Maple Syrup Time in the Neighborhood

Collecting Sap in my yard.

The weather has warmed up enough to start tapping the maple trees in the neighborhood and gather enough sap to make maple syrup.  The ideal time to tap trees is when the outside temperature drops to the mid 20's at night and in the 40's during the day.  This cycle gets the sap flowing from the roots to the upper branches and depending on the weather, moisture, and temperature cycles one can harvest gallons a day from a single large maple tree.  My neighbor Brandon does the sap collecting then has quite an operation to process the sap into syrup.  As you can see in the picture, he has 5 large plastic buckets to collect sap in as I have about 7 nice maple trees in the yard that are big enough to tap.  My guess is Brandon has over 120 trees tapped in the neighborhood as the last number he texted me was at about 1000 gallons collected so far.  With another 2 weeks or so of sap collecting weather, I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up with over 3000 gallons of sap.  He has a pretty slick way of collecting, a large 150 gallon plastic tank strapped to a trailer that he can pull around.  He can dump the sap in the tank quite easily then move on to the next house.  It's sort of like a milk run as he is getting around 140 gallons a day, not too bad.

Brandon's wood fired evaporator

There's a lot of work to making maple syrup however it is well worth the trouble.  Beside tapping the trees, one has to collect the sap daily.  Then it has to get unloaded into his storage containers, he has enough in his shed to collect 300 to 600 gallons of sap.  Maple sap has a normal sugar content of about 3% but it can vary from 1 - 5%.  The process is to boil the sap, which boils the water away and the sugar content becomes concentrated.  When the boiling liquid hita a temperature of 220 degree, it's pretty much syrup at that point.  Finished syrup is approximately 66 - 68% sugar.  Any less than 66% and it may spoil, as well about 68% the natural sugars tend to settle out on the bottom of the jar.  Brandon uses a reverse osmosis machine to help concentrate the sugar levels of the sap to make it faster to cook it down.  The osmosis machine basically removes pure water out of the sap which increases it's sugar content.  If he runs 300 gallons of sap through the machine it removes about 100 gallons of water and leaves the remaining sap at 5%.  He can run it through again, up to 4 times to get the concentration up to 8%, which is about half the volume that he started with and it is much easier than trying to boil off that much water. His evaporator is quite the system, he built the wood stove underneath the Stainless Steel evaporator pan.  As you see on the left side, a hose feeds the tray with his post processed sap and it is pretty amazing how fast it drips.  It keeps feeding the tray until the entire unit reaches the temperature, then he has a hydrometer to actually read the Specific Gravity which is a more accurate way of determining the syrup sugar content.  Once it is ready he empties the tray into 5 gallon buckets and starts all over again.  This year he is getting about 1 gallon of finished syrup for every 30 gallons of sap, which means the raw sap is pretty good this year.  In the past it's taken up to 40 gallons to make 1 gallon.  It's fun stopping by and helping him, usually you are rewarded with a special treat....a coffee cup with some brandy in it then filled with hot syrup from the evaporator.  Not good for the waistline but is is pretty good tasting.  Once the syrup is done he runs it through a special filter that clarifies it.  Most will get bottled however he takes some of it and fills a used oak bourbon barrel and lets it cure for about 8 weeks, simply amazing!  Also he will make a whipped maple spread that resembles soft butter but again, simply amazing!  In 3 weeks this will be all done with but it's sure fun being part of it.

The plan for the weekend is two fold, the Minneapolis Sports Show runs till Sunday and I look forward to attending this each year.  There is a lot to discuss and learn as things continue to change fast in the industry.  Second, this is the weekend I meet my wife's uncles and cousins to go ice fishing.  We have decided to go to Lake Wapogasset near Amery Wisconsin to try our hand and find some crappies.  I am sure we'll find a place to park ourselves at sunset to have a nice dinner together, it is always a good time.  This could be my last ice fishing adventure of the year as the weather is definitely getting warmer each day.

Back to Wapogasset

Sunday had me up at 5:00 to meet Jason and his dad Andy Rombalski for our annual fall fishing trip.  Because Andy lives in Eau Claire, Wisconsin and he has fond memories of all the fish they used to catch on Lake Wapogasset, this was our destination.  A medium sized lake north of Amery, the lake is popular for panfish, walleyes, and bass.  The last time we fished this lake it took about an hour to find the landing.  The lady at the gas station confirmed that there was a new landing and we couldn't miss it.  After stopping at the bait shop for some waxies, it was off to the landing using her directions.  Well, so much for not missing it!  This time it only took a half hour to find get the boat in the water, once we got back on the right road.   The water is coming off it's usually pea soup color with the algae almost gone.   The peak summer algae bloom prevents the weedline from going any deeper than 6 feet.  We quickly discovered the fish were located on the edge of this.   Jason ended up with most of the fish while I had an interesting collection of species including largemouth bass, northern pike, and white bass.  The rest of the collection included bluegills, rock bass, crappies, and surprisingly large shiners.  The white bass I caught was an interesting experience.  Andy was fishing sunnies and a fish was trying to eat the bobber.  Sensing an opportunity I pitched a twister tail and it slammed the lure.  Because this was a joint effort, both Andy and I are pictured here.

Being out on the water presents the opportunity to view Mother Nature at her finest.  I experience once of a lifetime experience as we moved down the shore, casting for fish.  On a dock was a mass of fur that was undulating back and forth in a nervous fashion.  As we cruised closer to investigate, to my surprise it was a family of otters, 5 in all.  It was like watching the Discovery Channel.  I have never seen otters in the wild and it was an exciting experience.  They allowed us to get fairly close before entering the safety of the lake, one by one.  Watching them swim as a group along the shoreline was amazing.  Sticking their heads up out of the water looking back at us they may have seen us as an oddity of nature from their point of view.  The trip ended at the boat landing when a huge bald eagle swooped down from a large tree to snag a fish right in front of us.  Often when fishing, the fish are simply a bonus.  Off to Mille Lacs later to try the remnants of the September full moon bite with my brother Steve.  It looks like a lot of wind which can be good and bad.  Maybe I'll finally get something to replace my picture with.

Fall Salmon Fishing Wisconsin Style

A picture sent to me by my friend Eric brought back many memories of fishing for salmon on Lake Michigan.  Here Eric is holding what would be described as a perfect Chrome King.  Still in the main lake, not unlike Alaska, the fish have that "just out of the ocean" look of bright silver.  A few e-mails back and forth acknowledged that they were fishing no different than I did back in 1986/87.   Back then my good friend Gary Barneson was living in Appleton.  Although he lives in Eleva now, he was an important influence on my early days of fishing.  He was the first to invite me to fish walleyes on Mille Lacs, advised me on my first boat, a 14 foot Lund Deluxe with a 25hp, and he invited us to fish salmon on Lake Michigan with our small boats.  It did sound exciting, fishing these exotic fish out of our 14 and 16 foot standard boats.  After a few discussions I began rigging my 16 foot Lund Pro Angler for the trip to Manitowoc, Wisconsin.  First order of business was to find some down-riggers and mount them.  A 2" x 8" x 7 foot board, clamped onto my gunnels proved effective.  Next was to get some flexible trolling rods and reels, along with a couple of Dipsy Divers and some lures like the Northport Nailers, J Plugs, and flashers with squids.  Some PVC pipe to act as rod holders and we were rigged!  Arriving at Gary's we spent the night, heading out early in the morning to fish.  My friend Kevin and his brother Brent always accompanied me on these trips.  We were fast learners.  Having the ability to fish 3 poles each, we put down 2 down-rigger rods, a dipsy diver out of each side (these were diving planer devices that would take your lure down and out away from the boat), and a couple of long lines running close to the surface.  It was a surprise to find out just how close in to shore we were catching salmon and brown trout.  The average depth was from the surface to no deeper than 45 feet. 

It was a blast!  Today's charter boats fishing salmon on Lake Michigan have so many lines out that they have to keep moving forcing you to reel a fish that is also being pulled along.  With our own boat we could stop, pull in all of the lines and stand on the bow for a magnificent battle.  Not unlike chunking for silvers in the ocean, it was just you and the fish.  Of course fishing back then was fabulous.  A full day's work would be rewarded with a limit of Kings, Coho's, with a few rainbow and football browns mixed in.  Looking back it was some of the most fun I have ever had fishing.  Gary moved back to Eleva, the fish eventually ate the lake out of house and home, and Mille Lacs became a bigger focus for me.  I'll admit however that Eric has got me thinking!

The rest of the week in review was kind of interesting.  I had the chance to go to my 4th Twins game at the new Target Field with my good friend Lory Brasel.  Watching the Twins complete a series sweep of Kansas City was a perfect way to spend a night.  To my surprise my sweetheart Ellie Taylor was also at the game celebrating her 84th birthday.  Ellie is like a mom to me and we always have a great time together.  Her son Jack called me as we were going to the game and discovered the whole family was going.  The stars were aligned that night as Ellie sat in the section just below where we were allowing me to spend some quality time on her birthday.  Happy Birthday Ellie!  On Sunday I snuck on the river to wet a line for a few hours.  The fishing was horrible as the grass floating down the river was preventing a good presentation.  Nailing a 10 inch smallie was about all I could muster up before the grass made my crankbait useless.  There will be more chances.  Launching at my neighbors, Blair and his wife help me load up the boat.  A quick discussion about me taking my motorcycle road test prompted Blair to volunteer his 125CC Yamaha Zuma for the test.  Assuring me that I would have difficulty with my bike, we went to Anoka and practiced on the test course painted in the parking lot of the Drivers License Bureau.  He was right.   Monday I rode his scooter to work, then to my appointment where I wa the first of 5 guys to take the test.  I did pass and was glad that Blair intervened.  I don't know but I am sure the 2 guys behind me had some issues.  On Tuesday I headed for Cleveland Ohio for 2 days of meetings.  As usual my return flights from Chicago O'Hare were jinxed and after a 3 hour delay I finally got home around 1:00AM.   Off to our annual fishing trip to Lake Wapogasset, near Amery Wisconsin with Andrew and Jason.  Hopefully I will have a great report.