So I just came across a statistic in the maple syrup world that I was not only unaware of, but a number that I'm sure I didn't make anywhere close to getting. A modern day sugar maker will aim for 1/2 gallon of maple syrup per tap. It was in this months "Maple News" paper when someone talked about expanding their operation and an experienced sugar maker asked why he was expanding when he hadn't fully obtained full production out of what he had. Apparently the old rule of thumb for a sugarbush was to get 1/4 gallon of syrup per tap. Now with today's more modern methods, we should be striving for 1/2 gallon of syrup per tap. After…
Category Archives Maple Syrup Production
I put up a couple of buckets on some birch trees to give an indicator on when it starts running, so only then would I put up the rest. Yesterday it started to really run. I put up 7 three gallon sap buckets to collect. The birch trees out in the sun are really running right now. The ones in the woods are trickling, but barely. The way the trees in the sun are running I'm thinking I can fill a 3 gallon bucket in a single day. Doesn't matter if it's a white or black birch, they're both running just as fast. Of course this comes at a horrible time as I'm getting busy with work around the house…
... at least for me it is! I've officially run out of bottles and I'm tired of spending all weekend and many nights boiling. Right now my largest bottle neck is the speed in which I can boil - and at 2 GPH isn't very fast. In the end I made roughly 6 gallons of Maple Syrup, already giving many pints away, I find myself with 19 Pins and 38 Half Pints and a few jars of Maple Sugar! I posted a bit more detailed information on the yearly production log: https://carterbrown.com/maple-sugaring/yearly-maple-syrup-production-log/ Here is a photo from last night's final boil and haul As you can see, there are some new custom labels also! Custom done and purchased…
Boiling the last batch of dark syrup today. Should produce almost a gallon of finished syrup when done. The season looks like it could continue to go on for another week or two, but I'm out of bottles and have more syrup than I expected. I'm going to finish with 6 gallons of maple syrup. That is plenty for myself, fair submissions, making into sugar, gift baskets, etc. Heck, I should have more than enough for all that. Maybe I can even put a couple up for sale to then purchase more supplies for next year. Who knows.
Gathered an unbelievable 40+ gallons of sap yesterday at 1.5% sugar content. More than a gallon per bucket. I literally ran out of room to process my sap. Both of my 15 gallon concentrate containers were full. It was late enough that I couldn't start and finish a batch, knew I would probably get more sap the next day. Something needed to be done. I decided to "sweeten the pan" in maple lingo. So I somehow fit all 15 gallons of sap concentrate into my pan and sap warmer pan (it was full, I'd say that's the most you can do and still technically boil), and just boiled that down to roughly 5 gallons and stowed it away. I then…
You're always told by the old timers to just throw out the ice the forms in your sap buckets that you usually find during a cold morning's collection. Yet it never fails, someone asks if that's a good idea and you just parrot what you heard... But is it true? I decided to find out once and for all so I can say with a certainty which it is. So this morning as I went around to collect my sap, I had a second bucket that I was going to put the ice into, let melt and take a sugar reading. I let the ice melt and took a reading... 0% sugar So now I can say for certainty, just…
Made 9 half pints last night - took longer than I would have preferred but that's due to me being a little too lazy on the RO machine and being satisfied with 1:2 ratio, grabbed another 30 gallons of sap today which I'm processing a bit slower at a 1:3 ratio (concentrate to water). Especially with it running like crazy still. I emptied the buckets this morning and will need to empty the again tonight by the looks on how fast the sap is running, following by a good run tomorrow. Another snow storm is in the future for us this week which might prolong the season. Honestly, a season longer than I expected. Ordered some custom labels - nothing…