Maple syrup season again.

Its that time of year again. Tapping our trees today or tomorrow in the north metro. New cooker again this year for us. Still need to fire it up for a test boil.

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Nice looking stove.

Do you sell your product Mike? I started buying maple syrup from local harvesters if that’s what you call them some years back. Once I realized the difference from what could be produced locally and those bottles of sugar like Log Cabin or Aunt Jehmima I slapped my own face for not doing it sooner.
Same with honey.

We did sell some last year. Not sure yet this year. Depends on how well the new cooker works and how much we get. Think we made about 6 gallons of syrup last year.

Mike W wrote:

We did sell some last year. Not sure yet this year. Depends on how well the new cooker works and how much we get. Think we made about 6 gallons of syrup last year.

Keep me posted if you have some to sell. Or barter for some wild rice or smoked pulled pork?

Mike W wrote:

We did sell some last year. Not sure yet this year. Depends on how well the new cooker works and how much we get. Think we made about 6 gallons of syrup last year.

Was it last year or the year before I bought 4 jars? I do remember what I got was surplus you had from the previous year.

Hope you have some available this year. Part of the fun was seeing your whole tapping and cooking operation all in your backyard.

Where are you located? It seems early to be tapping, at least for me/my area, but the syruping season always sneaks up on you. Still a ways out from getting consistent days above freezing where I am at. The last two years for me I tapped on 3/16 (2019) and 3/17 (2018). I have all my taps ready to go, just need the weather to cooperate.

Keep me posted if you have some to sell. Or barter for some wild rice or smoked pulled pork?
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My neighbor taps all of the maples in our development area and probably makes 30 – 50 gallons of syrup every year. He takes a portion of it and puts it in used bourbon barrels and let’s it sit for a couple months, the stuff is amazing. He also does stuff like Raspberry Infused Bourbon Maple Syrup. He also sells it. If you are looking for syrup I can get you his number.

We used to make our own when I was a kid. The syrup we made was almost always really light in color and not as thick. It seemed like late in the season ours would start to get dark and we would stop making it because we don’t like that as well. I now have a hard time finding anything like that and I am starting to think I need to make my own again.

David Anderson wrote:

Keep me posted if you have some to sell. Or barter for some wild rice or smoked pulled pork?

My neighbor taps all of the maples in our development area and probably makes 30 – 50 gallons of syrup every year. He takes a portion of it and puts it in used bourbon barrels and let’s it sit for a couple months, the stuff is amazing. He also does stuff like Raspberry Infused Bourbon Maple Syrup. He also sells it. If you are looking for syrup I can get you his number.
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That would be great! PM me his contact info. Thank you!

Some of those infused maple syrups are fantastic. Bourbon maple is awesome. It might be better suited for ribs than say pancakes.

Im located on the north side of the twin cities. Looking at 2 weeks plus of above freezing days, below freezing nights starting tomorrow.

onestout wrote:

We used to make our own when I was a kid. The syrup we made was almost always really light in color and not as thick. It seemed like late in the season ours would start to get dark and we would stop making it because we don’t like that as well. I now have a hard time finding anything like that and I am starting to think I need to make my own again.

Our neighbor tap just three large silver maples and get golden colored syrup from them. We are just two houses away with a mix of maples. Ours is a darker color with a bit stronger maple flavor. Both are very good.

Put in 28 taps tonight. About a half dozen are dripping even in below freezing temps. Started up a fire in the cooker and gave it a quick test boil to.

The stuff that ran 2 years ago was fantastic. Almost more vanilla flavor than maple much lighter in color very high sugar content ( better sugar content = better syrup). Either way home made syrup is head and shoulders above the store bought flavored crap.

I have to ask this question,is walnut sap/syrup any good??
one of my vendors who moved to Iowa last year from Michigan is taping walnut trees like there is no tomorrow.
there were many walnut trees on our farm in my youth and in my imagination walnut syrup can only taste like rotten walnut hulls smell which isnt good.

Iowaboy1 wrote:

I have to ask this question,is walnut sap/syrup any good??

I guess it is like “art” except instead of beauty in the eyes of the beholder, in this case beauty is in the taste buds. In my mind, I like either one, but Maple syrup is obviously more popular.

We are still collecting sap and cooking in the north metro. Been a very good season so far. Will be approaching 10 gallons of sap made by the end of the day. New evaporator is doing well with evaporating up to 10 gallons of sap a hour. Thinking we should still have a couple more weeks to go.

Mike W wrote:

We are still collecting sap and cooking in the north metro. Been a very good season so far. Will be approaching 10 gallons of sap made by the end of the day. New evaporator is doing well with evaporating up to 10 gallons of sap a hour. Thinking we should still have a couple more weeks to go.

We had a great year for sap. It’s still flowing but we have plenty for gifts and for ourselves. And frankly, I get sick of collecting/boiling after a while.

Sugar content seemed very high this year. We had 6 taps in 3 trees.

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My parents have been collecting, seems like a good year, my mom is even making some maple sugar for baking with! Very excited for the first rhubarb or apple crisp with homemade maple sugar! Where did you get the evaporator Mike?

outdoorsmn wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Mike W wrote:</div>
We are still collecting sap and cooking in the north metro. Been a very good season so far. Will be approaching 10 gallons of sap made by the end of the day. New evaporator is doing well with evaporating up to 10 gallons of sap a hour. Thinking we should still have a couple more weeks to go.

We had a great year for sap. It’s still flowing but we have plenty for gifts and for ourselves. And frankly, I get sick of collecting/boiling after a while.

Sugar content seemed very high this year. We had 6 taps in 3 trees.

That is some awesome color!! Nice job with that.

Great looking syrup Outdoormn. Looks similar to ours. Ours is lighter than years past. First couple batches had a lot of niter in them but seem to have that under control now.

Dusty we got our evaporator from Bemish metals, NE corner of Mille lacs. He is easy to find on line or Facebook. We just added brick to the inside and a stove pipe and the cooker was ready to go. With close to 30 taps in this cooker is perfect size. I can do larger 70 gallon batches on a Saturday or Sunday. Or get smaller 40 to 50 gallon batches done in a evening after work.

We finally wrapped up our syrup season this weekend. Was a great year for it! Ended up with 16 gallons when all said & done.

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Noce looking syrup there. We still have the final boil to do on two batches. Pulled out taps last Friday. Thats two weeks earlier than last year. Our total for the year should be around 17 gallons.

My dad just north of mille lacs finely got his taps in the trees the end of last week. He has been fighting with to much snow in the woods to get to the trees. Sure hope their temps hold for a while to get a decent season.

Looks and sounds great. I’d like to get into this but I don’t have any maple tree on my property. What size tree is best if I were to start a search on public land . Bigger is better or would something like four or five inch diameter regrowth work. Thanks

Mike W wrote:

Noce looking syrup there. We still have the final boil to do on two batches. Pulled out taps last Friday. Thats two weeks earlier than last year. Our total for the year should be around 17 gallons.

My dad just north of mille lacs finely got his taps in the trees the end of last week. He has been fighting with to much snow in the woods to get to the trees. Sure hope their temps hold for a while to get a decent season.

We pulled our taps Friday as well in the Cambridge area. We ended up with as much syrup this last week as we did the first 2 weeks. the weather was great for it!

Gino wrote:

Looks and sounds great. I’d like to get into this but I don’t have any maple tree on my property. What size tree is best if I were to start a search on public land . Bigger is better or would something like four or five inch diameter regrowth work. Thanks

Rule of thumb is a 10″ diameter tree or bigger. Extra large trees we’ll put 2 or even 3 taps on one tree.

Thanks, that will make it harder.

Pulled my taps out a week and a half ago, they were running probably the best they had been all year. Got to be to much going to work and coming home and cooking it til the kids went to bed every night. I also use propane and was getting expensive. Did tap 3 black walnuts in the back yard just for the heck of it to try to make just enough to try. Got pretty warm last Friday so don’t know if it spoiled in the bag or not. Made 6 gallons of maple syrup that’s plenty for me.

Had a buddy give me 10 cases of beer for 2 gallons last year. His daughter loves it. Hope they are getting low.

Gino wrote:

Looks and sounds great. I’d like to get into this but I don’t have any maple tree on my property. What size tree is best if I were to start a search on public land . Bigger is better or would something like four or five inch diameter regrowth work. Thanks

You also need a permit to tap trees on state land. Not even sap is free in MN.

I’m

Mike W wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Gino wrote:</div>
Looks and sounds great. I’d like to get into this but I don’t have any maple tree on my property. What size tree is best if I were to start a search on public land . Bigger is better or would something like four or five inch diameter regrowth work. Thanks

You also need a permit to tap trees on state land. Not even sap is free in MN.

. Of course you do, MN nice

Well, I’ve got plans to go enjoy this afternoon in the woods & get all the taps in the trees. Weather is looking good for at least the next 10 days.

Anyone else getting geared up for Syrup season!?