A couple people asked me to expand a bit on my maple syrup entry – so here we go.
My great-great-great grandparents settled what the family farm in 1882. The original farm was 80 acres, including 8 ˝ acres of sugar maple. GGG Grandpa George produced syrup from about 30 trees – enough for family use, and a bit for trading for household goods. George’s three sons expanded the operation to include all 8 ˝ acres. My grandfather farmed from the mid 40’s to the 80’s, expanded the farm to 200 acres, and continued maple production. My dad continued the maple operation, but all of the farm land is now rented out.
The current operation consists of about 350 trees, and 700 “taps”. A tap is the individual hole drilled into the tree. Some of the bigger trees are tapped three times, and the smaller trees are tapped once. The average tree is tapped twice. Each tree needs to be tapped new each season. The hole in the tree heals over, and cannot be used again. We start the season at the beginning of March. We’ve tapped as early as about Feb. 26, and as late as about Mar. 5. We have a gas powered drill, with a 7/16 bit. It takes 7-8 hours, with two people working to tap our woods.
Until 8 years ago, each of the taps had an individual bucket that needed to be collected by hand every day that the sap would run. Then we took a great step forward, and put in a plastic tubing system. Now, all but about 15 trees are on the tubing system. This saves a tremendous amount of labor. It has also increased yield by about 15-20%. Very little sap is now lost to spillage, or rain contamination.
The sap comes out of the tree at a sugar concentration of about 2-2.5%. The sap needs to be boiled down to a 67% sugar content. We have a specially manufactured maple evaporator that is fueled by wood. Others use fuel oil or propane. On average, it takes 40 gallons of raw sap to make 1 gallon of finished syrup. This amount varies throughout the season. At the beginning of the season, it takes about 35 gallons of sap to one gallon of syrup, and at the end of the season to ratio is closer to 50:1. A way to visualize that is that a 5 gallon bucket of sap will boil down to a pint of syrup.
Last season, we took another technological step forward, and purchased a reverse osmosis (RO) system. The RO removes about 40% of the water from the raw sap, before we begin the boiling process. The RO concentrate boils down much more quickly, and saves a lot of fuel.
A season may last anywhere from two to seven weeks. The end of the season is driven by weather. When the trees start to bud new leaves, the season is over.
This season was a short one, because of the unseasonably warm temperatures. An average year will yield 160-175 gallons of finished syrup. In 2011 we produced 230 gallons, and this year 120 gallons.
We sell some of the syrup to friends and neighbors who have purchased nearly every year. I mentioned in my previous blog about opening the woods to the community. DW has begun marketing on the internet. Mom and dad still travel to flea markets and community festivals. It’s our hope that by time DW and I take over completely that we will not need to sell at festivals and flea markets.
We gross anywhere between $7K and $10K, and expenses run at about $6K. So, not a lot of money. Plus, once you figure in our time, we work for peanuts. It’s a labor of love, really. A hobby that doesn’t cause us to go broke. We sold $2,500 of product this past weekend at the home school tour and community open house.
If I can figure out how to upload some pictures, I will.
More on maple syrup
March 19th, 2012 at 08:21 pm
March 19th, 2012 at 08:56 pm 1332190602
March 19th, 2012 at 09:49 pm 1332193787
March 19th, 2012 at 10:06 pm 1332194791
I saw the blue (I think they were blue) sap collecting tubes as I was driving along near my childhood home a couple of years back and at first could not figure out what they were! Very strange site!
March 19th, 2012 at 10:22 pm 1332195734
March 20th, 2012 at 12:06 am 1332201960
March 20th, 2012 at 12:51 am 1332204676
March 20th, 2012 at 03:12 am 1332213151
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Should see your pictures!