Well, it is that time of year again. (Albeit earlier than normal) It is time to head into the sugar bush to harvest nature’s bounty in the form of Maple sap and ultimately, syrup! . This is our 4th year of Rutty Buck Syrup Camp and it is going to be an interesting year to say the least. Minnesota has had one of the warmest and driest years on record. We have had 20 days straight with temperatures that hit above freezing. Given that we have has such unseasonably warm weather this year, the trees in the bush are struggling to find their rhythm. In a normal year, we tap when the temperatures are freezing at night, and above freezing during the day. This year, the trees have been flowing, then not flowing. On and off as the temps bounce up and down. Normally, this happens gradually, which makes it easier to plan for the season. Not this year! We are not sure how this is going to affect our season. If the weather continues to get warmer and warmer, we may have a very short season. Given the fact that the ground is hardly frozen and we have very little snow cover, the temps will struggle to stay below freezing at night. Traditionally, the snow pack and frozen ground is what really keeps the temps low at night, once the sun goes down.
The freeze/thaw cycle allows the sap to travel up the tree to begin the process of budding and leaf production. For those that have not followed this in the past, let me give you a little refresher on how the sap flows in Maple trees. While the tree prepares for winter in the fall, it stores as much water and in turn it then produces and stores as much sugars throughout the summer as it can. Some goes to the tree for grow and the rest is stored for spring. This process is a matter of survival for our trees in the north country. The stored sugars are needed to jump start the budding and ultimately, leaf formation in our trees while the ground remains frozen in early spring. We have learned that we can harvest a small amount of this sap the tree uses to jump start its budding and leaf production. This is how we get REAL Maple syrup. A large Maple tree can store up to 4,000 gallons of sap for the winter! So the relatively small amount we harvest is not going to hurt our trees. We only harvest from trees that are at least 14” inches in diameter, to ensure we are allowing those young trees to get the jump start they need. After the tapping season is done, we remove the taps, and the tree repairs the tap hole, no worse for wear. It really is a gift from nature.
This year things started early because of our warm winter. The sap started flowing two weeks early this year. We tapped last week and harvested about 30 gallons of sap this past week. Below, you can see us tapping these Maples and hammering in the tap.
The tap consists of a plastic spline, and then a poly tube that uses sunlight to keep the line clean and free of bacteria. As we place the tap in the tree, we capture the sap, drip by drip, until it fills our buckets. We cover the buckets to keep dirt, debris and critters out of the buckets as they fill with raw sap. We then haul the buckets to large drums for bulk storage, until we can boil the sap. Below is the raw sap in the bucket. It should be clear. Any cloudiness in the bucket means bacteria has been growing in the sap, and it must be discarded. This is a major issue late in the season when we struggle to keep things cold. (Below, you can see the sap flowing through the tap. Normally, the tube is in the bucket, but I removed it for an example) A tap can produce 20 gallons a week, if the conditions are right.
As I mentioned before, the sap must be kept cold, we treat it like you would pasteurized milk. We try our best to keep it cold, if not, frozen for longer shelf life. We then run the raw sap through our reverse osmosis system to remove as much water as we can before boiling. This process almost double the amount of sap we are able to boil in one day. Typically, we can evaporate 40 gallons of concentrated sap, or about 85 gallons of raw sap. In a given day, we will produce about 1-2 gallons of syrup.
Here is our evaporator. Also know as a larch in the sugar business. The barrel is loaded with wood and our evaporation pan is placed on top of the direct flame. The key here is surface area. The more surface area you have, the more efficient your boil will be. This pan is 304 stainless steel at 24" X 36". On top of the boil pan we have a stainless steel preheater pan and two smaller preheating pans. The lower pan is where the magic really happens.
Once the sap reaches a temperature of about 214 F. we draw off the sap, for finishing inside on the gas stove. First we must filter the sap to remove any sugar sand, forge in debris etc. The sap flows through a pre-filter and then a heavy Orion filter which is made from heavy cotton.
Once we have the filtered sap inside, we can move to the final boiling stage so we can fine tune the finished product. We want to hit 219 F with the sap. Any hotter, and it flashes to caramel, which is a huge mess if it is allowed to happen. This is the main reason we finish inside on the stove, much better control with the gas stove. Once the product hits 219 F, we allow it to cool. Then the sugar sand will settle out, we reheat it and then filter and bottle. (More on that in the next episode,
)I will be updating this thread as we continue through the season. So stay tuned! Thank you for reading!
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