Making Walnut Syrup is laborious, but real fun. At least that is my take on it only doing it one time. Come along for the ride and enjoy. Support: / rosastringworks Website: www.rosastringworks.com
I’ve seen Jerry beaming with pride after an awesome repair or great instrument build. I’ve seen him performing with a big smile on his face. But I have never seen him happier than he was eating that biscuit.
I've got a few Black Walnut trees in my yard, which are almost all inhabited by red squirrels. I'd be afraid to tap them because I might drill into a squirrel 🐿️😂
A: In different parts of the country, you need to take other factors into consideration, but in the typical sugarmaking areas of the U.S. you want to watch the weather forecast closely. You’re looking for a nice stretch of days where the temps are below freezing at night but above 40 in the day, for many long hours of the day. Just 2 days that meet this criteria in the weeks ahead is not enough.
I'm in central WV. I just tapped a few trees. We have probably some colder weather coming. Did I go too early? And is that a problem (does the hole heal inside), or do I just wait?
My grandmother and I gathered nuts from a black walnut tree. Dried them in the sun. Then the hard work began cracking them with a hammer. We only got tiny pieces of nut. They are 10 times harder to crack than pecans. A whole days work for 1 1/2 cups of nut pieces. Our hands were black for several days from handling the black walnuts. We never gathered black walnuts again. It wasn't worth it. I didn't know about walnut syrup. Sounds really good.
"...just came out of a tree." you say? A lot of work in my humble opinion, but the reward is in having done it yourself, and the end product is YOURS and it's GOOD!
Interesting to see you using the refractometer. As a teenager (many, many moons ago) I worked summers at a concession stand that sold Pepsi products from a fountain. When the Pepsi rep came around he would use a refractometer to check and adjust our Pepsi machines to get the proper mix of syrup and water.
I did enjoy it........ l was surprised though to think it tasted like maple syrup......The saying is true doggone it...... Ole Country Boys can Survive and will..... The look on your face eating that Biscuit was all I needed to know it was Good.... Love your channel and everything you post...God Bless You Jerry Rosa
Never a dull moment on the Rosa Farm Works. I would have never thought about tapping walnut trees for syrup. Learned something new today. Thanks for the content.
Nice! Now you can scratch making syrup off of your bucket list! Pun intended ;) I'm looking forward to the next live show. I hope you're feeling better!
Awesome. People tap so many different trees here in Maine, the sap really flows for the month or so we have freezing nights and warm days. Maple and birch are the favorites as we have plenty of each, and black birch is quite tasty. You don't have to go far to see someone's little sugar shack putting out smoke and steam once the season really gets going up here.
When I was young , we made maple and boiled over an open fire in cow watering tubs . I worked for a Amish man in VT. That made 100 s gallon of surep a year .
You are impressive. I guess there’s nothing you won’t try. I have this big smile on my face at your backing into success. Another forest (tree) product.😁
Thanks for the video. I use a length of paracord to tie jugs onto my black walnuts through the handle. I leave just enough slack so I can tip the jug into a pot or bucket each day. The rough bark holds the line in place, even when the jug is completely full. I use a short piece of tubing to go from the spile to the jug and drill a hole in the jug lid for the tubing.
.......warm days, cold nights.....don't tap when temp is 32 or colder......go for 40 if you want to see sap flying out.....up here in New England, that is the tried and true rule.....been maple sugaring for years the old fashioned way....no vacuum machines, no reverse osmosis contraptions....just straight ahead hang the buckets, collect and boil.
For some reason... I recently watched a bunch of two ingredient biscuits videos. Those two ingredients being self rising flour and heavy cream. What could be better than fresh biscuits, real butter and homemade syrup!? Maby country ham, red eye gravy and fresh biscuits!? Little pleasures! Unfortunately, I've kinda stuck with Pillsbury...
A friend of mine does this who lives on a large farm with about 80 acres of trees. He taps maple and birch, but I do believe he has some black walnut trees on the property as well. Not sure if he knows they can be tapped, but thanks to you, I'll mention it to him now. It's great getting a few quarts of this wonderful liquid every year and it only costs me some of my garden salsa.
GREAT video, Jerry! I REALLY enjoyed watching you tap the trees, and showing us each of steps of turning the Sap to Syrup! I never had the slightest thought of anyone making Walnut Syrup, until you mentioned it in a previous video. Now, after watching you make it, it's got me wanting to have a taste!! LOL!! Keep up with all the good "living off the land" Jerry! Makes me wish I had the land to do things like this too! 🙂 Ron
That’s amazing! I love to learn something new and you definitely delivered! I enjoyed the process and laughed at the end when you used the biscuit (with butter) to sop up the spillage! I would do the very same thing! Thanks Jerry!
Have often thought of trying this, only with my maples, and now you've given me the fever, Jerry. Thanks. Fortunately, I have hundreds of black walnuts along my creek, PLUS, many maples all over. (Now, off to e-bay to see about getting the taps. Already collect milk jugs -- I really hate destroying or throwing those things away.)
@@zapa1pnt Good idea. I may invest in a few. Got many already but none clean enough for that. Run this idea by my brother just today, and he said he has the perfect pot for cooking down -- a huge stainless one. Twenty spiles (?) like what Jerry showed here are on the way. Can't wait.
Jerry, another good reason to do the major part of the boiling outdoors, over a wood fire, other than the steam factor, is to not waste your costly gas or electric.
Sir, this a particularly interesting RSW presentation. My grandparents had an orchard, vines and fresh veg. They also had hickory, maple and black walnut. Same at my mother's place. Have hickory, maple and black walnut on my land. Family also had pecans. We harvested the nuts but never tapped. We always seemed to battle squirrels for nuts and apricots. My mom's neighbor had a successful maple syrup operation. Mrs. G was a widow, a maple syrup master, we'd help as needed. Want to find some black walnut syrup. Mom's house was trimmed with black walnut. Beautiful! There was a tendency for Morel mushrooms (believe they were black Morels) to grow in the vicinity of the sugar maples in the woods. Don't know if such is typical. Great video sir...
I'll give you 20 bucks for a quart. Kidding. That's awesome. It's too warm here already. Is have to tap trees in January. But something to think about next year. Never thought about walnut syrup.
Hey Jerry, FYI: The amount of sap from a tree is directly related to the size of the tree and how much moisture is available. If by a ditch, creek, river, etc. the more sap is produced. Even the bottom of a hill vs the top of a hill. Happy sweet tooth. 😋
When I was domg construction in Alaska I got a contract to build a small building for a couple who wanted to experiment with making table syrup from birch sap. Lots of birch where we were but no maple or walnut. They had determined that birch sap had half the sugar of maple so it took 100 gallons of sap tomake a gallon of syrup. In order to speed up the process they used a reverse osmosis machine to remove water from the sap. By doing so they were able to reduce boil time. Birch syrup is very good but tastes different than maple. I suspect walnut would be different as well.
Try putting your taps under large branches facing south.the the sap will flow more to the larger branches and the sun will help thaw out the side facing the sun
My FIL collects maple sap every other year and boils it down for syrup. They’re big fans of black walnut but never thought of making black walnut syrup. I’ll definitely let him know about this. Great video.
Your tree is still froze if you dont have sap running and you dont have to go in deep because it runs between the bark layer and the wood itself you can also tap white birch trees also but it takes more gallons comparrd to maple where maple take about 45 per 1 gallon of sirop considering what region your in where i am in northern New Brunswuck .ca thats what we average and the bigger tops you have on your trees like more bushier tops the better for your water because it draws more for the bigger tops. Yours look really good well done.
@@zapa1pnt Yes it will. As sugar content goes up, so does the boiling point. 219*F is the magic number for maple syrup and I expect the same for walnut although I have never done a walnut syrup
South Point, Ohio here-tapped about 13 trees mostly small .Got about 20 gallons in 2 weeks and hoping for one more small batch for this weekend. A few batches I pulled the trigger on a little early as I just went by tasting it and decided it was good. Anyhow cannot wait till next year as I have got over the learning curve!
nice to see an elm... I remember back in the late 50s and into the 60s when 'Dutch' elm disease was killing off almost all the elm trees. we lost ALL of them on the Ohio family home between 1960 and 1965. Here we are over half a century later, and a new generation of elms seem to be coming back.. cool!
Once again - wish I was there! I hope these foodies in San Francisco don't start asking for Rosa Farms Black Walnut Syrup on their brunch pancakes! I hope you're feeling better.
On my farm black walnuts grow like weeds and they get treated like weeds. BTW butternut makes great sounding dulcimers. I hope to find time to make a guitar from butternut this year.
Don’t let your sap (in the jug) sit around in the sunshine very long, it can get sour and spoil if it warms up in the daytime. Thanks for demonstrating!
I wonder how Sycamore trees would do ‘cuz we have a gazillion of them near San Diego. Around here, if you want Walnut you have to go up around San Jose. I know ‘cuz I picked a ton of Walnuts every summer. Thank you for such a fine video.
Jerry, How do you measure your trees? To make sure you get the right amount of lumber from each tree when selling them like that. Awesome cool video thanks for sharing.
I was always told if you want to kill a tree use copper nails and put them in the tree so I'd be careful about putting copper tubing in your walnut tree could kill it
love it....also i wanted to make a suggestion...try a wild mushroom labeled trametes versicolor.. we call it the turkey mushroom.. this mushroom has anti inflammation properties... since arthritis is caused by inflammation . seems like the turkey tail would be at least worth trying..
Looks pretty good Jerry. I do have to ask one question. Why not go lower on the tree ? Seems your leaving a lot of sap by not tapping close to the ground. Now I'm sure the trees have more than you'll ever use but....
Very interesting, thanks! Do you need to plug the holes in the trees after removing the taps, or do they heal quickly? I just wonder how long they continue to "leak".
Very cool, Jerry! So I suppose sugar is sugar, but does the walnut syrup have any difference in taste to maple syrup? I heard you say it's just as good as any syrup you've tasted, but is it the same or is it it's own different kind of good, but just as good? I wanna try some now! Lol.
