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Thread: Hey Folks it's sugar time

  1. #1
    Boolit Master Lead pot's Avatar
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    Hey Folks it's sugar time

    Well the subzero temp left us last Friday and it's perfect conditions for making the best tasting Maple syrup or maple rock candy.
    Get the drill out and tap some smiles through the bark and fill the buckets. There is nothing that tastes better on Sourdough waffles or just plane ice cream topping!!
    Kurt

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  2. #2
    Boolit Master

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    OK Kurt, you are making my mouth water.
    Sourdough hotcakes and real maple syrup. YUM

  3. #3
    Boolit Master Lead pot's Avatar
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    Dale, It's tough to beat.

  4. #4
    Boolit Man
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    I don't think I'll ever get used to the new style sap collection. I miss the days of the tin roofed buckets dangling from the trees. Now it looks like a spiderweb running through the forest. There is a local guy who must run 20 miles of the tubing and he has it all funneled to an old water tanker trailer.

  5. #5
    Boolit Master Lead pot's Avatar
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    The old days did a lot of damage to the trees. The "new" way you just have a little 5/16 hole and when you pull the pile you plug the hole to stop the sap flow when you have enough and that keep the carpenter ants from digging in deeper.
    No bugs or bitter bark get into my buckets or watered down by rain.

  6. #6
    Boolit Grand Master

    Wayne Smith's Avatar
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    Memories - grew up until age 12 in central Maine and we boiled our own. Not to sell, just to use. Now in coastal VA and have to buy it at Sam's!
    Wayne the Shrink

    There is no 'right' that requires me to work for you or you to work for me!

  7. #7
    Boolit Master
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    I just hope the Chinese don't try to fake it and flood the world market like they done with honey.
    Last edited by farmbif; 02-26-2021 at 10:02 AM. Reason: hate auto correct

  8. #8
    Boolit Master Lead pot's Avatar
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    The trees I planted in my yard was for doing this. Some are going on 55 years and the rest planted them self. I do this for my use and give a lot away when I do this every two years to resupply the basement shelf. I usually pick on 3 to 5 trees, this spring I just tapped three and that will last me, Family and friends for another two years.
    That tree in the picture will over flow that 5 gallon bucket over night. I don't use pumps sucking the tree dry.

    farmbif,

    The Chinese have one objective and that is they want to run this Country and our liberal politicians are letting them get away with it.

  9. #9
    Boolit Man
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    Quote Originally Posted by Lead pot View Post
    The old days did a lot of damage to the trees. The "new" way you just have a little 5/16 hole and when you pull the pile you plug the hole to stop the sap flow when you have enough and that keep the carpenter ants from digging in deeper.
    No bugs or bitter bark get into my buckets or watered down by rain.
    Not denying it's a better alternative, but it just looks weird to me. I can't tell you how many times we were out in the woods as kids and when you got thirsty you just took the pail off the spout had a drink and put it back. Bark and bugs was just your daily intake of fiber and protein.

  10. #10
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    Wish I had some sugar maples to tap!

  11. #11
    Boolit Master
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    For years in NH I had 300 yards of tubing to 116 spiels to a sugar bush in brush so thick that the snow didn't melt until May that made 5-6 gallons of syrup easily. I had a soda syphon-a carbonator gadget- put sap in it and a CO2 cart would make fizzy maple soda. Added a medicinal dose of Southern Comfort, was cold out there.

    "Backyard Sugarin'" by Rink Mann is free pdf shows the lowbudget approach that I used.

    Don't ever finish syrup in the house, you will never get rid of the ants.

  12. #12
    Boolit Buddy Dunross's Avatar
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    Our sugar maples are starting to leaf out now. They grow down here in north Florida as well and are a fairly common landscape tree. Unfortunately we do not get the right kind of weather such as they get north of the Mason Dixon so maple sugaring does not work here.

    Our sugar time is typically the first week of December when the sugar cane is ripe and syrup boiling starts.

    I married a New England girl so I keep real maple syrup for her and one of my daughters who prefers it. For myself and the other daughter we eat real cane syrup (seldom found in grocery stores even in my area). It always makes us laugh when one of my kids have a friend over for breakfast and they ask for "real syrup" after we put the cane and maple syrups on the table. One of my eldest's friends even brought over her own bottle of Aunt Jemima for us to keep for when she's with us at breakfast! (laughing)
    Chance favors the prepared mind.

  13. #13
    Boolit Master Lead pot's Avatar
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    The trees are running late this year. Just last Friday the temp was still below zero at night and low single digits during the day but the snow is deep so that should keep the frost from going too deep.

    Dunross, when my cookie munchers come they said the something with out trying it. the next time I just put it in a syrup bottle from the store and just put it on the table and the waffles just disappeared LOL.

  14. #14
    Boolit Grand Master

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    Quote Originally Posted by Dunross View Post
    Our sugar maples are starting to leaf out now. They grow down here in north Florida as well and are a fairly common landscape tree. Unfortunately we do not get the right kind of weather such as they get north of the Mason Dixon so maple sugaring does not work here.

    Our sugar time is typically the first week of December when the sugar cane is ripe and syrup boiling starts.

    I married a New England girl so I keep real maple syrup for her and one of my daughters who prefers it. For myself and the other daughter we eat real cane syrup (seldom found in grocery stores even in my area). It always makes us laugh when one of my kids have a friend over for breakfast and they ask for "real syrup" after we put the cane and maple syrups on the table. One of my eldest's friends even brought over her own bottle of Aunt Jemima for us to keep for when she's with us at breakfast! (laughing)
    I remember when AJ had real maple syrup in it. And I remember the percentages getting smaller and smaller until it just went away. I have to have pure. It is a luxury I give myself. My wife and daughter want whatever AJ puts in a bottle now. Breaks my heart.
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  15. #15
    Boolit Master
    CastingFool's Avatar
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    I have tapped our 3 maple, for two years. The boy scouts will cook the sap, you get half the yield. Anyway, it's nice to have 3 or 4 qts of maple syrup

  16. #16
    Boolit Buddy Dunross's Avatar
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    When my oldest was little Aunt Jemima was ALL she wanted. I put up with that for a while, but finally got to thinking about the fact that I was putting real maple syrup, real cane syrup AND Aunt Jemima on the table. That had to stop!

    The flavor difference between AJ and cane syrup is too great to try to fool someone so what I did was the next time the AJ bottle got low I simply filled it with real maple syrup. When it ran low again I repeated this. As you can see the percentage of AJ was growing less and less with every refill. I strung her along like this for about a year until I finally tossed the AJ bottle and only put out the maple and cane syrups. As you would expect she threw a fit until I said, "let me explain what you have been eating for a year now." (laughing)

    My youngest has never eaten anything but real maple or cane syrup and that's what she likes. Mostly cane syrup, but on occasion she'll go over to the "dark side" and have some of her mama's maple.

    Interestingly enough for you folks who eat at the Cracker Barrel restaurants they split the difference with their table syrup. It's a 50/50 mix of maple and cane syrup. Thought it tasted odd the first time I ate it then I read the label and liked it well enough.

    When we're in Maine visiting the wife's kin I eat maple syrup and enjoy it.
    Chance favors the prepared mind.

  17. #17
    Boolit Master Lead pot's Avatar
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    I started making Artisian bread and put a 1/4 to 1/3 cup of maple syrup in it or I use the maple sugar. The flavor just barely is noticed but it makes it good tasting.
    Making a sourdough Artisan bread the sourdough overrides the maple taste.

  18. #18
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    I was spoiled as a kid growing up, there was a maple grove and sugar operation just 3 miles out of town. During sugar season I would ride bike out there and help keep the fire going, split wood, stir... whatever they needed. My pay was syrup I could sell or use. I got 1/20th of their output and that was 5-6 gallons of syrup a year. I would repack some into pint jars and sell it in my Mom's Green Stamp store(remember those?). Kept 2 gallons for the family of 7 to use. I made a little extra cash at a time of year I didn't have any rock picking or bean weeding to do, and helped feed the family. Sugar operation was sold out before they started production and had a waiting list. End of season they would tell people to check with me to see if I had any of my share left over. So I always sold out.

    I got that job because the owner saw my interest in it plus he knew I was a hard worker(I did some field work for him every year)

  19. #19
    Boolit Master
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    Never tapped a tree, but I love me some maple syrup! As to the Chinese, I cook some Chinese style dishes I use maple syrup in, Mongolian Beef being one.

  20. #20
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    As a youngster living in the Northeast, I loved vanilla ice cream with maple syrup. Sadly, now that I have type 2 diabetes, all that is a no go. And a big stack of pancakes, covered in butter and syrup. I can still taste it as I think back.

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