Amishway Homesteaders

Michael, have some questions here (women need lots of words to grasp full picture lol). What are running lines? How many taps are done per tree? How long do you leave them in? What is a sugar house? This is very interesting, I'm hoping you'll add more to your blog on the start to finish of maple syrup process. Thanks!!

Hello Granny,

Thanks for posting and thanks for asking questions for that is how we learn.

OK, in the old days when you tapped a red maple tree you would drill a hole (3/4 inch) 2 feet up from the ground and then put in a tap ( metal cones thingy) and then hang a bucket from that and the tree sap would drip into it. Then you would collect all the sap from the buckets and put into the evaperatore to cook down to make maple syrup. It takes 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of male syrup! Well with 800 + taps this year it was easier to 'run lines'. That is after they tapped the trees and put in the plastic cones (taps) they then hook up a plastic hose to it and run that from tree to tree (with T's) and then into a big 250 gallon tank, and ffrom that tank into a big 100 gallon tank by the sugar house. If you have ever had a fish tank at home the plastic hose you use to add air into the water is what it looks like just bigger? Most trees can take up to 3 taps but this year they/we did 2 per tree in most cases and some were just 1 as the tree was smaller. The Sugar House is just a outbuilding that you need to keep the evoperator in, with a top roof to let off the steam. the evoperator (cooker) which is mostly just a big square pan (3 feet wide and 16 feet long) that you have over a firebox. The sap comes in one end and as it moves along the pan gets cooked and the water evoperates off and the maple syrup is left. some days you are 'cooking' all day long and on into the night when the sap is running good. Then you drain off the syrup when it is boiling and put into jugs or jars. As of now we are done for the year with a little over 145 gallons of finished maple syrup put up. Most will be sold at Farmers Markets with some being sold right at the Amish Farm. I'll bet you could google maple sugaring for lots of sites that did it this year (but no Amish ones as no picture taking).

Hope this helps,