A BIG SAP’s gonna flow

First of all, my apologies to Bob Dylan. And if you’re not a fan of Bob Dylan, my apologies to you, since you’re now hearing his voice in your head.

I was reminded this morning why it’s important to empty sap every night. If I don’t it freezes in the milk jugs that make up a large portion of my collection apparatus, and it then has to melt before I can get it out. In the meantime, the trees are in fourth gear and have jugs that are restricted to just 3/4 capacity. It got well below freezing last night and it’s 47° right now. Taps are running and we’ve got a family birthday party to go to soon. So! Gotta get out there and empty everything now so there’ll be room for the day’s  collection!

And then, empty everything again this evening. Because of the freezing. Tomorrow’s gonna be just as good as today!

Promises, promises

Have you ever resolved to not do something. Like, I’m never going to drink that much Southern Comfort again, or, that’s the last time I cook bacon in just my skivvies? Yeah, you have. Well this maple season I has resolved not to do any boiling. Okay, maybe just a little bit of boiling. Just enough for the family. But really, seriously, no boiling.

It’s just too expensive. The propane that is.  For the past 4 years that I’ve made maple syrup it’s been done over some form or propane powered burner. From camp stove (holy cow was that slow!), to a borrowed turkey fryer, to a borrowed turkey fryer plus one of my own, to a borrowed turkey fryer, plus my own plus where the hell did this third burner come from? Do I own this? I can’t even remember. The point is, propane is foolishly expensive when it comes to making maple syrup. Burn oil, burn wood, burn old tires (don’t burn old tires) but don’t burn propane. Last year I was kicking back three 20 lb. tanks roughly every 16 hours. I had to borrow extra tanks from friends just so I could have extras on hand for when the ones I was using petered out. I actually ended my season a week early because I couldn’t justify another $50 in fuel to make syrup I wasn’t even sure I could sell. Don’t get me wrong – I loved every frozen handed, mud slogging minute of it, but the cost of all that propane still makes my left eye twitch. 

This year, I was blessed with a free cord of free lovely seasoned free cherry wood. Did I mention it was free? It came from the same customer of my father’s whose old pressure treated deck provided much of the lumber for the new shack. Even as I was splitting it I could imagine the bountiful profits from selling syrup made at nearly no cost. Well, no cost except for the evaporator. And then, no cost including the evaporator. 

Back where I started. If I want to make syrup at all this year, it’s going to have to be on propane. And every time I light that burner I’m going to think about that stack of wood right outside the window. So fine. What’s one more year? And anyway, I’m not talking about making a lot of syrup. Just, I don’t know, a gallon?

Except a gallon isn’t going to be enough.

Everyone wants syrup.

It’s unbelievable. My mom wants syrup. Our friend April wants syrup. Every single person my wife knows (many of whom she’d never even met!) wants syrup. My kids’ bus driver. My co-workers. Some girl in my youngest daughter’s first grade class. And according to my daughter, she’s bringing seven dollars with her on Monday. I don’t even have any syrup to sell yet! (And, um, pints are nine…) 

Do I break down and start boiling, or do I hold my ground and just sell all my sap like I planned? I’ve got the itch, that’s for sure.

Last Time, at Occasional Creek…

This was supposed to be “Our Year”. We finally got a proper shack built in the Fall and all it was missing was a modestly sized wood fired evaporator. I spent a lot of time hunting around for decent used rig. No sooner did I find one than life began to throw all manner of financial inconveniences at us, all of them vehicle shaped, and unfortunately owned and insured by yours truly. So with available funds now being channelled into replacing one car and repairing another, we reluctantly decided to wait a year on getting that evaporator.

Very reluctantly.

We debated the need for two cars.

Instead, I went looking for someone who was interested in buying my sap. I figured that I still have all manner of buckets, taps, tubing and whatnot – there was no reason not to use it. Selling sap or trading it for syrup isn’t as profitable as making and selling the syrup yourself, but it’s better than doing nothing at all. The closer we got to the sap starting to run, and talking with other producers who’s already started, I knew full well that doing nothing at all wasn’t going to work. After a short search I found Dave, a fellow member of the Maple Trader (a maple producer’s forum that I help to moderate) who despite living many many miles south of me was interested in whatever sap I could provide for him. He makes his first pickup of 100 gallons tomorrow. That’s a third of what I collected all of last season, and this season is only, oh, 5 days old. I think it’s going to be a good year here, even if I’m not making much syrup myself.