Maple Syrup time

[Natty Bumppo]

I'm fascinated with the syrup making. Never even though it could be made with something other than maple. Cool stuff to follow along with. And of course Natty's buildings are amazing!

Thanks Catscratch.

I've never tried black walnut but do hear about others tapping them. The birches too...black and yellow...can be tapped.

 

[Jerry-B-WI]

I've never done it, but from what I've read it all depends on the sugar content of the sap. Some trees are much higher than others so you'll spend more fuel/time/money creating syrup.

I've heard that boxelders which are plentiful around my house make similar syrup to maple since they're in the same family but I don't have the time or ambition to mess with it. Have about ~20 acres of sugar maples on my place in WI and just don't have it in me to do the process.

Ever think of leasing out the trees? I know a fellow who leases his trees out to a commercial syrup maker. Have no idea how much he gets per season.

 

[Brian662]

Ever think of leasing out the trees? I know a fellow who leases his trees out to a commercial syrup maker. Have no idea how much he gets per season.

No, this is in big buck country, not tree leasing country. In all seriousness, I just don't want to deal with the hassle, had a local friend who wanted to do it too and I decided against it.

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

I tap 6 silver maple trees in my yard and typically end up with around 3 gallons of finished syrup. I'm pretty lucky that these trees have a high sugar % for some reason.

Leasing out the maple syrup tapping rights could be OK in WI if that would take a forest property with high taxes and allow it to be classified as ag with low taxes. Maple syrup season is also mud season, so you could be left with a muddy mess on logging and access roads if the renter wasn't careful.

 

[bigboreblr]

Nice timber frame there natty,

A guy who has been a foreman for a scaffolding business I used to use at my old power plant has a protable timber frame building. He uses it for a stage for his bluegrass band in the backwoods of PA.

The stuff is flowing good here in the catskills. Half the trucks at work got 275 totes in the bed.

 

[Natty Bumppo]

Nice timber frame there natty,

A guy who has been a foreman for a scaffolding business I used to use at my old power plant has a protable timber frame building. He uses it for a stage for his bluegrass band in the backwoods of PA.

The stuff is flowing good here in the catskills. Half the trucks at work got 275 totes in the bed.

Thanks bigboreblr. A portable timber frame...never heard of that before, but what a great idea.

Yes, after the deep freeze we had over the weekend the trees started flowing real good again yesterday.

 

[tooln]

I really miss tapping.

 

[bigboreblr]

Yellow birch?

Used to have a club member make moonshine. Maybe some spiked birch beer might be a great alternative. Still gonna make hard cider, although it burns my stomache up.

Need to hear more about that. Sap to sugar boil down rate? Common uses. Soda/beer?

With the nasty root chemical black walnuts have in them, you guys taught me to dislike those trees. Girdled young ones. Putting up a trail camera to see who eats the nuts. Thought the deer did.