Return to the Harvest Forum
| Post a Follow-Up
Sugaring
| | |
Posted by calliope 6 (My Page) on Fri, Feb 5, 10 at 22:54
| It's been on my bucket list for many years, but the equipment has been ordered, and this year I'm tapping maples. Back on the farm, our main sweetener was sorghum. My MIL's sister's family processed it and shared. That's almost become a lost art. But, after discussing sugaring and sirup making......I find out more people do it than I knew.
Anyone else do it? |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Sugaring
| | |
| I did for a few years when I lived near some maples. I also heated my house with a wood burning stove. It got so dry that I had to have a pot of water on at all times to add humidity. We replaced that with a pot of sap. We made maybe two quart. I miss those days. |
RE: Sugaring
| | |
| Annie has sugared. I don't know if she's doing it this year or not. Since she hasn't posted a response here, you might cross-post on Cooking. I know she's on today and will see the question. Carol |
RE: Sugaring
| | |
| Thanks. I have acreage and maples and just thought I may as well get some mileage out of them, lol. I know that the sap should be boiled asap but expect to be collecting over a period of at least two weeks. I don't want the liquid to foul, and I don't want to be continually evaporating outside either! I asked several people who sugar if they ever just put the liquid in a freezer and thawed the whole mess out when they wanted to boil down. Half the time the sap gets frozen anyway in the collection buckets. But, nobody had ever head of that as an option. I have the freezer space now for a good amount and would like to know why it couldn't be done. It's going to hit me at a very busy time in my g'houses. |
RE: Sugaring
| | |
| I did maple tapping last year it was a lot of fun and tasted great even though I only had red maples not sugar I can't say why but I read not to let the sap freeze even in the tree buckets I did keep the sap until the weekend then boiled it that time of year here its getting in the upper 30s so I just put the 5 gallon pails in a snow bank to keep cool I did 2 differnt batches and everyone prefered the on done over a hardwood fire compared to a propane burner then I passed though a few filters and jarred up Hope yours goes well springs on the way! |
RE: Sugaring
| | |
| calliope, I haven't done this myself but we LOVE maple sugar time in my little town. Our "on" season is kicked off every year by a maple festival and there are dozens of local farms that make and sell it, from major family farm operations that supply grocery chains across the country to small outfits that sell through the church bazaars to an entrepreneurial high school student. I have friends from the city who come out every year to celebrate maple with us; their kids talk about it all year long. So I'm looking forward to hearing of your experiences! Will ask the producers I see about the freezing issue (maybe too late for you, though---last week of March). Happy sugaring! Z P.S. Here in Ontario (and in English-speaking Quebec when I lived there as a child) for some reason we call it "sugaring off." Not sure off of WHAT! ;-) |
RE: Sugaring
| | |
| calliope, since I'm not yet living at the farm, I doubt that I will tap the maples this year, I haven't done it in a couple of years. I was always told not to let the sap freeze, we collected sap every day and kept it chilled, then did the boiling on the weekend. I did learn not to boil sap inside because you'll cover everything in your house with that sticky steam, LOL. Yup, I learned that the hard way. When I get back out on the farm permanently, I'll sugar again, I love maple syrup and I have lots of sugar maples. It's definitely not a lost art in this part of Michigan, nearly everyone that has acreage with trees does it. Good luck and have fun, I loved sugaring. When I get back to it, I'll teach The Princess and Bruvver how to do it, hand down those skills! Annie |
RE: Sugaring
| | |
When we moved to NY a couple years ago, we had to try it. We have lots of silver maples and they do produce a nice syrup. I was told not to do it in the kitchen since the moisture would peel the wallpaper off the walls, so that sounded like a great idea. Unfortunatly, my wallpaper is still on the wall but the syrup turned out OK.
We hollowed out staghorn sumac branches as taps for the first 2 years then last year I found some old non Al taps. We rinse out plastic 1G jugs from cider or spring water and cut a hole on the side near the top. Then baling twine through the handle and around the tree to hold it up. We poke the tap through the hole in the jug (and also use it to pour out the sap into collection vessels).
When we get it inside I strain it through a coffe filter. My drip coffeemaker serves double duty; the sap goes right through the filter into the carafe. (I don't pour the sap where water goes to make coffee, I pour the sap straight into the filter basket.) I use a large cast iron dutch oven and boiled all day last year and turned it off at night. At the end of the season we had about a 2 quarts of syrup and maybe 2C of sugar. Finishing is definitely the most challenging. The first year I burned everything and almost ruined my Calphalon pot (FYI don't go to bed and cook it overnight!).The second year my syrup was slightly smokey, very dark and rich. It got high marks from my friend and kids. My husband choked it down because he loves me. I like grade B syrup anyway, so I liked it and will tap again this year. Our trees are 100 yrs old and about 6-8 ft around. Usually I only tap 3 or 4 trees with 3-4 taps per tree because that's all the sap I can handle.
Good Luck!
Tauna |
RE: Sugaring
| | |
| I made 26 quarts from the maple tree in my front yard last year. The tapping is easy. The "sapping" ie the collection of the sap is easy. The BOILING is what is a tremendous amount of work -- not hard, physical work, just a lot of tending of the fire and the sap. I boiled mine down until almost finished off on an outdoor fireplace/grill thing over a wood fire, then did the final reduction of the last bit of water indoors on the electric stove, so as to have more control over the process. I'm going to do LESS this year, maybe 10-12 quarts. I gave away most of my 2009 production. I do want to tap my black walnut as well. I've always heard how good it is, but haven't gotten around to doing it so far -- another thing on my "bucket list." |
RE: Sugaring -- takes a lot of work.
| | |
| I should add, from Mid-March 2009 through Mid-April 2009, I spent virtually all of my waking, non-working hours outdoors tending sap over the fire, adding wood, stirring, etc. Days off, evenings, and weekends. A lot of evenings, I started the fire when I got home from work around 6:00 and boiled sap until around midnight. Fun, but a LOT of work. |
|
|
|
|
