Maple Syrup: Season 2. For Sale and B.S. thread

What’s it worth to you? I have at least two unopened bottles.

 

We start tapping and boiling in February, usually get some bottled up in march / april

 

Sean...............Connecticut Maple syrup, bacon, and fresh picked sage....... ham heaven......................

 

Sweet jesus that looks amazing. Maple and pork heaven!!!

 

Easy as pie...just have to have some decent syrup.........and some good center cut smoked bacon.....3 hours...at 325...I highly recommend to anyone seeing this.........Use Pudges syrup if you have some left and cover the ham like a sour dough flapjack...............

 

I've got 3 more hams in the freezer. All are around only 7 lbs. Snacking hams..heh...heh...
Sliced up. My dog had two nice pieces.
Ham/navy bean soup with the rest.

Time to watch Oak Island......

 

Your syrup "glaze" is freakin nuts.....

 

Glad to hear that. I've done a glaze a few times and I have to say, nothing compares to using some pure, fresh syrup. Now I need to go buy some ham.

 

so....you might be bottling up some Connecticut gold in Feb/Mar????.....hmmmmmm.......

side bar........Why don't you do your own hams?? You know...the dry hams that you hang up to age for months after brining.. I think like a good Virginia ham if I'm not mistaken.

 

Yes sir. We start tapping trees in mid February and depending on how busy the season is, we try to bottle as we go. Last year we didnt have a chance to bottle til the end of the year. It's all so time consuming.
The ham thing I'd a good idea, could do bacon too. I know plenty of farmers right in town.

 

Ham like this.
https://pilotonline.com/life/flavor...cle_81f18f89-b016-58c6-abde-eeac2c1f1b28.html

 

Picked up some stuff at harbor freight today, huge holiday sale, small generator and pump (already returned and swapped pump for a 1/3hp 2000gpm). Got them both for right around 150.
This stuff will be used to pump from holding tanks in the woods to the 450 gallon tank in the truck. I tried last year and failed and my research led me to either a gas powered pump or better yet a sump pump. Gas pump would have been quote a bit more and I pile the sump pump idea.
I have one large grove of about 60 trees that are off the road and up a steep hill (but apparently not steep enough to gravity feed to the truck. Huge fail last season trying this), a bitch to haul sap to the truck 10 gallons at a time.
I will set up 2 tanks on top of the hill and fill them up with buckets of sap, saving a ton of time and energy navigating the muddy slope over and over. Then I'll dunk the pump in the tanks and pump it to the truck. This should work.

 

The gas powered pump idea was considered. The issue is connecting and disconnecting the hoses, needing to buy expensive 1.5" inlet and outlet hoses, and priming the pump. I spoke with a few guys who have gone from a transfer pump to submersible pumps and like them better.

If this saves some time and works, I have a couple spots I could maybe run some tubing to the holding tanks, which could allow me to tap more trees.

I will also be swapping over to plastic 1 time use taps in the trees, this is supposed to be the way to go now. It decreases bacteria buildup on the taps, which is what ends up closing the tap holes up and ending the season. They cost 15 cents and get chucked at the end of the season. In theory the new taps should extend the sap flow by a week or so which would be great.

The next investment, maybe after the upcoming season will be a reverse osmosis system. They go for about $3k but save time and fuel (wood burned in my case). They extract pure water from sap, one pass through the RO can concentrate the sap from 2% sugar to 3 or 4%. Doesn't sound like much but they can remove 50 gallons of water from sap in an hour. That's faster than my evaporator can cook it and they are cheap to run.

 

Those one time use taps, are they recyclable? It just seems like a lot of unneeded waste.

 

They are recyclable and biodegradable from what I have read. The issue is, it is nearly impossible to 100% remove the microbes from steel, aluminum, or plastic taps. Even after boiling and bleaching, the taps are never the same as new and are a mainlinefor bacteria to enter the trees. The studies are showing that it's best to only use taps once and them toss them. In my own experience I have found that newer taps produce more sap and less damage to the tree. New stainless steel taps are about $3 each, and even stainless harbors the microbes. These new taps and $0.15 and should increase profits and cut way down on cleaning times at the end of the year. These new taps also require only a 1/4" hole, opposed to 7/16" for the old metal taps, so far less damage to the tree and you can tap smaller trees with them.

 

Very interesting. Nice to know they are recyclable. What happens when bacteria enters to trees? Im assuming they get sick and die but is it something else?

 

The bacteria isnt bad for the trees at all, it's actually microbes that enter the tap hole and they start the "healing" process, basically the more and the faster the microbes enter the tree ....the faster the taps "dry" out. This shortens the syrup season and can produce bitter syrup on warm days towards the end of the season.

 

Wow, I just read the other thread. Can't wait to get some sap this year. Need to do more homework.

 

TODAY IS>>>>>>>>>>>>https://nationaldaycalendar.com/december-17-2018-national-maple-syrup-day-wright-brothers-day/

 

Just get tapping already!!
I missed out from before, so I will like to now place my order for a 50gallon drum of your syrup

 

Thats what she said.

 

Yep. I said it!

 

Finally got the wood for floors and walls of the firewood annex. Floor is 2x8 rough sawn, the walls are 1" pine varying widths. Roof will be coated metal panels. The wood was just milled so its wet. In the floor we butted the boards pretty close but they should shrink to a good gap for air flow. The rear and left side of the annex will be sided with pine, with 1inch gaps for air flow. The front will be open with some cattle fence to hold wood in. Rod goes on next week then we can fill it with fire wood. Itll hold about 6 cords

 

That's a very merry Christmas for them lol

 

Appreciate that Sean.

 

Got a sweet care package from another member!

 

Me want!