Off Topic, maples are running
 

We've been making quite a bit of the maple syrup here. The sap is really running full bore now. Here is a picture of the new cooker one of my cousins built for this year. The ugly one in the picture is me. The good looking one is my child bride.

very cool :cool2:

Yea it's running good here to in N.Y., my Father in Law has 8 Big Maples tapped now and the barrels are filling up pretty good. Nice Pic and Enjoy the Taste of Srping!
(BP)

Neat!!! Nothing better than wild hog sausage and buckwheat cakes with real maple syruple.

I was talking to a friend of mine and he said the sap is real sweet this year. So he is really having a hay day. He gives me all the syrup I need. He makes about 15 gallons a year and some in his family will not eat the stuff.

That is a nice cooker you have there. Is your syrup dark or light this year in color? The stuff I got last year was really dark but had a real nice maple flavor. Do you make any maple hard candy or sugar?

When a friend I "used" to make syrup . All we had was a large stir pot over a wood fire. My friend took field stones and mortar, and made a fire pit that fit the large stir pot, with a small chimney off the back and an open front to feed the fire through. We'd go to the mill in town and get their oak and maple scraps and then just sit out there and make a day of it, cooking down sap. It was kind of fun. But a lot of work also. After his stroke, we lost interest in a lot of things we used to do, since he can not hardly get around.

The sap is running here also. My wife's buttermilk pancakes, from scratch, with fresh Maple Syrup life can't get any better. Thats a real nice cooker and it looks like your better halfe has everything under control.

:cool2: No sugar maples down this way. (The closest thing we have to "running sap" is me walking back and forth between the shooting bench and target frame.) But spring is crawfish season and we look forward to that in the same way you guys await maple syrup.

Hey Flounder, I can tell by the knees of your jeans that you are NOT the dominant member of that team. :happy0157:

Its been worst season on record for my family this year here in Mid-north NY. Its about done now. Very short season. We invested in a new evaporator last year. Put out 600 taps, and only gotten 35 gals syrup. Never had a year this bad yet, and we've been doing syrup in my family for around 50yrs. I've also heard from several others in NYS experiencing a bad season.

Our first batch of sap was super sweet and dark too. We got a gallon of syrup to each 25 gallons of sap. Making it is kind of addicting.
Art

My friend said they were doing 34/1 although I can remember some 40/1 years. Have you heard that you can make it out of popular sap also? I was told that, but was also told its about 80/1 so that is too much work.

I don't know about poplar but birch works. About 60/1 for yield so still a lot of work.

Just curious guys. Don't know a thing about making Maple syrup. Is boiling over a wood fire better, or just more traditional. Do folks use natural gas or propane also?

Wood is cheaper!!! We cook it right in the woods and there are a lot of dead elm trees. We do the finishing off on the stove so we can be careful not too go to far with it. We have two primary cookers going today, the season will be over soon.
Art

I have never heard of anybody in NC tapping a sugar maple. We have plenty of them around but maybe our sap does'nt flow like yours since its much warmer here. I sho do love maple syrup tho, and you know us mk85 lovers look out for each other..just kidding, heck of a setup you got there. We do have a fellow in VA that has a cabin near ours that gets some awesome honey from his beehives tho.

Your Damn FUNNY Semi! Hey how are them Crawfish? I saw em on Man vs Food and they look real tasty, do they compare to Crab Legs, if not what do they taste like?
Ron

In our spring, of course there is still frost. The trees over the winter also technically thaw out. What happens is in the evening the night temps get below zero and it drives the sap down the trunk of the trees into the root system, for the protection of the tree. In the morning the sun comes up and starts to warm the tree. The temps get above freezing and as the tree heats up, the sap starts back up the trunk of the tree. Your tap of course captures that sap as it moves up and down the trunk of the tree.

Once the night time temps stay too high, and the sap does not need to flow back down, then maple season is pretty much over. In the southern states where it is warm all the time, the sap is in the tree all the time. But on prime days during season, I've seem a big coffee can get filled pretty fast. It is not uncommon to empty in afternoon and the cans are about to over flow.

We then take the sap to the house. Run it through filters and strainers to get the bugs, bark, dust, etc out of it. Then pour it into containers and let it settle for a while.

We use wood because it is every where and free. You can use gas, electric, anything you like. You cook it very slow and stir the sap constantly. This boils the water out of the sap. And as the sap is reduced down, it starts to turn.

I have one friend that finishes his sap with a double boiler system, because at the end it is very important you do not over cook and or burn the sap. All of this affects the flavors and if you cook it too much you get maple crystals. They are pretty good actually.

Its a lot of work. Probably why I don't do it anymore. Actually the guy I used to do it with had a stroke and he can't and I just don't do it because friends always have some for me now.

Aw Breechplug, comparing crab legs to crawfish is like comparing hamburger to T-Bone. Both are good.....BUT...

Actually, lobster would be a better comparison as far as texture, but the flavor is different. Crawfish aren't as mild as either crab or lobster.

We boil our mudbugs in highly seasoned water, typically with all or most of the following: salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, mustard seed, coriander seed, dill seed, allspice, bay leaves, fresh quartered onions, fresh quartered lemons, and crushed garlic cloves. The flavor is "robust". Most folks throw some new potatoes, corn on the cob, sausage links, and whole mushrooms into the pot with the crawfish about halfway through the boil. Everything is dipped out and drained, then piled on large trays in the middle of the table. Help yourself - the mudbugs are hot and the beer is cold! (Be sure to suck the heads.)

My granddaddy in WV used to have a cooker that looked a lot like that. What he got out of it he didn't call "maple syrup" though. LOL. I guess it was a form of corn syrup.

Can some one explain to me the process of doing this and what you would need as a starter. I am interested and I think the kids would like to help but I do not know where to start. Thanks.

On a small scale all you need is something like a turkey fryer. It is just a process of evaporating most of the water out and then you end up with the maple syrup. We use a candy thermometer in the final stages so we don't go too far with it. I am sure there is a lot of info on the internet. I think the sap would be getting too buddy by now in Missouri.
Art

What do you guys use for taps? I assume it does not harm the tree.

The sprouls I use look like this:

My buckets hang right from them. It is more the old fashioned way of doing it.
It does not harm the trees as you are taking just a small amount of the total sap.
Art