Sugaring off

Time to convert the sweet sap from our two maple trees to syrup...  It's sugaring season!

Our collection had a slow start, but this weekend we boiled (and are continuing to boil, as I type) over 28 gallons of sap.  We should get 3/4-1 gallon of syrup from it.  The classic ratio is 40:1, but our previous experience has shown us that the sap from our trees has a higher-than-usual sugar content.

Our evaporating setup uses our propane burner that normally is used for brewing, and a large stainless kettle.  Once it's at a boil, we add sap to it gradually, using a cooler that otherwise serves as a mash tun in brewing.  The valve from the mash tun is set to a dribble, which drops into a pre-heating pan, suspended over the main boil on a wire rack.  This keeps the cold sap from breaking the boil as it drips in.  As the cooler drains, we add sap to it from our white food-grade garbage can which has been our storage bin.

Later, we'll finish the boiling in the kitchen, to get the density just right.  More on that in another post!

Sugaring season- time to tap!

Well, we are about a week late tapping this year, but the weather over the last week was probably not very good sugaring weather anyway.  So, today we got out to tap our two sugar maples!

We use TreeSaver taps which are a little bit smaller than the "standard" 7/16" taps.  We drill a 5/16" hole, about 1.5 inches deep, at a slightly upward angle.  Then gently tap the plastic tap into the hole...

Then connect the tubing to our collection bucket, and we're ready to go! 

During the week, we store the sap in a 13 gallon pail buried in snow to keep it fresh, and we sugar off on the weekend.  In the height of the season, we may sugar off 10-15 gallons on the weekend!  Of course, 10 gallons of sap generally only makes a quart of syrup, but there's something incredibly satisfying about drilling a hole in a tree, boiling down what comes out, and then eating it on your waffles.