I know it looks intimidating...and confusing to be bigger. Perception is everything. In our little area....we are very small...not technically advanced producers ...at 200 taps. Compared to the bigger guys we know. Just baby's lol. No joke ! But our syrup is better . Just ask me..ill tell ya !
There is many things that can determine color/ grade of syrup . Generally speaking lighter syrup is made in the beginning of the season and syrup gets progressively darker as the season goes on . This is not always the case tho . Soil conditions also play a part as well as the weather . At the beginning of the season sap is mainly sucrose which makes a lighter syrup . As the season goes on the sucrose changes in the tree to fructose and glucose causing darker syrup . You get what you get , making lighter syrup can be controlled a little with the ro or a bubbler system. Generally speaking when you ro up to about 10% you will make a slightly darker syrup . This is due to heating the sap in the ro . When sap gets warm microbial activity increases which causes the darker syrup . Past 14% I believe the University of Vermont studies have shown , you can make some lighter syrup . Personally I RO to about 24% and have noticed a little lighter syrup but not much . Sugar content at the start of the season is low and gradually increases in the middle and then tapers off towards the end . I think that’s called a bell curve ? I sell all my syrup , over 600 gallons so far this year and still going , bottled and never had anyone ask for light syrup . Part of that tho is in Michigan there’s not the “ knowledge “ of different grades for most people . It’s just not in our DNA . Lol I’m sure in Vermont, NY and Quebec its a completely different story . Anyone starting out I would highly recommend a RO . Google search RO Bucket . The guy makes an affordable ro for the smaller hobbyist. Boiling concentrated sap will make it much more fun .
Some people bring their pans up to a boil every 3 days during a long wait, to kill bacteria periodically.
Today’s fun, after a foot of heavy, wet snow. That’s my 3/4” pipeline on high tensile wire under the tree in the first picture.
I don’t have experience with it - just something I read. I also read that if you dump extra sap into the pan at the end of the day as a safety for leaving it, be sure to bring it to a boil before letting the fire die.
We used to sell 60 gallons a year from our house, selling mostly to tourists who didn’t know maple, so we spent a lot of time explaining the grades and flavors to them. That was before the ridiculous new names for the grades. In Vermont, “Fancy” was the lightest grade, and “A” was the next step toward darker color. Growing up, During sugaring season we would have at least one meal every day that made use of quite a bit of syrup. My favorite is a hot biscuit in a bowl with about a cup of hot syrup. Eating syrup like that made me a bit of a grade snob - only Fancy or a light A, please! Here’s an old grading kit:
This is what I did as well, and I was careful to make sure it wasn’t in the sunlight in the garage, and we didn’t lose any sap.
Hopefully I’ll be able to tap this year. Was just down on the tractor again trying to clear snow from the trail/gas line where I haul my sap out to. It really drifts down here between the two fields, and we got snow early this year so in spots there’s no frost at all. Just a mess.
A good friend of ours was really into sugaring. I believe he was on the VT board at one point in time. He always had good stories and whatnot. Really knowledgeable. He explained to us how some producers would get sap from Canada, but boil it in VT. It could then be called “VT Maple Syrup” because of where the finished product was made. I believe they allowed that loophole because of the brand recognition ‘Vermont’ had and how it technically helped the VT syrup industry as a whole. He passed a few years back and miss him quite a bit. His family still sugars.
I’ve contemplated it Brad! We do have a few maples that would work in VT. In CT, we have a two red maples and two swamp maples. I’ve thought of utilizing those as well!
Yes..I believe you are right . Also Water or soft maple We tap about 150 sugar maples..and 50 Reds every year. They are great trees ! The younger ones are fineky. They seem to start giving sap early..and fizzle out early too. Our bigger reds seem more consistent..but still stop giving..or start budding...a week or two before the sugar maples stop giving..or bud out.
I never knew that! The two maples up front are red, the ones in back are different. I’ll get some pics once they bloom in the spring.
I think red may also be called redbud as its buds are a distinct red in the Spring. Ive seen some budding already. Could the others in your yard be silver maples?
