Maple syrup time is here. There is only is a short window to collect the sap, usually there is about a six week period when the sap is running.
This year I tapped 16 Sugar maple trees.
When tapping a tree, a 5/16 in. drill bit is used.
The depth of the hole should be about two inches.
The hole should be drilled at a slight angle downward, this will help the sap flow into the spline and down the tube to the collecting chamber.
My son @ryan313 and our grandchildren were up for the weekend and that made the collecting of the sap that had run that night even that much more enjoyable.
As you can tell from the pics it was a perfect day for collecting.
For the sap to run, the night time temperatures must fall below freezing, and during the day the temperature must rise aabove freezing by at least 5 degrees.
All of the collected sap must be kept refrigerated and must be boiled within 7 days of collecting.
Being that there is sugar in the sap, if it is not kept cold, it will start to ferment and taste like vinegar.
After collecting sap for five days, it was time to get started and get the cooker ready to go.
Once the flames have died down and a bed of hot coals are established it is time to put the sap in the pans and start the boil.
I will be boiling down 29 gallons of sap, this will take about four hours and will produce around 68 ounces of pure Maple Syrup.
Throughout the boiling process the foam is removed with a fine strainer.
You can see the brown sugar sands collecting in the foam.
The more sugar sands that can be removed during the boil the sweeter the syrup.
During the boil there is a lot of time to sit and relax, why not have a couple of cold ones.
The skies were clear and the air was brisk, about 28 degrees when I first started the fire, but it would warm up nicely.
After a couple of hours of boiling we were down to three pans, combining the pans as we went.
Down to two pans, and time to change into something a little more suited for the balmy weather. 47 degrees now.
The All Day IPA's only work out if you have enough to last all day, had to switch to Stella.
Down to one pan, and almost ready to filter and place syrup on the outdoor cooker.
I like to switch to the cooker at the very end of the boil as you have a little more control over the heat.
With a little bit of imagination I almost feel like I'm sitting on the beach in Costa Rica with @dandays and @puravidavile. Toasty temperatures and white stuff all around, sitting in a beach chair.
With the sap all boiled down it is time to run through the final filter and bottle.
Ended up with only 48 ounces of syrup. Had my first boil over while doing the last boil in the kitchen, what a mess. Lost about 20 ounces of syrup. Oh well, first time for everything.
Boiled down a second batch on Thursday. Largest boil ever. 56 gallons of sap producing 132 ounces of syrup.
Bring on the pancakes, waffles, and French Toast
Hope you enjoyed! thebigsweed
Hey, @thebigsweed.
Twenty-nine gallons of sap for what would have been a little over a half gallon of syrup. I now have a new appreciation for that glorious tasty treat we pour over our pancakes, waffles and french toast.
Do you ever sell any of it? Or maybe you don't make enough to make it worth your while? I imagine, too, that it's nice to have homemade maple syrup for as long as you can. What's the shelf life after it's bottled?
If not for the snow on the ground, I would have thought you were with @puravidaville and @dandays. Forty-seven is far from balmy, I'm sorry to say. :) I guess you're all used to the cold, while I'm looking for tropical island to retire to.
Great job with the syrup and the walkthrough. Very deserving of a curie trail of upvotes, too. Congratulations. :)
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Thanks for the up-vote and reply. Last year I bottled just over three gallons which at the average rate of 50 to 1 that converts to 150 gallons of sap. With 4 children and 6 grandchildren the syrup is a treat that we like to give them when they visit the farm. We don.t sell any. I also barter with the egg lady.
The shelf life is over a year a we still lave 6, 9 oz bottles left from last year. It tastes as good as the day it was made. The key to preserving the maple syrup is to get the syrup in the bottles as soon as it has been filtered for the last time. The temperature when bottling should be around 200 degrees.
Thanks again for showing interest.
Always humbled!
Always appreciated.
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Hey, @thebigsweed.
It's cool just to think there's enough sap coming out of those trees to wind up with enough syrup to do anything with. :)
Okay, so there is some bartering going on. That's good. And there's some left over from the year prior, which is good, too. Meeting your needs on a regular basis.
I'd probably eat pancakes, waffles or french toast every morning if I could get away with it.
So, as far as storage goes, is it pretty much like the store bought kind where they don't need to be refrigerated until opening? Do they need to be kept in a place that is cool and dry, or some combination thereof?
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Extra syrup is kept in a cool dark place. @glenalbrethsen
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Ah I am looking forward to some awesome out door posts from you now that the seasonal transition is finally on us. This is a great one for sure and I love me some sweet tree blood!
I just did my recycling yesterday and returned a couple all day ipa cans and though of you and @cryptictruth. How is @ryan313? I am not sure if he has been away from posting a bit or I am just too busy and not seeing them but I miss his posts
Enjoy the spring my friend.
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I’m so ready for spring! I’ve made 2 gallons of syrup this year. It’s a fun process and a good excuse for weekday drinking.
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Day drinkin! Now you are singin my song!!
For as much beer I generally ha e in the house, it is a wonder I don’t have a serious problem but limit myself to a couple late in the evening.
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Day drinkin, no carryover the next morning, unless it extends into the night.
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Another maple syrup maker, cool. It has been so cold in this neck of the woods, we have only had a few days when the sap has run, but those few days it ran at almost a constant drip. In what neck of the woods do you live? We are from Upstate NY about 70 miles south of the Finger Lakes.
Ready for spring also. We can't wait to start to garden.
Thanks for the up-vote and the reply.
Always appreciated!
Always humbled!
I'm not sure how this comment ended up here, but it was intended for @cryptictrith. I cut and pasted it again under your comment, but it would still not cooperate.
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Another maple syrup maker, cool. It has been so cold in this neck of the woods, we have only had a few days when the sap has run, but those few days it ran at almost a constant drip. In what neck of the woods do you live? We are from Upstate NY about 70 miles south of the Finger Lakes.
Ready for spring also. We can't wait to start to garden.
Thanks for the up-vote and the reply.
Always appreciated!
Always humbled!
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I’m from Michigan. I live about an hour from the lake. The last two years have been great for sap production.
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When taking the shot of the Al Day IPA the first thing that came to my mind was @zekepickleman.
I like the term tree blood, it is totally appropriate as it is what carries all of the nutrients to the developing foliage.
Thanks for the reply and up-vote.
Always appreciated!
Always Humbled!
@ryan313 has been busy and is presently renovating a bathroom. I miss his posts as well.
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Good Job !!
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Thanks my love, and a great big thanks for the help with the cleanup.
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Incredible post, @thebigsweed! As I began reading, I was developing some questions and, the further I read, you answered each of them—well done!
I’ve never seen the process of extracting maple syrup. I honestly thought a maple tree just gives away maple syrup—“my bad.” Awesome article, sir, welcome back! It’s my pleasure to help this one gain some traction—good luck!
P.S The switch to Stella wasn’t near as smooth as your imagination. 👍🏿
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Thanks my friend, it is always great to hear from you.
It feels great to be back thanks to people like you that appreciate my posts.
Stay safe and keep us posted on your glorious adventure.
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Part of my family had a farm in Canada when I was growing up and I was involved in a number of these seasons. I was the age of your kids and not helping much. For some reason I remember this being done at night in the dark. I have no one left to ask if that is true.
But you missed something! At a certain point in the boiling, you are supposed to fling some syrup onto the snow. Then all the kids run around and pick up and eat the frozen candy, which I remember very well :)
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Yes! We did this part as well :) I loved frozen snow candy made with syrup. People made birch syrup where I grew up in Alaska and we got to do it a few times
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Alaska, where in Alaska. I love watching all of those Reality TV shows on Alaska.
Alaska The Last Frontier
Alaska Off the Grid
Yukon Men
Living Alaska
Alaskan Bush People.
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Haines, Alaska (in southeast Alaska). My father-in-law appears on an episode or two of Alaskan Bush People. The gold rush one is filmed in my home town (or up the valley where the gold creeks are, but Haines is closest town)
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That is really cool @carlgnash. With the destruction of the area that accompanies the mining for gold, what does the landscape look like when they are done.
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I'm glad to know you have those memories too. We had many birch trees on that land, but I do not remember getting syrup from them. I was friends with a girl who grew up in "nowhere" Alaska, as she called it. She has all kinds of living off the land stories. This is something to treasure.
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Depending on how much sap you are boiling down, I can see it lasting into the night. To boil down the mere 29 gallons of sap and the other batch of 56 gallons each batch took around 10 hours until it was in the bottles. If a larger amount of sap was collected, I could see the boil lasting well into the night.
I love the idea of tossing some into the snow, kind of like a snow cone. Will have to try that on my next batch, as it is going to snow again tonight. Who says you shouldn't eat the yellow snow.😁😁😁.
Thanks for the up-vote and reply.
Always appreciated!
Always humbled!
The site is acting a little funny @firinfunfood this comment was for you. thanks again thebigsweed
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Haha! Yellow snow for the win, @thebigsweed! Now that you say this, I know your are right about the time. It was my uncle's place and he had a huge grove of trees. I can remember trudging through. Those were long days as well as long nights. I think we kids missed a lot of it, but I am sure glad for the memories.
I hope you get photos of the syrup flinging. We had many cousins and everyone would be searching for it, since it melts in. And plus the dark lol. I think they had big lights on the trees where they were boiling. This was back in the 1960's since I am old!
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Nice! I grew up in MA just 5-10 mins away from the NH border- I remember field trips to see the maple syrup farms. My favorite was the syrup drizzled over shaved ice :)
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Maple syrup snow cone, no better than that.
Thanks for the up-vote and reply.
Always appreciated!
Always humbled!
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wow, it looks really fun
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lots of fun, especially when done with family members. If you love the outdoors like myself, it is a great activity.
Thanks for the up-vote and reply
Always appreciated!
Always humbled!
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Wow what a process, lol it must be really good if peeps are so fanatical about it
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A process for sure, but the end product is just so good and all natural. I think the best part of making the syrup is that the entire process is done outdoors. Collecting the sap is my favorite part. It always amazes me when I return to check the jugs, and 12 hours later the gallon bottles are full.
The sap is cleaner than any water you can find anywhere. I keep at least a gallon from every run just to drink.
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The Maple syrup manufacturing is really professional
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Thanks for taking the time to read and reply.
Always appreciated!
Always humbled!
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Congratulations on the trail, @thebigsweed. 👍🏿 Sweet! Not like maple syrup sweet, but “sweet,” like we’re all in the running for the @curie comment contest now. Quick, everyone, hurry!! Get in your quality comments—mark, get set...
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GO
Your sense of humor has not sweeted away, or is that sweated away.😁😁😁
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Humor—guilty! Sweet—undeniably! I beat all of the Curie commenters to your page—oh, I smoked’em! 😉
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I didn't know that it was quite a process like this actually :) Nice work @thebigsweed! Looks like kids enjoyed it too :)
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It is a process, and so rewarding when the final product is poured into the bottles. Just a little something else that one can provide for themselves. If you love the outdoors, then maple syrup making would be right up your ally
Thanks for the up-vote and reply.
Always appreciated!
Always Humbled!
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Yeah it is definitely something different than what we usually do outdoors. Thanks for the tips! Kind regards.
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Oh my God, I want some of that syrup ASAP. I don’t know if I’ve ever tasted boiled down, home grown and home made maple like that. A Belgium waffle with strawberries and a little of that syrup is making me drool right now.
Man, it’s good to see you back! Although, we are in Costa Rica, I think both @dandays and I would agree, being at your pad cooking down some maple and throwing back an all day beer sounds like heaven too. Do you think we’d have to pay steep import fees if we convinced you to send us some of that? Haha
Such a beautiful family you have there @thebigsweed. I must say congratulations on the curie hit too. Dandays was all excited for you. Way to make your entrance back into the Steemit blockchain Sir. Enjoy the rest of your weekend and let me know about those import fees? 😉
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I'll tell you what, you figure out a way for me to send you some maple syrup and it's a done deal. It would be my pleasure. Thanks for the compliment of our family, that means so much to us. As parents, we are extremely proud of the way our children have tackled life. At this point in our lives, we could not ask for too much more. I think the greatest compliment they pay us, is that every summer they want to hang out with their parents at the farm. To me that's pretty cool.
Trump is trying to balance the trade deficit, so I don't see where their would be a problem with exporting some syrup.
Stay safe and enjoy every minute of your adventure.
One last thing, get @dandays going on that sketch he promised you, he is sooooo talented.
Thanks for the wonderful reply.
Always appreciated!
Always humbled!
your pal thebigsweed
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Oh we’ll look into it then. I read this comment out loud and @dandays said “okay, let’s look into it and get back to him”. Haha… I tried to have some vitamins delivered here via my Mom but they would have been held at customs and then expensive to get out, if they let them out. We kind of scratched the idea of getting things by mail, unless they’re documents or something. If customs saw your homegrown maple coming through the mail and didn’t swipe it for themselves then I’d be shocked.
Actually, since we are in a location that is extremely hot and uncomfortable, we’ve been staying in more so getting him on that sketch isn’t such s bad idea. I will probably resume cooking again too. We can’t wait to be back at a usable beach. Haha
Your family seems like a great unit. Good job Mom and Dad! Dandays and I would love to be at the farm/mountain house too- looks like a lot of fun.
Happy Monday my friend !
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Hi thebigsweed,
Visit curiesteem.com or join the Curie Discord community to learn more.
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Thanks for the very generous up-vote, and especially for taking the time to curate.
Always appreciated!
Always humbled!
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Congratulations @thebigsweed! You have completed the following achievement on the Steem blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
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Vote for @Steemitboard as a witness to get one more award and increased upvotes!
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Thanks again my friends.
Always appreciated!
Always humbled!
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Howdy sir bigsweed! yay! Good to see you back. And you came back with a bang! Another wonderful hobby you have there I see, that stuff is a real blessing. Great job sir on this wonderful post with great pictures and very educational too!
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sir janton, it feels good to be back. On vacation for awhile, and busier then I wanted to be for the first couple of weeks after returning home. I see you have continued to entertain your remarkable audience with your western adventures, good thing for all of us, that so enjoy your content.
As always, thanks for your reply.
Always appreciated!
Always humbled!
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It's great to have you back sir bigsweed! God bless you and your whole clan and can't wait to see more interesting and entertaining posts!
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This is an amazing process and I really like following you with your photos!!!
I really like maple syrup and I usually prefer it to white sugar, because I know that it is more natural.
Spring is coming and the sun is becoming warmer: this is my favorite season in the year.
Congratulations and Steem on!!!
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I am thrilled that you enjoyed the content. No white sugar, that is such a key to living a healthy life. My wife uses it as a replacement for baking and cooking.
The spring can not get here fast enough, but I am afraid that we are still in store for some cold weather and snow here in Upstate NY. They are calling for several inches tonight.
Thanks for the up-vote and reply.
Always appreciated!
Always humbled!
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Okay, a topic that I actually can have confidence in saying that I know this already because I've taught about in a field trip and I forever remembered it to the core of my heart. As I can demonstrate here with these lump of cells responsible with knowing about maple syrup. Anyways, let's actually read the post and see what's in store for the reader.
Well better extract that tree nectar and extract it really hard! But yeah, interesting seeing how you guys did it there (in what I assume to be Canada or some Northern USA states), because my elementary school field trip had one where there was an elaborate system of pipes interconnecting between every tree to extract that holy maple syrup. So nice to see the various methods of extraction.
Yay! A family trip, wholesome for the whole family when we talk about maple syrup... WHY IS THAT CHILD WITHOUT A COAT! THROW COATS ON HER! Otherwise, that's an interesting fact I didn't hear (or probably don't remember) from my elementary school field trip; it must freeze and later heat up, probably stops the flow of maple syrup enough to where enough is backlogged to run when it does heat up. Is that mental folly wrong? Also those are just adorable pictures of those kids on the travel and near the fridge.
Anywho, that part about freezing and later heating up I did heard about from the field trip. The sugar sands is something entirely new and something to keep in mind of whenever I meet another maple syrup enthusiast like me. Anyways, what a good way to waste the time and keep an eye on something: beer!~ Also the next picture, totally not a discount Hulk Hogan, that's the real-deal one just thumbing up the beauty of what's being created! (What's with people up North wearing short clothes, was it really that neutral for weather to risk it. Must've lacked wind chills that day.)
What a mess! Welp, lessons learned and hopefully never repeated again in one's life time (and hopefully passed down so they won't make the same mistakes but new ones to tell their kids to not make)!~ Otherwise, let the feast finally begin!~ Nom nom c:
Las fotos / picturas (The photos / pictures): Before we do eat, how about we let those pancakes, waffles and french toast cook up just fine over there. Why? Because I want to yap on about these damn fotos and picturas! They are #clear and #clean - so much so that I can actually tell a lot from eyeballing it and not zooming the picture. They have #details and lots of it - like, details! They are blessed with #variety because that's the demand of the post of course - from the extraction sight to the cookers/boilers to the filtering site to the final product produced, nom nom~ c: - And how can I forget this one: A PECK TON OF FOTOS! BY THE FOURTEENTH GENERAL ORDER, THERE'S A LOT! Moving on, nothing else to say, but this picture to text ratio is completely justified.
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Thanks for taking time out of your day to really read and view the content in this post.
Field Trip, you must be a teacher.
I taught Special Education for over 30 years and loved every minute of working with young children with special needs.
The weather that day was splendid, and relaxing in the sun after a long cold and snowy winter warmed me down to my bones. We live in Upstate New York and had temperatures as low as negative 18 degrees, so temps in the high four-ties felt like summer.
Thanks again for your very gracious reply and up-vote.
Always appreciated!
Always humbled!
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Welcome for the comment now! ~^^~
Well I actually was trying to say when I was a wee little laddie waltzing around. Not your fault, should’ve reworded the above comment a bit better than I had. But yeah, that memory was long gone ago by now...
Three decades of experience for special eds and needs!!!!~ A hero in my heart! I used to be a special eds kid due to my speech impediment before I finally overcame it during the end of fitth grade and start of sixth grade. I argue I still have it, but never as heavily as I did in my elementary school days.
I can only freaking imagine seeing shorts on! My, my, I would have tossed blankets on all of you if I had seen that behaviour - no matter how hot it felt out! Then again, I really was mama’s boy and I hated seeing people wearing clothes opposite to the season - lest a miracle of warm weather like that showed up.
Welcome once again! Thanks for sharing the post now!!!!~
<3
<3
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THE PLEASURE IS MINE@theironfelix
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~^^~
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It is amazing how it changes color. You actually have to collect so much to get a little. No wonder it is fairly expensive as that is a lot of work in those jars.
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It is expensive and rightly so. Being retired, I try not to use that four letter word, w__k. I think of everything I do as hobbitational, once it feels like that 4 letter word, I change gears and get involved with another activity, or just take a nap.
Thanks for the up-vote and reply.
Always appreciated!
Always humbled!
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It's you guys that actually bring loads of interesting things on this place by sharing posts like this. I find this sort of thing fascinating and it is so real what you do. I have seen around 3 posts in the last week about the collecting and tapping of Maple syrup and I am hooked.
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