It’s Sugarin’ Time!

Never heard of the stuff but cutting in repairs on laterals isn’t that time consuming . Mainlines can be a bit more tedious tho.
I would question is it food safe ? How would it work in the cold ?

For me being hearing impaired finding those vacuum leaks is by sight . I have to look for the small bubbles in the lines . That’s tedious and time consuming .

 

Here's the MSDS (SDS) sheet and Lowe's decription:

 

X2

 

I wouldn’t use the stuff , not listed as FDA approved food safe . Also in the Lowe’s ad it says not for use outdoors .

 

Anyone else tapped yet? I noticed a couple other producers around here had their roadside trees tapped and tanks filling up. Been pretty darn good weather for making syrup. I wish it was colder in general - been a “meh” winter so far. I love the deep cold and big snows. Really can’t complain about these temps for sugaring though.

 

Running pretty good here today.

 

Just a couple bottles for me so far. Probably going to have a good run the next couple days.

 

Tonight’s batch

 

Wow those are some huge tanks!!!

 

Anyone here ever dabbled in making birch syrup? I’ve been getting more and more interested in trying it out. Perhaps just at a small scale to start. 10 or 15 trees maybe. I’ve read up some about doing it. Not too much info out there. Looks like average is 110 gallons of sap to 1 gallon of syrup and the run lasts about three weeks from March into April. So it’s some serious boiling. An RO would help a ton. One source I was reading states the worldwide production of birch syrup only hits 5000 gallons annually. I can’t figure out if production for the product is so low because it’s not in demand. Is it not in demand because it’s not that good? Or maybe it’s just not well known enough - compared to Maple especially. Or I was thinking maybe the only people that would actually make birch syrup are all the maple producers out there and by the time maple is winding down, who wants to go tap birch trees and start all over again? Maybe it’s all these things?

I’d love to have a specialty product available here to stock into the farm stand during the open season. Maybe it’d go. Maybe not. But I’m interested to experiment a bit with it. The only information I could find on marketing birch syrup is currently it’s going for $25-$30 for an 8 ounce bottle.

We’ve got the trees to do it. And all the equipment (same as maple). Might give it a run this spring.

 

Give it a try, if you have time. Might expand your market...good luck brother.

 

Sap is running today. Most lines are pulling 23-24" of vaccuum on the main farm.
Tank levels for main farm on right, leased land left.


Leased pumps are all up, vaccuum readings aren't working at the moment.

 

Still below freezing here

 

Woodsman I’ve been around when they made it, why I think is such a low production is because basically this stuff taste like root beer extract intensified. And has a dark molasses look. The flavor is strong and you drizzle it on ice cream or whatever in order to use. In my family, a pint jar with 10 spoons where everybody takes a spoonful of the new boiled syrup is tradition, you would never do that with Birch

 

Thanks for the info. Sounds ridiculously sweet. Not sure I’d like that at all. Perhaps I’ll make a little just to say I’ve tried it. See what it’s like. Before jumping into at a larger scale.

 

Not really sweet IME but strong think vanilla extract or bitters a drink mixer

 

Very interesting

 

Getting other decent run here in NE Ohio. First tanker dumped a load this afternoon. Two more 4500 gal plus two 2000 gallon tankers are in bound this evening.



RO has been running since the first load came in. Should start boiling around 6PM. Each of these sap holding tanks are 5750 gallons. Concentrate tank after RO holds 800 gallons.

 

Unreal....

 

The only place I've seen birch syrup was in Norway and yes it tastes a bit like root beer.
It was horribly expensive, at the gift shop and didn't have a chance to shop at a regular grocery store to compare the price for non-tourists. Like so many things in Norway, it was probably expensive there too.