Any sappers out there?

[Gary_l]

as of yesterday about 50 gals, had to replace 14 bags due to rubbing from the winds during the last cold front (bags had a little ice in them), extended forecast looks promising, now to wait the thaw of a 55gal drum of sap.

[zzammon]

Lots of drips going on yesterday. About 1/3 of the taps are flowing. Hopefully my first boil will be on Saturday.

[Gary_l]

Well the sap is really flowing the last 2 days, having to dump bags twice a day, at this rate should have 180 gals by Sunday, First big boil to start Sunday evening into Monday.

[davidbigreelz]

Hey guys. Ive never tapped anything but was just curious what you guys do with all of it? I know the obvious, make syrup but what then, giveaways for the year? Or do some of you guys sell?

Also just curious, ive never heard of tapping anything but maples. What do the other saps make?

Pine for instance I can see making rosin for example.

[mainbutter]

Our tree in lino lakes is flowing great!! I've been informed they've collected from our bucket every day since sunday.

david:

Pretty much everyone I know of who collects tree sap in springtime uses it to make syrup. Maple syrup is the best, but birch syrup is also good. I've heard you can make walnut syrup but I've never tried it. In a friend of a friend of a friend type story, supposedly oak syrup is not something you'd care to make, but I don't know how bad it'd be (nor how much you could make, it may not be easy to collect enough sap)

We plan to use most of it ourselves unless our trees go way overboard and we produce gallons upon gallons of syrup. We will give some a way to a few select friends.

At a roughly 40-1 ratio of sap to syrup (it takes 40 gallons or so of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup), and splitting the take between all four of us, I doubt we're going to run into the problem of "too much maple syrup". I may try making maple sugar if we get lucky with our production.

I'm pretty sure I've seen maple syrup at the farmers market before. Some people surely sell, and there are commercial producers in the midwest. Of course Vermont gets all the fame for maple syruping in the US, but some places do well enough for commercial purposes nearby.

[Gissert]

I will sell some syrup from time to time. I dont make much off of it, probably take a small loss every year - but I am not in it for the money. I also donate to local fundraisers and benefits - usually as a silent auction item.

There are times where I will have more sap that I can handle due to the size of the evaporator. In a 12 hour boil, I can go through about 130-150 gallons of sap, depending on how diligent I am at keeping the fire box full.

I have a couple of people lined up who could take some extra sap should I get over loaded. I dont mind keeping sap a couple days if its cool at night, but much more than that it will get dumped.

[x1957x]

I want to be a sapper. How do you get started and what do you need? How do you cook that stuff off? Boxelder, walnut, etc. you can cook off this sap for consumption to?

[davidbigreelz]

Main, Gissert, cool info. Thanks for sharin. I have never even thought about other sap types than maple haha. It looks like it would be a cool early spring thing to get into. Kind of ease off that open water itch lol.

[Gissert]

x1957-

Getting started is fairly simple. There are a lot of sites with good info. One of my favorites is mapletrader.

To collect sap, you will need a drill, tree taps, and something to collect it. Some use a bag and holder system, there are buckets that hang from the tap, or tubing.

To cook it is simply a boiling process until enough water has been evaporated until what remains is syrup. A general rule of thumb is when you reach a point 7-8 degrees above the boiling point of water you have syrup. There are variables with this formula. While I do watch the temp of the boil, I use a hydrometer to tell me when its syrup.

Most people when first getting started will use a turkey fryer to boil. This gets expensive. Shallow pans with a large surface area work much better. I made my own wood fired evaporator from an old fuel oil tank and ban boil off 10-12 gallons of sap per hour.

Any maple tree sap can be boiled, and that includes box elder. I don't know about walnut.

[Gary_l]

The reduction on birch is roughly 100 to 1, Alaska is the state that commercially sells birch syrup since they have no maples so to speak of but are loaded with birch, been wanting to try but the boiling is gonna take more firewood then I have....maybe next year, Birch trees from what I have read starts folwing before the maples do but I haven't personnaly verified it.

The syrup I make I give a quart to those whom let me tap their trees (depending on the volume) and give some away. This year I am storing the harvested sap in food grade 55 gallon drums buried in snow, if I can find the wife's old camera I'll be taking pics and posting the boiling process (her new camera takes to large of pics to download).

For those new to sapping/syruping when boiling the biggest thing is to not loose your boil when adding more sap to the evapoator pan, I use a make shift firebox w/ cement blocks and on the flue I use a kingcooker to preheat (it well actually start to boil) the sap I put in the pan, I am not worried of loosing the boil in the pre-heater when I refill.

I personally don't finish the syrup in the evapoator.....when I am close I'll kill the fire, (on my pan I have a 3/4' dump valve) while the sap is hot I process it though a filter, then finish it (by use of a hydrometer for syrup) either on the stove or turkey frier ( you have better control of the fire rate) you know your close when the sap really foams up in the pot, to knock down the foam I add a little bit of real butter to break up the surface tension.

[Gissert]

I dont finish on the evaporator either. Too many things can go south in a big hurry and there is no way to fine tune on my rig. On my 2 x 4 evap, I'll run 100-200 gallons through and then let the fire die and draw off and filter.

That then goes into a stainless pan I had built for a double fish cooker, and I will boil it until the hydrometer tells me to stop. I then filter again through cone filters. Once cooled, I put it into gallon olive jars and can it when I get caught up in a few days.

[x1957x]

Gissert, what do you mean can it? Do you just store it in tight lids and jars or heat it until it seals the lid( canning it)?. I guess I never got into it that much and thought that far in advance is all..57

[Gissert]

I can it in canning jars, yes.

When I have all my jars and lids sterilized, I reheat the finished syrup to 185 degrees. Put it in the jar, and put the lid on and let it seal.

If you heat it more than 190-195 you will get sugar crystals in the finished product and you will need to re-filter and can again. Nothing harmful with sugar crystals, it just makes for a product with less eye appeal.

[cherokee]

I can my syrup too. Last a long time. Usually I make enough to last one year and enough for mom and dad, gifts to farmers and others.

I will take/post some pictures next week. I have a bunch burned to a cd but cannot find right now.

[Rick G]

I also can what I need for the year. I have enough made for myself already and am going to boil off my last run of 120gal of sap tomorrow.

[Gissert]

I checked my sugars this morning. Nothing yet on a 100 plus taps in central Ottertail county.

BTWm,Happy Birthday Rick!

[Gissert]

Silvers drippin pretty good today. The sugars are showing signs of life too.

[Rick G]

Ended up with just over 3gal for our efforts yesterday. Not the best of takes, but it was fun to get back into it after a few years off. I think we would have done better had the ground not been so dry last fall.

My partners still have the taps in and plan on getting a little more before the seasons over. As for me, I'm done, got enough for french toast and pancakes for a while

[pushbutton]

Was not even going to try it this year, but just saw that you were boiling and put in 2 test taps yesterday.....much to my surprise, nearly filled up a five gallon bucket today. Don't know wether to thank you or curse you. Was going to head to Iowa and hit up the streamers, but now looks like I will be tapping tomorrow and boiling all weekend. Guess I'll save some gas money though......

[cherokee]

Boiled a bunch of sap down to a gallon of syrup. I took a bunch of pictures and will post on new thread tomorrow.

[Lurch]

I've been using homemade ss taps and drilling a 5/8 hole in the tree. Anybody using the 5/16 taps, do you get as much sap flow. I'm sure its a lot better for the tree.

[Gissert]

I use 5/16 plastic taps with drop lines to buckets. Plenty of flow.

5/8 seems pretty big.

[pushbutton]

Thats all I ever really used......so cant say they work as good or even if they are better for the tree. Would think they would be though. Can say I have a few big trees triple tapped and getting 5 gallons a day when she's running good. Had a good last week, and will see if the cooler temps this week will recharge them or not. Boiled about a 100 gallons down to about 3 over the weekend and waiting to finish it off. Wouldn't mind if its over though

[john.wells]

I sawed the ends off some spent 30-06 shells and they worked awesome! Tapered end worked well. I would like to send a special thanks to everyone on this thread for the tips on the finer points, such as the temps needed when boiling, how to collect, etc... It came out perfect, and without this info for a first timer I am sure I would not have had the outcome I had!

[cherokee]

Here's my boiler.