MY LIMITED EXPOSÉ of the Backyard Sugarin’ industry has provoked quite a bit of commentary from the field. Just goes to prove that there’s more than one way to skin a cat (boil sap) and a lot of people out there who are eager, willing and able to share their sugarin’ secrets with others.
For starters, here’s a note I received from Quebec, which proves there may be greater perils in backyard sugarin’ than a boiled-over batch!
Dear Mr. Mann,
I didn’t get the coil made in the chimney last year, but I did manage to make some improvements. I couldn’t boil evenings, because there was a lynx around and I was afraid to get jumped on, as there are some partridge and rabbits around. This winter I haven’t seen any tracks yet.
For improvements this year, I outdid myself and broke your cardinal rule for backyard sugarin’. I spent money! There are some things in life that just can’t be had by any kind of swindling, cajoling, lying, bargaining or just flat out yelling. The guy talked cash. Pretty ugly word. Anyway, for $200.00, I picked up 103 aluminum 2-gal. buckets (new enough), 156 aluminum taps, 2 galvanized 50-gal. drums, a small evaporator and 14" x 22" pan, got fire brick, felt filter and sugar thermometer, and a bunch of odds and ends. . . . I did pretty good.
I am going to install the drums at points where I can use 400' of garden hose as a siphon—(If sugarin’ & football were on common grounds, my drums might be called “wide receivers” or “wide holding tanks”). The hose comes from neighbors, family, etc.
I have a small 5-gal. bucket and a 1/4" base gravity fed, which flows into the 2nd pan. Also, I plan to use the two evaporators & three pans this year . . . if I can get the new one into the bush—there are no roads.
Each year I buy a quart of Canadian Club and stick it in the snow. You mix it with boiling sap, maybe 1/2 oz. per teacup of sap. Terrific. It’s my gift for passersby and some visitors & the quart lasted three weeks.
I haven’t yet asked my correspondent to clarify the difference between a passerby and a visitor. Maybe the lynx likes tea!
Here’s another, with lots of experimentation and practical experience.
Dear Rink,
For the past three years since I retired, we have made a few gallons in a 16" x 28" pan set in an old drum stove. The pan is one I found in one of the barns, and the drum is a small size, 30 gal. or so. This year I made a new pan, as the old one was rusting out, and while I’m not much of a “tin knocker,” it boils sap and doesn’t leak. Also made the pan 6" deep, so it will hold about 5 gallons at a time. The pre-heater was a new idea to me, so I made one from a two-gal. oil can. Of course, it didn’t have anything as crude as holes punched in the bottom, but I found a nice little brass petcock in my junk box, which I soldered onto the can. It works very well, and think it speeds up the process. I can’t see any difference in the quality of the syrup, but keeping the pan boiling all the time does help. . . . I usually boil ’til the syrup is about 1/2" deep in the pan, then pour it into a bucket and finish it in the house.
We did invest in a hydrometer, as we couldn’t seem to catch it just right with a candy thermometer. We usually put the hot syrup in 16-oz. Pepsi bottles and screw the caps on real tight.
We have been using the “Idlenot Dairy Low Fat Sap Bucket,” and I think they are about as good as anything for a home rig. I hadn’t thought of your idea of hooking onto the handle, so tried that this year. It works good, but have trouble getting the jug off the tree. Maybe the hole for the hook isn’t large enough, but we collect in 5-gal. plastic jugs and have to remove the jug to pour it into the big jug. They way we have been doing it is to remove the hook from the spile and make a bail or loop from heavy copper wire. The ends are bent into hooks and go into the holes on each side of the spile, while the loop passes around the neck of the jug. This works well, but sometimes the jugs will blow off in a wind. I’m going to experiment more with your method.
Here’s another report from my Quebec friend, who discovered, as I did, that a good place to stack wood is surrounding your evaporator site—it’s not only handy-by but gets dried out and “pre-warmed” by the heat from your evaporator. Also keeps the cool breezes away on a freezing evening when you’re boiling down a batch.
Dear Mr. Mann,
Just came in from skidding some wood and thought I’d drop you a note. . . .
Made a big improvement, and cheap. While I was stacking my wood I thought of an idea. Why not stack it so as to make a kind of shelter. I have double-stacked, five feet high, the east and west sides, and single-stacked the north side, leaving the south side open. Next spring, when I light the thing off, being as how my wood is close to the stove, the snow will melt and the wood dry out. Taking the inside row on the east and west sides first, the outside row will stay and cut the wind.
By the time I get around to the outside row, it will be late in the season & warming. Cording the wood like this, there is a 24" space between my “walls” & roof. If needed, I just drape plastic down. . . .
Take care, have a good winter & may the good Lord give you 3% sugar in your sap.
Now there’s a friend!
Here’s a note all the way from Indian country (Illinois). Shows how backyard sugarin’ can be put to charitable use.
Dear Sir,
Here in Springfield is a nature preserve, which is called the Lincoln Memorial Gardens. We have a maple sugaring operation set up. The schools in the surrounding area bring the children to the garden during maple-sugaring time. Also, on weekend people come to see the collecting and cooking of the sap.
We cook the sap at the garden, then one man takes it home and finishes cooking it. Then it is put in small bottles, which we sell. This is one of the ways we try to make money, since we are a nonprofit organization.
Our season starts the second week in February, and runs through the second week in March. In this time, last year, we made 12 gallons of pure syrup.
We do not get as much snow as you do. We use a garden tractor with a small trailer to collect the sap. We use plastic garbage cans to collect and hold the sap.
Once in while I hear from a backyarder about other ways to put all that boiling sap to good use. For instance, it’s great for instant coffee, if you use it before it gets too sugary. The man from Quebec mixes it with Canadian Club. Some toddy! Here’s another.
A Note for Mr. Rink Mann.
I just put a few fresh eggs in my front tray while boiling down the sap and had a treat of hard-boiled eggs later in the day.
I’ll vouch for that one. There’s a subtle maple flavoring in the eggs that’s really unique.
And if that strikes you as a novel idea, how about making syrup not from maples, but from birch trees. Right, birch trees. Takes more boiling, but it can be done, at least up in Alaska, where the following letter was postmarked.
Dear Mr. Mann:
As a long-time, maple-lovin’ New Englander, I’m sad that maple trees won’t grow in Alaska. However, we do have birch trees—lots of birch. So we decided to try making birch syrup. We couldn’t find any good information on birch syrup making, but we did send for G.H. Grimm’s catalogue of sugar making supplies. The first thing we ordered was your book, Backyard Sugarin’. It sounded just right for what we needed. . . . [unwarranted flattery followed here].
Our sap run is later than New England’s, probably because the ground stays frozen so much longer. It warmed early this year, with temperatures getting up into the 50’s for a while, and the sap started running in our trees on April 25. We tapped only six trees, since we didn’t know what we were in for. We used taps from Grimm’s and plastic milk jugs as you suggested. . . . [more undeserved flattery].
Because we are basically lazy, we didn’t take the time to build any boiling apparatus. Instead, for $20 we picked up an old gas stove and hooked it up to a propane tank. Took off the door and the oven floor, set the pan on top of the oven burner, and boiled it off that way. A pan on one of the top burners pre-warmed what was added to the pan in the oven.
The pan was small. Our first batch produced about 1/2 cup syrup from seven gallons of sap. We boiled it down too much, because we were waiting for your “sudden boilover” phenomena, but it never occurred. So, we ended up with something that looked like lube oil. The taste was great, though!
After experimentation, we found the birch syrup finishes faster than the maple. It’s ready just at the point the bubbles get smaller and cover the surface. Now, with our small-time success, we are contemplating bigger and better things—like going commercial for the tourist trade!
Here’s a letter from someone close by in New Hampshire, once again showing the innovative bent common to backyard sugarin’.
Dear Mr. Mann:
Last year we purchased your book, “Backyard Sugarin’.” It was our second year at “sugarin’-the-way-WE-do-it,” and we were reading everything we could get our hands on to help us do it better and more easily. . . . [flattering comments].
We started out two years ago with a slate fireplace-with-refrigerator-shelf-on-top, scrounged for wood on fencelines, etc. and used Trinity Farms Low-Fat Sap Buckets (more prevalent in this area than Idlenot!). We didn’t even have a maple on our own land, but 6 grow down the road from us. We probably made about 8 quarts. Used big canner-type pots for boiling.
Last year we blossomed out with a variation of THE BARREL. A framework around the base gets it up off the ground and is filled with sand. This year we are going to build our frame up around the sides and back of the barrel and fill with sand to help insulate. We found that 2 aluminum (foil) roasting pans work good. They’re about $1.00 each and stand the heat amazingly well. One disadvantage is that they’re a bit flexible, but that disadvantage is outweighed by the advantages—the greatest of them being that at the end of the season you just fold them flat and throw them away. Our barrel door has a couple of side-mounted hinges for opening.
We also experimented with paper “logs” last year and found that they help the wood supply along. We didn’t have a log roller, but we improvised a way of doing it that works just as good. I’ve already started rolling logs for this year.
But, would you imagine that there might be a use for disposable diapers in the backyard sugarin’ industry. This New York State backyarder claims they’re the cat’s whiskers for filtering hot syrup.
Dear Mr. Mann:
As a New York State “Backyarder,” there are a couple of comments in which you might be interested.
Since a satisfactory evaporating pan is the major difficulty faced by the would-be syrup maker, I would like to suggest galvanized washtubs as easily available and inexpensive. Tubs have good strong handles, and one could easily solder a drain if desired.
An old country method of keeping the syrup from boiling over is to suspend a piece of fat pork just above the surface of the boiling sap. If the syrup starts to rise, it hits the fat pork, and the released oil quiets it. This would probably not be possible with shallow pans such as you use.
My thanks to these, and to all the others, who sent in innovative ideas to help advance the cause of backyard sugarin’. My hunch is we’ve barely scratched the surface!