Skip to main content

Maine Maple Sunday

This Sunday is Maine Maple Sunday! In 2011, Maine produced 360,000 gallons of maple syrup. In order to get 1 gallon of syrup, you need an average of anywhere between 34-42 gallons of sap depending on the concentration of sugar.
For Hubby's birthday, we headed to a friend's house where he has about 5 taps going during the season. This is his set up - metal taps, plastic hoses into 5 gallon buckets.
We then headed to Brian's nephew's sugar house. This place was built in 1954 and there is a small camp right next to the sugar house where they use to sleep while collecting the sap all spring.
Brian's nephew has 700 taps. I tried to get a good picture of the web of tubes but with the sun, none of them came out great. Hopefully you can see the spider-web like set up he has. The sugar house is downhill from all of the trees so gravity helps to keep the sap running. If they need to, they also hook up a generator that creates a suction through the entire system to help get the sap out.
We have had temps in the 80's for the past week or so. Very abnormal Maine weather and because it has been staying so warm, the season has (or will be) incredibly short. Brian has already pulled his 5 taps and instead of normally making about 6 gallons of syrup, he made 2 1/2. In a normal spring, the days are in the 40's and the nights are in the 20's. Cold enough for the sap to move into the branches and then warm enough to move into the trunk and out into the taps. You can see the sap running into the bucket, like water from a tap.
The sap runs into the building, down the pipes and into a table like set up. From there, it flows into this snake set up. Sugar houses are about 110 degrees because you have to keep the fire going constantly (under the table) so that the sap can stay at a boil and the moisture can evaporate, leaving just the maple syrup.
You can see the color change (from right to left) as the sap is boiled down to sugar.
The sugar gets filtered and ready to be bottled and sold at the many festivities that are held throughout the State on Sunday.
Boom! Maine Maple Syrup!

If you are in Maine, get out and support local Sugar Houses! Especially, since they have faced a hard spring. Here is a link to all of the sugar houses that are open to the public this weekend. Go Local!

Comments

  1. Downeast Duck HunterMarch 23, 2012

    I ran six taps this year and produced two pints of maple syrup, looks like I'm small ball compared to this operation. Nice post.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousMarch 24, 2012

    We have a couple in town that make maple syrup and that would make a very neat day trip.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Eastern Shore OutdoorsMarch 25, 2012

    Very cool and great explanation on the process. I will savor it more knowing the level of work required to fill that bottle....Phil

    ReplyDelete
  4. Tom HamMarch 26, 2012

    jeeze! who knew so much went into that?!?! cool.

    ReplyDelete
  5. UnknownMarch 26, 2012

    Feel free to send some down south!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ErinMarch 26, 2012

      Emailed me your address and I will send some down for you!

      Delete
  6. UnknownApril 04, 2012

    Wow that is a true labor of love! I only buy the good stuff.. pure maple syrup for me.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Terry ScovilleApril 05, 2012

    Great description of the sugaring process. It is as good as gold and I savor every drop.

    ReplyDelete
  8. ErinApril 05, 2012

    Thanks Terry! Nothing beats sneaking a couple of drops on your finger when its coming from the tree

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Where are the women?

This week, my interview with Steve at The Maine Outdoorsman went live. Steve said yesterday 200 people hit his site viewing over 500 pages. That is a lot of people reading about little ole me and hunting. Why? When I think of women who are in the general public's eye and hunt, I can think of 2 - Country singer Miranda Lambert and Sarah Palin. Why only two? Why is the female hunter such a fascinating thing? (I should probably note that I do not have cable so any and all female hunters on the hunting stations are lost to me. I'll keep it to the general public because that's what I am familiar with.) People/media were fascinated by the fact that they could get footage of Palin and her gun, shooting (and gutting) animals but I feel like the nostalgia would be lost if they had the same footage of McCain. Lambert and her hubby Blake Shelton tweet photos of their kills, and comment on what/where they are hunting. I only know this because I follow both. That's it....
15 comments
Read more

So much to celebrate - let's give away stuff!

As you know from my last post, this month I am celebrating the one year anniversary of this blog, 10 years of hunting with my Dad and a milestone birthday. In honor of all three, I want to give away some great Maine stuff to all of you! Rules: 1. Leave a comment 2. On Oct 28 (my big bday), Dad will pick a number and the corresponding post will win. What will you win? A big basket of great Maine and outdoor things! Such as: fly fishing flies, blueberry something, Maine maple syrup, apple butter (to be made by me on Tuesday), something related to deer hunting and a couple of great books signed by local authors. (Pictures will be posted when I am back at a computer). So thank you for your support and for helping my celebrate such a great month!!
17 comments
Read more

So much for respectable stand placement

Dad has hunted on the land that houses the Sky Condo for the better part of his life. About six years ago, we built the SC and started hunting there full time.   At that time, there were no other hunters near by.  A few years ago, a hunter bought a bordering piece of property, re-did the old camp that was there and brought his buddies along.  We haven't had a lot of incidents with them (trespassing last year, putting pink ribbon on my tree seat and lying to us when we asked them what they shot - a search through the list at the tagging station said an 8-point buck).  Two years ago, Dad bought a piece of land that is separated from the Sky Condo property by a powerline and a driveway that is privately owned by our hunting neighbor.  The land was bought in May and once October came, our neighbor put a treestand up along the edge of the powerline, facing our new piece of property and right next to our traveling path.  We were cautious from that point ...
9 comments
Read more