Maple syrup time?

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Originally Posted by Hunter John

Question for you syrup guru's. My son collected 5 gallons of sap and we just started boiling the first half. Once it starts boiling do I reduce heat and low boil or keep it at a rolling boil.? Never done this before and when I came home from work on monday my son had tapped our tree and rigged up a pretty efficent collection device from items he found in the car port so I said we would try it out.

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Yes, boil as hard as you can until it gets down to what I call "nearup".

Once the sugar content gets high enough you will notice it change. It will foam and try to boil over the pot. This is when you reduce the heat some.

Use a thermometer and see what temp your sap boils at. Once the temp raises 7 degrees higher than what your thermometer reads with pure sap, you have syrup.

It takes a while. The general rule is 40:1. A 20 litre pail should yield you 500ml of syrup.

Any questions just ask.

S.

TOTAL novice here! I would like to try making some maple syrup and was wondering two things. First, is it too late to tap a tree now and can I tap a Manitoba Maple? I live in Caledon. Thanks!!

Yes you can tap a manitoba maple, but the sugar content isn't as high as a sugar maple, so you need more sap to get the syrup.

Its really hard to say if its too late. This cold weather this weekend might start a whole new run.,

You need below zero temps at night, and above zero in the day to make the sap flow, so if we get more cold nights and warm days, it will flow.

S.

I started two weeks ago and with this cold weather only got 5gals of sap, hopefully with the warmer weather coming this weekend will get more.If it don't start soon will have to pull every thing as we have more important jobs to get done.

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Originally Posted by duckbnot

TOTAL novice here! I would like to try making some maple syrup and was wondering two things. First, is it too late to tap a tree now and can I tap a Manitoba Maple? I live in Caledon. Thanks!!

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Lots of folks do Manitoba maple here in the Northwest and also in Manitoba.
But...if you don't have Sugar maples, the next best is Red maple.

I did some Manitoba maple last year. The syrup looks good and tastes nice up front. But there is a weird after taste. This happened even early season so it was not just being "buddy".

Personally, I wouldn't do Manitoba Maples again.

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Originally Posted by johny

Lots of folks do Manitoba maple here in the Northwest and also in Manitoba.
But...if you don't have Sugar maples, the next best is Red maple.

I did some Manitoba maple last year. The syrup looks good and tastes nice up front. But there is a weird after taste. This happened even early season so it was not just being "buddy".

Personally, I wouldn't do Manitoba Maples again.

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Thanks for the info. I'll collect for the rest of this week and boil on Saturday. Curious to see how it comes out.

This past week put a hold on things with 30cm+ of snow and -15c temps but starting today we'll get some prime weather conditions, I don't think it'll last long until the buds show up on the trees. We started late but have about 12 trees tapped around the driveway and have 4 litres of syrup so far, maybe 1-2 litres more to come(I hope). Always a great time of year.

It has been by far our best year in a long time. Froze solid over the weekend but the sap is running again today, probably the last week we are headed into. It has been several years since I have run out of firewood for the burn and I am likely to run out sometime this week and close out the season!

Sap flowed overnight again. All buckets 1/2 - 3/4 full this morning as of 10:39am.

We too are out of this year's wood and burning next year's stockpile. If it's not done this week... We may have to drop a few of the standing dead trees. Lol

Stubborn father still hasn't set up the pipe 'n pump system I put money into to save the legs & back this season.

He's regretting it now I tell you. Nothing like hauling 2x 5gallon pails of sloshing sap around a rocky bush that'd make a goat watch its step to make you regret certain life decisions.