Kristijan, We have about 375n birch trees tapped right now. We are making about 5 gallons of syrup per day. We have it figured out how to not caramelize the sugars to finish it.
Here’s what our batches are looking like.
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Looking good bill, what are you able too sell the bottles for and make fair profit.
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So here’s the deal. Birch syrup is really tough to make. It’s about 120:1. So after last season I decided to build a reverse osmosis to pull out a lot of the water. I saved money from our markets to build this $1500 setup. So if I collect 500 gallons of sap, I can pull 400 gallons of water out. The RO will pull about 50-60 gallons of water out in an hour.
Last year we made 15 gallons of birch syrup and sold out at $3/oz. We may raise the price a little this year.
Here’s the sap hauler.
Uploading: 1588460903303-1295275435.jpg…
@Chris is there something I did wrong with this last picture?
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I think you must have misunderstood @JO_Olsson , Junipe bushes grow wild everywhere here, especially under power lines.
We use the berries in sauces and saucepans.
It looks like nice bread to the burgers, how do you do them?
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More likely I misunderstood you, Kristijan. We even used one for an indoors Christmas tree this winter, but I didn’t know the English name for it until now. I never realised Juniper grew as far down south.
We do use those berries. The wood and needels have a very nice smell and taste too them too. Good for smoking. And the stems a good for poles. They last several human lifetimes in the ground.
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I seem to have much more wood than places to go 
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Jan, nothing special realy… just a slightly more special bread, with a egg yolk and butter.
JO, it was allmost wiped out here because of its use for smoking meat and distilling a special likker out of it. But its use for poles was unknown to me!
Bill, thats incredible! Butyfull colour! Is the taste any milder too?
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Hi Bill, that is some good looking syrup.
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Yes, I found by watching the temperature real close and not letting it caramelize the sugars, it has kind of a fruity taste to it.
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Cut a small tree and it kicked back and I was not standing there so it went past me and I am holding a screaming chain saw that only runs on choke . Cut a small tree and it went straight up in the air more vines from other trees then tree . Been here since 2013 still do not know what I have . Digging up soil to find huge concrete slabs from an agricultural plant that saw federal action . So I am trying to keep value of something that was supposed to have been destroyed . The trees are doing a better job then the federal government did . Had a standing dead tree and left it alone and then it fell against another tree and I stayed away , years later finally It has been fire wood .
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Smart! The last possibility is most usefull 
specialy if you have some “quenching fluid” nearby 
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probably the last variant will also be the most useful, but without liquid it will not work 
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My order of 15 New Hampshire chicks arrived today in New Hampshire. I ordered them from Crackling Hatchery in Montana ironically I had to have NH chicks shipped to NH.
I got 17 health happy little chicks so I am happy hopefully they are females and I will get a bunch of eggs in 6 months time. I am assuming there will probably be a roster or two just from sexing issues but I have never ordered chickens before.
The Guinea fowl got off to a rocky start but have settled in good. No fault of the Hatchery I forgot off the top of my head who they where but they shipped me 16 healthy chicks for my order of 15. But within the first 48 hours I found out a plywood floor with bedding wasn’t a good idea. They pushed the bedding out from under the heater and then slipped on the floor. I lost 4 chicks to splayed legs. Tried to band the legs together but it didn’t help. So I put down EDPM rubber on the floor. That worked like a charm the chicks have been running around very steady on their feet ever since. So I have 12 Guinea fowl 2 weeks old and 17 NH chicks hatched monday which arrived this morning. I couldn’t find a second one of the modern heaters for then locally so I ordered one that will be here this weekend. In the mean time I am back to the 60 watt bulb method it works burns more electricity. But the bad thing is the light kept the Guinea fowl up all night last night and they where exhausted today and a little stressed. You really can see the difference between the two system in how the chicks behave the heater doesn’t make light so they bed down under it after dark. The light keeps them up until they get like over tired kids and crash. I wouldn’t believe it if I didn’t see it first hand.
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I hear you K. Actually, I have been thinking of ya’ll and your visit here, and considering all that is changed since then. Also contemplating the long term affects of this virus on possibilities to visit again. lots of unknowns. We were honored to have ya’ll here.
And I wouldn’t mind another big bowl (or 3) of that dish you made. I have forgotten the name of it. I am extremely hungry these days.
I am in day 5 of COVID 19 symptoms. I got the test yesterday to verify, so not totally sure yet, but I have no doubt, considering my symptoms. One of them seems to be that I stay hungry for meat and eggs and salt all the time.
STarted having tight some gastrointestinal symptoms last Sunday.
Monday, lower back (kidney area) soreness, mild persistent headache, and some chest tightness and chest pains, pretty mild, worked that day pulling a 5.9l cummins out of a ram 3500 (kind of a big job) but it took a long time as I was feeling very fatigued.
Tuesday, more chest pains (but still pretty minor). Lots more fatigue (tried to get to work all day but didn’t get off the couch until 3 pm, then went out and transferred all parts and reinstalled the engine. Also, some shortness of breath, dry cough, muscle aches. I told everyone I felt “like I have the flu.” But I haven’t had the flu since the first round of the swine flu. Low grade fever coming and going, especially at evening time. Drowsy all the time.
Wednesday, went to Anniston to get tested. Went to a drive through test site. They seemed to think there was no doubt that I was positive. But I should know this afternoon or tomorrow. My test got pushed to the top of the priority list because of my “first responder” status. Erika got tested also (because of her “first responder” status, but she has no COVID-specific symptoms. In fact, none of the rest of the family has any symptoms. But they (all 5) were sick for 2 weeks in late January with these same set of symptoms. I am not sure how I avoided it then (if it was in fact COVID 19 that they had) Without an antibody test, there is no real way to prove they already had it.
Then came home and finished that engine swap. Got little higher fever in the evening and could not get to sleep until very late. Just not sleepy.
Thursday, (today), slept as late as possible, woke up without fever. I have No energy at all. Mind is working fine (at least as fine as usual) No neurological symptoms at all, as is in some people I understand. still the same shortness of breath, headache, muscle pain. Not much cough at all, and is very dry when there, but still have tightness in chest.
Although there is no real way to know where I picked it up (assuming that the test does come back positive), The closest that I know I have been to COVID positive is this load of wood from the cabinet shop. The wood comes from the next county (Clay CO) where they have had 24 known cases. Over half of those cases came
from this cabinet shop. ANd I did not find it out until after we unloaded this load of wood, that the actual man that drives the forklift to load my trailers and his wife both tested positive. We have been being careful anyway when we sort the wood. I am always the one dealing with the few water bottles, candy wrappers, etc. And we let the trailer sit out in the sun for as long as possible. This load actually sat through a couple rain storms too.
But I could have picked it up anywhere else too I guess.
If my test is positive, it will be number 80 in Randolph County
We used to have them in Florida when I was growing up and would chew on the berries. Lots of V-C in them I think.
Looks great Bill. I think we’re all proud of what you’ve accomplished up there in the snow. Those numbers remind me of really bad years making sorghum syrup down here. We have actually planted some this year. Mostly just to make fresh canes for eating and mostly to grow a seed stock for next year.
It’s hard to be an Alabama boy with too much wood, ain’t it Wayne.
Great looking forge.
Also, I just saw Jesse walk through the house with a welding helmet on. I think he is working on his charcoal lawn mower.
Also, haven’t really seen Jakob around lately. He’s been helping my brother finish building 4 huge boat dock jobs. COVID has kind of crashed everythign, so my brother couldn’t get everything back from the galvanizer until all at once. Also, all his help has quit because of COVID (or maybe extended unemployment benefits) so Jakob went to work with him to help him catch up.
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Billy,
Thanks for sharing your experiences. Be careful. If you do have Covid-19, I hear it can be very unpredictable and can turn nasty very quickly. Hoping for a negative test result. Will be praying for you.
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Hope you get well fast Billy. Keep us posted. Lots of speculation here on when and where this virus was present months back.
Golaž (goulasch). A Hungarian dish. But what struck me most is how different it tasted with American ingridients compared to what l am used to.
I wuld recomend next time we make it at our place. We are only a plane flight away
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Billy what I have seen has consistently said the Covid 19 virus will live for 5 days on wood. After that the surface is safe to touch. But is is airborne and the version in the USA is a mutation from Europe which is more contagious than the orginal virus in Asia. There was a story about it yesterday.
Hope you get better soon.
This is an interview with a doctor not too far from where I live in NH who went to NYC and spent 10 days treating Covid 19. He has a very interesting point about monitoring oxygen levels to catch gh phenomena before it gets bad enough to need a ventilator. With your training I am sure you will follow his discussion better than I did the other day.
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I had to look that up because I have heard the name but not ever actually know what it was.
It sounds very much the same as how my mother always made American chop suey. I think that is more of a New England thing but she would always add mushroom green peppers onions most of the things I saw in the goulash recipe. What I can tell you is the tomato sauce has the biggest impact on the flavor as it can be spiced very differently. Also it is always much better the second night. Infact it is what is for dinner here today.
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Would you send me directions on how to make it I might give it a try It was very good.
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