Category Archives Maple Syrup Production

The final tally is: 9 gallons of syrup. Overall was a good year to make syrup, but not great for the production I had hoped. 50 taps at 1/4 of syrup a tap should be 12.5 gallons. I didn't even make the bare minimum when it comes to production standards. I need to move away from some of my lower producing tress/taps and onto better pastures and not just tap them because they are there and convenient. The new Reverse Osmosis was a hit! I was able to get 7+% sugar in less than an hour instead of waiting and running it overnight. The new pan and guarding of the pan also worked real well, but fell short when I…

It has turned into a great year for maple syrup production. The year started strong but quickly went into a constant pattern of poor weather: Too cold, too windy, snowing, raining, etc. There were a few days in a row the gusts were recorded at 30 mph and I'm pretty sure I have a bucket or two that some squirrel is now using as a nesting site. No idea where they went so the buckets were replaced. I've come close to perfecting my bottling. I finish the syrup and pour it into a glass container. Unfiltered syrup I then set up the filter and prefilter in this interesting wire rack setup made to maximize your use of the area on…

The sap season is going strong. Had a few windy days that knocked over my tent to the point where this will be the last year it gets used. I have it patched up enough to get through the season, but there will be no folding it back to where it fits in a box. Oh well. Pop up tent - before the storm I believe I lost 3 or 4 buckets during the same wind storm. Replaced the buckets, rehung all the ones that I could find, and had to put the taps back into the trees as most came off with the lid. For some good news I collected 50 gallons of sap the next day. I'm also…

This past Sunday - February 20th - I put in my 50 taps to prepare for maple syrup season. Even got a few drops of sap in the buckets while doing so! The weather this week is looking to be perfect: Above freezing days and below freezing nights. I'm hoping to have enough sap by mid week to try out the new reverse osmosis. Sap buckets aka Sap Traps! I have the odd habit of calling my sap buckets, sap traps. No idea why? It rhymes and makes me smile I suppose. Maple Trees I've been thinking of adding 15 to 25 more taps this season. If the reverse osmosis works as well as advertised, I would be well advised…

I decided it was time to step up my reverse osmosis game and leave my home built version and get myself a professionally built, but still hobby, maple sap RO. I still have my personal version and it works great, but just too slow... I need to run it overnight most of the time and when I do, sometimes the pump will run dry. I'm pretty sure I ruined last seasons pump. I haven't tested it, but I recall it not working very well at the end of the season (if at all). This version will still get my sap up to 8 brix but at a blazing 50 gallons per hour versus my 50 gallons per day! I picked…