The rhythmic drip drip drip of sap filling buckets isn't gone, but it isn't as common as days gone by. You're less likely to see galvanized buckets with their shiny covers hanging on the sides of maple trees these days. Farms that depend on their syrup as part of their yearly income have upgraded their equipment and made big changes. Instead of buckets you'll find miles of tubing running between trees, down slopes, uphill, into tanks and out to sugarshacks. These tubes take the place of buckets. They eliminate labor-intensive dumping from bucket to tank. Easier, yes, especially on the back, but making maple syrup still involves a lot of labor.
For many farmers, maple syrup is the first crop of the season. Maple syrup season happens while there's still frost in the ground, and often still snow. Temperatures rise into the 40°'s by day and hopefully well below freezing at night. This is a short season that is dependent on the weather. An early spring will put an early end to the harvest. Modern technology has helped us increase the amount of sap harvested in the same amount of time. Technology has also taken replaced visual grading estimates with tools, decreased the amount of water in sap before it even gets to the evaporator, offered choices in fuel, and more.
I still use a bit 'n brace to drill holes in my 15 maple trees. If I had a few more trees I'd move up to a dependable cordless drill. Many more than that and I'd invest in a power tapper fueled by gasoline. Tubing can be left on the trees year round but new holes are drilled each year. When you're tapping hundreds or thousands of trees a year efficiency is extremely important. Lack of maples on my farm mean I'll be sticking to my bit 'n brace. And to my propane powered turkey fryer to boil the sap in the driveway.
Vacuum
Adding vacuum is one of the biggest changes to modern day maple syrup making. A vacuum system is added to the tubing system to increase the flow of sap. The increase can be as high as 60-100%. This substantial increase can remove a lot of the pressure associated with collecting enough sap to make the year profitable in a short amount of time. This doesn’t harm the tree in anyway. Since it takes about 40 years for a maple tree to grow large enough to be tapped, sugarers are extremely careful to protect the health of the sugar bush. The vacuum doesn’t pull sap from the tree. It works by reducing the atmospheric pressure in the tube. The pressure becomes lower in the tube than inside the tree which allows the sap to flow faster. The equalization of pressure makes the sap flow less dependent on temperature and allows the sap to flow for longer periods of time. Vacuum boosters are used when lines are longer than 1,000'. They maintain the correct pressure in the tubing to keep sap flowing smoothly.
Vacuum systems are dependent on pumps. Your vacuum pump must be large enough to handle the number of taps on your lines. Generally, one cfm (cubic foot / minute) for every 100 taps will work well. If pressure doesn't seem to be consistent in spite of your pump you can check the lines with a vacuum guage. This will tell you when it's likely that you have a leak some where in your line.
While a vacuum gauge will tell you when there's a problem, there's no replacement for walking the lines for visual inspection. Down branches can cause sagging and pull tubing from spiles. Wildlife can cause the same problems. There's a little more time early in the morning, before the temperature rises and sap starts flowing faster, to walk some of the lines. It's a good job for older children.
It was easy to tell when part of the sugarbush was losing productivity due to age or disease when sugarers were dumping buckets. You can see how full a bucket is in 24 hours. It's not that simple when all of the trees are on lines. Modern technology has taken care of this, too. You can install valves in your lines. By rerouting a part of the sugarbush you can see which parts are most productive and which parts are declining. Valves will also let you narrow down where a leak in the line might be when using a vacuum gauge.
UV Lights
Ultraviolet lights are used to reduce the amount of bacterial growth in sap. Since it's important to evaporate your sap as quickly as possible for quality reasons, UV lights give you more time. Sap is pumped past the light on its way to a storage tank. The light can give you as much as three extra days in storage. This is important if your evaporator breaks down! Sap treated by UV lights can produce syrup that tests as much as two grades higher than untreated sap. That's a substantial difference.
Evaporators
Evaporators have changed a lot in recent years. You have more options in fuel now. If you have enough wood on your lot you can fuel your evaporator with firewood. This involves more work in cutting, hauling and splitting the wood but if you have time for labor, your cash outlay can be much smaller. Fuel oil, propane and natural gas are other options. Size wise, there are evaporators made for everyone from backyard hobbiest making syrup for himself up to producers who have 10,000 taps. You can buy an evaporator small enough to handle only 15 taps without being too large. The entire set up can be purchased for less than $1000.
Max Lown
Max Lown of Traverse City, Michigan, ran into a problem last year. Actually, he ran into a couple of problems. First, he decided to get tubing in place on all of his trees before the sap started to flow. Only one-third of the 1,200 trees were done. He was determined to have the other two-thirds ready in time. He started adding tubing on February 20t and didn't finish until just before sap started to flow in March. Max's days are long during maple syrup season. He works all day at his business, Professional Tool, then heads home to work in the sugarbush until dark. He puts in 12 hour days on weekends. When I commented that he must get exhausted he said he doesn't! He loves everything involved in maple syrup. The weather is beautiful. The physical labor makes him need less sleep, he's more alert and feels great. Harder work and feeling better - it's a great lesson.
Max starting plowing the road into the woods so that he'd be sure he had easy access when the sap started running but the snow got a bit ahead of him. He ended up 200 yards short of finishing the road. The additional taps he planned meant he needed to provide storage for more sap. The road wasn't completely plowed so he physically rolled a 1500 gallon tank over deep snow. The second problem occurred when the amount of sap he was able to collect from 1,200 trees became more than his small evaporator was able to handle. He had a simple solution; he sold 3,000 gallons of raw sap. This year he will invest either in a reverse osmosis machine or a second, larger evaporator. He's come a long way since the 20 trees that provided seven gallons of sap each year. If you'd like to talk maple syrup Max is your man. He has a contagious enthusiasm for the topic. You can contact him through his website (linked above) to talk syrup or place an order.
Reverse Osmosis
For large producers, reverse osmosis comes very important. A reverse osmosis machine reduces the water content of sap. Sap is forced under pressure to cross fine membranes. The membrane is small enough to let water molecules pass through. Larger sugar molecules are retained. A reverse osmosis machine can remove up to 75% of the water present in sap. Sap is about 3% sugar and 97% water. Removing 75% of the water saves valuable time and resources in the evaporation process. Reverse osmosis machines can run non-stop. When sap stops because of cold night temperatures the machine will turn itself off. Syrup quality is improved because sap quality stays high when it's not sitting in holding tanks for periods of time. The cost of a reverse osmosis machine will be quickly recovered by the savings in labor, labor and a better price for higher quality syrup.
Maplewood Farm
Tom Baumberger of Maplewood Farm uses only modern equipment to make his syrup, including a reverse osmosis (RO) machine. He says, "After several years of working almost 24 hours a day during peak runs, we purchased a reverse osmosis (RO) machine. The RO pulls the raw sap out of a tank and puts the concentrate into a another holding tank. The RO removes almost two thirds of the water in the raw sap which raises the sugar content from 2% up to 6% and reduces the volume of 1000 gallons of sap down to about 350 gallons. Our evaporator turns about 120 gallons of water into steam each hour, so with the RO we can process in 8 hours the same amount of sap that used to take us 24 hours to boil. The syrup is also a lighter grade because it is not boiling in the evaporator as long. We now can make almost 9 gallon of syrup per hour instead of almost 3. The RO has automatic shutoff when it runs out of raw sap, so I let it run overnight (while I get to sleep) and I boil the concentrate during the day."
Tom has great photos of his equipment and his contact information on his website.
Both Max and Tom can find little fault with modern day maple sugaring techniques. They both said the same thing - cleaning up takes more time. It's a good trade off though. The amount of time saved before and during harvest is much greater than the time they spend flushing lines and scrubbing equipment.
Refractometer
A refractometer, also called a grade meter, measures the sugar content of sap and syrup. Some measure the lower sugar content in sap. Others are used to measure the sugar of syrup. They measure sugar by measuring how light refracts in a sugar solution (sap and syrup). You can test the amount of sugar in sap from a sugar maple compared to another kind of maple. Both saps have sugar but the sugar maple used in syrup production contains a higher amount of sugar than the rest. You use one drop of plain water to calibrate the refractometer to O. Dry the refractometer, add a drop of sap, close the cover and check the reading. It's very simple. Still, be sure to read the instructions so that you know how often to clean the refractometer with clear water and how to handle temperature changes. Syrup can be graded by using an instrument called a transmittance analyzer. It works much the same as a refractometer, analyzing the amount of light transmitted through finished syrup. Syrup is graded by color (not quality). The transmittance analyzer eliminates the use of slower visual comparison for grading.
Canning Tank
When maple syrup is done it needs to be put into containers for storage. A common practice is to open the draw-off valve, fill a plastic jug and add the self-sealing cover. The heat from the syrup sets the seal inside the cap. For long term storage and commercial use, you can now use canning tanks. Canning tanks hold syrup at 190° for pasteurization.
If you haven't seen the process of making maple syrup I recommend finding a farm that opens to the public. Here in Maine we have Maine Maple Sunday. It's a nice way to spend a day with family and friends, learn something new and sample great syrup. Check with your state's department of agriculture for a similar program.
Maple Syrup Equipment Manufacturers and Distributors
Marcland. Draw-off and level systems, refractometers and other equipment in the United States and Canada.
Ontario Maple Syrup Producers Association
References
Ohio State University Fact Sheet
Hobby Maple Syrup Production
Maplewood Farm
Lucas, OH 44843