Sunday, March 7, 2010

Tapping for sap!

Ahhh this is a family experiment.  There are so many variables even when the pros do this that there is a good chance that we may all get about a tablespoon of syrup when it is all said and done :)  But that is not really the point of it all anyways the point is to experience life to the fullest and that is what we are trying to do!  I received my taps in the mail on Friday.  I called a local woman that I purchased syrup from last year and asked for some tips.  She was so sweet and helpful which is pretty common in the world of a farming community.  All you have to do is ask and they will sit you down and impart there years of wisdom at no charge. 

We explored all the options for how to collect the sap.  You can purchase special buckets or bags there are people that use milk jugs or coffee cans. After looking at them all we decided that we were going to try to put as little money into this as possible and came up with our own method.  So with two new 5 gallon buckets that we already had, some tubing and connectors we made or collecting system.  It is pretty cool if I do say so myself.  Well I can't really take design credit since Ryan really came up with the whole thing.  So here it is!


                                                       Assembling the collection system

Drilling for the tap.

Our little helper.

Look closely you can see it coming!!

Our tree which Elaina said looks like it is at the doctors.

Help from the peanut gallery!


Hurry up catch it Macy....here it comes!!!


Next step: Wait!  Then starts the boiling!

6 comments:

  1. That is so awesome. How blessed you're kids are to have such great parents. So where do you get the idea to do this kind of stuff? I'm intrigued since it never would have crossed my mind to do such a thing. but i'm not at all a country gal either :)

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  2. After about 2 hours we are up to about 1/2 gallon! Thanks so much. As far as where I get the ideas for stuff like this. First off I LOVE LOVE LOVE to learn new things. I don't know what I would do if I had to stop reading, researching and experimenting new things, I guess probably be bored to death. Also home educating what other way to teach my kids then to let them live life and learn through it?! And best of all we get to learn together as a family. For some reason I think this is the way God designed it to be. For this in particular I have wondered about it for a couple years because we have 6 maple trees in our yard. I have been trying to get my family and the food we eat closest to the way God made it. And steer as far as we can from anything processed and packaged. So maple syrup is one of God's great creations and oh so yummy but have you seen the price on it??!!! Up to $50 a gallon! So hey why not tap them and see what happens? Though I think we have done some pretty country things I never thought of tapping maple trees as country.

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  3. Is it a certain kind of maple tree? We have a couple different types around here.(WV)

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  4. Of course sugar maple is the best=highest sugar content. Though alot of maple trees produce a sap that can be turned into syrup you will get less syrup per gallon of sap. There are a few types that produce a milky sap that do not make syrup. Also timing is a big thing. You cannot tap once your trees start to bud or the syrup will tast very bad. Some trees that produce good sap are silver, red and boxelder.

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  5. Thanks for the info. I have a red maple by my back door. I may try that sometime, but not this year. Already have to many projects. I went and orderd my turkeys today. 6 Bourbon Reds, I hope they can get them for me at my local feed store, if not I'll have to order them from mcmurrays.

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  6. So glad you got your turkeys ordered. I actually got mine this week. I am trying bronze this year to see the difference. I was thinking about ordering through mcmurrays with a friend I think their minimum order is 15. But I happened to luck out and get some at our local feed store this week. I think you will really enjoy them. They are easy to raise from my experience.

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