I have some 4 to 6 inch diameter sugar maple trees that need to be cut down. Normally I’d wait until the snow was gone to cut them, but it’s sugaring season, so I thought I might kill 3 birds with one stone: Get rid of the trees that are too close to the house (in case of fire or heavy wind), start on next year’s woodpile, and try to catch the sap + make syrup.
My first question: If I can figure out how to catch the sap from a stump, are there any problems with doing it this way? I know you don’t tap trees that small. I always assumed it was because the tree couldn’t afford to lose sap until it is larger. Is there any other reason that will affect my syrup? I figure I’ll cut the stumps at an angle with a bow saw to avoid contamination from the bar + chain oil.
Having grown up ion Vermont, I’ve been in sugar houses lots of times, but I never really paid attention to the process. (I do know enough not to boil inside the house – a friend of mine had to re-paper his kitchen walls after trying it) How much higher than boiling point do I need to heat the syrup to? Do I filter before or after boiling? Any other tips?
I don’t think you can catch sap from a stump. The reason that you can catch sap in a bucket hanging from a tree is that in spring, this all happens.(PDF file explaining the biology of sap movement). A dead stump isn’t going to be spending the next three weeks moving its precious bodily fluids up and down a trunk.
I think you have unrealistic expectations of how maple sap moves. It doesn’t come gushing out when you pound in a tap; it drips, very, very slowly…
So when you whack off a maple tree, it’s not like there’s this huge quantity of sap that comes spurting out and if you could only figure out some way to catch it, you could make maple syrup. Unh-unh, doesn’t work like that. The stump will ooze quietly for a little while, same as any other tree stump, and then it begins to die (although depending on the maple species, it may make suckers coming up from the root next year, and thus won’t be quite dead yet [“I’m getting better!”]. But it’s still not going to produce a sudden gusher of sap). And once the plant begins to die, all sap movement stops. It’s like with blood, and animals.
As for how to sugar, if you manage to line up some suitable trees, google is your friend.
I would assume that the reason all the sugaring websites say “use trees at least 10” in diameter" is because you’re taking away a valuable resource (sap) that the tree is going to have to expend energy to replenish, and if you do it to smaller or weaker trees, it’s not going to be good for the tree. It’s like bloodletting, and animals. You don’t expect a child to donate a half-pint of blood to the blood drive.
Sap to syrup is a 40:1 reduction, and will have sand (crystalized minerals) in it. If you do get enough sap to make it worthwhile, you’ll want to do it outside. So, you could tap the trees and cut them down after sugaring is over. The weather has to be just right for sap movement, and being in VT, you should be okay.
Damn, I didn’t know the sap was actually coming down from the branches!
I know how slow sap runs, but I also know that stumps bleed for hours - I figured I could get a galon or two from each stump if I could effectively catch it.
Unfortunately my land was clearcut 27 or 28 years ago, so I don’t have any trees big enough to tap, or I wouldn’t be considering this little experiment.
I guess I’ll just tap the hell out of the trees, as I’m going to cut them down anyway. Just for curiosity’s sake I’ll cut one when it’s frozen to see how much sap I can get out of the top, and one when it’s warm out to see how much I can get from the stump.
Acer saccharum I can’t say,but acer rubrum and various betulas will yield copious amounts of sap when notched and dropped.Not like a horror movie,more like an overflowing bathtub.Birches can ooze a couple of days.
I have no ideas on sap capture,but can tell you there will be all manner of insects in attendance.
Making syrup isn’t so much about heat as it is area,you want wide shallow pans.
I’ve thought about making some birch syrup just to try it out, as I’ve read that the native americans did it. I’m just afraid of what the neighbors will think!
If you want to do this as a curiosity experiment that you can fully accept ending in lost money, lost time, and lots of work, that is perfectly admirable. However, if you have more utilitarian goals, making your own maple syrup is doomed to failure. My in-laws have a 300 acre farm in New Hampshire with lots of maple trees. Like you, they once wanted to get into the DIY maple syrup business because it is expensive to buy. They bought the taps, the hoses, and everything else needed to tap the trees at just the right time. Whole weekends were spent setting everything up. The sap flowed well and it looked like a ton of it. They took it down to a local maple syrup production house to turn it into syrup. As noted above, the reduction from sap to syrup is about 40 to 1 and they had a little under 40 gallons.
The end result was about 1 gallon of home-grown maple syrup that would make anyone proud. The cost however was over $300 for that gallon plus many person hours of labor. They aren’t in that business even as a causal hobby anymore.
If I had trees that were big enough, I might consider tapping more the old fasioned way, but I would never bother building a shagarhouse, running tubing or installing a vacuum or RO system for my little 14 acre lot. You need a lot more land to make that worthwhile. I’m not sure why your in-laws failed so badly, as from what I’ve read, each tap should give 6-10 galons a season. Perhaps it was a bad year, or they tapped at the wrong time of year?
As it is, I’ll probably buy a dozen taps + use random food grade containers to play around with. I’m planning to boil in buffet pans on my gas grill’s side burner. We only go through about a quart a year anyway. I’m doing it more for the “made it myself” feeling + curiosity.
