This site uses cookies to maintain login information on FarmallCub.Com. Click the X in the banner upper right corner to close this notice. For more information on our privacy policy, visit this link:
Privacy Policy

NEW REGISTERED MEMBERS: Be sure to check your SPAM/JUNK folders for the activation email.

Maple Syrup?

Farming and rural life discussion forum. Cooking, hunting, gardening, fishing, critters, etc.
User avatar
Bigschuss
10+ Years
10+ Years
Posts: 445
Joined: Wed May 14, 2003 7:08 pm
Zip Code: 01256
Tractors Owned: 1984 JD 990
1953 JD 40S
1973 JD 300 Snowmobile
Location: Savoy, MA

Postby Bigschuss » Fri Dec 22, 2006 7:46 am

Brandon,

Everything has pretty much been covered, but I though I'll throw my 2 cents in.

I have been "sugarin" for about 3 years now. I tap 10 trees and make just enough syrup for the family for the entire year. Because I have to work during the week, I collect sap all week after work (about a five gallon bucket full per day on average). I store it in a 40 gallon plastic trash can which I keep out in the woods in the shade and in the snow. Then on the weekends, I boil either Saturday or Sunday. In my 2 x 2 ft. pan, it usually takes me 7 or 8 hours to boil 25 to 30 gallons of sap from start to finish.

I tend the fire all day, and in the mean time I can do chores around the house and out in the yard. I am lucky to live on a mountain in the Berkshires of Mass., because even though the calender says it is the end of March, there is still solid snow pack and the trees think it is late Feb. or early March. So, I can do spring chores but boil sap at the same time.

It's definitely labor intensive. But, the pay-off is worth the time and labor. I make anywhere from a gallon and a half to 2 gallons each spring. I'll attach a picture of the backyard evaporator I have rigged up. Not pretty, but it gets the job done.

Good luck if you decide to go for it.
Blair in Savoy, MA


Image
I wish coke was still cola, and a joint was a bad place to be...
- Merle Haggard

SPONSOR AD

Sponsor



Sponsor
 


Return to “Farm Life and Better Half Forum”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 11 guests