dont wanna lose your boil

 

If I get a litre every Sunday when we boil I'll be pretty happy with that

 

Thanks

 

Mike

[mike rousseau]

 

 

 

 

http://rs1231.pbsrc.com/albums/ee516/roosnutz/177F516C-A0D2-4CFF-8D87-0871E675BC60.mp4?w=160&h=160&fit=clip

[aplumma]

Here is a facebook that T.J. our fearless leader has set up about his adventures.

 

https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=maple%20syrup%20journal

 

 

Art

[mike rousseau]

After doing some research I believe we tapped silver maples

 

Gunna go down tomorrow and see if I can find any sugar maples (now that I know what I'm looking for)

[Rod Caster]

Don't tap silver maples haha. That's a funny, and probably easy mistake to make when you first start.

 

Red (soft) or Sugar (hard) both produce good. The hard is hands-down better, but the reds still produce. You'll see the tips (buds) of the 'Reds' turn a fairly bright red this time or year.

 

I noticed that my smaller trees produced earlier than most big ones.

 

Your tree-wells look good for tapping (the ring of melt around the truck base). We still have 3-4 feet of snow, I have another month before I setup my equipment.

 

Have fun and good luck! I love doing syrup.

[Acountdeleted]

Oh man. This has me wondering. I wonder if I could tap the trees at my parents cottage?

 

My mouth is watering over this already.

[Sinker]

Generally, the bigger trees take longer to start flowing, but will produce more sap once they thaw enough to flow.

 

S.

[Cast-Away]

Hey Mike, maybe some silver will flow out of the tree and you will be rich!

[dave524]

You can tap Silver Maple if that is what you have, also Red Maple or Box Elder/Manitoba Maple, you can even tap Yellow Birch, but the ratio of sap to syrup would be poorer.

Edited February 22, 2017 by dave524

[Rod Caster]

yellow birch flows like crazy, just after the end of maple syrup season. The boil ratio is closer to 60:1, but the volume of sap coming out of that tree is surprisingly high.

[mike rousseau]

Got 2 gallons of sap today

 

Also located 1 sugar maple on our property

 

It's not really running yet tho but I can taste the difference in the sap

[Sinker]

Yeah, silvers will run a bit earlier than sugar maples, but they also stop flowing before sugars. You will notice a big difference in the syrup between the two, thats for sure.

 

S.

[mike rousseau]

This weeks syrup haul

 

It aint much but its good and my kids learnt a bit about putting in time and effort to get results

 

Hopefully the trees run more this week

 

[mike rousseau]

Also about 60:1 or 70:1

 

I didn't measure what I had going in

[DRIFTER_016]

Too bad you can't get it out of black spruce or I would have it made!!!!!

[SirCranksalot]

 

Anyone have any tips?

 

 

Mike

 

 

 

Yeah, have lots of firewood!!!