Spring has sprung-

[7mmMag]

Going to Bismarck this morning to pick up the new 5th wheel!

Our new 5th wheel is up in Minot, we just need to find some time to venture up there to get it. My 7yr old and 4yr old are beyond excited....as am I

 

[guywhofishes]

Does the syrup have good flavor? Is it thick or kinda runny? Normal syrup or dollar general syrup?

You boil it until it gets to the right viscosity (using a hydrometer). The taste ranges from cotton candy to maple syrup. I’ve never had dollar store syrup but imagine it sucks compared to real tree syrup.

We were Mrs Butterworths people growing up.

 

[ndfinfan]

Our new 5th wheel is up in Minot, we just need to find some time to venture up there to get it. My 7yr old and 4yr old are beyond excited....as am I

What did you guys end up getting? We settled on the GD Reflection 28RL, for the price, felt it was the best choice. Driving back to Minot from Bismarck yesterday, I was amazed at how easy it pulls! Zero sway, got better mpg than pulling the travel trailer...which was 2,000 pds less than the 5th wheel! Enjoy!

 

[wslayer]

What did you guys end up getting? We settled on the GD Reflection 28RL, for the price, felt it was the best choice. Driving back to Minot from Bismarck yesterday, I was amazed at how easy it pulls! Zero sway, got better mpg than pulling the travel trailer...which was 2,000 pds less than the 5th wheel! Enjoy!

Big difference when loaded with water and gear
Enjoy . . .

 

[7mmMag]

What did you guys end up getting? We settled on the GD Reflection 28RL, for the price, felt it was the best choice. Driving back to Minot from Bismarck yesterday, I was amazed at how easy it pulls! Zero sway, got better mpg than pulling the travel trailer...which was 2,000 pds less than the 5th wheel! Enjoy!

Keystone 29MBD. We wanted something with bunks for the kids. We were looking at the GD's but didn't like the layout of their bunkhouse floorplans.

 

[SurvivalAmazon88]

So close! LOL We got another little mini blizzard but I have seen some flowing water around the Minot area. Im going to drag my youngest out to check the river and Lake Darling in a couple days.

 

[Skeeter]

You boil it until it gets to the right viscosity (using a hydrometer). The taste ranges from cotton candy to maple syrup. I’ve never had dollar store syrup but imagine it sucks compared to real tree syrup.

We were Mrs Butterworths people growing up.

Mrs Butterworths!!! Why do you need to flaunt your high class upbringing to us?!! We had commodity peanut butter, Karo syrup, or homemade chokecherry jelly to put on our buckwheat pancakes. BTW I hated buckwheat pancakes. I never knew what maple syrup was until high school.

 

[wslayer]

Still doing my homemade chokecherry, so very good.

 

[riverview]

spring is here putting ski gear away today, really hate when ski season is over.

 

[guywhofishes]

Still doing my homemade chokecherry, so very good.

The smell of Grandma’s house when she was making it is a precious memory.

 

[guywhofishes]

Guess my math makes sense. Sap is 4.5% sugar. It’s mind boggling as to why the maples in my yard are so high in sugar. That’s definitely not why the previous owner planted them.

 

[Maddog]

Guess my math makes sense. Sap is 4.5% sugar. It’s mind boggling as to why the maples in my yard are so high in sugar. That’s definitely not why the previous owner planted them.

How much does the sugar content vary from year to year? Is it fairly consistent?
Or does extreme weather influence it too?

 

[Eatsleeptrap]

 

[Eatsleeptrap]

 

[guywhofishes]

How much does the sugar content vary from year to year? Is it fairly consistent?
Or does extreme weather influence it too?

I haven’t kept careful track and some years I don’t measure it. I have seen 3.5 and 4.5. I bought the sap hydrometer after getting way higher syrup yield than the interweb said I should. I would imagine the weather has a lot to do with it but the two in my yard are always on the high end.

 

[risingsun]

But the two in my yard are always on the high end

Well...they do come by it honestly.

 

[Eatsleeptrap]

Through April 15. Two storms, this weekend and the next weekend. GROSS!!

 

[johnr]

Through April 15. Two storms, this weekend and the next weekend. GROSS!!

I sure hope it brings in a lot of precip. Lake Sakakawea is borderline empty.

 

[3Roosters]

That’s 20 gal from two trees we tapped last Friday. They usually put out twice that during the season of a week or two.

For some reason my maples aren’t sugar maples (they're some huge yard type silver maple looking hybrid), but they put out crazy high sugar content of 2.5-3.4 percent sugar (called Brix).

Gallons of sap need to make a gallon of syrup follows the rule of 86.
86 / your trees' Brix = gallons of syrup.

I haven't measured the sap's Brix this year but if it's average (say 3%) then 86 / 3 Brix = 28 gal of sap per gal of syrup.

I'm going to boil that pot of reduced sap I posted a picture of tonight on the stove (with a good vent) to get to perfect syrup sugar density (66.9 Brix) using a sugar hydrometer. I'll report later how many quarts we put up for this first batch. That sap is probably 90% of the way there - so it won't take a lot of boiling to get there.

Lots of people are surrounded by boxelder which makes good syrup too (it's a maple after all). It's not always real high in sugar though.

If you decide to give it a go don't try to boil a lot of sap using propane - it'll put you in the poor house! We used a hot plate the first year just for kicks (boiled maybe 15 gallons of sap) and liked it. So we built a POS wood-fired evaporator out of a barrel and some hotel steamer pans and we burn cull firewood.
It's sorta fun to do something productive during "mud season". Freezing nights and highs in the 40/50s is what makes sap run. If it doesn't freeze overnight then the sap doesn't flow much, if at all the following day. It's the freeze/thaw cycle that does it - somehow.

Sluggo had success a couple years ago. But he's not hooked. He's got the Missouri River for something to do in March. Grrr.

We used to own a summer lake cabin north of Bemidji on about 3 acres, which consisted of mostly maple and basswood trees. Them Maple Trees show beautiful colors in the fall, that's for sure!!! Our neighbors to the west of us were year rounders. He would ask if....besides tapping his trees, if he could tap some of ours....with the gift of some finished syrup of course. lol...He always surmised....that it took about 40 gallons of tapped sap to boil down to produce a gallon of syrup. They are retired folks and he likes to tinker and stay occupied so they enjoyed doing it. I THINK this was his set up also. So we built a POS wood-fired evaporator out of a barrel and some hotel steamer pans and we burn cull firewood. I THINK he and the wife took turns babysitting it at nites. They offered a gallon to us each season but we declined that amount. There is only 2 of us and we do NOT use a gallon a yr. Smaller amount is fine.