I’ve seen that done with sorghum, but with sorghum it’s really hard to get it right. If it doesn’t getted cooled right as it leaves the pan it gets really frothy. That’s already a problem with sorghum syrup. The air seems to make it even worse. But I never had a pan that fancy myself. Just a black gum boxed copper shheting pan on a wood fire. Whn I lived in TN and had access to a stainless steam pan it was amazing how much easier syrup season was.
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You are essentially making candy so too much heat is a huge issue. I think my mom burns one batch of peanut brittle every year because it bubbled up too much. You have to be really careful with the heat.
Maple syrup will get all frothy like that. We used butter to knock down the bubbles, but if you boiled it too long past syrup it would burn the syrup and the pans, which is a mess to clean up. On the copper pans it would melt the solder if it got too hot. The SS pans are welded I think. However, syrup isn’t candy so you don’t have to be quite as careful with the heat.
I tried to grow sweet sorghum once, but I wasn’t that good at it or something. (like maybe it actually needed fertilizer… 
)
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A lot of the sorghum in the south is getting hit by some kind of newly introduced aphid that sucks the juice out and hurts the syrup yields too bad to make it worth growing anymore. And who wants to spray pesticide on a whole-juice-plant crop.
That stinks. 
Is that the sugarcane aphid? You guys also have the kudzu bug, that is eating a lot more legumes then kudzu.
we have those but here they’re not so bad. The Mexican bean beetle is more problematic…I don’t know which aphid it is…but this belongs over in another thread somewhere…
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I went out to the beehives to get them ready for the new bees this year. I’m pretty sure the bees from last year died in the early part of November. Thinking I would just have to brush the dead bees out of there, I found out the frames were almost filled out with honey. Being this was our first year with bees, Mary got busy on the internet to figure out how to harvest the honey and bees wax. We don’t have a centrifuge so she used a spatula and got it all in a stock pot. Yesterday we put it on a double boiler to warm it up a bit just to melt the wax into the honey. We removed it from the heat to allow the wax to surface. When it was cool enough, we strained it through flour sack material to strain the wax and bee parts from the honey and now we have have delicious clear honey.
None of these bees can fly far enough to reach anybody’s property because we live so far away. This is why we know this honey is from all natural wild flowers that are nearby us not affected by fertliizers and such.
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Keeping your syrup light:
We had a hobby maple syrup operation for about 10 years, making an average of 50 gallons of syrup per year.
(We always maintained about 1" deep of sap in our pan as we boiled, running it in from a supply tank as needed)
We used to run about 150 gallons of sap into our 30" by 6 foot flat pan for each batch, and bring it up to as close to 32.5 degrees Baume’ as we could get it. Then we’d pour it off and start another batch, finishing and bottling that batch later… In doing that, the first sap that went into the pan was there for many hours.
But we learned to control the darkness of the syrup towards the end of the season this way:
Instead of running the whole 150 or so gallons in for a batch, we’d boil about 50 gallons down to about 26 degrees Baume’ and then pour it off, run in another 50 gallons and boil to the same degree, pour that off and restart a third 50 gallon batch. When the third batch got to 26 (that’s the lowest number where the hydrometer starts to float, by the way), we’d pour in the other 2 partially cooked batches into the pan and proceed towards 32 Baume’.
In this way, the first 100 gallons did Not spend time at heat, darkening, while the “new” sap was being evaporated.
We could easily move the syrup two grades lighter with this process.
I think one could scale this idea to any size of hobby operation.
https://spaco.org/ms.htm
Pete Stanaitis
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I am always amazed at how people want light coloured syrup since I equate that colour with a bland taste. If I can choose I will pick the darkest syrup I have access to.
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That is one way to do it. Large commercial operations do something similar. but they go about 1/2 brick short then finish it off in a flat pan.
The bacteria in the sap will also make it darker as well as spoil the sap. We used to clean out all the tanks and stuff at the end of each run.
Can you do raw natural honey? That brings a higher price here i use it myself.
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This is natural raw honey
What makes honey not “natural” or not “raw”?
We kept bees many years ago (6 hives). The bees make the honey, we remove the honey from the comb and put it in bottles or jars. Isn’t that “natural” and “raw”?
The only options (for more “natural” and “raw”) that come to my mind would be:
- comb honey, where you cut out sections of filled comb, about 4 inches square, and package that.
-don’t heat it or strain it.
Pete Stanaitis
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Some honey is extracted with heat which can supposedly damage some of the beneficials.
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Usually raw as I understand it would mean un pasturized.
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Raw or Processed
Is raw honey more nutritious than processed or filtered honey?
While there is no official U.S. federal definition of “raw” honey, it generally means honey that has not been heated or filtered. We often see or hear claims that raw honey is more nutritious or better for you, primarily because raw honey may contain small amounts of pollen grains that are often removed during processing or filtering.
Honey is produced by honeybees from the nectar of plants, not pollen. Pollen occurs only incidentally in honey. The amount of pollen in honey is miniscule and not enough to impact the nutrient value of honey. A 2004 study by the Australian government found the percentage of dry weight canola pollen in 32 Australian canola honey samples ranged from 0.15% to 0.433%.
A 2012 study by the National Honey Board analyzed vitamins, minerals and antioxidant levels in raw and processed honey. The study showed that processing significantly reduced the pollen content of the honey, but did not affect the nutrient content or antioxidant activity, leading the researchers to conclude that the micronutrient profile of honey is not associated with its pollen content and is not affected by commercial processing. The 2012 study and abstract with statistical analysis was presented at the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) Conference in Boston April 20–24, 2013.
What is raw honey?
While there is no official U.S. federal definition of raw honey, the National Honey Board defines raw honey as “honey as it exists in the beehive or as obtained by extraction, settling or straining without adding heat.” This definition does not have any legal authority, but is provided to help in the understanding of honey and honey terms. The complete honey definitions document created by the National Honey Board is available here: the Definition of Honey
Honey Filtration
Why is most honey filtered?
According to USDA Grading Standards for extracted honey, filtered honey is honey that has been filtered to the extent that all or most of the fine particles, pollen grains, air bubbles and other materials normally found in suspension have been removed.
Honey that is filtered by packers is filtered for various reasons:
Many consumers prefer honey that is liquid and stays liquid for a long time.
All honey crystallizes eventually. Suspended particles and fine air bubbles in honey contribute to faster crystallization. Filtering helps delay crystallization, helping the honey to remain liquid for a much longer period than unfiltered honey.
Many consumers prefer honey to be clear and brilliantly transparent.
The presence of fine, suspended material (pollen grains, wax, etc.) and air bubbles result in a cloudy appearance that can detract from the appearance. Filtering is done to give a clear, brilliant product desired by consumers. For the filtered style of honey, USDA Grading Standards for Extracted Honey give higher grades for honey that has good clarity.
Honey is filtered to remove extraneous solids that remain after the initial raw processing by the beekeeper.
Various filtration methods are used by the food industry throughout the world. Ultrafiltration, a specific kind of filtration used in the food industry, should not be confused with other filtration methods generally used in the honey industry. When applied to honey, ultrafiltration involves adding water to honey and filtering it under high pressure at the molecular level, then removing the water. It is a much more involved and expensive process, which results in a colorless sweetener product that is derived from honey, but is not considered honey in the U.S.
Honey that is filtered through more traditional methods is still honey, even if pollen has been removed along with other fine particles.
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Raw honey is not heated and contains probiotics?? Good for allergies. Heat kills probiotics…
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Add in “unadulterated” to your honey discussions.
Very, very common for some sellers to sugared water/cane syrup dilute thier’s down to stretch yield. I mean directly the for-sale product. NOT just sucros winter hive support.
And on minuscule minor percentages making a dramatic difference; think/study up just how minuscule a percentage of alloying agent makes on metals making. Dopent-adds in the high-tech silicon wafer industry. First you purify the silicone to PPT, then add for the desirable changes you want.
Take your favorite cooks spices away insisting on only all-natural and see the shit-storm.
And these are pretty simpler non-active, just reactive systems.
Complex active, bio-reactive systems are a whole never level entirely.
I sneeze just walking down the supermarket soaps/detergent aisle.
The commercial honey is made to be a stabilized, uniform colored and least reactive standardized product as possible. Even if unadulterated.
People not understanding if it would crystallize requiring a water bath mild heating to reliquidfy.
Just like raw cows milk versus standardized (for a uniform fat content), homogenized (to keep the fats from separating out), pasteurized - a good safety for-sale insurance for a commercially offered up product.
If you go no/minimal processing on food you really want “local” direct as possible.
I had to change my local suppler. Caught the previois putting dark cane sugar molasses in his to darken it to make it into appear to be buckwheat honey.
tree-farmer Steve unruh
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Very good points Steve. Makes sense to me. I guess I didn’t realize that honey could be manipulated in so many ways. The honey they left for us has all came from the wildflowers we have up here. It is so smooth. I have never had honey that tasted this good.
I plan on leaving all the honey in the hive throughout the winter to improve their chances of survival. This fall I will stack straw bales on three sides of the hive and one on top to help preserve the heat they make for themselves.
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Well, my fears of not having a Maple season became reality. The other syrup makers here suffered as well. We went from winter to summer like flipping a switch. Very minimal flow.
So, I pulled the taps, sanitized them and put some in a couple dozen Birch trees. Very good flow. Two to four gallons of sap per day per tree. The ratio is anywhere from 80-150:1. The process is also very time consuming. One has to be careful to not burn the different sugars Birch has. The upside is, Birch syrup can demand $3-500/ gallon. I learned a lot on this first batch and will be making improvements on my evaporator to speed up the process.
I made up some sample jars to bring to some high end restaurants.
I also have people buying Birch sap from me for $1/ gallon for it’s nutrient values. This is what I call, “living of my land”.
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Bill,
You can probably take some for yourself near the peak of the season (July?). Check once in awhile to see how they are doing. I like the hay bale plan. You can also wrap the hive with tar paper for winter, leaving entrance holes. You will have to figure out your main local nectar source and when that peak happens. You may have to give them sugar in the fall and next spring if they have not enough stores. Yes, your local honey is the best! Ours here is mostly white dutch clover, grows everywhere the lawns are not treated! “Weeds” Rock!! 
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