by mannytheseacow » Tue Apr 30, 2013 11:16 pm
Wow! I'm super jealous of that! You live in a beautiful part of the world. I worked in N. Oregon/S. Washington for a while and it was pretty spectacular. Some of my fondest memories of traveling with my daughter was time we spent on the Makah res and a multi-day trek to point of arches, shin deep in mud and pouring down rain the whole time. Although it might not sound fabulous, it was.
It's great to know that you can tap the big leaf maples too. We can tap many things around here: birch, boxelder, sugar maple, etc... but the sugar maples have the highest sugar content, which means less boiling. I've been planting 25 s.m. saplings a year since I bought my place but they kind of get lost in the undergrowth. Hopefully someday some old s.m.s stand among the oaks and the hickories.
I've been searching for a reference but I can't seem to find it... it describes the method I use. I use 1/2 male-to-male barb hose fittings for the tap. They cost about $0.60 each, so pretty inexpensive, and I only sink them about 1.5 inches in. Then I put a hole in the handle of a milk jug and insert the other end of the barb, and tie the jug to the tree. The jugs are usually close to full every day.
My one complaint about the RMH for boiling is that I have to feed it about every 15 minutes. It doesn't use all that much wood but since it sometimes boils for 8+ hours that's a lot of babysitting. Not bad for free sugar though!
"Knowledge is power. Arm yourself."