Posted: 4/13/2009 6:17:04 PM EDT
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Here are a few pictures of my brother's maple syrup operation:
http://i365.photobucket.com/albums/oo100/kef7/DSC05131.jpg Here he is collecting the sap. The collection bucket has a mesh screen to keep out the ice, insects and other impurities. The vast majority of the trees are silver maples but he also tapped around 6 sugar maples that grow in my mother's yard. Despite being called sugar maples he hasn't gotten much sap from them. The taps are 5/16 which he said helps the tree heal faster and only reduces sap collection by around 20%. http://i365.photobucket.com/albums/oo100/kef7/DSC05145.jpg From the initial collection buckets the sap is poured into the blue 5 gallon bucket in the back of the 6 wheeler. A pump moves it from the bucket into the larger 55 gallon tank. http://i365.photobucket.com/albums/oo100/kef7/DSC05157.jpg The black tube in the right of the picture is a UV filter that kills mold/bacteria/viruses. The sap is pumped through it into the larger holding tank in the left of the picture. http://i365.photobucket.com/albums/oo100/kef7/DSC05167.jpg Here is preparing to boil some sap. I didn't take the best notes here but from what I recall is that when he was boiling off large amount the sap fed into the evaporator via the tank on the incline. On Saturday there wasn't that much sap so after the initial filtering it was boiled off in the smaller pans to the right where you can see him cleaning them. http://i365.photobucket.com/albums/oo100/kef7/DSC05172.jpg Here his daughter is using a sap refractometer to check the sugar content of the sap. He said this year the sap has never been less than 3%. http://i365.photobucket.com/albums/oo100/kef7/DSC05173.jpg Here the sap is boiling away leaving behind delicous maple syrup. The small holding tank to the left holds pre-heated sap (around 180-195) that feeds into the open pan via a float valve. These pictures were taken on Saturday the 11th; the sap had pretty much stopped running by this time. He estimates this season will yield around 35 gallons of syrup. I |
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Quoted: Quoted: That must create an interesting smell boiling it down. Interestingly enough, it smells like maple syrup.  No it smells like lollipops in the air. I meant interesting as in pleasant. does the smell change as it boils from the thicker sap stage to the syrup stage? |
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Thanks for the interest, here is some more info:
-The general rule is that it takes ~40 gallons of sap to = 1 gallon of syrup. With the sap sugar content running at 3% he might need a little less than 40 gallons though. -For the seaon he thinks he will end up with around 35 gallons of syrup total. -He will try and sell at a roadside stand or farmers market; asking $10 per pint. -An uncle said he seen people cooking hotdogs in the boiling sap!!! He said they taste quite good. |
| My wife is Korean, and they also tap maple trees, but they drink the sap just as it comes from the trees. It's a big deal over there,and my wife was very pleased when I tapped several of our maples this year-I probably got 4-5 gallons from two trees before they stopped, and she drank it all up. |