Any sappers out there?

[mainbutter]

Gissert, any tricks to using a wood stove to boil sap? We couldn't get ours hot enough, even after removing the plate in the top and exposing as much flame as we could to the pan on top. I assumed that the stove radiated too much heat away from the pan.

We ended up just putting some bricks around a camp fire and using those bricks to suspend the pan over flames. That worked like a charm. To finish we use a big pot over a propane burner.

Our trees are still producing sap like crazy, we've finished about two gallons or so of syrup so far, it's been such a fun introduction to this hobby!

[Gissert]

mainbutter,

You are probably correct that you are loosing heat out the stove.

You want shallow and wide for more surface area on your pan for the best evaporation.

My rig uses a 2 x 4 foot pan on an old fuel oil tank. The fire box is directly under the front half of the pan, and the back half has a ramp that runs a few inches under the pan. Everything is insulated and firebricked, and a tall stack gives a good draft to drive the flames along the ramp so the whole pan gets fire contact.

We added forced air last year and that helped a lot. The maple trader site was most helpful to me for all things syrup related. Excellent forum there.

[zzammon]

Here is the 2013 evaporator, 16"x44" pan. We were able to cook off about 8 gallons/hr when it was up and really cooking. Cooked down 150 gallons of sap in three batches for just over 4 gallons of syrup. Plenty for our family. We could have cooked much more sap but we want it to be fun and not turn into work. We pulled the taps early while the trees were running strong. Can't wait for next year.

[cherokee]

Zzammon, looks like a nice, new, clean setup.

[JackPineGuy]

To much work

[pushbutton]

Here is the extended forecast for central mn, and it sure is looking good

[cherokee]

It is setting up nicely.

[Gissert]

Going to be tapping about 120 trees tomorrow and Wednesday

[pushbutton]

While my previous post was a joke, Accuview is really never accu, but we are coming up to the time pretty soon. So Gissert how long do those taps stay open....meaning if the weather is not warm enough yet.....couple weeks at least? Have never "pre drilled"

[BartmanMN]

I wish it was as warm as shown in pushbutton's post.

[mainbutter]

Gissert, I have only one season under my belt, but I was thinking with the cold it seems too early to be tapping trees. Am I wrong? I did tap a few trees about a month early last year and they still ran fine though I guess.

I'm itching like crazy to get going again this year!

[mpester]

Hello - The kids and I are going to try this for the first time this year. I have more than a few questions.

1. Does it look like next weekend (3/15) would be a good time to try tapping the trees up at the cabin near Siren, WI?

2. If the spring stays cold - cool like it looks like it will, how many weekends do you think I will be able to head up that way to collect?

3. Would it be a giant mess and have spoiled sap if I leave the sap saks up during the weekdays when I am not at the cabin?

4. Should I just take off the holders and let the sap run onto the ground?

Thanks for the help and looking forward to see what the kids and I end up with.

[mainbutter]

We did this last year and are far from experts.. but it turned out well! It was the most fun we had with any project in recent memory and I think I've found a new spring hobby for life. I'll try to answer your questions as best I can.

1) My understanding is you want temperatures above freezing during the day and below freezing at night. I tapped trees when it was 36F and overcast and the trees did not start running until weeks later with sunny and 40-45. The trees really leaked when it was 50+ and sunny. We pretty much called it a season while there still was snow on the ground. Friends who make about a hundred gallons a year and sell some do it out at a cabin in Wisconsin. They tap on st patty's day usually. Take a look at your forecast.

2) see answer 1.. I don't a timeline, it seems all related to temperature

3) Yes and no. We have two 55 gallon barrels we keep out of the sun and snow packed around it, do a mid-week collection and boil on the weekends. My gf's parents did the last boil with sap they said smelled a little "ferment-y" just to see what would happen. It didn't turn out well. Boil fresh if you can, keep the temperatures at refrigerator levels or colder if possible. Warm weather will spoil raw sap. Spoiled sap is not a huge mess, pour it out in the woods where you're collecting and rinse your collectors (maybe optional?)

4) probably not needed early in the season

When the trees are running you can certainly get lots of sap in a short amount of time. Buckets can in single day and be overflowing.

If you have a maple tree or three in the yard at home, I highly recommend some additional recreational maple syruping at home. Our best tree was an at-home tree, and gave us a quarter of our sap last year despite tapping 14 total, because we could collect daily. Plus it let us know what the trees were doing up north a little ahead of time.

[pushbutton]

1) Sure looks like it will be

2) Always weather dependent and locational. Couple years ago it was hardly a week where I live, last year it went on for close to a month.

3) Probably would not recommend leaving the sacks up all week if it gets much above the middle 30's. What i have done early in the season if gone on a fishing trip is to bury a 5 gallon collection buckets in very packed snow and run tube lines into it from multiple trees or multiple taps from a big tree. Personally have never let it sit a week, but if the temps are low enough suppose it could hold.

4) don't really know if it matters

[mpester]

Thanks for the advice. I really like the idea of the five gallon containers buried in the snow for collecting during the week. I wish I had some maple trees in the yard to do this at home. Just a few ash, birch and pine trees. I got the idea for doing this last spring when I trimmed a small branch off the birch tree in the front yard at the wrong time. That thing was squirting sap for more than a few days. Filled a five gallon bucket with sap and thought about boiling that down. Then I got on the internet and found out how much birch sap you need to make syrup. I would need a larger yard and a lot more trees to make birch syrup. That takes a lot of sap.

[cherokee]

Tapped the trees today. It was a lot of work just getting to the sugar shed. Snow is deep. Dang mice got into several of the cleaned out buckets. My jack russell killed all in a timely manner. Looks like I have some washing to do and more trees to tap.

[pushbutton]

Have about a 1/4 mile trudge through about 3 ft of snow just to get to my trees right now, and currently do not have the motivation to do so Similarly, got my stuff out of the shed today and between the critters and bugs......have a lot of cleaning to do!

[Gissert]

Got 106 lines in now, one tree had a drip when I drilled yesterday, so signs of life are appearing. Need to do some repairs to the evaporator today and get the pans cleaned. It wont be long now!

[Rick G]

Got a couple test lines in the trees in the back yard. Will be going out to the storage bin late this week to get 5he supplys out might only do a couple dozen trees this year, just don't have the time to go full blown.

[cherokee]

Update - some of the trees I tapped on Saturday have put out about a half gallon of sap. Most are not running.

[Rick G]

Of the half dozen trees I have taps in only one has anything happening. The rest are bone dry yet. No big hurry to get the rest of my taps in just yet, hopefully by next week things start flowing.

[Gissert]

Checked my 120 sugars yeaerday, plus the two silvers in my yard - so far, nothing.

[mcgarth]

we'll be tapping tree's in Ramsey this weekend putting out somewhere in the neighborhood of 800 hundred taps. putting that many taps it helps to have a gas powered tapper i'll tell ya

[mainbutter]

We have three test trees 20 mins north of minneapolis, and do our real tapping in the finlayson area. Our test trees are going to be tapped this weekend, am hoping that they flow well soon. Last year the test trees actually each produced better than our "up north" trees, one of which produced multiple gallons a day for an extended period.

[Gissert]

Got 28 gallons yesterday, some were dripping pretty good. Hopefully they ran all night. Will collect and boil today before this cold shuts them down again.