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Winston Smith
Post     Subject: Sugaring non-maple hardwoods
I tapped a few sycamore trees in your area, boiled down the sap, and was not impressed at all plus the amount of sap needed to make the syrup was excessive
Jam lobdovits
Post     Subject: Sugaring non-maple hardwoods
I tapped my river Birch last year I live in Kansas City area.  From what I have read online birch tree sap flow starts when the ground temperature gets to 60 degrees so late march early April.  I had quite a bit of success with the 2 trees in my front yard. It ends up tasting a bit like molasses and it was fun to do.
Coydon Wallham
Post     Subject: Sugaring non-maple hardwoods
I've found that once maple trees are done flowing (or when buds show and the sap gets funky), I move the taps over to the birches and get good production there. (Not sure how important it is, but I sanitize them between uses.) I'd heard walnut was supposed to flow along with the maples, but never had much success the few times I tried them.

Birch sap is an ancient elixir enjoyed by northern cultures around the globe. Drinking the sap directly that is, not syruping it. In the past I've frozen a portion of mine to break it out in spring and summer when playing in weekend sporting events in place of the chemical-laced sport drinks many of the more fashionable athletes prefer.

Birch syrup I've read is more suited to a sort of glaze on pork products than something like pancakes.
Kim Huse
Post     Subject: Sugaring non-maple hardwoods
For Arrow Rock:

https://arrowrock.org/upcoming-events/

The October Festival is the one we always went to:

54th Annual Heritage Festival
A day to remember. It’s time for the 53rd Annual Arrow Rock Heritage Festival, Saturday and Sunday, October 8th and

9th. This is one of Missouri’s oldest and most popular heritage festivals. Featuring traditional and modern artistic handcrafted items, historic reenactments, living history presenters, musical entertainment and food vendors galore. Make sure you shop the unique stores of this historic village. Admission is FREE! Enjoy the beautiful, historic village of Arrow Rock.

INFO? Contact Experience Arrow Rock – 660-837-3700
Kim Huse
Post     Subject: Sugaring non-maple hardwoods
I saw something about someone explaining distilling: Do they have any type of a heritage festival or village in your area; someplace where they re-enact the lifestyle from say, the 1800's?

Try looking into the Arrow Rock Festival; I  KNOW they used to have the huge copper cauldrons with paale butter being made and the women would  stir and stir and stir the apple butter with long wooden L-shaped paddles, someone one year had set up a sorghum mill and made sorghum molasses, etc; you could smell that cooking for MILES away, I think...and man, it was SSOO good! My dad bought, like 3 bottles of it...my mom thought it was outrageous to do so, but  oh my,  I have as yet to find that same tasting product anywhere else these days!  I am sure that  there are people there who would be more than happy to assist you with the tree sap to syrup venture.
Kim Huse
Post     Subject: Sugaring non-maple hardwoods

Tom Worley wrote:Hey folks,

My family property in the eastern Ozarks was one of those wrecked by the tornadoes a month or so ago- no major structural damage, but lots of shattered trees- blasted and broken 15-20 feet off the ground.

Check with the Missouri Extension center in your area of Missouri; they will have some information on doing this type of sugar tapping. And, remember, that the areas of Missouri are very diverse; plains meeting the beginning of  the mountain flatlands and  areas taht are  also the gate way to swamps, etc; Missouri is the 'congregation point' of several diverse areas of the US topography converging there; some areas are 'gateways' per se, which means that the are is the beginning of entering, say, the Great Plains; and the areas further north, a bit of that is a lead into the bare beginning of working up into  mountainous terrain; that  terrain might be a few states over, but, topographically and geographically, the beginning starts in Missouri for those so some areas will be  a bit different than others.

Paul Young
Post     Subject: Sugaring non-maple hardwoods
Since the enzymes that lead to the release of hydrogen cyanide from amygdalin are destroyed by temperatures above 40°C, and since syrup making requires prolonged boiling (100°C for pure water - higher with solutes) which is well above 40°C, syrup made from fruit trees in the rose family should be safe to eat. See: Islamyat F. Bolarinwa et al, 2014, Food Chemistry. If you plan to use plants that contain cyanogenic compounds, and, as the previous writer pointed out, many, many kinds of plants do, do some research to determine if their use is safe.
L. Johnson
Post     Subject: Sugaring non-maple hardwoods

William Bronson wrote: I wonder if any of the fruit trees are tappable.



I personally would assume most rose family sap is poisonous by default, as most parts of many of them have amygdalin except the fruit itself. That might be wrong, but I like to err on the cautiously safe side.

I'm always a bit wary of trying "edible" things that I've not seen people eating before.
Paul Young
Post     Subject: Sugaring non-maple hardwoods
So, running the steam through pipes in the walls of a building (shop. house, etc.) like a still condenser unit and, at the same time heating the building, but also collecting the liquid for consumption (water).