Site Discussions

Our Feb sap was low in sugar and full of niter. We don’t have an R.O., so that meant a long time boiling for the magic to happen. We ended up with sandy pans, and darker than dark syrup.

Been cutting trees for30 +years so I love cutting trees and using my 3 awesome saws. And to be really safe. I love felling trees and buck them up. So exicted to be here with you all!!!  John

I have had a small lovely grey fox visiting my bird feeders since early January. Since most of the time it come between 7 and 9 pm I am able to sit and watch it feeding only about 8 ft from my window. For a couple weeks in mid to late March there were 2 others who would not come so close as the first one but would be around at the edge of the yard. About a month ago the fox (female I think) had an injured eye like a stick had hit it. Although it does look better now it still does not look right although I haven’t seen any signs that sight is impaired. I have tried to track them to find the den and although I think I know the general area, I have not find any dens. I have posted many photos on my Facebook page Nicki Steel Photography if anyone is interested.

Cleanliness and speed are your only means of affecting grade. Do you use buckets or tubing? If buckets, make sure you collect them quickly, store the sap in a cool place, and boil it in a timely manner, i.e. that day. If you use tubing, it needs good pitch, the tubing should be replaced regularly, avoid black mainline, use vacuum if you have the scale to make it cost effective, if not experiment with 3/16ths diameter tubing and create natural vacuum. Look at the sap as if it were as perishable as milk. Or, just resign yourself to the idea you make dark syrup and tell your customers it tastes better and they don’t want the light stuff anyway.

I have a question. Usually on my first boil of the Season I produce light maple syrup or otherwise known as gold and delicate. However that is usually the only time it happens. After that my syrup always moves into the medium grade. I can’t believe that my stuff gets that dirty just from one run. Any suggestions?

Thanks, Gib! It really is one of the great pleasures of early spring. Our woodcock just returned yesterday (4/4) so “Pete” should be arriving at your place any moment now!

Nice article Elise,

My wife Sue can’t wait for “her” woodcock to return every spring. At the end of the day, in the spring, after barn chores, she will often head up into our meadows behind the house, and start ” peenting ” for Pete. That’s her nickname for what she believes is the same woodcock that comes back year after year to show off to her. It really is comical how he will display so close to us as we sit still in the field, even when we have our Lab with us. As we boil away this seasons sap, we know it won’t be long before “Pete” shows up, and entertains us with his dance and song, if that’s what it is, a song?

Thanks, Gib

The same mourning dove couple that had two babies here on our porch last year just returned about a week or two ago. We had left the nest so they built it up a little more and hung around for a week and a half. Two days ago the wasps started up on my front porch and my husband sprayed a chemical on the stairs leading up to the porch to kill them since my grandsons were staying with us. The mama dove was sitting in her nest but no eggs yet. Later that night, they took off and we haven’t seen them since. I hope the spray did not scare them away. They were such a joy for us to watch. I just feel terrible. Do they ever go away for a few days and return? I remember them doing that last summer but it was in July or August. Thanks for your response.

Steve: Yes, good luck! Dave: Check out this piece i wrote a few years back exploring just that. http://northernwoodlands.org/outside_story/article/how-much-sap 

To answer your question directly, if a sugarmaker is using best management practices, all the research suggests that there is no adverse affect. Of course tapping can be overdone, and the science into this ongoing, so it’s hard to give an unqualified answer. In our woods that has high-vacuum we use one 5/16ths tap per tree, regardless of diameter. We’re happy with the yield, and happy with the rate at which the tapholes heal—a good measure of tree health.

To highlight Jackie’s question above: How do wind-pollinated species ensure a good enough mix of genetic material (Eg. Birch). Do they not all end up as clones of their parent tree?

In your opinion, can this high tech and high volume maple syrup production adversely affect the health of the maple tree being tapped?

I have only 35 buckets in my “operation,”(enough to sweeten my coffee through the year!), but I’ve been sugaring for 16 years and have witnessed the wild weather swings each winter/spring.  This year I’ve only made 3 gallons so far, and I doubt I’ll get up to the 8 I usually make. I do have a question:  does removing and tossing aside the frozen sap significantly reduce the amount of syrup made?

Syrup pricing:  In the late 1940’s and early 50’s top price for fancy syrup was about $8 or so a gallon, based, I was told, on what it cost to hire labor for 8 hours work. Given that guide, imagine what a gallon would cost today! - $80 to $100?

Great article as always Dave.  “Tech seduction”... the weakness of many a sugarmaker.  Me, I’ll try my best to resist favoring instead natural vacuum, raw sap, and wood-fired evaporator.  Wish me luck!

Had an old timer (now also sadly gone) who sugared in our watershed caution me 25 years ago about getting “sap greedy”. Old Charlie Hosmer said “it’s just work to get from winter logging to spring dirt work”. He never wanted to expand or sell syrup or sap, he gave it as Christmas gifts mostly.

I think about that every time I drive too fast past his now shuttered sugar house.  He was right of course.  Just as you’re suggesting, the sugaring lesson is: bigger and faster is NOT always better but it’s been the “American way.”  Same with woods work logging.

So prompts issue of scale and personal sustainability.

Tx for comments above. Have a 70’ high oak 16” dia slight crown above the 40 ’ mark, like the tree above Lean is a few ft South, the crown is leaning SoEast. I want to fell it East. It’s a side lean..Any special tips on the side lean and how thick to keep the hinge. Was going to use a 4ton and 1ton come along with 5 tons ropes to guide, attaching them to small trees. Any thoughts on that?

This is really interesting information. Thanks for sharing.

In the photo above with the caption: Melvin Parks, at right, was a scaler for the George I. Treyz company.  In the photo, the person on the right is John Jones, a local Cooks Falls resident who did dozer work for Treyz; Melvin Parks is on the left standing with Johnny on the dozer. The image must have somehow gotten flipped from the original photo.  Things like this would completely change the actual real historical facts if someone hadn’t caught it.

Just felled a 16” diameter back-leaning tree—lean was about 4 feet. Made the back cut first and inserted two 8” wedges on either side of the back cut, banged them in a bit to set them, then made the face cut. After that, I worked on banging the wedges in, alternating each side. Had to double up on one side by placing another wedge. Once the lean was overcome—and the tree was letting me know about the progress here and there—it went over in the direction of the face cut as planned.

Sounds like most of them are being spotted in the Connecticut River Valley where it is often warmer than further east in NH. We just spotted one in Hancock which is in the colder Monadnock region.