Mini Maple Sugaring

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- Hi, Sanford Smith here with Penn State Cooperative Extension.

Today we're talking about mini maple sugaring, otherwise known as backyard maple sugaring or small-scale production of maple products, all kinds of names.

We're gonna call it mini maple sugaring today.

And I'm joined by Scott Weikert, my colleague.

He's an extension educator here in Pennsylvania, and his specialty is lumber and wood processing and kiln operating and lumber grading, as well as maple.

So he works with maple producers around the state as well as others, homeowners, backyard maple producers to guide them and teach them about maple sugaring.

Scott, how many commercial producers that are in Pennsylvania?

- There's about 500 commercial producers in Pennsylvania.

- Okay, and commercial producers, of course, are those folks that sell their syrup.

Today, we're talking about people who make it in their backyard or on their property in the woods.

And Scott, how many do you think there are of those?

- There's probably 10 times as many backyard producers that are just making it for themselves as commercials.

- [Sanford] Now you are a maple syrup producer yourself in your backyard as well as in a few places in the woods.

How do you go about it?

- So we tap about 20 trees or so this year right here in my backyard.

And we just use taps, the spiles with a little bit of tubing going into buckets.

So when the sap is running, we collect sap and we run it, actually we run it through a homemade reverse osmosis unit machine.

- Okay.

- [Scott] Which will concentrate the sugar.

So it might be 1 3/4% sugar coming out of the tree, maybe 2%.

And we'll run it through the reverse osmosis and get that sugar content up to about six to 7%.

- [Sanford] Wow, okay.

- [Scott] And that really reduces the amount of time that we need to boil.

- [Sanford] Yeah, and energy too, right?

- [Scott] Yes, less firewood.

- So that reverse osmosis machine, that's something new, right?

That technology really came from the commercial producers and you kind of adopted it for the backyard production.

- Yeah, there's sources out there.

So mine's based on some plans that I found on the internet.

Cornell University actually has some videos on how to make one as well.

But yeah, the commercial producers have been using it for quite a few years to really boost their efficiency.

And you can actually purchase already put together units for backyard production as well that are much smaller than a commercial producer.

- Many people know that it takes about 40 gallons, 45 gallons of sap from trees to produce one gallon of syrup.

Now, after you run it through the RO machine, how many gallons of that reduced water solution do you need?

- [Scott] So when I'm done running it through my unit, it only takes about 13 or 14 gallons of sap at that concentrate to make one gallon of syrup.

So it really, it'll cut the time that we need to boil from maybe six to eight hours down to about two.

- Yeah, wow. - Two hours.

- Now is there any other technology?

You know what, most people have seen that maple syrup producers who are in the commercial realm will be tapping trees and then putting plastic tubing in those trees.

Do mini maple sugars use that tubing as well?

- Some do.

So, you know, obviously we use just short pieces here to run into our buckets.

We also make some syrup up in Tioga County.

We have a camp in Tioga County, and so it's on the side of a hill.

And so we will actually run some tubing down the hill and connect, you know, 10 to 12 trees per line and gather it all at the bottom of the hill just to save some walking up and down the hill 'cause we have about 60 or 65 trees that we tap up there.

And so that's a lot of buckets where we can just run five lines down into barrels.

- [Sanford] Gosh, there's so many interesting comparisons.

Some small scale producers will use just like an open pan with a fire over it and that's what you use.

- [Scott] Yeah, yeah.

- [Sanford] To evaporate down that sap.

- The pan that I have is, it's a three-foot by three-foot square pan basically with a flat bottom and it's on a cement block set up.

And with a chimney out the back to carry some of the ash and smoke away.

Can be as simple as a big kettle over top of an open flame.

- Yeah.

Now, a slightly larger scale person might have what's called an arch, which is essentially a firebox that has an evaporator that sits on top of that, right?

A small evaporator for like a family or a few families.

- [Scott] Yeah, they have units that you can purchase and you can oftentimes find them, used ones for sale that are, you know, they're well below what a commercial producer would use, but a step or two up from what I'm using.

- Scott, last question here.

Someone might be watching this video and thinking, "You know, maybe we ought to consider making some maple syrup ourselves." Where do they begin?

What would you recommend to a person who's interested in making maple syrup?

- [Scott] So the first thing, you know, if the first time you're making it, I would kind of stay small.

You know, don't go out and tap, you know, 200 trees because it's not difficult to make syrup, but it can be time consuming.

And so, you know, for the first time, start out with, you know, 10, 10 or 15 trees or so.

And that should be through the course of a season.

That'll get you, you know, a couple gallons of syrup and a little easier to manage.

And most people, when they make a small batch like that, it lights a fire in 'em and it's addictive and you'll wanna continue to do it.

You'll want to expand.

An easy way is just like what you see here, a spile with a little piece of tubing into, you know, a milk jug.

Any food safe container will work for collecting the sap.

So, you know, keep it cheap when you first get started and relatively small.

- Scott, it's been great learning about many maple processing or sugaring today with you.

I wanna thank you very much for joining me today and thank you folks for listening.