Maple Syrup 2024

Our new house has a bunch of maples in the yard and in the woods. We’ve never had easy access to enough trees before and we’ve been looking forward to making some syrup.

In preparation we marked a bunch of trees with paint in the fall, have been saving jugs and I joined a maple syrup FB group to pick up tips and learn.

With the temps as of late and the forecast ahead people are tapping in Minnesota/Wisconsin!!!

Hank knocked his teeth out on a chair yesterday at school, so this morning before his appointment we tapped 18 trees. The sap was instantly dripping and I already think we’ll end up with more than we can handle lol

What a crazy year!

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I just noticed one of my maples looked like it was leaking! Guess I need to get some taps, and give it the ol college try.

A buddy photographed tapped trees near Annandale yesterday and sent it my way. I am tapping the maple in my back yard today to see what’s happening. Not really ready to boil yet, need to pick up wood. Could be a crazy syrup season.

I need to get some taps out my dad said his were running. As much of it as my kids eat I cant miss out.

Some people here in SE MN started tapping 4 or 5 days ago already. I saw a video of a college buddy in Western WI boiling like mad at their sugar shack.

we started with a 12 tap trial run on Saturday. Almost all the trees are leaking. Heading out today to add a few dozen. Hard to believe we’re tapping trees in January, but here we are.

sap is definitely flowing around here! I’d be curious to know the sugar content if anyone is measuring?

My Latvian Grandpa used to tap maples and just drink the sap straight-up – said that’s what they liked to do in the motherland. Never made syrup. Quite honestly, It may have been a means of survival, running from the Rooskies at the end of WWII and it just became a comfort food for him.

how long will maple syrup last? sealed in a glass bottle, wax dipped sealing?

As long as your sugar content is high enough. Years.

i have a bottle from 2004. still looks golden and pure. think it still might be good? I bought it from an old couple in northern vermont who made and sold syrup and maple candies for basically ever.

Well Hank went and collected the sap.

In three hours he got three gallons

I’m in way over my head lol. Still have to get a couple barrels for storage and build an evaporator

Aint worth your time until you have at least 20 gallons then you will get about 2 qts for your effort.

Who knows being early and ground really never even freezing maybe sugar content will be high this year. Or bad.

JEREMY wrote:

Aint worth your time until you have at least 20 gallons then you will get about 2 qts for your effort.

Completely agree, I’m just saying I’m not ready, and at this rate I’ll be overwhelmed in a hurry with this crazy weather. I really want to use wood for fuel and I’m not ready yet. Thought I had another 6 weeks to get going lol

B-man wrote:

I’m in way over my head lol. Still have to get a couple barrels for storage and build an evaporator

welcome to the rabbit hole that is maple syruping! its a black hole of your time.

make sure to keep the sap as cold as possible until its time to boil. I’ve found about 7-10 days is the max you want to go before doing a boil, otherwise the sap starts to spoil and will ruin your entire batch if you use it.

ThunderLund78 wrote:

My Latvian Grandpa used to tap maples and just drink the sap straight-up – said that’s what they liked to do in the motherland.

Sap is basically ~97% water, give or take depending on the sugar content. I’ve used it as the water in my coffee maker before and it made the coffee have a little natural sweetened taste to it. I’m a black coffee drinker so I wasn’t really a fan of it but sap is essentially just sweetened water, theres a lot of stuff you can do with it.

B-man wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>JEREMY wrote:</div>
Aint worth your time until you have at least 20 gallons then you will get about 2 qts for your effort.

Completely agree, I’m just saying I’m not ready, and at this rate I’ll be overwhelmed in a hurry with this crazy weather. I really want to use wood for fuel and I’m not ready yet. Thought I had another 6 weeks to get going lol

Evaporator doesn’t need to be fancy. Mine is a 55 gallon drum with a stove kit, 8 foot pipe and a rectangular cut out on top of the barrel that fits a stainless steel food service tray. The interior is lined with firebrick on the bottom, makes the stove a lot more efficient. Preheat sap with a propane turkey fryer. Small scale operation, I boiled 200 gallons of sap last year, yield was 5.5 gallons of syrup.

Have to ask how Hank managed to chip his teeth on a chair?

Ripjiggen wrote:

Have to ask how Hank managed to chip his teeth on a chair?

The teacher said it was a crazy accident with nobody at fault, but somehow Hank’s teeth and his brother’s chair met at a high rate of speed?? (Something about Hank running and Ben standing up and sliding his chair back)

Neither are pressing charges

They emptied their “maple traps” tonight, up to 4.75 gallons from 10am this morning.

Oh the sagas of Hank and Ben!! Never a dull moment B-man.

Hope they both know the tooth fairy doesn’t come for partial teeth or teeth you knock out of your brothers mouth.
Reminds me of my childhood with 2 older brothers. Man we did some dumb stuff.

Went for it yesterday afternoon and put out all 50 taps. 85% of the trees were leaking as soon as we drilled the hole and pounded in the tap. Of the dozen or so that were out from this past weekend, we’re sitting on about 8 gallons already. Some trees are running better than others. Curious to see how long the season goes. Especially after last years dismal season. The temps look perfect for as far as they are forecasting.

I have some giant maples on my yard that I am sure would be good for this, but reading your guys’ comments it sounds like a ton of work LOL

My lord you guys are tapping already lol.

I was thinking about it but man we still have a long ways to go in northern MN, and who knows what the weather will bring.

Charles wrote:

My lord you guys are tapping already lol.

I was thinking about it but man we still have a long ways to go in northern MN, and who knows what the weather will bring.

It seems way to early for me as well! But the temps here around Cambridge the next 10 days are perfect and I don’t see much of change in the long run. Gotta get while the gettin’s good. lol

B-man wrote:

Completely agree, I’m just saying I’m not ready, and at this rate I’ll be overwhelmed in a hurry with this crazy weather. I really want to use wood for fuel and I’m not ready yet. Thought I had another 6 weeks to get going lol

We’re not ready at all either! Lol. Today we’ll get the holding tanks rinsed out and start getting our cooker in place. If they run all week like they were yesterday, we’ll be cooking Saturday, no doubt!

IceNEyes1986 wrote:

e’re not ready at all either! Lol. Today we’ll get the holding tanks rinsed out and start getting our cooker in place. If they run all week like they were yesterday, we’ll be cooking Saturday, no doubt!

Where you at in Cambridge? I am from the Cambridge area and still have folks live down there.

It doesn’t have to be fancy. I’ve been going at it about 10 years and went as follows:
1. 10 qt pot over turkey fryer on propane – That ended the year I used three 20 lb LP tanks to make one gallon of syrup (NOT cost effective)
2. 16×22 pan on concrete block temp stove using wood
3. Barrel stove using same pan
4. Home-built RO system added last year. Greatly reduced boiling time, but still using old pan.

Ultimately, it’s about surface area and good heat. I actually really liked the CMU block idea (stable) but it was such a pain to put up and take down each year and the blocks crumble from the heat. The photo is from a few years ago. The round pan is pre-heat. There is a squirrel cage fan adding air to the bottom in the front.

You will probably spend more than you make in the value of the syrup. But, I enjoy getting out in the yard and utilizing the resources on my property. The pan is one of the most expensive parts unless you get bay with restaurant pans. The RO I built was under $300 and will hopefully last many years. Good luck!

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