Tap those trees!

[NH Homesteader]

We tapped at our friends house down the road. Going to tap at my parents tomorrow we have a bunch of line run too this year. DH is doing the hauling, or I wouldn't be able to do it with baby!

 

[baymule]

That is amazing to me. I love the whole idea of tapping trees, but no maples here. It fits into the self sufficiency life we all want to live.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I love the whole idea of tapping trees, but no maples here

Guess what I just learned!!!! I have a sycamore tree...and they are kinda in the maple family....and you can tap 'em! You got any sycamore trees @baymule? So, it's tooo late this year...unless we get a late cold front which I do NOT want...but maybe next year I'll give it a shot.

 

[NH Homesteader]

Oh cool! You'll have to let us know if you try!

Today's total-35 gallons. That'll be almost a gallon of syrup.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Dang! That's a haul!

I can imagine with my one tree that I won't get anywhere near a haul like that, lol. But, I'd like to try it just to say I did.

 

[NH Homesteader]

My husband is going crazy with the syrup, lol. Next year we want to get two of those big totes and tap at his dad's house, which is about a half hour drive so we'd need to move a lot at once. We're going to buy more line and buckets today and tap at my parents' house.

He's boiling "with" his friends. Of course it's our evaporator and he's doing all the work.... So they're not getting as much syrup as they probably think, lol. Next year we do it alone.

 

[treerooted]

Didn't actually get much more sap yesterday, we may have lost a bunch in the overflow!

DH and I had a big fight about the evaporator last night, ok well maybe the fight part wasn't really about the evaporator per se, but the end result is that I'm going to be using the propane today to boil, and we will use the "evaporator" once we buy more steam pans.

So we'll see how that goes, I've got 60 L to get through, going to get things started about 9am I think.

 

[treerooted]

We tapped at our friends house down the road. Going to tap at my parents tomorrow we have a bunch of line run too this year. DH is doing the hauling, or I wouldn't be able to do it with baby!

Sounds like a decent set-up!
Collection is definitely a challenge here, at least with me trying to do it by myself. I think how it will work from now on is I will collect the sap into our water containers (20 L) and leave it on the forest path for my DH to go and collect after work. I just can't seem to pull 40 L of sap and my toddler all the way back to the house! If I could use the sled it would be fine, so I actually wouldn't mind a little snowfall.
I forgot that last year we did that if it was a big sap day.

 

[NH Homesteader]

Happy boiling! It's lovely out today, and DD2 is past her growth spurt/whiny phase so I should be able to actually get some pics today or tomorrow

 

[treerooted]

That is amazing to me. I love the whole idea of tapping trees, but no maples here. It fits into the self sufficiency life we all want to live.

I'm not sure what it is, but I get so excited about making my own "sugar". Maybe because I love sugar so much I like to use syrup in my baking if I can, and skip the refined sugar.