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Post by trappermac on Mar 1, 2012 6:18:45 GMT -5
...any backyard syrup makers here? I'm giving it a go for my first time this year, plenty of sugar maples on my property and I'm hoping to put up at least a few quarts of my own syrup. Have had the taps in for a couple weeks, some days have been good some well.....frozen. Big operations around me have been tapped since end of January with mixed results. Kinda like trapping, get home from work and am always anxious to head up into my woods to check my "taps".......
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 1, 2012 8:02:23 GMT -5
Sounds like fun, some day I'd like to give it a try.
What are you evaporationing with?
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Post by trappermac on Mar 1, 2012 9:41:29 GMT -5
Got an old boxwood stove that I put outside that I opened the top up on and some old banquet/restaurant style stainless steel lasagna pans. Plan on preheating in a turkey cooker then evaporate in the pans over the "tweaked" woodstove. We'll see how it goes, live and learn as they say....
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 1, 2012 10:04:44 GMT -5
should be fun any way. Good luck
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Woj
#3 Newhouse
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Post by Woj on Mar 1, 2012 10:28:12 GMT -5
I made some with a friend when I was a kid. We used a wood stove and a homemade evaporator. It was a lot of fun.
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austinp
#3 Newhouse
the next fur season is never far from our minds :)
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Post by austinp on Mar 1, 2012 10:57:23 GMT -5
key point to keep in mind: boil off small batches in flat pans with as much surface area to evaporate as possible. the faster you boil down from sap to syrup, the lighter and sweeter it is also, you don't want to stay up until 2am waiting for the correct % to be reached when boiling too much sap at once. voice of experience there
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Post by markg on Mar 1, 2012 12:40:39 GMT -5
My wife and I have been making our own syrup for several years now. Last year we made 16 gallons so not sure how much we will do this year. Feel free to send me a PM if you have any questions.
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Post by snowshoe on Mar 1, 2012 17:29:48 GMT -5
I've helped out in a bush for about 15 years now. We put out around 5,000 taps:) All buckets.
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Post by trappermac on Mar 1, 2012 19:23:03 GMT -5
Sap flowed good past 24 hours....my 40 mile ride to and from work takes me past 5 or 6 farms with a sugarbush....they all had steam bellowing this evening. Austin - yep, have thought about the 2:00AM thing....did a trial run with water a number of weeks back....learned a few things that day.... Have done my research on this but still a newbie....I'm sure I'll learn a few things the hard way...as always! Thanks for the offer Markg!
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Post by catlinkid on Mar 1, 2012 21:00:22 GMT -5
Me And my grandpa just made a gallon today he started boiling at ten and i got too see the tail end of it after school ....good thing to do with family while they are still here I hope too do another two gallons this yr
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Post by frontiersman on Mar 2, 2012 23:16:35 GMT -5
boiling right now. I tried using woodstove several years ago, but I found that at my small scale, propane stove is a lot quicker, easier, and you don't end up with ash in the syrup. I have a three burner propane stove, I preheat with a low flame on one burner, and then I boil on another one. When it's almost done, I bring it in the house and finish it on the kitchen stove. I only make a quart or two at a time though.
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wcs
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Post by wcs on Mar 3, 2012 11:35:05 GMT -5
My highschool friends and I get together every year at one guys place near Stanford. He has the whole set up with an evaporator and 500 gallon holding tanks. We boil like crazy for 3 nites and 2 days straight. We end up with usually a couple of gallons of the light brown sweet stuff. We also end up with multiple hangovers, no more firewood, and no more ammo......LOL
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Post by trappermac on Mar 4, 2012 8:38:46 GMT -5
Sounds like a good time WCS.....
Boiled down 15 gallons yesterday, got about a quart and a half of sweet amber syrup. Was tough with the winds, woodstove wasn't as efficient as I had hoped. Two propance burners with pans did a nice job though, was able to move them onto the porch and get out of the wind. Pancakes this morning while the next batch is just heating up.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 4, 2012 9:04:52 GMT -5
That's cool. Was talking with Bud Eckart a while back and he uses propane as well.
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Post by wfm on Mar 4, 2012 11:20:08 GMT -5
If any of you guys make maple candy and sell it or know someone who does please send me a pm. I think my kids would love to find a sweet treat in the mail.
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Woj
#3 Newhouse
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Post by Woj on Mar 4, 2012 19:13:24 GMT -5
You can make maple candy pretty easily at home. We used to make it all the time as kids when we were boiling syrup. We would bring a finished batch of syrup up to around 235 degrees and then pour it out quickly on the snow. It crystalized instantly. One of my most favorite childhood treats.
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