Starting to get the sugar shack all opened up and ready...if it ever warms up..and we lose a foot of snow !!
Great reminder for me to call the neighbor to ask permission to tap his trees again this year. Last season was a banner year for me with 15 gallons of syrup made. Not so much for everyone else. My commercial syrup producing friend said he made about half what he did the year before. Looks to be a similar situation this year with very little snow fall so far. Although our fall was wetter than last year, so hopefully there is more ground water available this spring. I’m hoping to diy a home built reverse osmosis system to run the sap through this year as well. Refresh my memory on your set up how many taps, etc?
I'm kicking around digging out my stuff and doing it again this year, I still have around 13 gallons in the basement from years past.... I do know when we were at walt's this past fall, he showed us the sugar shack he built and I'm excited to see how he does this year, it's a great setup!
We are on a 2x5 ..looking to upgrade to 2x8 in a couple years. We are now at 200 taps (started at 75) with 200 more trees to tap in future....using an ro bucket ..modified to mount on our wall. Works perfect with our setup. We gain a little concentrate flow over the evaporation rate . Pretty well balanced. I love this small ro setup. No soaps or acid washing cycles. Just flush with permeate water at end of running for the day and change the setiment filter. That's it. Easy peasy ! We made about 22 gallons of syrup last year...with pretty low sugar content out of the tap. But luckily we tapped alil early...we got more than some who tapped late. Fingers crossed...our ground is froze pretty good for the last month or so. We will see soon if it helps!Here's a pic of my ro setup
It's so much fun ! We get the kids and necessary and nephews involved as much as we can. That's most of the fun right there !
We are hoping that when we get a good 2x8....tap all 400 trees...we can ditch having to have a bigger ro...or any ro. The bigger rig will hopefully keep up just fine alone. Also...all 200 taps are on sap sacks. No lines..no vacuum.
That’s perfect and pretty much exactly what I’m looking to build out as well. went to sap sacs last year and at first I was cursing them. The leader sac holders just have a large hole to hold them on the spile. Well and good until you get any kind of breeze and empty sacs. I know just leave some sap in the sac. Well that attracts flys, moths, earwigs, etc. Was mad to find a dozen or so out of 70 bags on the ground every afternoon. So I drilled a hole and cut out an upside down key hole pattern. Problem solved. I can recycle the bags at any lowes too. I liked them by the end of the season. I’m on a 2x4 flat pan on a home made barrel evaporator it did alright but I too would like to upgrade.
That's a great setup !! I see lots of steam. Makes me happy !! Love the fire door . That's how we were gonna start.....them we stumbled upon a little leader half pint...with extension kit and blower..locally for a good price..so we snatched it up. Had another local metal guy make the pan from scratch. It's worked out well ! There's something about the taste of syrup on our basic flat pans ! Boil on my friend !! Also..love the notches you ground into to those sap sack holders. Great idea !!! We too fight with that...and may do exactly what you did ! I agree abt not leaving sap in them...as amongst all the things you stated....bacteria sitting around is never good. I empty every time ! We also recycle ours. No cleaning..no drying...over and done !
It’s definitely a unique flavor! Last year was also my first year making walnut syrup. I’m hooked! I like the end of season darker syrup better anyway and the walnut is like that turned up to 11 with a hint of nuttiness. Like me. I will be adding more black walnut taps to my sugar bush this year. Man it’s good to have you back posting. Happy sapping!
You tried walnut ?? I've heard great things about walnut ! We are on year two of hickory syrup....can't make enough of it lol ! Maybe I'll have to send you some next batch..its pretty good ! Also....im a medium to medium/ dark syrup guy myself Thanks so much for the kind words ! They really mean alot to me. Great to be back on. Great to see you on here posting too. Makes me excited to go out and do something right now !!!!!!! Happy sapping !
I just noticed..your using a hair dryer for a blower? Omg....that is the greatest idea I have ever seen !!!
Necessity is the mother of all invention… Although I did have to buy my wife a new hair dryer. She was pretty “why does my hair dryer smell like a campfire!” I’d like that. I could send you some walnut in return. Yield on the walnut is 1/2-1/3 of maple. It’s pretty low volume stuff but so worth it!
Couple of nice looking rigs there. I worked in the sugar bush this afternoon moving some downed trees and limbs so I will be able to get around to tap and gather. That sugar house looks nice HoneyFuzz. I am planning on 100 taps with bags and homemade PVC holders. Boiling with 2x5 continuous flow homemade rig. I will take some pics when we get started. Looking at the long range forecast I will probably be tapping the week of February 10th
Thanks so much ! I look forward to some pics ! I actually am still using about 80 homemade pvc holders..but phasing them out after this year. Gonna replace them with the galvanized ones so all 200 match. Much easier to deal with too. No cold finger zip ties either lol. We usually end up tapping around valentines day up our way too . That for the compliment on the shack. It was all repurposed materials....and a whole family project. Was a great project. Plans to expand soon...we have too much stuff !! Good luck out there...enjoy the woods time !
HoneyFuzz I really like the first two pictures you posted of the sugar shack and the snow in the trees. I will be looking forward to seeing more pics of the operation.
