Making walnut syrup is a LOT easier than collecting the walnut meat, that’s for damn sure. We gave up on that long ago, too much labor.
I’ve got a single tap in my walnut tree right now, it’s just starting to gather some sap. the only thing about that is one needs to add a couple of drops of pectic enzyme to the sap or it turns into walnut jelly instead of walnut syrup. I got that from a website for home beer brewers, for about $5. Easy peasy.
Walnut trees make less sap than maple, so my output from my single tree is a pint or two every season, but it’s worth it to me to have such a ‘boutique’ syrup on hand.
The sap’s been flowing like mad these last 2 days. From my 3 big trees I’ve already gotten over 12 gallons. I’ve managed to reduce most of that to pre-protosyrup, about a gallon and a half’s worth. After today’s and tomorrow morning’s collection reductions I’ll focus on the pre-syrup, and make it into syrup. I expect it’ll yield about a quart and some, depending on sugar concentration. I’m told that such early sap runs tend to have lower sugar content.
At any rate, it’s keeping me busy wandering around outdoors, hauling sap, and talking with the neighbors. Not a bad day.
@Qadgop_the_Mercotan, I bought some walnut syrup online after reading about it in your syrup posts last year or the year before (time flies!). It’s lovely, and I’m still enjoying it.
Last year my sister made maple syrup (got a jar for Christmas), she said she was worried her boiling looked too much like a meth lab.
I didn’t know silver maples were usable – I have some pretty big ones in my yard – kind of a pain because even if you look at them funny branches fall off.
I gave in and put up all my taps. I got about half in (22) on Friday before it got dark, and the rest on Saturday afternoon. So far I collected about 20 gallons, so nowhere near the per-tree production of QtM but still better than not collecting it.
There are a few countries in the Far East that make mud chicken, and I believe a couple of African cultures make it as well. Some wrap it in leaves before covering it with mud, which is usually a clay mud. None of them use a fire for reducing maple sap to cook it though. But a sensible way to cook as long as you have the fire going.
I now have 3 quarts of very dark, very intensely maple flavored, very sweet finished maple syrup to show for my efforts. Not bad for 5 days of sap collection. We’ll see where it goes, it’s not expected to go below freezing until this coming Wednesday night, that’ll slow sap to a trickle or worse. But the taps were still dripping steadily when I made the last sap run about 5:30 PM today.
Our neighbors have a large commercial apple orchard. They make cider that they and local grocery stores sell.
One year I mentioned that the cider tasted extra good. He told me that apple cider was like wine. Weather conditions affect the taste and he blends the varieties of apples he uses each year for the best end product.
I keep up badly sometimes, depending on how busy I get. Last night I managed to burn some sap thru inattention. I left it for 5 minutes to check email, went down an internet rabbit hole and didn’t pop up until 20 minutes later when I smelled burnt marshmallows.
I returned to the kitchen (where the Mrs. was working on her computer at the kitchen table) to find the room filled with acrid smoke. I salvaged the pot but not that batch of sap. The Mrs. (whose smell was knocked out by covid) didn’t notice the smoke or aroma.
I hate when I lose sap like that, but it was just a little bit. Relatively anyway.
I wouldn’t mind if the sap didn’t flow so much today, I’m a bit ‘burnt out’ by the last few days of sapping.
Understatement. I look forward to buying some at the farmer market in spring. Then I can make apple maple pie.
So in the Twin Cities, the temp is not supposed to get down to freezing until about 6 or 7:00 Wednesday morning. At which time it should also stop raining or snowing (raining now). Whole lotta melting going on, but we have lots of snow to melt. And it’s only the middle of February.
Sap production fell off dramatically today, as it didn’t get below freezing here last night. I got a bit over 2 gallons in the last 24 hours. Oh well, every little bit helps. I’m still stunned I got so much syrup made before February was even half over. The climate, it is a changing . . .
I was wondering about that-- as the reducing sap gets more and more viscous, does it take constant stirring to keep it from burning on the bottom? If so, it must be quite the arm workout.
I had a work friend in a previous job who quit so he and his girlfriend could live off the grid on 160 acres of land they purchased in the deep U.P. Michigan woods NW of Marquette (not far from Big Bay, for those who know the area). My wife and I stayed with them for a couple nights in the wintertime, and they gifted us with a small bottle of maple syrup they had made themselves when we were leaving. A very thoughtful parting gift, but It had a strange off-taste (and I know what maple syrup tastes like, it’s not like I was comparing it to Mrs. Butterworth ). I wonder if they had burned that batch.
a new convert!
). I wonder if they had burned that batch.