Collecting Maple Sap From Sugar Maple Trees

To collect sap from Sugar Maple trees, you first
drill a hole in the tree. Then you pound a "tap" (a metal
pipe that is hollow so that sap can run through it) into the
hole. Depending on the temperature it comes out from
just dripping to almost a steady drip. The warmer it is
the faster it drips out.



After the tap is in the tree, you hang a bucket
on it to collect the sap as it drips out of the tree.
If you look closely you can just see the drop of sap
as it hit the sap at the bottom of the bucket.


After you hang the buckets on the tree, you put a
little tin "roof" on them to keep out some of the dirt
and hopefully all of the bird poop!!


If you can reach around the tree, it is a one bucket tree.
As it gets larger you can add more taps and buckets.
This tree was a 5 bucket tree! I couldn't begin to reach
half way around it!


The Everson's grandsons collecting the sap from buckets
that hang on the trees near the house. This is the hard way.
It is very time consuming... remember that you have to keep
emptying buckets 24 hours a day while the sap is running.


This tap has a hose connected to it instead of a
bucket. It is much more effecient than collecting
it with buckets... it takes a lot less "man power".


You can't see it very good, but there are tubes running
from tree to tree, all collecting sap. I sure hope nobody
walks through one... it would really slow down the collecting
process.


This is some tubing that is coming out of a tap on that
tree. Then it connects to other tubing that runs
through the trees and eventually down to the holding
tank.


This is where all the tubing collects into a larger
PVC pipe. Then it runs underground to the holding
tank. It comes out of the PVC pipe about like a small
stream of water through a hose.


This is the large holding or collecting tank that the
tubing empties into. It fills up every few hours and
has to be emptied on a regular schedule so that it
doesn't overflow!


For the trees around the house, they use buckets to
collect the sap. The grandsons collect the sap from the
buckets and then pump the sap into the filtering tank.
It is pretty "low tech". The pump with a hose runs the
sap down a rain gutter and then through a sheet to filter it.


The truck goes around in the "woods" and collects the
sap from large tanks there which are filled by the
trees with tubing connected together. There are many
tanks that they rotate around to and empty.


This is the fancy filter (a sheet) that removes the dirt
bugs and anything else that might be in the sap. For as
much sap as they put through this, there really isn't much
dirt. You can see the tank just starting to fill on the right side.


From the filtering tank to two more holding tanks
that also filter the sap a second and third time.
These are about the size of a small tanker truck!


The sap comes into the sugar house from the two
holding tanks and then into the boiler as needed.
Pretty slick!


This is Mr. Everson and his grandson filling the
firebox with wood so that the sap keeps up a rolling
boil. These logs are about 4-8 inches around and
about 5 feet long.


They have opened the doors to the firebox and put
in an entire cart of wood. They fill the firebox with as
much wood as they can. They do this about every 10
minutes. You can't believe the amount of wood they use.


This is the boiler from the side. It is rather "simple" in a
"complicated" sort of way. Note all the steam... Yummy!


Looking into the big boiler. The sap is in there boiling
until it reaches a specific temperature and boils off
enough water... then it is syrup. You can see the sap
inside boiling on the right of the picture.


Maple syrup steam coming out of the top of the
sugar house. This picture doesn't do it justice.
It was really pouring out of there!


This is Mr. Everson (the syrup guru) standing
in front of the syrup cooker. There is lots of steam
and it smells pretty good in the sugar house.


This is the statistics of Everson's maple syrup this year.
This years average is 45 gallons of sap per 1 gallon of syrup.
So far they have made 357 gallons of syrup!!!



Delores and the Sister Missionaries tapping into another
Sr. couples wireless internet so that we could watch
General Conference. It was nice to get to see it while we were
working at the Welcome Center on the JS Farm.

I arranged for the missionaries to go to Everson's Maple Farm to learn how maple syrup was made. It was a very interesting morning. The Everson's are just a little "mom and pop" buisness, but it is a pretty good sized one. They showed us all the steps in collecting, boiling and reducing the sap into syrup. Our camera batteries were dead the day we went there. We asked if we could come back to take pictures the next day and they were fine with that. They are really nice people. It actually worked out better because we got pictures of a lot more things and there wasn't anyone in our pictures!!! We also got to spend more time with Mr. Everson and learned a little more about making syrup. During the month of March the Everson's "never sleep" and work continuously. Then they can slow down and work a little more normally once the sap stops running.

While we were working at the Joseph Smith Farm during the Saturday General Conference, I tapped into some other Sr. Missionaries wireless network (with their permission) so that we could watch conference. It worked pretty good but not perfectly. Doug recorded all of the sessions so that we got to see them all at different times. All of the missionaries were very pleased with that and the VHS tapes were handed around until everyone was able to see all the sessions. We really enjoyed conference and hope that you did, too.

I went to the cardiologist on Monday the 18th. He has got me in to see a cardiovascular surgeon on May 3rd. I am scheduled for surgery on the 8th of May. It creeps me out to think about it, but I guess it needs to be done. I keep telling Doug that I am feeling better, but he just won't believe me. As it gets closer please remember me in your prayers. If you would like to we are inviting you to join in fasting with us on the 7th of May. Thanks for all your love and support.

I will get a blog up again soon. We have some great pictures of the Grove just waking up from Winter and turning into Spring. It is pretty amazing! (Hopefully the pictures will turn out!)
Have a great week. We love you all! dnd

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