Dennis the Menace taps trees

[franksolich]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1018306780

Oh my.

Denninmi (5,521 posts)    Sun Feb 17, 2013, 12:56 AM

It's just about time to tap trees here in MI.

Hard to believe, in the depths of winter, but the sap flow is liable to start any time now, if it hasn't already. Amateur maple syrup production is one of the cheapest, easiest things to do, it requires only taps, which you can make yourself from one inch dowel, collection buckets, and some form of pan and an outdoor heating source.

CaliforniaPeggy (102,307 posts)    Sun Feb 17, 2013, 01:08 AM

1. My dear Denninmi!

I vaguely remember reading that you have to boil off some huge quantity of water to get really good syrup. I don't remember the numbers, but it was a LOT.
 
Have you ever done it? I'll bet it tastes wonderful...

Denninmi (5,521 posts)    Sun Feb 17, 2013, 01:12 AM

2. Every year.

Sugar content varies, so it can take from 20 to 40 plus gallons of sap to make a gallon of syrup.
 
Last year, I only got 8 quarts, as the sap flow was suddenly over when our temps, in Michigan in March, went into extreme record range in the 80s and even a few 90s.
 
My record year was, IIRC, 27 quarts.

CaliforniaPeggy (102,307 posts)    Sun Feb 17, 2013, 01:14 AM

4. Even 8 quarts seems like a lot of syrup!

I know you like to cook, so I'll bet you do some wonderful things with it!

Denninmi (5,521 posts)    Sun Feb 17, 2013, 01:16 AM

5. I give most of it away.

I use a little in cooking.

I make pancakes or waffles two or three times a year.

CaliforniaPeggy (102,307 posts)    Sun Feb 17, 2013, 01:21 AM

6. I thought you might do that...

The lucky recipients!

The CalPig primitive by the way is well on her way to amassing 100+ "hearts;" Dennis the Menace thus far has a paltry fourteen.

HarveyDarkey (4,087 posts)    Sun Feb 17, 2013, 01:28 AM

7. How much more does it take to make Maple sugar?

I use it in my BBQ rub, but it's so hard to find & expensive,

Denninmi (5,521 posts)    Sun Feb 17, 2013, 10:12 AM

9. Here's a good publication about making maple sugar from Cornell.

I never had much luck with that, mine always turned into hard lumpy cakes. Then, I would have to shave it off or put it in a food processor to use it.
 
This tells the right way to do it. I didn't know about stirring it, so that might change my resuts.
 
http://counties.cce.cornell.edu/oneida/Agriculture/Ag/maple/Making%20Granulated%20Maple%20Sugar.pdf

Lumpy syrup.  Dennis the Menace would've been better off simply buying Karo in a can, if Karo's still sold in a can.

HarveyDarkey (4,087 posts)    Sun Feb 17, 2013, 10:51 AM

10. Thanks for that

The last I bought any, a couple of years ago, it was over $10.00/ lb. Now I know why.

You know, I never thought of it until now, but I wonder if anybody around here taps trees.

God knows, there's plenty of trees around here, on the eastern slope of the Sandhills of Nebraska.

I just never paid attention.  The domesticated trees are nearly all walnut trees, so I don't imagine they'd make syrup.  But there's tons of trees congested on or near the river, and they seem to be of all species; I wonder if any of them are maple.

Or perhaps one can get syrup from non-maple trees, too.  I dunno.

[Skul]

I can just see Dennis, wandering tree to tree, tapping away like an Aye-aye lemur.
Coach needs to turn him loose on the cottonwoods along the Elkhorn.

[Dori]

Does tapping hurt the tree? 

[Skul]

Does tapping hurt the tree? 

Oh oh, this isn't going to go well. 


Short answer..no.

[vesta111]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1018306780

Oh my.

The CalPig primitive by the way is well on her way to amassing 100+ "hearts;" Dennis the Menace thus far has a paltry fourteen.

Lumpy syrup.  Dennis the Menace would've been better off simply buying Karo in a can, if Karo's still sold in a can.

You know, I never thought of it until now, but I wonder if anybody around here taps trees.

God knows, there's plenty of trees around here, on the eastern slope of the Sandhills of Nebraska.

I just never paid attention.  The domesticated trees are nearly all walnut trees, so I don't imagine they'd make syrup.  But there's tons of trees congested on or near the river, and they seem to be of all species; I wonder if any of them are maple.

Or perhaps one can get syrup from non-maple trees, too.  I dunno.

Wonderful traditions up here, some changes but not allot. They call them sugar shacks, about the size of a storage shed,  Big old time cast iron wood burning stove inside. The buckets of sap are hauled inside and poured into cast iron huge pots that must weigh 40+ POUNDS EMPTY.  Then the boiling begins, and the almost constant stirring.  

Fun part is the check for cooking, bring in a cup of snow and pour a bit of syrup  in the bowl.   When the syrup sets like peanut brittle, it is done cooking.      Nothing ever can taste that good to a kid.    Reason why we have signs near the sugar shacks that read " Don't eat Yellow Snow"

[franksolich]

Okay, this morning I asked the property caretaker if people around here tap trees for syrup.

He looked at me as if I were Bozo from Outer Space.

Apparently they do, and it's not a big deal; it's just something they do if the weather's right (it's not right this winter) and they got nothing else going on.  Even though done irregularly, apparently many have the know-how and skills to do it, and have done it.  He insisted the neighbor's done it.

But as an "activity," he'd rate it about as popular as raising mistletoe in Michigan.

Then he got on my case; "Are you sure you were born and raised in Nebraska?"

To which I replied, I was raised in the middle of the Sandhills.  The Sandhills were the last part of Nebraska ever settled, and by the time people started moving there, factory-made clothing, indoor plumbing, grocery stores, and horseless carriages had already been invented, and in popular use.  So we didn't bother utilizing any of these ancient arts.

- - - - - - - - - -

Now, if Dennis the Menace hasn't been lying, apparently he's a graduate of Michigan State, with a degree in horticulture.

Which flummoxes me to no end.

Why the Hell is he bothering being a paralegal?

I suspect his life would've turned out a whole lot better--and maybe he would've avoided becoming a primitive--if he'd just built a great big greenhouse and dealt in flora.  (No, I'm not talking about dope; I'm talking about legitimate plantage.)

Why do primitives start out so well, and then suddenly change course?

[IassaFTots]

Does tapping hurt the tree? 

I was wondering how long it would take to get to that question.  Not long at all, apparently.

[andhe78]

We just finished tapping a little over three thousand, supposed to be nice the rest of the week, should get some good runs.

Vesta dear,  I don't even know where to start.  Things must be done differently in your part of the country.  Sugaring has been in my family for over five generations, and I've seen little to none of what you are talking about.  The wood fired stove is called an arch and many producers have changed to gas fired arches.  I still use wood, but only because I can get hundreds of cords for free.  I've never seen sap boiled in a pot, it's usually done in shallow pans that spread the sap over a large surface area so it boils faster.  I've also never seen sap stirred while it's boiling either.  Testing the syrup by pouring it over snow is a joke too, it's called a hydrometer, or lacking that you can use a thermometer-people doing it your way is why there is crappy product out there.

[vesta111]

We just finished tapping a little over three thousand, supposed to be nice the rest of the week, should get some good runs.

Vesta dear,  I don't even know where to start.  Things must be done differently in your part of the country.  Sugaring has been in my family for over five generations, and I've seen little to none of what you are talking about.  The wood fired stove is called an arch and many producers have changed to gas fired arches.  I still use wood, but only because I can get hundreds of cords for free.  I've never seen sap boiled in a pot, it's usually done in shallow pans that spread the sap over a large surface area so it boils faster.  I've also never seen sap stirred while it's boiling either.  Testing the syrup by pouring it over snow is a joke too, it's called a hydrometer, or lacking that you can use a thermometer-people doing it your way is why there is crappy product out there.

NH. Early 1960's when I saw it done by friends family's that had at most 50 maple trees not in the hundreds or thousands.  These people had inherited the shacks and land from ancestors that made just enough for family use.   Today one of my school friends whose family I visited way back then now RENTS the trees with permission to tap them.   I am not surprised at the changes in the methods, the old methods were very crude but worked if all one needed was a gallon or two  I do remember it took one heck of allot of sap to produce a quart of syrup.
 This was much like the family gardens,  or the people that kept small bee hives for the honey.   

Not everyone back then used thermometers in making candy, my Grandmothers took bowls of ice cold water and tested the syrup by dribbling in a small bit and when it balled up was ready to come off the heat.

These were the time tested methods using nothing but fire and a pot.   How on earth the Indians ever invented this is beyond me, they had no metal cook ware. 

Seems the further North one goes the sweeter the syrup and more expensive it gets.

No large scale producer in my area, just allot of old folks that enjoy taking grand and great grand kids out on the property to Sugar, garden or drain the bee hive.   Sort of a history leason, " Watch and learn kids this is how your Great Grandfathers, Grandfather did this. "



A bonding  with past generations through the century's for us kids, something we cannot do today.   

[GOBUCKS]

Denninmi (5,521 posts)    Sun Feb 17, 2013, 01:12 AM

Sugar content varies, so it can take from 20 to 40 plus gallons of sap to make a gallon of syrup.
 
Last year, I only got 8 quarts
 
My record year was, IIRC, 27 quarts.

Whoa. Professionally diagnosed lunatic DUmmy Dennis the Menace taps maple trees in Detroit?

Eight quarts of syrup means two gallons, at 20 to 40 gallons of sap per gallon, or up to eighty gallons of sap.

In his best year, he boiled down nearly three hundred gallons of sap?

So lunatic DUmmy Dennis, while maxing out credit cards, working out several hours per day, bicycling hundreds of miles, spending hours at the DUmp, working fulltime as some kind of clerk at a law office, and thrashing around with panic attacks, is at the same time tending sap buckets on hundreds of trees?

In Detroit, where the only available trees are discarded Christmas trees in the gutters?

Maybe DUmmy Dennis buys barrels of sap from Amazon, on his credit card.

[Maxiest]

Denninmi (5,521 posts)    Sun Feb 17, 2013, 01:12 AM

2. Every year.

Sugar content varies, so it can take from 20 to 40 plus gallons of sap to make a gallon of syrup.
 
Last year, I only got 8 quarts, as the sap flow was suddenly over when our temps, in Michigan in March, went into extreme record range in the 80s and even a few 90s.
 
My record year was, IIRC, 27 quarts.

Bush's Fault, Global Warming, etc...

[NHSparky]

Global warming, my ass.  They're still at least a month early for sugaring.

[Duke Nukum]

Some day our planet's freedom may be fought for via maple syrup.

[ColonelCarrots]

DUmmy or not hope he doesn't get a splinter on his willy. At least the tree is on government birth control.

[marv]

I prefer to tap the local grocery store - a pint at a time....

[Skul]

I prefer to tap the local grocery store - a pint at a time....

All this tap talk is making me thirsty enough to tap something other than a dayam tree.