Question about making Maple Syrup

[MysticScorpio82]

I have several maple trees and I just got some tabs and buckets on craiglist. I need some creative ideas about how I can boil the sap down into syrup. I believe I read it takes a few days of constant heat.

Where I currently am, I have no woodstove and the oly stove I do have is run on propane....same as my furnace. I have not tabbed my trees yet, because I don't want a ton of sap without any way to boil it down. Any ideas? Am I wrong about how much time it takes? I am considering making an earthoven this summer and using it next year for syrup (It would be outside, but it will run on wood). Thank you in advance!

 

[Damummis]

I boil ours down on the kitchen stove. We heat with wood so the steam adds much needed moisture. I have also used an outside cooker, like the kind you fry a turkey in. Works well. I don't think it takes as long as you think. You can always stop overnight and start back up in the morning.

 

[Rhettsgreygal]

We haven't made syrup in a while. Last time we did cook it down on the stove and it didn't take all that long. Depending on you trees and how much sugar is in the sap, it can be 40 gallons of sap to 1 gallon of syrup. My sil taps 2 - 3 trees by her house and she cooks it down on her kitchen stove. When we lived "down south", we probably tapped about 20 trees and cooked it outside in a big cooker under a big old oak tree. Then we had the cooker going close to non-stop for a few days at a time. My inlaws are up in Door County tapping trees. Back when they were younger they generally tapped at the minimum, 50 trees. I am not sure how many they will be tapping this year. They are both in their 80's so it all depends on how much snow is on the ground and if they can drive in to the cabin.

Annette

 

[Henrietta23]

We just boil down on the kitchen stove too. DH tried the gas grill but it used up propane too quickly. Somewhere he found plans for converting an old gas grill to a wood burning sap boiler. Maybe Mother Earth News?
Our sap is about done for the year it seems. We didn't get any yesterday and only a few inches today.

Can't find the article but I found this and many others like it:
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Do-It-Yourself/2000-02-01/Do-It-Yourself-Evaporator.aspx

 

[Henrietta23]

There's no "hand clapped over the mouth" smiley....
: X

 

[Homemaker]

We've done ours on our electric stove in the past. Last year our cousin bought us a large propane stove setup. The kind people usually use to deepfry turkeys. We use it to boil down until its a really heavy syrup and then finish it up inside on the stove.
Friends of ours do theirs outside over a large open fire. They have huge kettles that they hang over the fire. I'm jealous.

 

[rhoda_bruce]

I am from the very deep south....like practically touching the Gulf. It gets super hot here. And we have very mild winters.
Well my godmother made maple syrup, but she lives in Michigan and she sent pics. Snow was everywhere.
I do have a maple in my yard and the family has lots of wooded land out back, so probably a hundred or more to tap, but is it even possible to tap a maple and get anything worth while if you live in such a warm climate?

 

[MysticScorpio82]

That is great! I have no clue where I got the idea that it would take days of boiling down sap to make syrup! After the snow stops (tomorrow) I will be heading out to start tapping my maples. Gotta love Maine weather, ! 65 degrees out 4 days ago, and today....snow... I am looking forward to some home made maple syrup, I will definately let you know how it turns out!

 

[Damummis]

That is great! I have no clue where I got the idea that it would take days of boiling down sap to make syrup! After the snow stops (tomorrow) I will be heading out to start tapping my maples. Gotta love Maine weather, ! 65 degrees out 4 days ago, and today....snow... I am looking forward to some home made maple syrup, I will definately let you know how it turns out!

I wouldn't wait for the snow to stop. The sap has been flowing here on the mid-coast for a couple weeks. Get crackin. Sunday is Maine Maple Sunday.

 

[valmom]

We boil ours on the electric stove indoors, too. We only tap 6 trees and it seems to take (by rule of thumb) an hour per gallon to boil ours down. Our 10 gallon days are a pain! I wanted to build a rocket stove outside to boil in, but when it came to sap run time there was so much snow I didn't want to be outside tending a stove So we are doing it inside again this year. Maybe some year I will have a greenhouse and I will put a wood stove in that for sap running.