drip drip drip........ sugaring season is here

Last weekend I went up the road and took pictures of maple trees that have been tapped on two of our neighbors properties. Using metal buckets is getting more rare since it is labor intensive so plastic lines has become popular. When I was a kid sugaring was done by members of our family with horses (Tom and Sara) today my nephew uses plastic lines and taps close to a thousand trees. Since we had a lot of snow this winter it has been hard for folks to get out into the woods but things are picking up with the 'big melt' that we are experiencing right now. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and be go below freezing every night........ helps the sap flow. Remember to enjoy those pancakes with REAL maple syrup!!!

David....... from the land of retreating snow and melting ice

The new approach using plastic.

I saw that exact same method the other day on "How's it Made". That's really neat.

I wonder if the southern sugar maple (A.barbatum) could be used for this purpose? I'd never attempt it, just curious.

What a marvelous tradition. There is a family here with a farm surrounded by suburban sprawl who tap their trees, run the lines, and boil it all down in a sugar shack. It is comforting to see this still going on.

I have read that any maple from the sugar maple family can be tapped, although in the south you might not get the great, surging sap flow that the north gets (or it might just occur earlier in the winter). As David implied, bright, sunny days above freezing and cold nights below freezing is what causes the sap to move up and down through the tree.

Actually, I have read that any maple, including boxelder, can be tapped, the few exceptions being those that have white, latexy sap like Norways. In fact, supposedly, the moosewood maple (Acer pensylvanicum) has the highest sugar to water ratio of the genus.

On a side note, we had eight decently sized sugar maples at our first house and for a couple of winters we tapped them. Great family project. We learned right away though not to boil the sap down in your kitchen as all of our walls and ceilings became encrusted in sticky, sugary goo. What a mess!

Scott

I have some decent syrup from silver maples.

Going to sugar shacks at this time of year is great fun, especially if the owner bring out a stash of good apple brandy :)

Emeril

I have heard that birch sap can make syrup as well, but sugar content is lower so one needs more than the usual 40:1 ( sap to syrup) ratio.

If it's warm overnight or if the temperature is too high during the day there is a greater chance of having problems with bacteria which reduces the quality of the maple syrup. The people that use plastic tubing have to flush the line with a bleach solution to get ride of the bacteria, I believe that there is less of a problem with buckets.

What happens if a moose decides it wants to walk through the wood? Can't see those plastic pipes lasting long!

Resin

When you say "sugar shack" I get this picture of a little ole place with a rusted tin roof, LOL, any chance you could post a picture of one?

I can't say's though you're all that far off, PGZ5. I'll see what I can do 'bout ona them pichas.

A. barbatum (which some people consider a subspecies of A. saccharum rather than a separate species) has been tapped for sugar, I understand. Some web-page descriptions say that it is a "limited source" of maple syrup. It's called the Florida sugar maple but actually it's found only in parts of the Panhandle. The red maple, A. rubrum, is found throughout Florida, and the only species of maple I've seen growing wild in the northern part of the peninsula.

I know that you have to tap before buds start to open or the sap and syrup taste "buddy" and unpleasant. With the fluctuating temperatures here in winter, sugaring in the South just might not be practical, although I have a very vague recollection of a Wall Street Journal article years ago that included a little about sugaring in I think Louisiana.

Yes, as far as I know, pretty much any maple that doesn't have milky sap like the Norway maple's can be tapped, but the concentration of sugar in the sap varies and may be impractically low in some species or some individuals of a species. Or high: there is a selection of A. saccharinum, silver maple, that was discovered in Canada and is being tissue-cultured and sold by a nursery in upstate New York: see http://www.sln.potsdam.ny.us/timber.html#Sweet_Sap It's supposed to have sweeter sap than the typical sugar maple. (And, yes, I've ordered some... haven't gotten confirmation of my order, and I hope it didn't get lost.) Perhaps some individual moosewood trees have especially sweet sap for their species as well, although those trees tend to be skinny. Silver maple takes the wet better, grows faster (to the point of weediness), and might be ready to tap a decade or so after planting.

Mark., I don't see a Florida sugaring industry springing up, mind you

Our sugar shack in Michigan was a big pile of stumps with a fire pit in the center with the old hardwoods and branches that fed the fire. We would stand out there all day bubbling the delights and then pour them on the snow to make maple sugar candy. Yes I miss being young.

How neat!!!!!!! I like the looks of the little pails hanging there. Looks kinda quiant and old fashioned. Cours e if I was havign to haul oodles and oodle s of them I probably would be wanting to look for a new method too. I so clumsy some times, it would be my luck to trip over one of them tube s and unhook all the trees.

Do they get the same amount of sugar out usign those tubes? They look so tiny. Seems it would be easier to scap a pail then to try and sueeze all the syrup out of a tube?

I with you PraireGirl . Wonderign what a "sugar shack ' looks like.

Singing away to the olie song. can't remember who signs it though.

Anyone got plenty of Sugar Maples?

Could you take a look in here, please! - someone is needing some seeds for scientific research.
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/705995/

Resin

Starlight--It's by Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs. Its been on more than one top ten list for worst lyrics of all time, but it had a great hook.


There's a crazy little shack beyond the tracks
And ev'rybody calls it the sugar shack
Well, it's just a coffeehouse and it's made out of wood
Expresso coffee tastes mighty good
That's not the reason why I've got to get back
To that sugar shack, whoa baby
To that sugar shack.

There's this cute little girlie, she's a'workin' there
A black leotard and her feet are bare
I'm gonna drink a lotta coffee, spend a little cash
Make that girl love me when I put on some trash
You can understand why I've got to get back
To that sugar shack, whoa baby
To that sugar shack, yeah honey
To that sugar shack, whoa yes
To that sugar shack.

Now that sugar shack queen is a'married to me, yeah yeah
We just sit around and dream of those old memories
Ah, but one of these days I'm gonna lay down tracks
In the direction of that sugar shack
Just me and her yes we're gonna go back
To that sugar shack,
Whoa uh ohT
o that sugar shack, yeah honey
To our sugar shack

[Fade]

Yeh, yeh, yeh, our sugar shack

I saw that post Resin and only knew of where one tre e wa s here, but couldn't find any seeds even down in the leaf litter. I know how frustrating it can be to be looking for seeds for a project and not be able to find them. Hoping too somebody can lend him a hand.

I know I typed it somewhere, but can't figure out on what thread I typed, or maybe I forgot to hit the send button, but wondered doesn't taken all that syrup out of the trees year after year damage or stunt them? How much maple syrup does one tree normally produce?

You just get the sap, boil it and then eat it is that right. Never seen the process.

Thanks Maackia. I spent 7 hours straight yesterday raking Oak leaves and ya can't hardly tell where I made a dent in them and have millions to go, will have that song stuck in my head while I tackle some more rakign today, this the time of year I wish I never ever seen an Oak.

Missing the season here this year because my good friends ( in their 80's ) having some health problems. Plus, my understanding of the freeze/thaw situation is that it has to do with flow, not with sanitation, because the sap, of course, is boiled releasing the water and retaining the syrup. Lots of wood used to render the 40 gal of sap to 1 gal of syrup. When you consume the "real" maple syrup, think of the incredible effort it takes to produce it, that's what makes it "sweet". Ken

Thanks for telling me how it works Ken. We all use maple syrup on pancake s and waffles and stuf f but til somebody shows and explains things to you, ya never really realiz e how it's done or the work that goe s into it.

Hopefully somebody will have mor e sugar pic s to share.

How can you tell the tree s are ready? Is it when they leaf out or does it go by temperature?

When the trees leaf out, the sap is no good for sugar. There's an article in today's Philadelphia Inquirer about sugaring in Pennsylvania, Pa makes 66,000 gallons of syrup a year. The farm that the paper talks about is in Bucks County and they make about 120 gallons from 600 trees. They get $8 for a 12 oz. bottle. The paper goes on to say that the 'foodies' predict that Maple syrup will be in big demand in the near future and that a lot of chefs are starting to use it in the trendier restaurants.

Bet there's also a lot of waffle been written about maple syrup . . .

;-)

Yuck yuck, har har.

Chuckles and giggles. LOL : )