Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
ALMOST BEEKEEPING - RELATED TOPICS => FARMING & COUNTRY LIFE => Topic started by: jalentour on February 07, 2016, 01:55:17 pm
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I have a large stand of Black Walnut and thought I'd give it a try.
Sap started dripping in nine of ten trees I tapped. The tap was dripping about one drop per second.
Picked up a turkey fryer to evaporate the sap, hoping for a few quarts.
Don't know much about making syrup but I'm going small scale this year to see if it's worth the effort.
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We tap maples and it is definitely worth it. There's nothing like your own syrup. Boiling day is one of the best days of the year. The weather's not too hot, not too cold, lots of fire and hot tea made with the boiling sap. I can't wait.
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Im tapping sycamore trees. Have 8 tapped with other 12 waiting. With the weather we have had im not sure how the flow is goning to be. Lot of the trees started budding before the freeze in jan. I have a sap pan that i had made in a barter. Now getting fire bricks from a kaolon plant down the road. Will setup the pan next weekend.
John
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Just wanted to follow up from last week.
The weather turned cold a couple of days after I tapped into the trees. I pulled about 5 gallons of frozen sap and boiled it down to a pint of syrup. Took about 5 hours to boil close enough to bring inside to the stove. Tasted very good.
With better weather I might do better. I think there is still time in my area to draw sap.
I used a lot of propane this time. I would like to switch to an arch, home made of course. If anyone has plans or photos please send or post.
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An oil tank arch is a pretty cheap way to get an arch.
Here's mine. https://youtu.be/whRR8BlfocY
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Here's one a friend tried out at our place one season [2011]: http://rurification.blogspot.com/2011/02/making-maple-syrup.html
He used an old file cabinet. It worked really well. Lots of pics in the link.
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Very nice Robin. Hopefully next year, after I retire, I will have the time to try this. There are lots of maple trees at the farm and I have 5 large Sycamores in town that I can also tap.
Jim
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Thanks for the ideas. I have harvested about 16 gallons of sap from 10 trees this season. I tapped 10 but only 9 have produced sap. We reduced the sap down to about 28 ounces of syrup. It tastes fantastic! Sweet with just a slight hint of nut (all my trees are black walnut). Sap season ends with the bud break, so I should be wrapping up soon. Next season I will start in January with more trees. I will build an arch to boil the sap if I decide to go more than 20 trees (I have over 100 I could tap). Need to know if there is a market for walnut syrup. Otherwise it would be a family and friends type thing.
Imagine, honey in the summer and syrup in the winter.
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Glad to hear it went well and that you have a nice result. We're still gathering maple sap. The weather should be perfect for sap the middle of this week [above freezing during the day, below freezing at night] and then it's up in the 70s for a few days next week, which is probably when I'll boil.
We used the last drop of last year's harvest and my youngest is going through maple syrup withdrawal. We're excited to boil. I'll do it over the fire pit like this: http://rurification.blogspot.com/2013/03/maple-boil-2013.html It's a good excuse to sit by the fire and be outside all day. I'm looking forward to it.
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Nice blog, helpful tips too. Thanks.