It’s Sugarin’ Time!

With vaccuum and RO reds and silvers are somewhat viable. Unless you haul a long way.

 

I imagine it depends on the individual or the operation but also what’s available in the woods for that operation. Sugars, of course, are king. For a long time reds were regarded as inferior for their sap due to the lower sugar content. Lately, there has been quite a bit published about red maples and their benefits for the sugaring industry. Pretty much seems like the industry is turning to the mindset of, “why have we always ignored the red maples - let’s utilize them.” And in the latest Maple Digest from NAMSC there was a great write up about silviculture and sugarbush management that overviewed the importance the red maple will play over the next century - to the point that the industry may have to shift primarily to the red maple as it is proving to be more capable in adapting to the pressures of what we are seeing happening with the changing climate. We tap reds here and are happy to have them added into the lines. Our individual situation is roughly 70/30, sugars/reds.

 

Slow growth is the way to do it! That’s what I’ve done. Allows for time to learn and experience before scaling up. Helps the wallet some, too, to add a little to the operation each year rather than all at once.

I recommend Google Earth Pro for mapping trees and trails. I’m sure there are other programs available that are maple specific. GEP is free. I use GEP extensively for property management for our small farm. It’s time consuming but it’s so helpful to hit your woods and get exact GPS coordinated of individual trees. Measure each tree. Look it over for health issues or concerns and take notes. All that info can then be added into GEP and at the click of a button you have excellent sugarbush management potential. Here is the southeast corner of our property that I’m working on bringing into our operation. It’s 56 gorgeous sugar maples at the base of our where our hill is steepest. Now that I have the tree locations plotted and the info logged in for each tree I can start thinking about how to most efficiently run lines. Once I have that determined I will have the lines put in on GEP as well.

 

Maine Maple Sunday 22 March, 2020.
Processors have their annual open houses.
Thx Woodsman for the GEP site...will try it on our woodlot.

 

Bigger operations yes.. My grandfather and his brothers were only top sugar maples. Because they did all the boiling with wood and wood also heated their homes, without today’s insulation. So without RO machines reds were not worth it.

 

I was gonna look that up...lol..

 

That’s great, I’d tap the easy access soft maples and give them a try.

 

Here is my syrup transformation this year from start to current.
Also, my last batch.
I’m hoping for 1 more run but time will tell if it happens.

 

Starting another run today

 

Well, I lied... My trees never seem to give me sap that produces dark syrup... until this season. First ever Very Dark/Strong Taste. Smaller batch at 3 gallons finished. Man is it good!

 

Looks great!

 

Vermont cocktail ( via Maine ) = 1 part Vodka + 1/4 part DARK maple syrup. YUM.

 

Hey now don’t be giving away all our secrets

 

Put in 6 spiels in 6 trees on Monday around noon and by noon today I have collected and boiled about 19 gallons of sap. I have about 2L of very light but very tasty liquid gold so far. Should have another 10 gallons by tomorrow.

Part of first 4 1/2 gallon boil going to wife's aunt and uncle who's trees we tapped


1 liter bottle of fine filtered from yesterday's 10 gallon boil.

 

Very cool in tne colour transformation from start to current. Do you notice any difference in the sugar content or sap/syrup ratio from start to current?

 

Sugar content in the sap dropped from 3.75% to 2%. I finished 10 gallons total and I’m done for the year. It was a good year for me.

 

I pulled my taps a week ago. Trees are budding. Now that I have everything, I will give it another go next year, and have the taps out in time to make it worth my while.

 

I pulled my taps a couple days ago. Red maples are budded. Sugars aren’t. Sap flow was unbelievable on Wednesday. Had an off flavor to it, though. Wondering if I didn’t tap red maples in addition to sugars if I’d still be boiling.

 

I gathered up the last of our sap this week and it had an off flavor as well. Just a handful of soft maples out of the 250 taps. So I think it’s just that time of year.

Season went pretty well. 250 taps put out a little over 5000 gallons. Sugar content hovered around 2 or a little under 2 most of the season.

 

Didnt have time this year but did find some the last couple days. Cold and clear but they are running and went up to the swamp as the young lad down the road wanted to try out the Red Maples.
Will have a look tomorrow up there and the 20 i got out in the yard ran great today?
Looks worse than it is but will be letting him go out and fetch them while i sit in the truck.



This was empty this morning.