How small of a syrup operation are you talking? I think we made close to 20 gallons this year, but there are guys around us that are cooking down 300 gallons of syrup an hour
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!Here's a hardwood puzzler! tree ID please. . .
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im in the blueprint process of making a new evap unit , 2x6 pan-style arch. ill be able to make about 40-80 gallons or so a year if i want. thats at one gallon per every 4 hours or so . this past year i did not even do half that.just for family and friends.
my problem is i have too many hobbies then ( steelhead fishing, snowmobiling, etc ) im sure you know
by me in NE ohio ,particularily my town of Chardon, its the mecca of syrup ( look under 'culture' and 'climate' to see why i burn wood! heh http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chardon_Ohio )
of course , quebec is like 80% of ALL syrup produced , but hey we put in our share ! heh .
my problem is i have too many hobbies then ( steelhead fishing, snowmobiling, etc ) im sure you know
by me in NE ohio ,particularily my town of Chardon, its the mecca of syrup ( look under 'culture' and 'climate' to see why i burn wood! heh http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chardon_Ohio )
of course , quebec is like 80% of ALL syrup produced , but hey we put in our share ! heh .
With our bush-league setup, we can usually cook down about 8-10 gallons of sap an hour. So, we're looking at one gallon of syrup every 5-6 hours, depending on the sugar content of the sap. Here's a photo of our quality setup:
![[Hearth.com] Here's a hardwood puzzler! tree ID please. . .](https://www.hearth.com/talk/attachments/100_8357-webp.209788/ "[Hearth.com] Here's a hardwood puzzler! tree ID please. . .")
nice! hey look at my first set up ! 50gal drum cut .
thats 24" in diameter, and - knowing that one cu ft of surface area will burn 1 gallon of sap an hour- i had 2 cu ft !
took me 6hrs to make one quart but its smoky good!
just lookin at these photos gets me pumped for that time of year.... sigh.............
thats 24" in diameter, and - knowing that one cu ft of surface area will burn 1 gallon of sap an hour- i had 2 cu ft !
took me 6hrs to make one quart
but its smoky good! just lookin at these photos gets me pumped for that time of year.... sigh.............
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![[Hearth.com] Here's a hardwood puzzler! tree ID please. . .](/talk/data/attachments/18/18170-37870cd8b672a14b40252dc2921a09a9.jpg?hash=1AFCop3QIq)
![[Hearth.com] Here's a hardwood puzzler! tree ID please. . .](/talk/data/attachments/18/18171-63d77ee97e13f0e685cee42e17ca6a46.jpg?hash=JK321iLNP7)
I think my father-in-law is building us an actual archway to cook over. The pan we have isn't too bad. We cook down over a fluted pan and then dump it into a flat pan to finish on. If we can get the archway built, then we can design a pre-heater so that the sap running in isn't at 33 degrees and kills our boil. Yeah, I like spring time also, but it just means more work! The good news is that we are ahead on wood for sap season already. The past two years we've had to deal with a less than adequate fire. This year we have a whole trailer load of old deck material that will burn hot. Mix that in with some of the hardwood we've had sitting since this April and we'll have the ideal rolling boil!
Those sure look like shagbark hickory to me - although oddly as you stated not too shaggy. The splits inside look like all my shagbark hickory. The last picture posted shows the red underbark where the shaggy bark was pealed off which is typical of shagbark. And last but not least - all that sawdust from the insects - looks like the shagbark in my woodpile - it appears to me that the sawdust is mainly coming from my hickory and no other species! LOL.
ike,
i used to use a champagne chiller bucket for a preheater... worked great! had a spigot on the bottom to drip sap into the main evap pan. just put a little cheesecloth at the end as a precaution of stuff that might land in the luke warm sap from the air.
teamgreen ,
its settled then . its shaggy .
you see, i get caught up in the notion that all trees should have the same bark of that species. when the truth is they all vary slightly.
HOWEVER , when they vary the most is if your comparing an 18" diameter trunk of a hickory to a 36" diameter trunk . it seems the old boys always look different.
when i took a forestry class, one of the things ive learned was always look at a branch of the tree if the trunk is over 2' in diameter . sometimes,especially with sugar maples since i look at them most, the trunk will look totally different than a 'classic' maple trunk, but then if you look higher at a branch 40' up thats about 12" in diameter youll see the maple frowns you typically see on trunks and the lateral scars.
just an observation. i always judge from the bark of the 12"-18" diameter limbs.
and this hickory was a beast.. so these are probably mutated branches (big 18-24" branches or trunk top!)
i used to use a champagne chiller bucket for a preheater... worked great! had a spigot on the bottom to drip sap into the main evap pan. just put a little cheesecloth at the end as a precaution of stuff that might land in the luke warm sap from the air.
teamgreen ,
its settled then . its shaggy .
you see, i get caught up in the notion that all trees should have the same bark of that species. when the truth is they all vary slightly.
HOWEVER , when they vary the most is if your comparing an 18" diameter trunk of a hickory to a 36" diameter trunk . it seems the old boys always look different.
when i took a forestry class, one of the things ive learned was always look at a branch of the tree if the trunk is over 2' in diameter . sometimes,especially with sugar maples since i look at them most, the trunk will look totally different than a 'classic' maple trunk, but then if you look higher at a branch 40' up thats about 12" in diameter youll see the maple frowns you typically see on trunks and the lateral scars.
just an observation. i always judge from the bark of the 12"-18" diameter limbs.
and this hickory was a beast.. so these are probably mutated branches (big 18-24" branches or trunk top!)
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![[Hearth.com] Here's a hardwood puzzler! tree ID please. . .](/talk/data/attachments/18/18172-3bb1d0a374b3194725daa9f2eb604575.jpg?hash=IzjJ2L1a8p)
I'm looking at doing tubing run over the top of the cooker, which would use the steam to pre-heat. My ideal setup would be to run copper tubing around the smoke stack and run the sap through that and into the cooker. The only problem with doing that is getting the bulk tank higher than the smoke stack so we can use gravity to feed the tube.
http://mapletrader.com/community/index.php
forum ive used many many times.....
good for evap ideas, etc.
forum ive used many many times.....
good for evap ideas, etc.
Well since ya already know it's hickory i'll just post a pic of what i thought was ash until i split it. Definately hickory haha. My stuff is pignut im guessin? It's got that same distinct maroonish heartwood and tears like gum..
![[Hearth.com] Here's a hardwood puzzler! tree ID please. . .](https://www.hearth.com/talk/attachments/wood027-webp.209790/ "[Hearth.com] Here's a hardwood puzzler! tree ID please. . .")
the pignuts around me have bark kind of like that, light greyish .
but hey, look how this post has gone... from locust to sweetgum to hickory.
who knows.
the first pic below is the pignut in my front yard, and heres a couple from the net that look like what i know of as a pig .
but hey, look how this post has gone... from locust to sweetgum to hickory.
who knows.
the first pic below is the pignut in my front yard, and heres a couple from the net that look like what i know of as a pig .
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![[Hearth.com] Here's a hardwood puzzler! tree ID please. . .](/talk/data/attachments/18/18188-cb789fbd74d4e330763923b16ec4b4ff.jpg?hash=2UmFo8VpQb)
![[Hearth.com] Here's a hardwood puzzler! tree ID please. . .](/talk/data/attachments/18/18189-bf411d9c9e8e6af957d686d2b75574b5.jpg?hash=P9mVLq4R4l)
The one we cut down (pictured) was young. Probly 10-12" dia a the base. But the leaves looked nothing like the ones on the tree in your yard lol. Now im even more confused..
HalfwittingLEE said:
Instigator!
I don't know man...every hickory I have ever split, I could smell "hickory". I am still leaning towards a breed of locust. Take a lighter and flame an edge. Hickory will rear up and yell "HICKORY".
Edit: Crap - Lee, you were serious weren't you?? After re-looking at the picks it could be.
HalfwittingLEE said:Jags said:
mmmmmmmmm hmmmmmmmmmm
I am imagining this to be grunted out in your best "swing blade" impression.
rest assured, my wood is NOT silver maple junk ! only rock and black round 'dees parts! MMM HHMMMMMMM
Jags said:HalfwittingLEE said:Jags said:
mmmmmmmmm hmmmmmmmmmm
I am imagining this to be grunted out in your best "swing blade" impression.
"some people call it a Kaiser blade, I call it a swing blade.. mmmmmmmmmm hmmmmmmmmmmm!"
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