Pictures of my maple syrup operation

[dan ny escarpment]

Thanks for sharing, great pics. Very nice setup to say the least, local maple syrup is always something special. We tried local shagbark maple syrup, made from the bark, a few years ago, was different but also quite good with a slight smokey flavor, have not been able to find it locally since. Is that produced up in WI?

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Nice. Thanks for posting. What's an RO?
Many years ago we tapped 2 trees in our yard and boiled it down on the stove.

 

[LD1]

Reverse osmosis?

 

[IslandTractor]

Reverse osmosis?

Exactly. Most commercial maple syrup is produced with RO these days. Much faster and more energy efficient way to concentrate the syrup. Flavor is identical and only real downside is the need to invest in the equipment (which is why small family or hobby operations still boil syrup). http://www.uvm.edu/~pmrc/Effects of RO on syrup - van den Berg 2015.pdf

 

[motownbrowne]

Exactly. Most commercial maple syrup is produced with RO these days. Much faster and more energy efficient way to concentrate the syrup. Flavor is identical and only real downside is the need to invest in the equipment (which is why small family or hobby operations still boil syrup). http://www.uvm.edu/~pmrc/Effects of RO on syrup - van den Berg 2015.pdf

Well, it's all still boiled to some degree, otherwise it doesn't turn brown, but IslandTractor is right that it's considerably faster and more energy efficient. Using reverse osmosis can remove somewhere between 50-80% of the water from the sap. So instead of sap entering the evaporator at 2-4% sugar, it's coming in at up to 20% in some cases.

In most cases it requires lots of electricity and definitely a heated room (so the plumbing doesn't freeze). Most maple syrup is made by burning fuel oil as the heat source. Some operations require 4 gallons of fuel oil to make a gallon of syrup. RO systems can get this down under 1:1.

Syrup evaporators are made is sizes from 2'x6' up to 6'x18'. A big advantage to an RO is that you can make more syrup on a smaller rig. If I were to max out my production, I could probably handle 1000 taps on my current system, though there would likely be some 18+ hour days of cooking. With an RO, I could probably handle 2500-3000 taps. Personally, though it's not in the cards. I could sell my rig for $5000 pretty easily and buy a big one, say a 4x14 for only a few thousand more. It's like with tractors; it's hard to find a nice used 30-50hp model, because that's the size people want. You can buy 70-100 HP tractors very reasonably because the market is pretty flooded (in many cases because the larger producer added an RO and now wants a smaller rig).

 

[motownbrowne]

Thanks for sharing, great pics. Very nice setup to say the least, local maple syrup is always something special. We tried local shagbark maple syrup, made from the bark, a few years ago, was different but also quite good with a slight smokey flavor, have not been able to find it locally since. Is that produced up in WI?

I've never had shagbark syrup, but I've heard it's good. We do have hickory trees here, but I'm not sure if they're the right kind.

 

[motownbrowne]

Well, I'm just checking in with an update on the season so far. I'd guess we're very close to the end of the year, with maybe 90 gallons of syrup made so far. We have enough sap to get to 95 or so, and the liquid in the evaporator usually turns into about 10 gallons of syrup after everything else gets cooked.

It's been a challenging year. Several of the last dozen or so years have followed a similar pattern. Basically what happens is that we get about a week to ten days of great syrup weather and make a third to half a crop. Then we get a warm spell which lasts a one to two weeks with maybe one good run mixed in somewhere in there. As the bacteria from the environment enters the taphole, the tree compartmentalizes the area around the wound and sap stops following y from the taphole. This problem is greatly exacerbated by warm weather.

As a result, when favorable conditions return after the warm spell, it's very likely that the taps don't run nearly as well as they should. This was the situation this year. Looking at mostly dried up taps with half of a crop made and a good forecast, we took action and put out about 90-100 new taps. I also purchased a Shurflo diaphragm pump on Amazon and plumbed it into our tubing system. Lastly I purchased 800' of new 3/16" sap tubing which creates vacuum as it fills with sap and runs down hill. I installed about 18 taps on this 3/16 tubing and have been blown away by how effective it is.

As a result of my experimentation with vacuum (from the small pump and the new type of tubing, we've decided to switch about 80% of our taps which had been on buckets or gravity tubing to a low cost simple vacuum system for next year. Vacuum systems greatly increase the amount of sap collected, and the amount of syrup made per tap. Research has showed no difference to the health of the tree from using vacuum systems. Vacuum systems greatly prolong the life of the taphole by reducing bacterial contamination during the season.

Before deciding to pursue this idea, I was not hopeful for the future of our maple syrup program. Now, I can't wait for next year! In addition to the new collection system, we decided to buy a bigger evaporator. We should be making quite a bit more syrup, and we'll have a 15 month old next season. I can't afford to be cooking syrup for 12-16 hours a day, so we're upgrading from our 2x10 evaporator that does 70 gallons of evaporation per hour to a 4x14 that'll do 200!!

I'll have to take some better pictures of the new rig, but here's a teaser.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Cool. Thanks for the update, so educational.

 

[wngsprd]

Glad your plans are looking up. Would hate to think you would have to end 4 or 5 decades of tradition.

Sugar maples aren't native where I live, but we have 10 that are about 35 years old...I sometimes "dream" of tapping them but afraid I would damage them...and they are too beautiful for me to risk.

Virginia has an annual Sugar Maple syrup festival up in Highland County in the mountains, and it is a treat to go there in March when they are making syrup...I don't recall seeing any of the RO setups you describe on the farms, more like what you are doing.

Thanks for sharing...makes me want to get the waffle maker out. I'll look at the labels next time we buy maple syrup, and see if I can find some from Wisconsin (most of what we buy is from Vermont or Virginia).

 

[LD1]

Wasnt a good season here in ohio either. Warm weather showed up too soon and lasted too long.

What is the approx increase with the vacuum system? 1.5x more sap/day? 2x?

Dad had 16 taps out this year (starting small). Started the year with only 6 taps and drug his feet getting another 10 ordered. The 10 additional taps showed up and only ran those for ~4-5 days before the weather broke. All gravity. Jugs emptied every morning, and some of the best trees were producing a full gallon by 3 in the afternoon.