Maple Syrup – Forestry or Farming?

[Gabe Ayers]

Well, this is a perfect question to prove that there is no separating the two – when they are indeed one.

Of course I even confuse the speaking of it more and call what we do “Tree Gardening”.

When do you folks start tapping and how does that all work?

Educate us please.

Seems that maple syrup is a wonderful value added agroforestry product.

Sap is rising in the south, at least as lower elevations?

We are off to play music for the forest.

Warm Salute,

[Carl Russell]

From a purely silvicultural view, sugar-bushes should be managed as even aged pure stands of sugar maple with stocking below the C-line. Below the C-line for ultimate crown development, as crown=roots=sap volume. This management typically precludes timber as 6-8 feet need to be bucked off for taps and stain, and if crown development is as described above, form class goes out the window. Even aged to maximize taps/ac.. Sounds a lot like agriculture to me, especially since stocking, diameter distribution, and species composition are not even close to the natural forest condition.

That being said, most people in our area have a hard time meeting those standards. Most sugar-makers know a good log when they see it, and they know that they can get multiple uses out of their bush if they manage the form class a little differently. Even-aged is pretty much the standard though, and most people will try to grow mono-culture. On a farm with 50+/- ac. in sugar-woods that’s not a huge problem, as we all manage our lands with some areas under more intensive strategies than others.

On our farm we have an area about 35 acres designated as sugar-bush. It was established during the early 1900’s. There are many large sugar maples. Because there was nearly 70 years hiatus before I started to reclaim it, there are many other species established there including yellow birch, white ash, hemlock, beech, red maple, and red spruce saplings and small poles. Some of the original shoogs were tapped so heavily as 8-10″ trees that they are in decline. From growth rings, it shows that during the depression era the trees had the crap tapped out of them (sugar was a valuable commodity). Tapped too small and over-tapped. I’ve cut trees with spout holes in my felling cut, and I cut low. So low they must have leaned the bucket against the tree.

I like to see an overstocked forest with a diversity of species, so that is how I manage this bush. In areas of decline, or in other areas where the site is suitable, I select groups to create openings for regeneration. The associated hardwoods that I grow in amongst have good form, and shorter rotation than the shoogs. I am less inclined to look for sawtimber in a sugar tree, and my objective is 120-150 rotation, in other words mortality. I don’t push my milk cow, so I don’t manage the sugar-bush to maximize tap numbers, or sap production, just a healthy multi-aged multi-species, multiple-use forest that provides another seasonal product.

My sugaring operation is designed for 500-700 buckets. I have invested small amounts of money over many years so it is not something that we are leveraged into every year in order to make pay-back. Because it is a bucket system, gathering is contingent on access, so some years, like the last three relatively open winters, we don’t tap because we would be in mud up to our ears. This year the snow added up so fast, and I had work elsewhere, that my trails are not broken out, and probably won’t be.

This is the time that I would be tapping out though, and many of my neighbors are right now. The sugaring can be very financially profitable, but it can also be ridiculous. There are a lot of variables, so my strategy is one of low investment, and putting in the time and labor when the best situation presents itself. Carl

[Oxen Acres Farm]

[Some of the original shoogs were tapped so heavily as 8-10″ trees that they are in decline. ]

Carl I have never heard the term shoogs before could you fill me in please thanks.

[Carl Russell]

Shoogs is short for sugar maples. Sorry about that!! Carl

[Vicki]

Here in northeastern Ohio we have a long and economically important sugaring tradition. Tapping usually starts in early March, but is weather dependent. Weather this year is looking good for a good season. Daytime temps in the 40’s after freezing nights, with low atmospheric pressure, make for the best “runs.” Some days the sap can rise and fall more than once, that’s when your buckets will overflow faster than you can gather! You don’t want to tap too early in the season, even for one good run, because if it stays cold for several days the taps close up and you’ll have to re-tap–a lot of extra labor and stress on the trees. Knowing when to tap is an art, an intuition, helped these days by extended meteorological forecasts.

The season ends when it warms enough that the maple buds begin to break. Budding releases a hormone in the sap which makes the syrup sour, thus the derogatory term “buddy” syrup. So you don’t want to wait too long and miss the best early runs and have the season end with a sudden warming.

The sap needs to be boiled right away, because it begins to ferment, all the faster the warmer it is. That’s why they call it the sugar “camp”, because you stay out there at the sugar house until all the run is boiled, sometimes long into the night, boiling eggs right in the front pan and roasting sausages in front of the arch because you’re so hungry from emptying buckets all day.

Sadly, in Geauga Co., few folks want to do the labor required for sugaring. But new operations are opening, using new technologies like tubing and reverse osmosis.

There still are many Amish sugarbushes, and they are generally well-managed mixed hardwood stands, but basswoods, beeches, and soft maples are taken to favor the shoogs.

I’ve worked my oxen in local sugarbushes collecting sap. I love the sugar camp. Sadly, this year I will miss the season because I am going to northern Uganda to train oxen and help Acholi farmers learn the skills to work them again, after twenty years of war. If the season here is late, I might catch the end of it after i return.

[goodcompanion]

I love maple syrup as much as the next person. Possibly more.

Having said that, when you look at how many btus it takes to evaporate all that sap at a ration of 30 or 40 to one, it is one of the worst conversions of energy in to food calories out that you can find in the making of any foodstuff anywhere on the planet. Only justifiable if you have vast amounts of fuel for free or nearly free. Which I suppose we do in the northeast, at least for the time being.

Our predecessors made sugar because they didn’t have anything else to do that time of year, wood was abundant, and it was cheaper than buying white sugar. Today it’s a luxury product for some, a hobby for others, and a living for a few who have their business model tuned just right. But I wonder whether there’s really any place for sugaring in a future era of resource scarcity.

While a farm intern in France (a largely deforested country) I was trying once to explain the process of sugaring to the local people. No-one could believe that anyone would burn so much wood for so little end result.

[Garry]

Any one getting any amount of sap yet /i havent started to tap yet but wont be long weather is geting warmer N OVA SCOTIA c anadn

[Garry]

Started to tap today sap runing fair, did about 800 today.

[Up North Louie]

We haven’t tapped yet.

Here in Northern Wisconsin, we’re having something that approximates what used to be considered a “normal” winter, and I, for one, am damned glad of it.

This is totally unscientific, and I expect to get flamed for it, but I think that the trees need a good rest in the winter, 3 or 4 months at or below freezing and enough snow cover to hold the frost at about 3 feet. The last 3 years, these criteria have not been met– either warmer than usual for most of the time, or way cold with no snow and frost 6 feet down, and then it shoots to 50 degrees in a week. The runs have been lame. Last year was absolutely pathetic; we tap about 80 “ideal” trees, and we ended up with maybe 5 gallons of end product. We usually get far more than that.

This year has all the benchmarks of a good season, and I can’t wait.

That said, we only tap about 5 or 10% of the trees we can. This year, we are starting to keep records of which trees are producing, with an eye to retirement for some, and bringing new trees into the line, and expanding by a net gain of 25 or so trees per year over the next 4 or 5 years.

It one of our goals to turn it into a small, boutique-style revenue stream. I think we can do that pretty much locally.

Don

[Kristin]

Just drew off the first couple gallons of syrup. It took forever because it’s been freezing rain here all day and so we’re fighting against the general damp. Last night we had a party around the evaporator with our crew, lots of good food and a little whiskey that mixed nicely with a splash of hot half-boiled sap. Farming isn’t always a lovely, fun, picturesque endeavor, but every once in a while it is.

-Kristin

[Garry]

Boiled first today had syrup in four hours ,got one load with team road getting soft more rain comjng tonight .syrup seem light colour if we get some frost should be better . Nova Scotia Canada

[Garry]

Just finished washing pipeline in woods still have to split and put in the wood for next year. Like to get it done now hard to get at it when it gets warm, we didnt have a verv good season how about you .

[Author]

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