Sap Bag Holder in Use

 Here is one of the sap bag holders I made last week. This one has a second tap going in the top  so that worked fairly well. The clear bags in the picture are not the greatest, we have had several spring leaks from rubbing on the bark. We have some blue bags that are much heavier and haven't had any trouble with them. The bags and holders are nice because when it rains they don't fill up with rain water. We use a lot of buckets too and always have to go empty them if it rains. This year we tapped extra trees, about 300 taps total, but so far it is a very disappointing year. It is very warm, highs in the 60-70F. range and not freezing at night. If this pattern holds for even another week it will be all over for this year. We have collected enough sap to make about a gallon and a half of syrup, about  15% of what we would normally make. We try to use syrup for a lot of our sweetening so this will be a problem.

Here is our main sap pan. It was made from a full 4ft. by 8ft. sheet of steel. The sides are bent up at 6 inches and have a small angle iron stiffener at the top to make a finished pan that is 3ft. by 7ft. by 6inches deep.I have the fire door open in the pic to show what kind of fire it takes to boil the sap. It has to be a big ole blaze to get it boiling. I had just added twenty gallons of sap before I took this pic so it isn't boiling yet. It tends to foam up when it starts to boil. I use the old times method of settling the sap which is to swish a fresh balsam bough in the pan. It makes the sap quit foaming, probably from the resin in the balsam needles. We have another small pan that we finish the syrup in. Our sugar shack is a sort of temporary affair being made of poles and tarps. After sugaring season is over we will fill the pan with water and heat it up to wash all the buckets and taps. Not the most fun part but important . If the weather stays this warm we will be doing that soon.