Has anyone tapped any maple trees yet? In the Duluth area, temps on the 10 day forecast look pretty good for the syrup to be running. Only problem is I can’t get back to where my maples are at without a snowmobile right now. Maybe the rain this week will help that. Last year, I tapped my trees on 3/17 but didn’t have enough sap for a boil for about 2 weeks.
Heard it was flowing in Ramsey MN. I plan on tapping this weekend or at least try to with all the snow.
We are completely done tapping. Going to start up tomorrow or Wednesday to check for leaks, hoping Thursday will be a start of a good year.
Put in 4 taps yesterday but as of this morning nothing yet. Ham lake.
Syruping???
Ya mean sapping son? 
First year doing it for me…
Tapped 4 trees in the yard, 3 are flowing very little, 1 hardly any at all. Collected just over 4 gallons in the past week, boiled it down to about 1/4 gallon yesterday.
Since it is such a small amount, I am unsure what to do with it? Finish it off for a half pint or so? Or, what I am leaning towards, put the 1/4 gallon in a milk jug and throw it in the freezer, till I get more to finish off all at once?
Is it okay to freeze it then do a final/finishing batch? That might be my best option if I just get about 5 gallons a week for 3 weeks or so.
I freeze my concentrated sap, have not noticed any ill effect on the finished product.
30 taps for me and I ended up with just 6 gallons over the weekend, hoping it picks up here in the Detroit Lakes area.
A regular was pouring sap into his barrel yesterday on Trenton Island across from Red Wing. Looked like he was doing well.
Might be a little warmer with the trunks being saturated with flood water though.
We put our taps out on the 15th. Emptied buckets this last weekend and ended up with about 13 Gal. of sap. We have about 26 5 gallon pails out and about 32 taps. Last year we boiled down about 250 Gallons and ended up with almost 5 gallons of the best syrup I’ve ever had!
First year doing it for me…
Since it is such a small amount, I am unsure what to do with it? Finish it off for a half pint or so? Or, what I am leaning towards, put the 1/4 gallon in a milk jug and throw it in the freezer, till I get more to finish off all at once?
Is it okay to freeze it then do a final/finishing batch? That might be my best option if I just get about 5 gallons a week for 3 weeks or so.
Last year we ran out of storage and ended up just boiling down what we could on a Saturday. The temps where good enough we just left it in the cooking pan and started the fire again the next weekend. I see no issue with freezing it. Ours never froze last year but it stayed cool as well. The biggest thing is to make sure it doesn’t sit and get warm. I would say letting it sit in 60 degree weather is too warm.
I just love this time of the year! Back out into the woods and gives me another reason to drink those wonderful Blue Smoothies!
We had such a great year last year, with quality and quantity that this year is being taken off. That said the guys tapping in the area seem to have slow feeds.
If our trees run well tomorrow thinking we will be done for the year. Im in Ham Lake. Could leave the taps in for a few more days if anyone wants the sap. Got 40 taps in.
I’ve got 23 trees tapped and boiled down 25 gallons last week and ended up with 6 pints of syrup with great color. Pretty high sugar content in the first batch, ended up at a 33:1 ratio. The trees were running like crazy last Saturday, I got as much sap from Saturday alone as I did the entire previous 5 days. It was running pretty good again yesterday. I will do one more batch this weekend and pull my taps for the year. Will hopefully end up with about 1.5 gallons of syrup on the year.
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Syruping???
Ya mean sapping son?
No, no I don’t…. son. 
The trees sure ran today. Our sacks are full. Guessing we will get another 35 to 40 gallons of sap. Boiled down that will be a little over a gallon of syrup. And bring us to 5 gallons of syrup for the year. We are selling syrup this year. $10 a pint, 3 pints for $27.
AsI said earlier we most likely will have extra sap this coming weekend if anyone wants it.
5 gallons for the year is a pretty impressive haul Mike. How many taps do you have?
40 taps this year. We made 5 gallons last year with 25 taps for comparison. Thinking if I wanted to collect sap through the weekend we could get a couple more gallons.
The trees sure ran today. Our sacks are full. Guessing we will get another 35 to 40 gallons of sap. Boiled down that will be a little over a gallon of syrup. And bring us to 5 gallons of syrup for the year. We are selling syrup this year. $10 a pint, 3 pints for $27.
AsI said earlier we most likely will have extra sap this coming weekend if anyone wants it.
I’ll take last years leftovers at 3 for $20 
Been wanting to do this with the kids for years – finally ordered some taps and will give it a whirl. I have 3 maples on my property.
I have a turkey fryer that I plan to cook in. Anything tricks in particular that I need to know?
Not sure where you are located but Get those taps in now if you haven’t started all ready. From reports Im hearing a good portion of mn and wisc the trees are running. Here in the twin cities I thinking our last run will be this weekend.
If you are on Facebook join some of the maple syrup pages. MN, Wisc, both have them. Lots of good info. 4 years in for me and Im still learning.
Yeah I would get taps in ASAP, I am in Detroit Lakes got 8 gallons yesterday off 20 taps.
Depending on amount you boil the turkey fryer will be great, I used one my first year, I typically finish it inside as I have better control on a stove top and is easier to keep from burning. If you can find a buffet style pan (steam pan) the trick is having surface area. The more surface area the faster it will boil off. I used the deep turkey fryer pan and although it works it is much more efficient with a shallower pan with more surface area.
do you need a double pot (dunno what they are called) to finish it? Like the ones with water to melt chocolate?
Taps don’t come till Thursday but if I get enough to make any that is fine – it’s about the process more than the product.
do you need a double pot (dunno what they are called) to finish it? Like the ones with water to melt chocolate?
Taps don’t come till Thursday but if I get enough to make any that is fine – it’s about the process more than the product.
No, you don’t need a double pot. I finish mine on the stove in a stainless steel stock pot. Get either a hydrometer or digital thermometer for determining when you are done.
40 taps this year. We made 5 gallons last year with 25 taps for comparison. Thinking if I wanted to collect sap through the weekend we could get a couple more gallons.
That’s an impressive haul from a small number of taps (relatively speaking). Where are you located in the state? Are you tapping bigger trees? This is just my 2nd year doing my own operation but I’m not getting anything close to the volume of sap you are getting.
Ham Lake is where we are at. Residential neighborhood with a mix of smaller and very big maples. We have some trees with 4 taps going. I think with a nice mix of trees it ads variety. Some run early, others late. Get a little variation in sap to.
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I like the evaporator set up Mike! what are the knobs on the bottom for? I am running an oil drum setup that could use some insulation, but I do not want it to get heavy as I move it around from storage to where I boil. So it is crude but it gets the job done.
I have made a little over 2 gallons this year from 7 trees I have tapped. Apperently I will only have 5 trees tapped when I get home from work tonite. Got a phone call from local policeman who said someone complained about me tapping trees in my own yard because 2 of them are technically on the boulevard. He laughed, but said its in city ordinance. He said I could leave them up until he sees what city administrator says but whats the point I was about done anyway. Pretty sad if you ask me.
Those knobs on the bottom open a vent door or maybe it was ment for cleaning ash out. About half the drum is filled with brick to try to redirect heat. This is a new setup for me this year. Been struggling to learn how to run it right. If I can keep it boiling it will boil about 3 gallons a hour. Pretty sure I be taking a step up in cookers again next spring.
That is one nice setup Mike! Ours is fairly crude as well. Just a “pit” made out of cinder blocks and fire brick. Pan sits on top and we shim it as necessary to keep the pan level. Our pan is 25x38x5″. With the fire rolling we can boil down 5 gallons pretty quick. Surface area is key for it to boil down fast.
Went and collected last night, got at least 80 more gallons of sap since Friday! I can’t believe how much the trees ran these last few days! I think we are going to go another week as the temps look favorable. There’s three of us doing it so we’d all like to get about 2 gallons of syrup each.
The one thing I noticed yesterday was how sticky the hoses and buckets were. Must be some sugary stuff! Don’t remember ever having them so sticky in my 4 years of Sapping, er.. Syruping..
We’re going to start our boil Saturday morning with the hope to get most of our collected sap boiled down. We’ll then pour it off into milk jugs and put them into the fridge until final boil.
Tried maple syruping this year for the first time- so glad I did. I was thinking about tapping our birch trees up north, but learned their sap doesn’t flow until later. There was a lot of snow up north last week- had to wear snowshoes- but the sap started flowing. Anyway, I wrote about my experience for my blog. Not necessarily informational, just about my first-time experience.
I ended up with 7 ounces of syrup, which is nothing to brag about, but this is to encourage anybody who’s thinking about trying it to just do it! It’s also a GREAT way to get kids into the outdoors, for those who have kids in their lives.
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7oz is better than no syrup.
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