black walnut sugaring and tree health
TRANSCRIPT
BLACK WALNUT
SUGARING AND
TREE
HEALTH
By: Jacob Noonan
My Experience
• A few years ago I was at the Lake Erie maple
expo and I was in a breakout session with
Micheal Farrell a professor at cornell university
presented the idea of tapping black walnut trees
and collecting the sap and making syrup out of
this
• When I was presented this idea I had realized
that my grandfather had a bunch of black walnut
trees but I was not sure how many
The black walnut trees
• So when I started this project I
counted all the black walnut
trees I had 65 trees ranging in
diameters of 7 in to 35 in
• So when I contacted Mr Farrell
he explained that you could tap
a black walnut tree from 8in to
how ever the diameter gets on
the tree but I figured I could get
75 taps out of the black walnut
trees
Finding the trees to select
• First when I looked at the black
walnut trees I have heard from
different maple syrup
producers that it doesn't matter
where you place a tap on any
sap producing tree, I found this
hard to believe because the
tree carries all it's nutrients
through the roots and the main
branches I selected these trees
with a wide root base and thick
branches
The tapping
process
• When I had found the black
walnut tree that I was going to
tap I looked for the main root or
the main branch where it
comes down into the trunk of
the tree then about two feet off
the ground I placed a tap
where the main branch
connects into the main root of
the tree
How to know how many
Taps to place on a tree
• 1 tap = 8 inches in diameter
• 2 taps = 16 inches in diameter
• 3 taps = 24 inches in diameter
• 4 taps = 24+ inches in diameter
Which direction to
place
The tap N,S,E,W
• When I had started tapping the
black walnut trees I had placed
the taps on the main root and
where the main branch comes
into the trunck of the tree but I
wanted to see if sunlight or cloud
cover would effect the amount of
sap flow from the tree
My
Research • When I had contacted Mr
Farrell he had asked me if I
was willing to do research on
the sap flow with gravity lines.
In response I had collected
data from three different tree
groups in my grandfathers
woods
• I had collected data on tree
(DBH), how many taps placed
on that tree, sap flow, sugar
content, barometric pressure,
and average temp of that week
The black walnut season
• The black walnut
sugaring season starts
the same time maple
season starts
• With the black walnut
season you can go a
week later than maple
season because in maple
season you can smell
"buddy sap or syrup"
• In black walnuts however
you can decide when the
season is over by taste or
sap color
My findings • When I had tapped on February 16, 2014
which is the same time my father taps his
maple trees.
• After the first week I haven’t received much
sap so I kept the sap another week because
it was frozen the buckets.
• Early in the season I had found out that the
black walnut trees that were closer to a
water source such as a stream or a pond in
my case produced heavy amounts of sap
• As for the larger trees in the early season
didn’t really produce much sap at all.
• I also found that with the ground frozen the
black walnut trees do not produce hardly
any sap
My findings (cont)
• After I had collected the sap I had boiled it down on a 2 by 3 flat bottom
pan.
• The black walnut sap does not flow like maple sap at all so you do not
need a huge evaporator unless you have a massive amount of trees from
a weekly collection I would usually get maybe a 2 to 3 gallons of sap each
tree but this is normal for their sap flow so do not be disappointed.
• After I had collected all the sap I found out that my theory was right on a
black walnut tree it does matter where you tap either via main root or
where the main branch comes down into the trunk of the tree
• Towards the end of the season the sap started to flow at an astonishing
rate I believe that it was because of the water source that the trees were
supplied with the sun more present to the tree
My findings
• What I had found out that the trees that I had tapped on the south
predominantly flowed more sap
• Also the trees carry a substance called pectin this is like a jelly like
substance that clogs up your filters when you are filtering the
syrup
• My suggestion is to use a cloth filter to filter the sap before you
boil it. Or it will clog up your cotton filters or the filter press making
it extremely hard to extract the syrup
• In the beginning of the syrup production my product tasted like
maple syrup until I got later in the season is when the syrup had a
black walnut flavor.
In comparison with
Maple
• In comparison with maple season the
black walnut trees have a higher
concentration in sugar content such as in
maple you would receive a 1% average
sugar content from an average black
walnut tree you would receive 2 to 4 %
sugar content of the sap
• Though the high concentration of the
black walnut sap comes at a price to an
extent that you don’t receive that much
sap in a daily collection
• My suggestion to you if you do gravity
lines wait a week to collect your black
walnut sap because you will not receive
that much sap on a daily collection
The syrup
• With boiling the black walnut sap it’s the same as maple sap.
• You can use the same instruments as for maple syrup such as the syrup hydrometer
• Black walnut syrup is made at 67 brix on the hydrometer
• In the start of the black walnut season you may notice that the color looks really light
like Vermont premium
• As you get towards the end of the season you will notice in a difference in color such
it will be grade B
• The consistency of the syrup has less viscosity in the early season than in the late
season
• The taste in the beginning will taste more like male syrup until you get to the final
weeks of the season is when you will start to notice more black walnut taste
The syrup color from Feb 16 to Apr 19th
The bottling process
• The bottling process of black walnut syrup is
relatively the same to the extent that when you
put the syrup in the jar you want to make sure
that you place the hot bottles of syrup close
together because this will better seal the bottle
and eliminate the chance of mold.
The Tree Health
• After the first year of tapping the black walnuts they had healed
over relatively quickly
• The second year I had tapped them the tap holes didn’t heal over
• So the healing process of the tap holes on the black walnut trees
is longer than the maple trees.
• I noticed that the nature of the tree didn’t change such as the
trees ability to produce its fruit or overall the trees health had
stayed the same
My sap flows compared
to other individuals
The tall bars on the bar graph is my sap flow compared with the other individuals
Black walnut tree myth That when a black walnut trees grow they
choke off the vegetation around them such as
trees or plants (myth)
In conclusion
• For black walnut syrup
production a small pan like 2
by 3 is a good pan for 30-60
taps if you have more than 60
taps try to step up into a bigger
pan
• In conclusion with black
walnut syrup this is a new
but relatively old syrup,
black walnut syrup hasn’t
been mass produced
because the poor sap flows
compared to the maple sap
flows.
• But black walnut syrup is a
novelty syrup that sells in
higher price because of its
rarity and excellent taste
• Black walnut trees are very
temperamental with the
weather in producing sap,
they produce the same time
a maple tree does.
• The sap does not spoil that
easy with mild weather
conditions to the extent that
you could keep it in the
buckets for a week at a time
• When tapping avoid knots
because they hurt the overall
sap production of the tree
which leads to less product in
the end
• If you have black walnut trees
near the water you will have
higher sap flows but the sugar
concentration is not that high I
believe that because water is
more present and it causes
loss of nutrients because their
is more water than nutrients
Any Questions
If you have any questions on tapping black walnuts or
The syrup feel free to email me any time