mike rousseau Posted February 20, 2017 Report Share Posted February 20, 2017 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike rousseau Posted February 20, 2017 Author Report Share Posted February 20, 2017 http://rs1231.pbsrc.com/albums/ee516/roosnutz/177F516C-A0D2-4CFF-8D87-0871E675BC60.mp4?w=160&h=160&fit=clip Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aplumma Posted February 20, 2017 Report Share Posted February 20, 2017 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike rousseau Posted February 21, 2017 Author Report Share Posted February 21, 2017 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) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rod Caster Posted February 21, 2017 Report Share Posted February 21, 2017 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Acountdeleted Posted February 21, 2017 Report Share Posted February 21, 2017 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sinker Posted February 21, 2017 Report Share Posted February 21, 2017 Generally, the bigger trees take longer to start flowing, but will produce more sap once they thaw enough to flow. S. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cast-Away Posted February 22, 2017 Report Share Posted February 22, 2017 Hey Mike, maybe some silver will flow out of the tree and you will be rich! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave524 Posted February 22, 2017 Report Share Posted February 22, 2017 (edited) 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rod Caster Posted February 22, 2017 Report Share Posted February 22, 2017 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike rousseau Posted February 24, 2017 Author Report Share Posted February 24, 2017 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sinker Posted February 24, 2017 Report Share Posted February 24, 2017 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike rousseau Posted February 26, 2017 Author Report Share Posted February 26, 2017 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike rousseau Posted February 26, 2017 Author Report Share Posted February 26, 2017 Also about 60:1 or 70:1 I didn't measure what I had going in Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DRIFTER_016 Posted February 26, 2017 Report Share Posted February 26, 2017 Too bad you can't get it out of black spruce or I would have it made!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirCranksalot Posted February 26, 2017 Report Share Posted February 26, 2017 Anyone have any tips? Mike Yeah, have lots of firewood!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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