# The start of sugaring season for me!



## ScotO (Feb 18, 2012)

Some vids of my simple, redneck sugaring process.  Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_WjIvowPCA&feature=youtube_gdata_player


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## ScotO (Feb 18, 2012)

Here's the redneck evaporator.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cT4DMiDoytg&feature=youtube_gdata_player


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## stejus (Feb 18, 2012)

I'd love to be right there with you with a bottle to fill up and bring home!  The neighboors must love the smell of maple sugar blowing through the air too!   Enjoy


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## JustWood (Feb 18, 2012)

How come no hot dogs or eggs in ???? 
I help the neighbors collect and boil. Been boiling since the 6th of Jan. One has over a thousand gallons of syrup under his belt already.


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## ScotO (Feb 18, 2012)

luckilLEE said:
			
		

> How come no hot dogs or eggs in ????
> I help the neighbors collect and boil. Been boiling since the 6th of Jan. One has over a thousand gallons of syrup under his belt already.


That's awesome Lee ....we'll be doing the hot dog cook on Presidents day.  Boiling off on Monday too.  I'm hoping for 20 gallons of syrup this season.  I should've started in January too.......its been mild enough I could've ended up with a hundred gallons had I started earlier!!


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## ScotO (Feb 18, 2012)

stejus said:
			
		

> I'd love to be right there with you with a bottle to fill up and bring home!  The neighboors must love the smell of maple sugar blowing through the air too!   Enjoy


Stejus I'd be glad to have ya!  The more the merrier.  Its gonna be a busy day here on Monday, lots of people coming to check it out, eat, drink, and have a good time.....


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## RORY12553 (Feb 18, 2012)

Scotty Overkill said:
			
		

> Some vids of my simple, redneck sugaring process.  Enjoy!
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> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_WjIvowPCA&feature=youtube_gdata_player



You should get a show in discovery like those guys that do moonshine! Would have to spice it up a bit but i'm sure you could get input from people! Would be great! I expect some syrup delivered to my house if the idea takes off! Good luck and have fun!


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## ScotO (Feb 18, 2012)

RORY12553 said:
			
		

> Scotty Overkill said:
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lol RORY .......maybe give Larry the Cable Guy a run for the money, eh? ;-P


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## yooperdave (Feb 18, 2012)

Scotty O, I was just thinking about this recently.  I'm wondering if the mild winter/temps has lead to an early sapping season??  What say you?


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## RORY12553 (Feb 18, 2012)

Scotty Overkill said:
			
		

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No doubt...Larry would have nothing on you! Honestly I would love to see how the whole process takes place so any videos you have would be great.


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## ScotO (Feb 18, 2012)

yooperdave said:
			
		

> Scotty O, I was just thinking about this recently.  I'm wondering if the mild winter/temps has lead to an early sapping season??  What say you?


yooperdave, yes it absolutely has lead to an early season...did you read Lee's post in this thread?  He said his neighbors started in January! !  That's unheard of in New  England....I kinda wish I had started earlier.  But I'll be happy if I get a couple good weeks.  According to the weatherman, next week ain't looking so good for sugaring here in PA.


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## ScotO (Feb 18, 2012)

RORY, we'll have more vids as the season goes on.  We're tapping more trees tomorrow I'll do a short video on that as well as a video on how I finish it off.


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## Backwoods Savage (Feb 18, 2012)

Scott, that is a great way to make syrup. I remember boiling on a rig similar to yours but we always had our evaporator under a roof for sure. I talked to a friend who makes syrup every year. He got all the buckets washed two days ago. Figures on tapping next week if all goes well. I sort of chidded him for not being on the ball and tapping earlier. He says he will be happy if he gets 150 gallons this year. The weather will have to cooperate a whole lot better if he gets that much. There wouldn't be much of a run today but we expect somewhat of a warmup next week. 

btw, that is a great run you have there. I was surprised to see it dripping that much and this is only February! Enjoy.


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## ScotO (Feb 19, 2012)

Backwoods Savage said:
			
		

> Scott, that is a great way to make syrup. I remember boiling on a rig similar to yours but we always had our evaporator under a roof for sure. I talked to a friend who makes syrup every year. He got all the buckets washed two days ago. Figures on tapping next week if all goes well. I sort of chidded him for not being on the ball and tapping earlier. He says he will be happy if he gets 150 gallons this year. The weather will have to cooperate a whole lot better if he gets that much. There wouldn't be much of a run today but we expect somewhat of a warmup next week.
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> btw, that is a great run you have there. I was surprised to see it dripping that much and this is only February! Enjoy.


Thanks Dennis.  My system isn't perfect, but it has come a long way from the old kettle over the open fire that I used to use.  Believe it or not, I still have a jar of that syrup from the kettle, I made it around 6 years ago.  It's kinda sentimental (and still useable) but I think I will hold onto it.  I built this evaporator over a year ago and it is working great.  It was VERY windy here today, and it never skipped a beat.  I plan on utilizing my yet-to-be-built woodshed as the shelter for the evaporator next season.  Boiled off around 125 gallons of sap today, going to do at least 60 to 80 tomorrow and hoping to get the remaining (I'm predicting around 150) done on Monday.  We should get a couple of days off then, as it's supposed to get really mild here next week for most of the week.  Hoping I get at least 4 weeks of sugaring but it isn't looking like that is going to happen, unless something drastic happens to the weather pattern.  I think your friend should be fine, you guys will get another cool-down before spring.  BTW that sap ran like that since Tuesday!!


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## thewoodlands (Feb 19, 2012)

Scotty Overkill said:
			
		

> Here's the redneck evaporator.....
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> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cT4DMiDoytg&feature=youtube_gdata_player




Looks great Scotty Overkill, I can taste the pancakes already. Is that the hemlock your burning?


zap


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## ScotO (Feb 19, 2012)

zapny said:
			
		

> Scotty Overkill said:
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Zap, I burnt a mix of ash, oak maple and that blue spruce I cut down around a month ago......that spruce, although not totally seasoned, gave me some great temps......I will definately be saving my pine tops and anything I don't use for milling this coming year.  I'm a new believer in the pine......


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## bogydave (Feb 19, 2012)

Awesome Scott.
Folks will be tapping the birch here 1st of April. 
Not as good as maple but still good syrup.
http://www.alaskabirchsyrup.com/abbisy.html


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## ScotO (Feb 19, 2012)

Day number two, we boiled around 125 gallons off yesterday in 7 hrs.  Starting to really look and smell like syrup!! :cheese: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYh8jbtQoD4&feature=youtube_gdata_player


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## ScotO (Feb 19, 2012)

bogydave said:
			
		

> Awesome Scott.
> Folks will be tapping the birch here 1st of April.
> Not as good as maple but still good syrup.
> http://www.alaskabirchsyrup.com/abbisy.html


I wanna try that someday, trouble is I don't have many birch.  Plus I pick up one more hobby and the wife will kill me!! :bug:


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## Pallet Pete (Feb 19, 2012)

Scotty Overkill said:
			
		

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Do you sell the syrup scotty I would love to try it lol!

Pete


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## wishlist (Feb 19, 2012)

Haven't been on hearth recently, been busy. Lol... collected 275 gallons so far,  boiling as I type this. This is the second batch, have 4 1/2 gallons of syrup so far. Tapping 25 more trees this evening.  Should be around 260 taps. 

Edit....tried posting pics but having trouble? Gotta run, more wood is needed.....


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## ScotO (Feb 20, 2012)

we've ran around 225 gallons through as of right now, and tomorrow we'll have around another 100 or so.  Hoping to get it "close" by around 4:00PM....next several days are supposed to be really mild (no freezing temps at night until Friday) so I will be getting a break.  I plan on putting out another 40 or 50 taps on Friday, we'll see if the cold nights come back then......


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## muncybob (Feb 20, 2012)

Dang, if I had read this earlier we would have made the drive out to see ya!! Looks like a blast! On a related note regarding mild temps, saw my 1st flock of geese Saturday heading north....don't recall ever seeing them this early!


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## Stax (Feb 20, 2012)

Scotty...not Redneck at all.  That's awesome!


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## ScotO (Feb 21, 2012)

Stax said:
			
		

> Scotty...not Redneck at all.  That's awesome!


Thanks, Stax......I guestimated that we boiled off around 250-275 gallons of sap since Saturday around 11AM......finished off this evening and we ended up with 8 GALLONS of syrup, which would put me in the 275 to 300 range....not bad!  Considering we were out cutting wood fer 5 hours on Sunday, and I had to bank it down and didn't cook it at full bore.  I ran out of sap (could have done another 80 to 100 gallons easily) so I am putting at least 50 more taps out later this week.  Hope it cools off before Friday but it ain't lookin good...


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## ScotO (Feb 21, 2012)

Ended up with more syrup than I thought!  I figured we ran around 275 gallons of sap through the evaporator all weekend (could have ran more, but I ran out of sap!) If anyway, pulled off around 8 gallons of syrup this evening, which equates to around 275 to 300the gallons boiled off, averaging around a 40 to 1ratio!  I've got some sweet trees!!  Here's a video right before we pulled the syrup off ......

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9ZZARXfYYQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player


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## begreen (Feb 21, 2012)

wiping drool from chin...


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## geoxman (Feb 23, 2012)

That is pretty neat! Do you sell the syrup? We could not use 8 gallons in a century! I use about a pint a year if that?? I would like to buy a small amount from you if that is possible.
I never knew how syrup was made!


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## Jags (Feb 23, 2012)

geoxman said:
			
		

> We could not use 8 gallons in a century!



Thats what I was thinking, but I suppose it is something like jerky - between friends and family...

Nice work.  Lots of work.  You must really like syrup.  :lol:


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## ScotO (Feb 24, 2012)

Yes fellas I do love maple syrup, and once you start making it you figure out some really good ways to use it!  For instance,  one of my favorites is a tablespoon (or two) in an ice cold glass of milk (tastes like a melted vanilla milkshake, MMMMM!)  I also cook down a gallon or two over the course of the year and make maple candy, its fantastic too!  Maple syrup is great on vanilla ice cream with some crushed walnuts.   We also cooked some down to sugar this past winter and my lovely wife made lots of different Christmas cookies with it (substituted the maple sugar for cane sugar).  And there's the breakfast factor, nothing like maple syrup and buttermilk pancakes.  I do give a lot of it away to family and friends, so if I end up with a decent amount this season I'll make sure to let you guys know first......


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## muncybob (Feb 24, 2012)

dang Scott, now I'm hungry!!  I bet that stuff smells great!


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## Adios Pantalones (Feb 24, 2012)

Awesome- love the evaporator


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## ScotO (Feb 24, 2012)

Adios Pantalones said:
			
		

> Awesome- love the evaporator


thanks AP....I'm going to do some more refinements to it for next season as each year I want to get more and more production.  I plan on building a single dampened flue, running a sap preeheater coil out of stainless steel 1/4" tubing INSIDE the flue, also making a cooking griddle on the side of the 'vap so we can be making sausage and pancakes right alongside the syrup!  The evaporator will also be housed under roof on the side of my YET-TO-BE-BUILT woodshed, out of the weather.  All that heat will help the wood season a little faster!..... :lol:


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## Adios Pantalones (Feb 24, 2012)

Scotty Overkill said:
			
		

> I plan on building a single dampened flue, running a sap preeheater coil out of stainless steel 1/4" tubing INSIDE the flue, also making a cooking griddle on the side of the 'vap so we can be making sausage and pancakes right alongside the syrup!  The evaporator will also be housed under roof on the side of my YET-TO-BE-BUILT woodshed, out of the weather.  All that heat will help the wood season a little faster!..... :lol:



Magic Heat!


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## ScotO (Feb 24, 2012)

Adios Pantalones said:
			
		

> Magic Heat!



YOU GOT IT!! :coolsmirk:


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## ScotO (Feb 25, 2012)

muncybob said:
			
		

> dang Scott, now I'm hungry!!  I bet that stuff smells great!


Bob it does smell great!  Drives the neighbors nuts, the whole darn neighborhood smells like syrup!


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## Xena (Feb 25, 2012)

Scotty thanks for sharing the videos, very cool!  
Have been on tours in the Blue Hills (Milton MA)
and saw the boil down process.  The entire Maple Syrup
making process made me understand why real
maple syrup is so expensive.


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## Stax (Apr 15, 2012)

Scotty, I want to do this.  I don't have any sugar maple trees, but I do have 2 mature silver maple trees in my backyard.  I've found that Silver Maple isn't the ideal tree to tap (less than Sugar Maples 2% and the presence of cloudy sap) but nevertheless I want to do it.  Would you tap a silver if you didn't have a maple?  Any tips/info. for me?  Thanks.


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## Stax (Apr 15, 2012)

That should have read, "Would you tap a silver if you didn't have a sugar"?


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