The past few months I’ve been getting the tubing lines run with help from my dad. We’ve got just shy of 70 taps planned in the woodlot, plus a few field trees by the house we’ll have on buckets.
We have everything on 3/16th inch tubing (5/16th is standard) in hopes of achieving a natural vacuum. The slope of our hill is so steep, we’re able to leave 20+ feet of drop between the last tap and the mainline. The weight of that sap in the line, on the smaller diameter tubing, is where the magic is supposed to happen. Time will tell whether we experience an increase sap flow from all this, but I’m optimistic.
Goal for this year is to produce about 20 gallons of syrup (that’s 800+ gallons of sap we’ll need!). For an average system, and an average season, that’s about what we should expect to see from our lines. However, if it’s a good season, and our natural vacuum plays its part, we could see more. Of course, it could always be a bad season, or some other unforeseen issue could arise.
In any case, out of those 20 gallons ideally we’ll keep 2 for us, 2 more for making maple cream, and leave 16 gallons for sale. Late February, here we come!
Beane Hill Farm 