To start with our family operation has evolved considerably throughout it's 100 years of operation. Equipment acceptable say 20 years ago is no longer allowed. An example would be buckets, especially galvanized. Recent sanitation concerns by health enforcers have banned the use of non-sealed buckets/collection devices hung from trees. As of last 2 years operators are required to use tubing plumbed direct to the storage system in the sap house, or to food grade totes in the woods where the sap can be transferred to a suitable transport tank. The gathering tanks that you saw in my posts were built 40 years back, and may not be acceptable today. Look into poly tanks that are designed to fit into PU truck for hauling water and adapt it to a trailer that you can tow behind your tractor if you ave to venture into the woods to bring the sap to the sap house. Also any equipment made from tin, galvanized metal etc. has been banned because of heavy metals, not taste issues. The county health board does not have guidelines for small producers (cottage industries) and they don't come out to inspect those operations, but licencing and inspections may well be in the future. Same applies to small cider mills, small fruit and vegetable producers, and small home canned goods producers. With all the notoriety today about food safety, expect to endure much stricter enforcement of all forms of home grown foods that are for sale to the public at farmers markets and roadside stands. You may NOT be able to profitably produce syrup small scale, to sell to the general public in the future. As for identifying maple trees, all I can tell you is you need years of experience, or get an older neighbor to teach you what all species in your area look like with no leaves. As far as production per tap, our rule of thump was a Qt. of syrup per tap per season. When tapping trees place the taps on the south side of the trees where the sun shines on them, and look at the limbs above the tap to be sure they are healthy. Trees over 20" in diameter you can put a 2nd tap into. Don't tap anything less than 14" South facing slops tend to produce more early season sweeter sap and lighter syrup, and north facing slopes produce later in the season and usually darker more robustly flavored syrup. I have a question for you. What are you going to use to fuel your evaporator?? Nothing like wood to enhance the flavor of maple syrup. I hope I have answered your questions. I hope you enjoy your endeavor and good luck with it. Loren PS pic of sugar maple bark.
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Today's Featured Article - Listening to Your Tractor - by Curtis Von Fange. Years ago there was a TV show about a talking car. Unless you are from another planet, physically or otherwise, I don’t think our internal combustion buddies will talk and tell us their problems. But, on the other hand, there is a secret language that our mechanical companions readily do speak. It is an interesting form of communication that involves all the senses of the listener. In this series we are going to investigate and learn the basic rudimentary skills of understanding this lingo.
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