Maple Syrup

[growalot]

We hit Cartwright's every spring then drive on down to Ackleys in PA...make a day of it...some good hunting land out that way....

[phade]

We hit Cartwright's every spring then drive on down to Ackleys in PA...make a day of it...some good hunting land out that way....

 

A good friend of mine hunted on Cartwright's ground for a long time. It's definitely seen better years as far as big bucks go, but still decent.

[thphm]

I have a pan as Dinsdale has in his picture on a uprite 55 gal. drum for rough boiling then from there to on of the turkey/ lobster pots and finish in SS pots on the stove, then bottle it ,filter each time.

A friend has a setup made out of cement blocks with a big pan on the top,he has been using it for years an it still is holding up.Being that my drum is about burned out I just might make one of them.

[greg54]

This years New York State Maple Weekend is March 22-23 and March 29-30 from 10:00am to 4:00pm. Every year I take my 2 sisters to one of the participating maple producers where you can enjoy good time watching them making syrup, see how they tap trees and enjoy samples of the fantastic syrup      they make. There are many maple products available to purchase, and different events and vendors you will find also. And a lot places have hayrides that the kids will enjoy and things to do. And it is great way to beat that cabin fever after a long winter. The participating producers are listed on line at maple weekend New York. And of course I am going to have a big stack of pancakes with the fresh syrup!!

[Doc]

It is interesting when you stumble across old sugar-shacks in the middle of the woods. It makes you kind of look around and try to imagine what it was like back when guys were busy cutting up their supply of fire wood with the old buck-saw, and hauling gallon after gallon of sap by hand or horse-drawn skid, and the big boiling pans that looked nothing like the evaporators that everyone uses today. For a lot of farmers, syrup was just another farm product that they started off their spring activities with. Around the clock attention to the fire and the sap....just another annual farm activity.

 

[Dinsdale]

Should have tapped for this weekend....

Would have had a nice little run.

 

Cold coming again late this week; will catch the next warm up.

[wdswtr]

Should have tapped for this weekend....

Would have had a nice little run.

 

Cold coming again late this week; will catch the next warm up.

 

Naww it takes more than a couple days of warm weather to thaw the trees out.  Especially with such short days.  Unless your on high vac, and can catch a good early thaw of more than just a couple days it is not worth it.  Especially if your on buckets, it will shorten your season when the right time for bucket tapping happens.  Even gravity tubing setups its a tad iffy unless you run check valves to keep the bacteria out of the tap holes. 

[Dinsdale]

wdswtr, on 02 Feb 2014 - 8:40 PM, said:

Naww it takes more than a couple days of warm weather to thaw the trees out.  Especially with such short days.  Unless your on high vac, and can catch a good early thaw of more than just a couple days it is not worth it.  Especially if your on buckets, it will shorten your season when the right time for bucket tapping happens.  Even gravity tubing setups its a tad iffy unless you run check valves to keep the bacteria out of the tap holes. 

 

I'm divided up for 3 sections, so some years I'll take advantage of a warm spell and use one area.Many years we are slowing down or done when most upstate are just getting really just getting going.

 

Have about a third with Dr Tim's check valves......but not enough time with them to see if they're any better.

 

My buddy is taking the year off and I will only tap enough for what I want.

 

Thought about selling extra sap, but no one here returned any phone calls last year and one that did had no money.....at least he was honest. LOL So I dumped all the tanks and pulled the taps early.

 

But its different when you are just playing around and not running a business.

[Lawdwaz]

What are guys paying per tap on another's land, just curious.  Thanks.....

[wdswtr]

Dinsdale I went 13 weeks on the CV1 and the CV2 last year.  When I pulled taps the holes looked fresh still.

 

Lawdaz it varies widely but I would say on average $1 dollar a tap.  So many variables, sugarmaples or soft maples, sugar content they produce, accesability, can tubing be run etc etc the list goes on and on.

[landtracdeerhunter]

Sap should be flowing now, with sunshine and the warm up.

[wdswtr]

Sap should be flowing now, with sunshine and the warm up.

 

Not where Im at. 4 feet of snowpack in the woods,  there is a couple days of warm weather this week but what the thermometer says and what the real feel in the woods is wont do me any good yet.  It will take a nice warmup to thaw out the trees before it will start to drip.  Going to be a very short year.

 

[thphm]

Set up some lines and some buckets the last few days It Started Flowing here yesterday. Can't get to most of the spots I want the snow is still too deep.We will see if the rain this weekend nocks the snow down.

Edited March 7, 2014 by lurking

[RangerClay]

Looks like this weekend will be a sap flowing weekend if it warms up enough.

 

I have maple syrup every morning on my oatmeal.  I salute you guys who have the time to make the yummy stuff.

 

I have a sugar bush on my property, I just wish I had the knowledge on how to make it.

[hunter49]

That's it! Cartwright's Maple Tree Inn.   http://www.cartwrightsmapletreeinn.com/    Phenomenal place. It's a pretty long drive for me, but it is worth it just to get away for a few hours.

  Been going to Cartwrights for the last 3 yrs. one of the few places that have buckwheat pancakes, goooooood!

  There is another small place on rt. 98 just north(1mile) of Arcade that is good also. & Moores in Freedom. I have been to most around , love that real maple syrup!

[Culvercreek hunt club]

Just tapped my first Maples. Now I just need to construct that outdoor evaporatior!

How many taps? My Grandfather did it right on his stove in the kitchen

[dbHunterNY]

don't have enough maples all together on my parents.  also I don't have any maples I think behind my house.

[Doc]

I just wish I had the knowledge on how to make it.

For the hobbyist, it is not exactly rocket science. If you can boil water, you can make some version of maple syrup. It may not be the best quality, and might be slightly sprinkled with wood ashes, and you might overshoot the first time or two and make maple rock candy, but it is a lot of fun to play around with. We started out 30 years ago with an old wash-tub and an open wood fire. However even fooling around as an armature doe require some significant time. It's a great thing to involve the whole family in so you can take shifts in feeding the fire and watching the sap. Finishing it off on the kitchen stove is a great idea. We used to use the very scientific method of boiling it until it looked thick enough .... lol. But I will say that even the crappiest syrup that we ever made was sought after by every relative and even a few that claimed to be relatives that I never even met before.

 

Give it a shot. It's fun!

[Doc]

don't have enough maples all together on my parents.  also I don't have any maples I think behind my house.

I have seen people tapping trees in their front yards. a half dozen big maples can produce an awful lot of sap in a decent season. I think the rule of thumb is 40 gallons of sap to 1 gallon of syrup. 1 gallon of syrup goes a long way. I'll bet the average family could easily get by on just a quart per year. That's only 10 gallons of sap. Also, remember for home use, it doesn't have to meet any kinds of industry standards. And I'll guarantee that if you make it yourself, it will be the best syrup you ever tasted even if you really mess it up bad.

[thphm]

Not sure about 1 quart. I used 4 ea. 24 oz. mason jars by Me,myself and I, this past year.

Got the rest of my buckets hung today.

[Dinsdale]

lurking, on 09 Mar 2014 - 4:26 PM, said:

Not sure about 1 quart. I used 4 ea. 24 oz. mason jars by Me,myself and I, this past year.

Got the rest of my buckets hung today.

 

Same here......lots of delicious ways to use syrup.

 

 

Almost too busy to tap this year but these temps have me out there again. LOL

 

Ran a new chimney today, and as a few evenings this week will get me a boilin'. Screw that overtime crap.

[Pygmy]

I drove past my old homestead yesterday and noticed that my EX wife had buckets out..

 

She and one her lady friends always made the BEST maple surple.

 

When I moved out , my supply kinda DRIED UP..  <<rolleyes>>...

 

I've bought it from a couple other sources since then, but it's never been quite the same now that I am no longer paying property taxes on the trees that produce it..

[Merlot]

Moore's sugar shack, town of Freedom...All you can eat stacks of pancakes, syrup, butter, coffee....yum...burp...'scuse me...

[thphm]

Now you know why the charge what they do for the real thing.I have 15 gallons ready to boil, had to go out of town today.That's what I do everything outside except the final boil.

[thphm]

First of this year did it yesterday,some more boiling now.