Making "maple" syrup

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pmcgrady
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Making "maple" syrup

#1

Post: # 4668Unread post pmcgrady
Thu Jan 02, 2020 4:07 pm

Never made before but I've got a couple huge sugar maples, and lots of silver maples.
I've started taps that are 1 gallon and 13 gallon containers. I'm thinking to drill taps will be second or third week of February. Also going to drill a few of wild cherry and black walnut.
40:1 40+ gallons sap to 1 gallon syrup

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Nan6b
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Re: Making "maple" syrup

#2

Post: # 4669Unread post Nan6b
Thu Jan 02, 2020 4:39 pm

Can you make anything from cherry and especially black walnut? Birch works.

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worth1
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Re: Making "maple" syrup

#3

Post: # 4675Unread post worth1
Thu Jan 02, 2020 4:49 pm

Nan6b wrote: Thu Jan 02, 2020 4:39 pm Can you make anything from cherry and especially black walnut? Birch works.
Oh yeah black walnut works too.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q ... Eny6EVUgIg
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pmcgrady
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Re: Making "maple" syrup

#4

Post: # 4677Unread post pmcgrady
Thu Jan 02, 2020 4:57 pm

Nan6b wrote: Thu Jan 02, 2020 4:39 pm Can you make anything from cherry and especially black walnut? Birch works.
I will see what the cherry and walnut sap is... soon. No birch around here.

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pmcgrady
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Re: Making "maple" syrup

#5

Post: # 4685Unread post pmcgrady
Thu Jan 02, 2020 5:38 pm

worth1 wrote: Thu Jan 02, 2020 4:49 pm
Nan6b wrote: Thu Jan 02, 2020 4:39 pm Can you make anything from cherry and especially black walnut? Birch works.
Oh yeah black walnut works too.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q ... Eny6EVUgIg
Great article!
Unfortunately this property was log/logging for white oak and black walnut, half of the bigs walnuts already gone...
The white oak is going to make whiskey barrels (USA)
Last edited by pmcgrady on Thu Jan 02, 2020 6:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Tormahto
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Re: Making "maple" syrup

#6

Post: # 4690Unread post Tormahto
Thu Jan 02, 2020 6:13 pm

pmcgrady wrote: Thu Jan 02, 2020 4:07 pm Never made before but I've got a couple huge sugar maples, and lots of silver maples.
I've started taps that are 1 gallon and 13 gallon containers. I'm thinking to drill taps will be second or third week of February. Also going to drill a few of wild cherry and black walnut.
40:1 40+ gallons sap to 1 gallon syrup


Have you ever heard of Sweet-Sap Silver Maple (St Lawrence Nurseries)? It can be about 25 gallons of sap to 1 gallon of syrup. If I was young, and had the land...

To slightly change the subject, how about a story about "city folk". I know this woman, when she first got engaged, she and her boyfriend took a trip up north to Vermont. When she saw her first ever sap buckets, she asked him, "Honey, why do these people hang their garbage pails on trees?"

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pmcgrady
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Re: Making "maple" syrup

#7

Post: # 5325Unread post pmcgrady
Sun Jan 05, 2020 6:29 pm

Sounds great maple!
Silver Maple are so thick, they need mowed...
Got a few nice cherrys and walnuts today.

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pmcgrady
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Re: Making "maple" syrup

#8

Post: # 5850Unread post pmcgrady
Wed Jan 08, 2020 9:25 pm

The garbage pails might be removed soon to lead in galvanized buckets.
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pmcgrady
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Re: Making "maple" syrup

#9

Post: # 5851Unread post pmcgrady
Wed Jan 08, 2020 9:28 pm

I've been making a few of these
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OneoftheEarls
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Re: Making "maple" syrup

#10

Post: # 6721Unread post OneoftheEarls
Fri Jan 17, 2020 1:09 pm

Image
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Shule
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Re: Making "maple" syrup

#11

Post: # 6757Unread post Shule
Fri Jan 17, 2020 3:56 pm

Can you just drink the stuff strait from the tree (right after it's collected, I mean)? How does it taste that way?

Apricot trees seem to make a lot of sap. I wonder if you can make syrup similarly there, and if it's toxic or not. Apricots and cherries are in the same genus. Apricots seem to get big trunks fast, too, and they can live up to 150 years. It'd be nice to make use of them in areas where the frost kills all the blossoms some years.

I'm not sure what breed our one with the most sap leakage was.
Location: SW Idaho, USA
Climate: BSk
USDA hardiness zone: 6
Elevation: 2,260 feet

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Shule
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Re: Making "maple" syrup

#12

Post: # 6759Unread post Shule
Fri Jan 17, 2020 4:18 pm

If you can tap apricots, that would be great to breed them specifically for sap content. (Or it would be great to breed other tree species like that, for that matter.) Just find a fast-growing kind of tree that isn't toxic, and breed away.
Location: SW Idaho, USA
Climate: BSk
USDA hardiness zone: 6
Elevation: 2,260 feet

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pmcgrady
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Re: Making "maple" syrup

#13

Post: # 6765Unread post pmcgrady
Fri Jan 17, 2020 6:14 pm

OneoftheEarls wrote: Fri Jan 17, 2020 1:09 pm Image
Looks good! Are you tapping already?

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pmcgrady
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Re: Making "maple" syrup

#14

Post: # 6768Unread post pmcgrady
Fri Jan 17, 2020 6:25 pm

Shule wrote: Fri Jan 17, 2020 3:56 pm Can you just drink the stuff strait from the tree (right after it's collected, I mean)? How does it taste that way?

Apricot trees seem to make a lot of sap. I wonder if you can make syrup similarly there, and if it's toxic or not. Apricots and cherries are in the same genus. Apricots seem to get big trunks fast, too, and they can live up to 150 years. It'd be nice to make use of them in areas where the frost kills all the blossoms some years.

I'm not sure what breed our one with the most sap leakage was.
Sap tastes like water with a tinge of sugar.

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worth1
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Re: Making "maple" syrup

#15

Post: # 6800Unread post worth1
Sat Jan 18, 2020 6:15 am

Sweet things have been around forever but the affordability of them hasn't.
People went to extreme measures to make syrup from this tree sap.
And without me looking it up I can just about bet much of the sugars produced and or collected like honey were used to turn grains into alcohol.
I have read the sticky sap oozing from the mesquite tree is sweet.
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Tormahto
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Re: Making "maple" syrup

#16

Post: # 6810Unread post Tormahto
Sat Jan 18, 2020 9:02 am

The darkest of the darkity dark dark amber is for me. Light amber is the Yellow Pear of Maple Syrup. And go figure, I don't like most dark tomatoes.

OneoftheEarls
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Re: Making "maple" syrup

#17

Post: # 6814Unread post OneoftheEarls
Sat Jan 18, 2020 9:33 am

Old photos...I get A1 grade here and we tap in the spring.

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pmcgrady
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Re: Making "maple" syrup

#18

Post: # 7713Unread post pmcgrady
Sat Jan 25, 2020 2:32 pm

This morning, I made a test on 2 taps on a Sugar Maple. It is 34 degrees at 2pm and ran 5-6 oz already at this cold.
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Shule
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Re: Making "maple" syrup

#19

Post: # 7741Unread post Shule
Sat Jan 25, 2020 4:50 pm

Do we have any tropical members?

I've read that a palm tree that I believe is the Palmyra palm outproduces sugar maples by a lot. It might have been another species, but you can tap Palmyra palms.
Location: SW Idaho, USA
Climate: BSk
USDA hardiness zone: 6
Elevation: 2,260 feet

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Shule
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Re: Making "maple" syrup

#20

Post: # 7742Unread post Shule
Sat Jan 25, 2020 4:57 pm

Here's the link I saw about tapping 'Asian Sugar Palms': https://practicalselfreliance.com/trees ... tap-syrup/

I couldn't find a species commonly referred to as the Asian sugar palm, but I did find the Palmyra palm (Borassus flabellifer), which sounds like it might be what was intended.
Location: SW Idaho, USA
Climate: BSk
USDA hardiness zone: 6
Elevation: 2,260 feet

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