2016 Maple Syrup Run

The sugar maple grove is much cleaner this year

Black walnuts are also tapped

Maple syrup run has started in Southeast Wisconsin.  I purchased 10 more taps and hangers, so I am up to 20.  I have 14 on sugar maples and 6 on black walnut.  Saturday was a very beautiful day to get out and put the taps in the trees.  The day before we hit over 50 degrees in our area with extremely high winds.  The bags would have been all over the woods if I had them up any earlier.  I was also thankful to have some assistance with tapping the trees this year.  My daughter got involved with tapping the walnut trees and did a great job on her first time installing the taps (spiles).

We did some clearance with equipment around the fence line this winter, so we took advantage of the opportunity to eliminate the buckthorn that had grown up around the maple trees so thickly.  It was a dream to walk from tree to tree with the collection containers and not be fighting thorny branches at every turn.  I had to take my hand saw out and clear up around the base of the trees which was nothing in comparison to what the machine accomplished.  It also cleared up some of the larger fallen limbs and formed some decent mulch around the roots of the trees.

A family first

We had some help on Sunday to collect the first round of sap.  Friends moved back from California to the old neighborhood.  They had been watching the process via social media last year and were missing Wisconsin and the activity going on here.  I made sure to give them a call and let them know the sap was running.  It was great to have help with the collection process especially with the extra bags on the trees this year.  We all had a fun time getting around and exploring as well.  Their daughter wasn't nearly as interested in the syrup process as the exploring.

The sap has started off slow as the temperatures fell overnight and didn't come up much in the morning.  We had more rain than snow this winter, so we are also not getting that slow soaking with the snow melt.  You can see that the 50 degree Friday did not leave any cover on the grass at all.  I am not sure if this will affect the sap flow this year yet or not.

The kids leave the collecting up to the moms for a selfie shot

In all we ended up with about 15 or so gallons of sap from the 14 trees.  There was much less sap from each of the black walnut trees.  We kept that separate for boiling down separately.  This was done completely on the propane stove as there was less than two gallons from the six trees.  

Many hands make light work so we soon had all the sap back and by the fire for boiling.  I made a small investment in some deep pans from the restaurant supply store.  I also put together a wood burning unit to save on money on the propane investment. The wood had been cut and stacked last year.  My husband had a loaner splitter and was able to put up a full cord plus of wood last summer.

There is still some tweaking to do with the system, but I was able to patch something together with things literally laying around the place.  I put a bunch of holes in the bottom of a barrel bottom and laid it on its side.  Some old grating in odd sizes fit both inside the barrel to form a wood burning grate and over the barrel supported on cement blocks.  After the first boil down, we have decided that we need to add burner holes along the top of the barrel to up the heat coming directly under the pans.  These will have to be drilled rather than punched with a railroad pick though.  An piece of metal flops up in front of the opening to hold the heat inside pretty effectively.  Not a high efficiency stove, but the price was right.

I also purchased a hydrometer this year to measure the sugar content of the syrup.  I did not receive instructions so I researched on line for videos and such.  I thought I knew what would happen, but the hydrometer did not float at the level I thought it would when I reached my boiling point of 219 degrees.  It wasn't even close.  I will have to send some photos to the company and get a little help here.

All in all it has been a good first day of the 2016 season.  There are about 6 ounces of black walnut syrup in the frig.  It has a very nutty flavor that was worth the time and effort.  I also have two and a half pints of maple in jars with a smidge left over for breakfast this morning.  Life is sweet.