Snowing Rain

The temps here just north of Toronto are above zero celsius in the day and just below freezing at night, close to perfect weather for maple syrup and having tapped about 30 trees….........yahooo

40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup, I get about 30 gallons a day for up to 14 days…....it might be a good year.

maple sugar, maple taffy, maple syrup, maple candy….........yummy

-- Central northish Ontario

surprise cold spells are frustrating when it comes to plants.

(yippee and yummy re: maple syrup)

-- - Debbie, SW Ontario Canada (USDA Hardiness Zone: 5a)

YUM Greenthumb!!!! Do you have your own recipes? Were they passed down??

Here in southeast Michigan the temps are finally hitting the 40(F)’s. Last week has been pretty consistent during the day. Still hitting in the 30(F)’s at night though. Our snow is gone (ohhhhhh, did I say that outloud and jinx it??!!) So hoping within the next couple of weeks we might see 50(F) degrees.

There have been many a year where we have lost bushes or really had to prune back the dead branches cuz of late freezes. And of course, just when you think it is safe … you find yourself scrounging around for a butt-load of newspaper or whatever else you can find to cover those new plants cuz they have issued a “freeze warning” for overnight. ARG!!!!

-- "A perfect garden is just a garden to be in-perfection. Mornings to work on it and evenings to pause and look at it." Southeast Michigan, Zone 5a/5b

Was supposed to be sunny and +7 today.
Well, it is barely +2 and cloudy. But it is melting, that is if you look really close at the snow!!

-- Eklectic, Follow my Bliss, South East Ontario 5a

greenthumb…if you haven’t already, please write a post about sugar maples, tapping, the whole she-bang. I’d love to learn more! And, if you’d like to send some of your bounty to Seattle….;)

-- GardenMentor, Seattle, WA (zone 8/9), www.gardenmentors.com & www.gardenhelp.org

best weather for maple syrup/sap is below freezing at night and above during the day. Once it goes above freezing at night the season is over.

I had no previous experience with making syrup before we bought the farm so any recipe is purely by accident.

Year one I tapped about 10 trees, the good old fashioned way. By trudging through waste deep snow and with a brace and bit…...drilling the trees by hand. Dreadful and exhausting work. I boiled the sap off in the house which was a disaster because unbeknowest to me…...all the ceiling turned into sticky fly tape and to this day I am still fixing it. We got about 3 liters of syrup. The balance I boiled off into taffy and then poured that into the ice cube trays which in turn wouldnt give up the taffy so I had to throw out the trays. I also broke the 100 dollar thermometer because it was stuck to the bottom of the pot which I also had to throw out…..................

Year two. Same thing only 20 pots and trudging through the snow, collecting the sap twice a day I decided to boil it off outside. Problem being that the wind was so strong that it blew out the camp stove I used so I bought a turkey boiler with big pot and the wind blew out the flame again. Into the shop with it all. It takes 40 gallons of sap to make just one gallon of syrup and thats a lot of steam. Somuch steam that it delaminated a beautiful figured cherry (curved fronts) buffet…...............that was very costly…......outside again. My Mrs., got her knickers in a knot and the whole batch went south.

This year I bought a gasoline powered drill because that brace and bit with human horse power is nothing short of madness. I also decided that getting those buckets was pure BS. All those who said they would help seemed to dissappear when the moment of truth arrived so I bought hosing, connected one tree to another in long lines and all the trees flow into two, plastic 22 gallon food barrels. I go out every other day and tie the dogs (harness) to a home made sled made from some old kid skies and the dogs drag the barrel back to the barn….....two trips every third day instead of 8 trips everyday.

The rest is easy. You simply boil the sap until it thickens, use a thermometer to see when it has a sugar content your happy with, based on elevation above sea level and then pour the syrup through a filter into containers….......done.

Considering you can buy a liter of maple syrup at Costco for 10 bucks….........it is a money loss adventure because after you add up the price of propane, buckets, barrels, hose, thermometer, containers, hydro and time…...........its about 50 bucks a litre, maybe close to 100.

-- Central northish Ontario

What you buy at Costco is not the same as homegrown.
It might be more expensive to get it from a “grower” but it is tastier!!

-- Eklectic, Follow my Bliss, South East Ontario 5a

Maple Syrup is not a regulated food item but rather done on the “Honest” program. They recommend that you do not tap a tree until it has a 10” diameter, 2 taps for a tree 14”, 3 taps for a tree 18” up to 4 taps above 24” but never exceed 4 taps. I notice some farmers around here that totally ignore that gentlemans rule. seeing trees with 2 taps where the tree isnt even 10” across….......shame on them.

Wholesalers only buy amber syrup, the kind that has a light amber colour. Anything darker and the gentleman rules state that you shouldnt sell it. The darker the syrup the higher the sugar content, the thicker the syrup. I prefer my syrup dark and thick. I find it much tastier and it doesnt run off the pancakes and waffles.

I keep all our syrup, some I give away as gifts and I try to send a brother who lives in the bush in the British Columbia interior (hauls logs for a living) a 1/2 gallon and a container for pancakes (already mixed, just add eggs and butter milk) as he never gets the luxuries of most folks.

Cheers

-- Central northish Ontario

There is snow in our forecast right now with temperatures in the 2-7° C and 17-24° F range. That’s about normal for here this time of year . Often we get a blizzard in march that snarls traffic and calving.
Generall nothing goes in the ground here until may 24th or there about.

p.s. GT, I tapped the maples along the highway in Aylmer Ont. one year, steamed my mother out of the kitchen for a week and made about 2 quarts of syrup. Yummie.

Bob

-- I want to believe in a lot of things but, in the meantime I have to deal with the truth

expenses; $100
story for GT: priceless!!!
lol
oh you are such a story teller :) LOVE IT

-- - Debbie, SW Ontario Canada (USDA Hardiness Zone: 5a)

Wow. This is great. I really didn’t know how syrup was taken. It all makes a lot of sense. And, it so amazing to me how much these trees can give up to us and still thrive. Sugar Maples. Cork Oak. We really do a number on these trees, but they still thrive. Thanks for sharing. Now I really want some pancakes and syrup. And, I definitely will not complain next time I buy real maple syrup (the only kind I buy). It’s a lot of work for the tree and the processor!

-- GardenMentor, Seattle, WA (zone 8/9), www.gardenmentors.com & www.gardenhelp.org

I try not to tap the same tree every year and choose to give it a rest. ........I’ld rather have the tree then the syrup.

Commercial maple syrup farms have changed a tad in the past few years. The evaportors (to seperate sap from syrup) are technologiaclly advanced. The steam that is generated is collected and used to pre heat the sap coming in, works like a charm as the sap has already been reduced before it ever hits the processing part. Even before the sap hits the evaporator it goes through a reverse osmosis mechanism to remove almost 50% of the water…..........by the time the sap hits the end, it’s done, filtered and ready to use.

Collecting tha sap…..........buckets are a thing of the past. plastic tubing is used to connect tree to tree which drains to ever increasing plastic hose. It starts at 5/16” and slowly grows to 1” diameter or more hose and all of that is collected by a vacumn system that almost sucks the sap from the tree.

My trees are pretty healthy but the maple syrup business in the eastern USA is slowly dissappearing, one due to climate change and the other due to desease. Acid rain, logging, urban sprawl….....but

On the good side, Cities and areas like Thunder Bay Ontario can now grow hardwoods that only ten years ago didnt have a chance, due to the very cold long winters…........I planted a few walnuts, maples, oaks up in the bay two years ago and all are doing well.

From where I sit…........maple syrup is a whole lot of manual labour for some. For me, I can walk the dogs, check out the wildlife, get some fresh air and always have a reason to get out of the house and enjoy a few coldies watching the rolling boil of the sap turn to syrup….......and I even smell good when I do go in the house!!!

-- Central northish Ontario

1:40 PM March 28, 2008 Friday, March 28, 2008
I wanted you all to know that it is snowing here right now.

No syrup to haul so I guess I’ll have to start some wine in the green house and get some CO2 generating.
Ha what and excuse!

Bob

-- I want to believe in a lot of things but, in the meantime I have to deal with the truth

our neighbour is tapping some birch trees. He is going to make some wine.

-- - Debbie, SW Ontario Canada (USDA Hardiness Zone: 5a)

Hi Bob … that is what happened with us yesterday. Rained off and on, then all of a sudden snow appeared. We ended up about an inch or so; heavy wet snow. Most of it is thankfully melted by now from the hot sun. Please let this be the last of it …. come on spring!!!

-- "A perfect garden is just a garden to be in-perfection. Mornings to work on it and evenings to pause and look at it." Southeast Michigan, Zone 5a/5b

I just saw on the news that we are getting -12C temperatures overnight.. brrrr

-- - Debbie, SW Ontario Canada (USDA Hardiness Zone: 5a)

Today it snowed in Seattle from about 10am-3pm. It didn’t accumulate until around 2pm, so we got about an inch before it stopped. Now it’s melting off. More may hit later. This is really strange for Seattle! I’m glad I don’t have -12C to deal with, esp. since I’m helping a client learn to plant tomorrow!

-- GardenMentor, Seattle, WA (zone 8/9), www.gardenmentors.com & www.gardenhelp.org

btw: added a photo of a flowering winter current frosted with today’s snow in “my garden”. Enjoy!

-- GardenMentor, Seattle, WA (zone 8/9), www.gardenmentors.com & www.gardenhelp.org

great shot.. love that droplet!

-- - Debbie, SW Ontario Canada (USDA Hardiness Zone: 5a)

“late March snow isn’t uncommon” ...ouch…a late June snow isn’t uncommon here :(

-- Xploreorganics, 5b Canada, LFD 06-20

When we lived in Calgary, 2 years in a row we had hail in June that destroyed all the flowers and vegetables and another year, August 22 we had a bad frost. We knew about it, so pick up all above ground vegetables (peas, beans) and “froze” everything!!!:-)

-- Eklectic, Follow my Bliss, South East Ontario 5a