Any Maple Sugar makers here? (trees, violet, south, leaves)

[Mac_Muz]

Move this if need be, but I consider maple harvest a type of gardening. Maybe it is a hobby?

Anyway I live in middle east New Hampshire and washed my buckets today, and will be tapping trees in the morning.

I just do this for gifts and house hold use, so no pro, but it is the same work about.

The season depends on the weather, which must be below freezing nights and warmer days with Sun. Wind isn't good even if it is other wise good weather.

More or less it takes 40 gallons of sap to be boiled off to 1 gallon of syrup. My barrel stove will boil that much on about 1/2 cord of dead pine in around 8 hours. High and lower pressures will make the time vary, due to the type of fire that pressure has.

I was just curious to see if anyone else makes sugar.

[quiet walker]

I don't but have to have the real thing on my pancakes. Here's a lovely photo essay of maple syrup season in south central Pennsylvania. Click on Maple Syrup on the left side of the page.

Pennsylvania Maple Syrup ~ Photography by Peter J. Singhofen (http://www.eyelandpub.com/eyelandpub/index1.htm - broken link)

[Mac_Muz]

I wasn't aware that Amish would use such modern methods. I stand corrected.

I use old traditional methods soley at this point, but then I don't sell.

In part it is a sign of the seasons changings, which is in part why I live in NH.

The pan I use precludes sales as it is hand made by me and mild steel. Mild steel can flavor sugar a bit, but it is hard to tell. Still I prefer it in taste to that made in stainless steel. Copper works as well and was or is the most traditional maybe other than a cast iron pot, which was the main 200 years ago.

I use what ever is easy to come by and what ever is least expensive. In fact my sugar stove rests on skis as it is easier to move the stove to the wood pile than it is the other way around ....for now.

[Submariner]

I have 25 tapps of maple, and 25 tapps of birch.

Not a 'big' producer, but working on it.

[Mac_Muz]

I am not big either with 35 taps.. I set them today.

I have done birch before, but in the are I am not there isn't enough close by to do.

What type of stove do you have? I assume something home made, which is always interesting to see pics of.

My pan is about 21" x 36" x 6" and has two dividers. I made it from a single sheet of steel I bought at a NAPA auto parts store.

[Submariner]

We use electric roasting pans, I dont know it's proper size, like 14inches by 30inches.

I like that I can monitor the temp with a candy thermometer and tweak a large dial on the side. Once it is set then I can go away for an hour at a time to do other chores.

[Mac_Muz]

Yeah, being able to leave must be nice. I can't do that a bit. No sooner is the pan boiling and I need to feed the fire again. It is a constant cut more wood to stove size, stuff it in the fire and cut more wood, adding sap as needed for about 8 hours a batch.

I do batches at a time, counting 5 gallons added to apx 40.

Today I might look in on 1/2 the buckets, but the weather is still cold, and the next several days don't look good weather wise.

[Submariner]

I know there are many nice setups for boiling sap down. Some are pretty expensive.

Sap does seem to require that you are very careful with it's temps.

Starting out with sap it seemed to make more sense to us, to use a common and cheap device that can do all of this for us [the roasting pans].

This way it never really boils, it just simmers and steams a lot.

[Fat Freddy]

We used to do it when I was a kid in New England.

What I remember the most was mixing in nuts and pouring the hot syrup on the snow to make a kind of fudge called Penuche.

This kept us kids occupied and out of the way of the main boiling activities.

[Mac_Muz]

Yeah sometimes I mess with fresh snow and sweeten it still. My son has his own son, so there is no one to bother me a bit here now.

FB, I can't say I know what you mean. I fire the rig when I have 40 gallons and boil it hard till I get little left in the pan. Then I pour off and briong in what I hope and pray is 5 qts of sugar water, and then boil that like made till the temp reads around 217.

I have a very accurate thrmometer, made for chillers, or vacuum ovens.

When I hit 217 then I get carefull, and go to 219.5, and test with a spoon to see the 'apron'. Of course taste testing is frequent, and that is what the last test really is for taste and texture. What I make surpasses what can be bought in a store, but you can bring that to a boil and make what I do.

It won't take any time or very much heat to boil store bought, as with the little water left the sugar will go nuts in a heart beat.

But to drive off 40 gallons as a batch takes hard boiling for hours on my rig.

I'ld like a fast rig, but they cost, and to even build one it would cost, and make it really fast and right.

I am not sure how you think you can scauld the sap water, but you pretty much can't. It is water and about no matter what you can't get it hotter than 212 untill you have driven off most of the water as steam.

Now there can be a thin layer of sugar that burns near the smoke stack, and will adhear to the back side of the pan sometimes, but then that area really isn't the pan bottom. And or if I boiled untill the pan was exposed to air, that would brun sap and warp the pan.

I'ld like a better pan with flues someday too, because with that type of set up, you get away from batch making, and that way leaves the pan 'sweetened' which is a sugar rich starting point.

I could do that if I wanted, by adding a finished qt or so to the fresh sap, but so far I haven't tried it.