19 March 2022
Waiting on the trees. We tapped a couple of them early and have had a couple of false starts. The trees in this picture are gone now but they used to tell me when to hurry up and get the rest tapped.
Our intentions are to tap the birch trees after the maple run but we’ll see how our energy levels hold out.
4/8/19
I’m happy to say that our maples were done running on April 6, 2019. Another sapping year is in the books and we’ve put away just under 5 gallons of syrup this year. This year we filtered with store bought filters (a pre filter and a final filter). It was a lot easier than our layers of cheesecloth filter from last year. We’ll be continuing with the store bought filters next year. The shape of the filter and the loops at the top made it easy to hang from our vent hood so the sap could take it’s time in filtering. Basically, you use a new pre filter each time you finish a batch and then rinse out the heavier filter thoroughly with really hot water. It worked great! “Priming” the filters before using with hot water is necessary. We use 1 pre-filter for a weekend’s cooking and then toss it.
3-29-19
We’re having a late start to our maple sap run. The “warmest” trees didn’t start running hard until about March 16. If I remember correctly, that’s a little more than two weeks later than last year. We have a simple setup and tap up to five trees. We cook down our sap on a wood stove that’s older than I am. I use stainless pans with a layered aluminum bottom for even heat. I can also take them in to finish cooking on my stove in the house. If you’ve never done it, give it a try. I didn’t know if we’d like maple sugaring, so I started with the aluminum bucket starter kit for tapping three trees and a thermometer. All total, less than $150. Since we have a blast doing it and it’s really easy after your first season, we’ve been upgrading to a tube system, filters, etc. but do try it out first if you are unsure if you’ll like it. You can always resell the kit if you don’t. And that book that comes with the kit? Read it front to back. It’s only about 40 pages and contains everything you need to know to get started.
