I doubt the harvest is gonna be that great this year. Sap runs best when you got sub freezing nights (colder the better) and warm sunny days. The cold makes the trees draw the moisture in, the warm allows it to run down and drain through the taps. And trust me, them trees are tapped long before February! With the warm weather we’ve had pretty much all winter, it’s gotta hurt production. These operations are a marvel to see. But I would really love to have done it in the early part of this century. 60 years or so ago it was a labor intensive undertaking, and whole communities took part. I know where some of those old sugar camps were at, and I helped The Old Man do it a few years after I got outta the Army. It’s all right if you’ve got help, but as the kids grew up, it was just too damn much for me and Dad. 7mm
"Preserving the Constitution, fighting off the nibblers and chippers, even nibblers and chippers with good intentions, was once regarded by conservatives as the first duty of the citizen. It still is." � Wesley Pruden
I have a client that has a commercial operation much like the one in the video. When they got their newest, bigger evaporator, they had to go to propane because they couldn't cut firewood fast enough anymore.
My family has made it for years, and while the flavor was always really good, it was always too thin for my liking.
We only tap 10 trees at home now and even just those can be hard to keep up with at times. Mostly running out of space to store the sap until we can cook it down on the weekends.
I don't have a way to check sugar content or anything like that, so always just go by "feel". I've had a batch or 2 where I got a little scared whether it was going to go through the filter and into the jar or not.
It has really good flavor, and you don't have to chase it around your plate.
We don't get the 40gals sap to 1gal syrup yield because I cook it down so much further to thicken it up, but we end up giving away 3/4ths of what we make anyways.
I don't have a way to check sugar content or anything like that, so always just go by "feel". I've had a batch or 2 where I got a little scared whether it was going to go through the filter and into the jar or not.
I used to boil with my grandfather. Like the other old timers he never had a hydrometer. They used to have a flat bottomed wooden scoop that they used as a tester. They judged if the syrup was ready by how it flowed off of the scoop. They would scoop some syrup and then hold the scoop tipped up at eye level. When the syrup started to make a nice apron as it dripped from the scoop, it was done.
I have always preferred lighter syrup, maybe because I was raised on it.
