Maple Syrup... who makes their own? Help?

[Organics North]

I am so excited also. I have a couple sugar maples and 3 huge silver maples. Where is a good place to buy supplies. I would like the traditional buckets and "taps".

I consider myself very much a traditionalist. Old is better than new in almost every category.!

I would suggest you at least google and check out sap sacks and sap sack holder taps. I personally feel the bags are better than buckets. Keeps the sap cleaner..
ON

 

[chicken stalker]

I'm tapping this weekend I'm a first timer.....I'm so excited.

 

[valmom]

I am boiling every evening now. It's funny- I have 6 trees tapped, and one produces as much sap as the other 5 put together! But it doesn't produce as long as the others do. It isn't bigger than a couple of the others, we tap on the south side on the ones we can, so that isn't it. They are all sugar maples- it's funny.

 

[chicken stalker]

Here's a couple pictures of or maple syrup production. My one DD really is into it. This is our first attempt, so far so good. It's boiling as I type.

DD tapping in Spiles

Boiling sap with a view

That was last week. Here's this weeks report. I am trying an experiment to see what works best. Last week I boiled with wood. This weekend I have 2 pans on the girl and 2 pans on a charcoal/wood fire.

Another weekend of boiling. Last weekend we boiled down to about a half gallon. I have about 20 gallons to boil down this weekend. The past few days the sap hasn't been flowing, it's been to warm at night. I was hoping for 40-50 gallons for this weekend but mother nature said no. Next week it is supposed to be below freezing again so maybe I'll get one more weekend out of this. Back to watching the fire.

 

[valmom]

I think our seasonis about over- way early. :/ The weather is just too warm.

 

[Henrietta23]

Here's a couple pictures of or maple syrup production. My one DD really is into it. This is our first attempt, so far so good. It's boiling as I type.

DD tapping in Spiles
http://www.theeasygarden.com/forum/uploads/6472_img_4267.jpg

Boiling sap with a view
http://www.theeasygarden.com/forum/uploads/6472_img_4269.jpg

That was last week. Here's this weeks report. I am trying an experiment to see what works best. Last week I boiled with wood. This weekend I have 2 pans on the girl and 2 pans on a charcoal/wood fire.

Another weekend of boiling. Last weekend we boiled down to about a half gallon. I have about 20 gallons to boil down this weekend. The past few days the sap hasn't been flowing, it's been to warm at night. I was hoping for 40-50 gallons for this weekend but mother nature said no. Next week it is supposed to be below freezing again so maybe I'll get one more weekend out of this. Back to watching the fire.

Did those pans hold up okay? DH stole my 9x13 pan to do sap... grrr!

 

[chicken stalker]

Here's a couple pictures of or maple syrup production. My one DD really is into it. This is our first attempt, so far so good. It's boiling as I type.

DD tapping in Spiles
http://www.theeasygarden.com/forum/uploads/6472_img_4267.jpg

Boiling sap with a view
http://www.theeasygarden.com/forum/uploads/6472_img_4269.jpg

That was last week. Here's this weeks report. I am trying an experiment to see what works best. Last week I boiled with wood. This weekend I have 2 pans on the girl and 2 pans on a charcoal/wood fire.

Another weekend of boiling. Last weekend we boiled down to about a half gallon. I have about 20 gallons to boil down this weekend. The past few days the sap hasn't been flowing, it's been to warm at night. I was hoping for 40-50 gallons for this weekend but mother nature said no. Next week it is supposed to be below freezing again so maybe I'll get one more weekend out of this. Back to watching the fire.

Did those pans hold up okay? DH stole my 9x13 pan to do sap... grrr!

I doubled the pans up. It worked well. I tried to keep the fire off the bottoms, then my husband took over for a few hours while I ran the kids somewhere. The fire was rolling when I got home! I boiled all day and there was a hole in one of the pans but didn't go through to the next pan. Overall it worked very well.

I'm finishing off about 8 gallons of sap on my stove right now.

 

[THEFAN]

This is our first yr doing it ourselves. We have 2 gallons so far of sap and working up to 4-5 gallons and then boiling it off this week on the outside woodstove. fun fun fun. We will be using 2 pots to boil it down and then at the end of the process movig it onto the kitchen stove.