Backyard Sugarin': A Complete How-To Guide, Third Edition (Paperback)

by Rink Mann (Author), Daniel Wolf (Photographer)

Editorial Reviews

Review
Tells everything you need to know. -- Country Living

Product Description
From buying equipment to tapping your own trees to boiling the sap, this is the classic, best-selling guide to making maple syrup.

This little book swept maple sugarin' buffs off their feet when it first appeared and is still the top-selling guide to the craft after nearly 30 years in print. Like the previous editions, this one tells you how you can make maple syrup right in your own backyard without having to build a sap house or buy buckets, holding tanks, evaporators and other expensive paraphernalia. Provides detailed "how-to" information, and makes some new and noteworthy revelations-including tips sugarers across the country have shared with the author. 60 black & white photographs, 6 line illustrations, index.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Countryman; 3 edition (February 7, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0881502162
• ISBN-13: 978-0881502169
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #253,013 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great intro to ultra cheap sugaring!, February 1, 1999

By A Customer

This book has an overarching philosophy - keep it simple and keep it cheap! The authors describe everything you need to know and stress not having to pay for anything you can get for free. This quest for free stuff that works well is one of the pleasures of hobby sugaring. Well written descriptions of all the processes. Lots of photos. Reading it makes you wish the sap would start flowing NOW! Highly recommended

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Everything you need to know -- just add trees!, March 18, 2003

By	Rabbi Yonassan Gershom (Minnesota, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This is the do-it-yourself book that got me started on that sweet rite of spring -- making my own maple syrup. The author's emphasis is on how to do it efficiently and very cheaply, using easy-to-find materials you can scrounge yourself. If you have the trees to tap, by all means get this book! (Hint: they don't have to be the sugar maple species. Try other maples as well. I get great syrup from box elders, which I considered "trash trees" until I learned they are in the maple family. Now I treasure them like gold.)

My own sugaring set-up is total simplicity: just some old refrigerator grates set on top of cinder blocks, heated with odd scraps of wood that others have thrown away at construction sites, etc. The sap is boiled down in flat baking pans, then finished off on the stove inside. Except for the initial expense to buy some professional spiles for tapping (you can make those, too, but I'm a failure as a tinsmith), I have spent ABSOLUTELY NOTHING for the 3-4 gallons of syrup we make each year. Not a bad return for a book that I cost me less than ten bucks!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent starter book., October 2, 2004

By	Robert H. Schook (Central Michigan) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I remember fondly the early Michigan spring from my childhood, helping my father collect sap. This more than anything fueled my desire to make my own syrup. This book, Rink Mann's "Backyard Sugarin'" is an excellent book to get you off without breaking your back or your bank account. The author has a delightful writing style that is thoroughly engrossing. The book is well illustrated, full of ideas and rock solid on exactly when, how and what to tap, and exactly how to process all that sap. I highly recomend this book. Even if you don't live in sugar country you will enjoy this book.