Kinda off topic but pretty cool


 
LMichaels

LMichaels

TVWBB 1-Star Olympian
I have been promising the little guy we're going to try making maple syrup. So today a little trip to Farm and Fleet and found some tree taps. We have a maple in front that flows like an open faucet all over the driveway. So much if you stand under it, it feels like it's raining sometimes. Well don't laugh. I know it's crude but it's working.
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That's awesome. I have had a lot of trees that make messes but nothing like a maple that gives me something good from it.
 
Well we shall see. I already have about 1.5 qts. I know the reduction rate is something like 20 to 1 but I think it will be cool and maybe get him another merit badge in scouts :D Even right outta the tree it's pretty sweet stuff
 
That is so cool! I wonder if it will slow down some of the "droppings"? Maple trees are my nemesis. We have a big one in the back yard and another that's over the driveway, and they drop so much stuff it is unbelievable!
 
Saw a robin in my crab apple tree stealing left over apples today. It must be spring. This while we still have our entire yard covered in white snow.
 
Thats really cool. Something you son will remember. About 10 years ago my mom who lived in Soldiers grove wisconsin had made freinds with some folks from the amish community and they let me visit the sugar shack where they boiled it down. That was the hottest shed ive ever stood in but it was neat. Something i will never forget.
 
Bruce said:
Saw a robin in my crab apple tree stealing left over apples today. It must be spring. This while we still have our entire yard covered in white snow.
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Better than yellow snow LOL. I understand sometimes the older fruit has fermented in place and it gets the birds drunk. Who knows? If it works maybe you try a couple robins on the rotisserie :D
 
They hit the crab apple trees up early every spring. I don't know if the apples have fermented or not, but they along with other birds seem to really like them until the ground thaws out and they can get at some bugs and fresh plant life.
 
You're killin me here. A little background on my culture though. Many of you as we say "Medigans" (Americans) are familiar with a dish called "Chicken Cacciatore" and think it simply means Chicken in a spicy Tomato sauce. Well.....................not true. The term "cacciatore" means "hunter's style" or hunter's stew. In the rural areas of Italy it is not uncommon for them to go to the field with their Luppare (shotgun). In godfather 1 you see an accurate rendition of this. They go into the fields and if it flies, or runs i.e. any kind of birds, rabbits, squirrels etc get "harvested" and put into the Cacciatore. So it may contain songbirds, game birds, rabbit and so on.
My grandparent regularly trapped birds in their garden here in the US and supplemented meals with things like the sparrows and pigeons what have you or the occasional squirrel wh got too close to grandpa's little .22 rifle loaded with BB caps (very quiet and just enough to do in a peach tree robbing rodent). I grew up eating pigeons my grandpa got from his friend's farm in Addison IL near Swift Rd and US20 but of course back then there was no Illinois Tollway and such so the trek out from the near NW side of the city (about a mile west of the north loop) took hours not minutes. We came back with crates full of squab late in the day. A production line was then set up. Grandpa would snap the necks to kill them, us kids had to pluck and grandma sat by with a sharp knife and gutted them all before they knew what hit them. I'm here to tell you, some of the finest eating little birds EVER.
So the Robin thing I am only half kidding :D
 
Yah, a culture thing. I could tell you some stories about a certain ethnic group in the area that I grew up and how their ideas of "hunting and fishing" were clearly different than ours.
 
LM, cool post. Is this possible with any old maple tree (particularly Silver Leaf Maple)
or do you need some specific type of maple?
 
You can get sap from any tree. It's the sugar content and flavor profile that varies. All my research shows it has to come from hard maple not the silver maple or softwood type which from my understanding is not really a maple at all
 
Hmmmm, I was kind of under the same impression as you Larry, but I see several places, in addition to the Minnesota DNR PDF that says Silver Maple willl work for syrup. It even says Box Elder will work. Interesting.
 
Yeah when I see box elder all I can picture in my mind is those damn bugs................YUK So IDK maybe MN soft maples are better than others :D but when I was researching how to do this everything had the caution to only use hard maple trees. Luckily it's all I have on my property. I have 3 of them. Two are very "tappable?" but one in the backyard is a bit "stunted" so I would not tap that one. Since this is a small scale I only tapped one tree with one tap. I am close to having as much as I feel I can handle. Since this is only an experiment for the little guy not for "production". So I figure 3 or 4 gal will be plenty for this.
 
Figures. I have 7 Silver Leafs in my yard. One of the worst nuisance trees ever.
Constantly dropping twigs, seeds, and then leaves.
 
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