The Official 2024 Maple Season Thread

It’s a lot of work, no doubt about it. Especially without a reverse osmosis system to get rid of a lot of the excess water before boiling. If you have any monster silver maples out there you could theoretically tap those, even multiple taps if it’s a large tree. Large Boxelder too. The sugar content in the sap will be lower but you could do it. I’m sure you’d have the whole market cornered in Nebraska

 

Stepson has a large silver maple in his yard that he wants taken out. I should try it before I cut it down.

 

If you're going to cut it down anyway, I'd put a dozen taps into it and bleed that sucker dry. No need for ethical tapping practices in that instance
Black walnut can be tapped too; and IIRC Barcroftb has done it.

 

Yep the 'generic' figures are 40 gallons of sap to get 1 gallon of syrup.

 

All tapped ! I went from 200 taps..down to 125 this year. Hopefully will be easier to keep up with . Not getting any younger lol.
Also trying these new..one year plastic taps for the first time. I hear good things...but im keeping my aluminum spouts handy and ready to go just in case.
Nice day to have the whole family out . Makes it not even seem like work !

 

Looking good! Funny how you say you’re “down” to 125 from 200. Still a lot of work. I imagine if you wanted to do more, it would make sense to start running lines.

 

Lol..I hear you there !
It would probably make sense to do lines..gravity or vacuum. But I really don't like seeing a woods full of tubing. Seems wrong...and a pain to cut firewood..and do other things I like to do. But .....who knows what the future holds. We have abt 500 total taps that we could do...and a ton of young trees that will be of size in the next 5-10 years. It's hard not to think about getting bigger !
But it all grows in proportion. Bigger RO...bigger evaporator..bigger sugar shack. Filter press instead of gravity...etc etc ! But a shrinking check book

 

It sure can and the syrup is delicious! My grandfather, as part of his farm production, produced a great deal of syrup. This was from many trees including maple, beech, black walnut, hickory, and some sycamore. He used to supply this syrup to the Meijers grocery stores. At the time these were only found in Grand Rapids.

Unfortunately unlike maple syrup which has very little pectin trees like black walnut, hickory, and beech do have quite a bit of pectin in the sap. This requires an extra step when processing the sap. As you boil the sap down it will begin to gel and the gel will float on to the top of the concentrated sap. What you want to do is pour this through a fine mesh strainer and work the jelly around with a spatula. Eventually you will be left with a thick black walnut jelly in the mesh strainer. This is delicious in its own right. You can then continue to process the remaining sap into syrup.

Alternatively you can simply use pectinase in the sap before you start processing. Others have had luck with simply using Diatomaceous Earth filter aid in their regular syrup cone filters but I never did have luck with that method and have just stuck with the strainer method my grandpa taught us.

 

I used those same taps and bag holders last couple years. I found I had trouble with the empty bags/holders blowing off in the wind. Leaving a little bit of sap in the bag helped. However, this attracted bugs like flies and ants in the later parts of the season. Key holing the mounting hole completely solved the problem and no need to leave sap out in the bags. I used a 1/2” drill bit and tin snips on all 130 of mine.

 

Great idea ! I will keep this in mind..thats for sure. Thank you very much !
Our old taps are Leader aluminum taps. The ones with the shark fin. We use to get blow offs with those too.

Did u find that the plastic taps help up good ? My worry was that with a full bag...the taps would break off..or pop out of the tree !

 

Never had a problem with them breaking from full bags. I did break one at the collar removing them last year. Easy enough to cut off flush and drill out the plastic though. Try that with a stainless steel one if the collar breaks off!

I did hear that production with the plastic taps drops off in the second year of use because the hormone Auxin that trees use to heal the tap wound cannot be completely cleaned off the plastic taps. Anecdotally I have not noticed this, but commercial outfits will use all new taps year by year.

edit: the bags can be recycled at any Lowe’s or grocery store that offers film plastic bag recycling.

 

I'll have to look into that(We don't have Lowe's but I can check some others). That's one reason I stick with the stainless taps, and haven't tried the plastic ones. I'd hate to be sending more stuff to the landfill at the end of every season.

 

I do hate all the throw away. But for me..it saves so much time..and water and electric waste.
The aluminum spouts needed boiled..then baked. Scrubbed through the hole. Scrubbed around where the tree tried to seal it up ! So I spent money on an ultrasonic cleaner..which did help..but didn't cure all evil.
And if I didn't use distilled water when I boiled the taps....the taps would come out all white stained and crappy. I can't even imagine the hours..and wasted water.

As for the stainless steel taps..we had issues with those too. They cleaned beautifully! They were a little pricey. The biggest issues...were the slow taper of the spout would easily be tapped too far into the trees...making a nice split up and down from the tap hole ..after season. Also..as we tried to get through that issue..we put them in too loose....which would always make a poor seal at the hole..causing half of the sap to run down the tree instead of through the spout. Seems like we could never find that perfect balance.

These new plastic ones were dirt cheap. Time will tell if they hold up.
And no wasted water..because I'm going to pitch them after every season.
And since we always tap trees with our family out there...there could be 4-8 people running the hammer ! These plastic taps all went in just the right amount..and boy did the hammer bounce backwards when they were in far enough.
So far..I like what I see. But like I said..time will tell !

I think they all have there pluses and minuses. All on how you want to balance your time..and money !

Plus with the taps and sap sacks..we have a recycle bin that gets picked up every week at our house..so thats easy peasy. Where it goes after that..no one knows

 

First boil last night. 35 taps, and most of the pipeline issues fixed. Expecting a little more sap today, which will be boiled down and the pan emptied for finishing in the house. Then at least a week of winter expected.

 

Does anyone notice a difference in taste when making syrup with red versus sugar maples? This year (and last) I tapped both species, but just boiled the sap together. Just curious...

 

Tapped Sunday morning. Steady flow so far. 140 taps. 110 on 3/16 tubing the rest buckets. Let the fun begin.

 

Light year for me only put 7 taps out and picked up 27 gallons over the weekend. Fired up the RO for a bit during supper and just turned it off and forgot to see what it reduced to.

 

Have had a cold spell here...but things did run a little. Some bags full..some half..some less. Nice easy collection. Got 100 gallons..2.5% . Had to replace a few clawed up bags...so things are about normal lol.
Going to RO and boil in the morning. Should be enough to season the pans....and be ready to go for the next run. Think I have everything ready..and in order !


Security footage of my driveway coming in on top tv....
Father Knows Best on the bottom tv !

 

Looks like a cool way to do it !

 

We tap 80% Sugar Maple to 20% Red...give or take. I think our syrup is great.
I know of someone local who taps a higher amount of Reds..because that's what he has alot of.
That syrup to me..always has a little rougher after taste to me. A little bite I call it. I don't know if it's the red maples..or perhaps something else altogether that puts that after taste into the syrup.
I'm sure there are varying opinions on this subject lol.