We've Boiled Down All The Sap

All the sap we collected is finally boiled down with a grand total of about 80 gallons of maple syrup made! A lot of it is quite dark.  

The maple taps get pulled today.

Crazy Maple Making Time

Making maple syrup takes quite a long time and we're in the middle of a rush of sap, so I haven't had much time to write.  Next time you're in the grocery store and wonder why in the world real maple syrup costs so much, here's a breakdown of why (and the sap season is only about 6 weeks long)!

Making Real Maple Syrup

Cut lots and lots of wood for the evaporator

Clear brush and fallen trees from maple lines, check sap lines for damage, install new sap lines (after putting together the spile section at home), wash out sap collection tanks, put sap collection tanks in place.  If you're lucky, there's not a couple of feet of snow on the ground while you're doing this. 

Clean evaporator and sap making equipment, make sure you have a really good supply of cut wood, check that lines don't leak, make sure collection pump works, make sure Reverse Osmosis machine works.  Make sure you have plenty of maple bottles (order more if necessary).

Tap trees (drill hole, tap in spile, repeat 1000 times or more)

Wait and discuss the weather

Pick up sap from collection taps (and sometimes get truck stuck in mud)

Pump sap from the tank in the back of the truck into the sap tanks in the sugar house

Run sap through reverse osmosis machine to take out some of the water and cut boiling time in evaporator

Build a fire in the evaporator and get the sap boiling.  Make sure all the sap levels are set correctly so that  you don't burn the boiling pans.  Make sure all the correct valves are open or closed.  Check to see what the boiling point of water is that day and set the automatic draw off for 7-degrees above that.  

Wait, feed fire, check to make sure the sap isn't foaming up to run over the sides of the evaporator (it's like cooking candy).  This part takes hours.

Finally, when the maple gets to the right temperature you get a flow of syrup.  Check to make sure the syrup the correct consistency.  If not, you might need to pour it back in and readjust the temperature on the automatic draw off.   

Put some diatomaceous earth into hot syrup and run through multi stage filter press to remove impurities and cloudiness.  Check to see what grade of syrup you end up with.   

Run into bottling unit. Keep hot.

Put into bottles.  Put sealing lid on top, lay on sides until bottle cools.  

Put proper stickers on bottles with your farm name, address, etc, and the grade of syrup.

You finally have maple syrup you can sell!

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There's the list of little things that I didn't add to this list (or forgot about!).  The little things that slow you down and perplex you.  Things like having to fix the leaks and drips on your hoses or trying to figure our why all the sudden the quick-connect from the back of the truck doesn't fit on the tanks (o-ring fell out).

Now that you know, you can really savor that next dollop of real maple syrup that you pour over your pancakes! 

1025 Gallons of Sap

Yesterday we had a sapalooza!  

I collected collected 850 gallons of sap and the person from whom we're buying sap delivered 175 gallons.  I wish I had taken pictures, but throughout the day it literally down-poured and I just wanted to get the job done!  

One of our sap collection points gets very, very muddy.  I feared that the rain would make the area impassable, but I managed to get in and out (though saying prayers under my breath the whole way as I drove with 300 gallons - about 2500 pounds - of sap sloshing around on the back of the truck!)

At the other pick up site, I put the hose into the tank in the back of the truck and it popped out as I started pumping.  It literally looked like a fire hose of sap going up into the air!  I very quickly turned off the pump and got the hose back in.   

This is yesterday's photo, but you can see how the collection tank is set up in the back of the truck. 

After I got the sap home I ran as much as I could through the reverse osmosis machine and fired up the evaporator to get the sap boiling.  

Sweet success. 

Successfully boiled and drawn off maple syrup

We Gottalotta Sap!

300 gallons of maple sap

And a lot more coming!

  

Will We Have Sap Today?

This morning the thermometer shivered at 10-degrees fahrenheit.  But according to the weather channel it's supposed to get up to a balmy 42-degrees today.  If this happens the maple sap should run like crazy!  Then I'll add pictures of (hopefully) full collection tanks to this blog.   

Sap update:  The temperature never got above 34-degrees yesterday and when I looked at the maple lines I could see the frozen sap inside them.  Today the temperature started at 32-degrees and I'm crossing my fingers for sap-flowing weather.  Thank you for your "warm" thoughts!

We Finally Have Maple Syrup!

Since we boiled sap for a long time the other day, when we started up again it didn't take very long for our condensed sap to get up to heat and boil off enough to become maple syrup!  

Our first jar of unfiltered maple syrup

We pulled a quart out of our first draw off  of syrup and discussed what we would do to it.  This is our $10,000 jar of maple and we thought maybe we should bathe in it!  But no.  Sunday morning I made a big batch of waffles and we poured it over.  Ab-solut-ely delicious!

Saturday night, as we boiled the collected sap, we learned the excitement and the tedium of making maple syrup.  We wait and wait for the temperature on our automatic draw off to go up high enough.  It climbs within a few tenths of a degree and you get all excited that it's going to get there - then the temperature drops a degree.  By the time it finally starts spitting maple syrup you can hardly stand it!  

After it draws off though, it's another hour to hour and a half of waiting, watching for foaming, feeding the fire, and standing around.  The great part of this was that we had friends come by to share our excitement.  We really, really enjoyed that. 

We made about 15 gallons of maple syrup on Saturday.  The temperature outside dropped again and the maple sap hasn't been flowing much, but the temperature is supposed to go up again tomorrow! 

Don't forget to go over to Homestead Revival for the Barn Hop!

Still No Maple Syrup

The reverse osmosis machine is finally fixed.  We ran our sap through and removed about 70% of the water.  Then we boiled and boiled the sap, but the it never quite thickened enough and got to the correct temperature (219.1-degrees) to be maple syrup.  

Worrying that we were doing something wrong, we called all of our maple producing friends and were told, "it just takes time." 

 I guess the first time you boil - before you're pushing condensed sap - it just takes a long time to get going. As our sap supplies got lower and the maple got thicker, but not quite thick enough, we decided we had to stop loading the evaporator with firewood and let it all cool down, because one of the worst things that can happen is you run out of sap, burn what's in your evaporator pans, and destroy the pans (a very expensive fix) in the process.  

Today, we have sap that's very close to being maple syrup and hopefully we'll collect more sap today and tomorrow and finally be able to finish it off.  

The learning curve is very high here!