WITH BACKYARD SUGARIN’, one of the things you have to do is plan ahead.
Since the amount and type of equipment you’ll need depends a good deal on the amount of syrup you’re planning to make, the first thing to decide is just how greedy you are for the golden delicious—that is, how many quarts you want to end up with.
For purposes of demonstration, let’s assume you’ve decided you want 5 gallons, or 20 quarts of syrup by the end of the sugarin’ season, and that because you do have other things to tend to during the mud season, which is also sugarin’ season, you can only do your boiling on weekends.
With that decision out of the way, we can make the following calculations (with the conviction that we’ll get a few arguments about them from other backyarders):
• For each quart of syrup you want you’ll need one tap hole in a sugar maple, assuming you collect all the sap and don’t spill too much of it on the way to the evaporator. Thus, for 20 quarts, you’re going to have to drill 20 holes, set 20 sap spouts and hang 20 buckets. Later on I’m going to argue that a good substitute for a metal sap bucket is a one-gallon plastic milk bottle. Therefore, if you accept that idea as a good money-saver, you ought to start saving up at least 20 milk bottles, better 30 or 40 to have ample spares. That requires getting started well in advance of the season.
• The number of maple trees you’ll need depends on their size. You’re not supposed to tap a tree under 10" in diameter, but you can put two taps in a tree over 18" in diameter and three in one that’s over, say, 28". On a real big old maple you can hang even more buckets, but when I see some stately old maple festooned with five or six buckets it makes me think someone’s bleeding it to death. So, I try to make do with fewer buckets on more trees. In any case, getting back to that 20-quart plan, you’re going to need, as an example, four 3-bucket trees, three 2-bucket trees and a couple of 1-bucket trees, or whatever other combination adds up to 20 taps. The next chapter of this book is going to deal with when, how and where to tap what kind of maples. Suffice it to say here that you should plan ahead, know what maples you’ll need to tap and get permission to tap them if they don’t belong to you.
• According to the generally accepted rule of thumb, a professional wood-fired evaporator will consume a cord of firewood for each 25 gallons of syrup being made. In case you don’t know, a cord is a pile of wood measuring 8 ft. long, 4 ft. wide and 4 ft. high. Theoretically, therefore, you’d need 1/5 of a cord to produce your 5 gallons of syrup, but don’t you believe it. Since you’ll probably boil down on 4–5 separate weekends during the season and will be using a homemade evaporator, which can hardly match the efficiency of the professional rigs, you’ll need probably half a cord of good, dry wood to make your 5 gallons of syrup. Now, in boiling sap you want a good, roaring fire, not a slow burner like in your living room fireplace. And, it doesn’t make a lot of difference what kind of wood it is just so’s it burns well. You can even (and should) burn pine and other softwoods that you wouldn’t burn in your fireplace. The pitch just adds to the heat. If you’ve got to buy your wood, buy hard or soft wood slab (the first slice off the log with the bark still on it), and be sure it’s dry, or buy it a year in advance so it will be. Put it near where you plan to set up boiling operations, and put something over it, so your woodpile won’t be soaking wet or hardbound with ice and snow when it comes time to use it.
In my own case, being in the real estate business most of the time, I own some wooded lots, and in the first cool days of autumn I find it quite easy, and enjoyable, to cut down and drag out enough deadwood to more than meet my needs. That’s also good woodlot management practice, so that if you don’t own your own woods, someone who does would probably welcome your efforts to clean up his woods. I’ve never bought any wood for sugarin’.
Some sugarers I know collect discarded hardwood pallets and wooden crates at their jobs. Busted up, they make excellent evaporator fodder, to get you off to a fast, hot start. Mixed with your other wood as you boil, they help keep the fire hot. Old clapboards and other discarded wood from construction sites can serve the same purpose.
Whatever your sources, the thing is to figure your firewood needs and get it collected and under cover before the snow flies.
• Finally, give some forethought to how you’re going to can and store your golden hoard.
For 20 quarts of syrup you’ll want to save up enough containers during the year to hold that amount–preferably metal cans, although glass jars with screw-on tops are fine if they don’t break when you put hot syrup in them. My own choice is to save up coffee cans, the ones that come with plastic lids for resealing. The 2-pound size holds a half gallon, so for 5 gallons of syrup you’d need to save up 10 two-pound coffee cans during the year.
Of course, if you’re doing a production run for Christmas gift giving, the small lithographed cans or decorated plastic jugs (slightly cheaper) are kind of pretty and can be purchased in may country hardware or farm stores.
So, let’s sum up the things you ought to be thinking about well in advance if you’re aiming to make 5 gallons of syrup.
– Save up at least 20 plastic milk bottles or other containers to serve as sap buckets.
– Pick out your trees for tapping and get permission, if necessary, to tap them. You’re going to drill 20 holes.
– Collect about a half cord of good dry wood, pile it near your planned evaporator site and cover it over.
– Save up 10 2-pound coffee cans with plastic lids, or something comparable for storing your syrup.
If you figure on making more or less than 5 gallons of syrup, adjust the above calculations accordingly.
There are other preparations that can be made in advance, too, like designing and collecting parts for your homemade evaporator, and perhaps whittling your own sap spouts, but these things can be done over the winter.
Or, you can do everything at the last minute, if you insist, but I can guarantee you a few frustrations, like having 35 gallons of fresh sap and your wood so wet that you can’t get the sap boiling, or a nice pot of golden syrup and nothing to store it in. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.