Maple Sugarin' Time

Its that time again!

Time to make maple syrup.

 We tried something new this year, sealed buckets with tubing.

We've had ants get into the sap in the past.

This works great, no ants!

 The hardest part!

Boiling the sap on the trusty evaporator.

We got about 55 gallons of sap this year.

 We do a final boil inside where we can regulate the process.

Then we fill the bottles,

Cap them,

 Clean the sticky off them,

And finally, heat shrink a cover on the cap.

2019 batch is in the books!

Maple Syrup Making

The sap buckets have filled.

And we've collected the sap.

Forty-seven gallons total.

The evaporator is fired up.

The sap is boiling.

We bottled the syrup.

 2015 syrup batch is in the bottle!

The Sap is Finally Running!

After weeks of sub-zero temperatures the thermometer finally climbed above freezing.

Time to tap the trees!

Drilling the hole

Tapping in the spile

Within seconds the sap is flowing!

Maple sugarin' is finally underway

Sugarin' Time

A week of collecting sap yields 14 gallons of sap.

Buckets of sap are stored in a snow bank until ready for the boil.

The boiler, or evaporator, is ready to go.

We have lots of fire wood.

Let's fire up the boiler!

 Smoke

And steam

Make one small batch of pure maple syrup!

Fourteen gallons of sap produced 38oz. of maple syrup.

Another arctic blast is headed our way which will halt the sap flow,

but we'll be back boiling when it departs.

Maple Syrup Time

We've collected 20 gallons of sap & 

decided today would be a good day to try the new evaporator.

Rick, aka Bob the Boiler!

Five hours of boiling and lots of steam

A final boil on the stove

The end result:

21 maple leaf shaped bottles

& 

2 small sample jugs

Maple Sugarin'

Time to make maple syrup!

The warm temperatures have the sap running in the maple trees.

Collecting sap

Boiling

We started with 6 gallons of sap

The final boil inside.

The results:

17 sample bottles & 1 tiny jar

It takes 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup!

Making Maple Syrup

Several weeks ago I visited a nearby park for their maple syrup demo. I ordered some supplies and tapped 3 of my trees. Although I had missed the first two weeks of the season, the sap would be running 2 to 4 more weeks, depending on the weather. Within 3 days, I had 3 gallons of sap.

The turkey fryer was fired up and the boiling began.

I didn't have lots of sap, so I used a chain to suspend the thermometer in the liquid.

Here, I've switched to a smaller pan and the water evaporates from the sap.

Four hours later, I have 9 oz. of pure maple syrup.

YUM!

Maple syrup Time

Its maple sugar time in Indiana.
The nights are still below freezing, but the days warm up into the 40s & 50's causing the sap to run. Trees must be 10" in diameter to tap. This one is quite large and can handle 2 taps.

Trees are tapped with a spile and the sap collected in a bucket.

It takes 40 gallons of sap to make a gallon of syrup.
Here, the sap is boiled until the right consistency, usually 6-8 hours.

Delicious and pretty maple candy