Tapped in Rochdale

[Maplesedge]

Just finished putting in my 8 taps. Grandma sold her house, so had to find new trees. Nice old guy in town who used to tap is letting me use some beautiful sugar maples behind his driveway. Snowpack is around 2 feet here, so had to dig down to place the milk cartons. The 7 taps facing anyway near south all ran right away. The one I tried facing NE is dry. Hope it comes on line later.

Missed last week's run, but maybe not too much. Friend of mine in Rutland had 800 gallons of sap after 2 days on Saturday, but he's running 1000 taps, on suction, so maybe the equivelent of 2000 taps? That works out to about a pint per tap per day, which for my mesely 8 taps would've meant I'dve had about 2 gallons of sap to boil, so no big deal.

If I can get 50 gallons of sap by next Wed., or Sat. that'll be enough to boil up a batch.

Hope you all have a good year!

[Maplesedge]

Cloudy day, sapwood must still be a bit frosty, not much in the bags, not worth picking up, maybe 1/2 gal. each, and each bag is tubed to two taps, so about a pint per hole.

But it's early yet. Maybe with some rain tommorrow it'll pick up.

[Maplesedge]

Nothing like rain to help wake up a tree! Kinda like defrosting a frozen chicken in ice water, that rain running down the sides of the tree just defrosts the sapwood.

I figure each tap gave 3 pints today, compared to 1 pint each yesterday.

The NE tap started up too.

Weather doesn't look half bad for next week either.

[Maplesedge]

Too cold. C'est la vie.

[Maplesedge]

45 degrees and rainy and still no sap in the bags.

Can see it in the tube drops, but it's not going down.

Will try the pinhole trick I saw in the tubing posts, maybe that'll work.

[Maplesedge]

Whew! That's a relief.

As soon as I cut an air vent hole in my tubing, up near the taps, the sap stuck in the tubes ran right down to the bag.

Wish I learned that trick last year.

Could see the taps start dripping right away too.

Good solution from MapleTraders. Thanks!

[Maplesedge]

Air vent did the trick.

Barely got to 40 today and got half a gallon from each tap.

[Maplesedge]

40 - 45 today but very windy so got slightly less than yesterday but it's still flowing.

Supposed to stay below freezing tommorrow but maybe 55 on Sat. So hpping for a good run.

[Fishgill]

I saw 43 today in north central MA. I'll be collecting in the morning. Hopefully things will get to normal soon. This cold weather is a bummer. It's time to get things flowing and going :D.

[halfpint]

Tapped on Valentines day and have collected 121 gallons on 20 taps. have a couple gallons in bottles and a sweet pan.

[Maplesedge]

Looks like Saturdays are gonna be boil day this year. Weathers finnally warming up a bit and this snowpack just starting to melt away. Felt great to be outside boiling the winter away once again. But first had to hack my evaporator out of the ice.

Thursday and Friday were so cold and windy that I got nothing! Yesterday I collected another 3 gal. with a warm south wind. That put me at about 16 gal. of sap for a week and a half in, not much, but enough to fire up the pan, so I'm happy for it. Today is supposed to be over 50, so hoping for much more.

This years trees are real sugars for once, sweetest sap I've ever tasted. The flower buds are still small and tight so should have a long season with any luck.

Got to show my brother-in-law the ropes too. Gave him taps and other stuff to get started and he's gonna tap today. Much better than just giving them syrup.

So, boiled 16 gal to about 2 gal, transfered to stock pot on turkey fryer gas jet to about 1 gal, less several cups of maple tea with rum to celebrate. And I'll finish it on the kitchen stove today. It's pretty close now, hope to get close to 1/2 gal. But I don't care, it's just a fun way to end a winter. And this winter really needs ending!

[Maplesedge]

Finished. Just about enough to float the hydrometer, but enough. Fills the whole house up with the aroma of maple. Nice golden color.

Ended up with 5 cups. Not counting the maple tea/rum glogs. Roughly a 40/1 ratio overall.

Filtering very lightly this year, just pre-filters really, the wool and heavy felt filters just suck up too much syrup. Gonna try letting it settle out and syphoning the clear syrup off later.

Also gonna try Rink Manns's trick of freezing it instead of mason jars. Always seem to get about half my jars with a little mold skin no matter how careful I am in bottling.

[Maplesedge]

I saw 43 today in north central MA. I'll be collecting in the morning. Hopefully things will get to normal soon. This cold weather is a bummer. It's time to get things flowing and going :D.

Looks like a good week upcoming. Good luck.

I was looking at the hobby evap you're using, by it's too pricey for me. My little pan will have too do. But after having to dig out my rig from snow and ice this year, I sure wish I built a shed around it.

They recomend 1 - 50 taps for your evap, you have 147. How do you work that out? Boil 16 hours a day?

[Maplesedge]

Tapped on Valentines day and have collected 121 gallons on 20 taps. have a couple gallons in bottles and a sweet pan.

Cool. What are you boiling on? Homemade pan?

Mine's an old stainless steel sink, but it'll do 7 gal./hr. if I keep it stoked and the fan blowing.

Gonna add an extra pre-heater pan, just above the boil, fed by the copper stack pre-heater, and see if I can coax it to be a little faster.

Can only boil one day a week, so can't handle much more than 50 gal. of sap.

[Fishgill]

Looks like a good week upcoming. Good luck

They recomend 1 - 50 taps for your evap, you have 147. How do you work that out? Boil 16 hours a day?
Actually he recomends 1-100 taps. It does about 10 gals/ hr. 100 of my taps are on Reds so I don't get the biggest amounts. I'm hopeing to get 50 gals a day. After being in the elements the last couple of years it was nice to be indoors.

[Maplesedge]

Warm wet weekend was good for sap. Just pick up 9 gal. That's more than half of what I got in the last week and a half.

Upcoming couple of weeks look good too.

Snow's melting off fast.

[Maplesedge]

Maybe 2 gpt! Flowing out in a constant stream! About time. Woooohoooo!

[Maplesedge]

2 gpt min.

Some at 2 1/2 gpt

Fast flowing and sweet

[Maplesedge]

Flow slowed to 1.25 gpt yesterday and .5 gpt today. Too warm at night? Supposed to cool off a bit so hoping it hangs in.

Still, had 50 gal to boil Sat. And finished 1-1/4 gal today so still at 40:1 ratio.

Whole house smells like maple.

Bees liking to clean the pre-filters.

[wcproctor]

How did you all find you sugar level this year? mine was all over the map from .5 - 3.5%. all last week my sugar maples were 1.5 - 2% not so good.

[Maplesedge]

Dont own a sap hydrometer, but the sap seems pretty sweet.

I'm just happy if I get some syrup for the year. Got enough for ten months now, and should get enough more sap to cover me.

Still getting sap in Uxbridge?

[sfsshadow]

gathered and boiled 3400gls. of sap on sat,at 1.7%. sunday,boiled 2700gls.at 2%.made 20gls more on sun. than sat. slightly darker,but still light

[Maplesedge]

Flow down to .125 gpt today.

Supposed to slip below freezing tonight and tommorow night, but after that the prediction is for nights above freezing for like a week.

Hope the sesson isn't over here already, but if it is, it was fun while it lasted.

[Maplesedge]

Flow way up today. Frost last night. Started running around noon and taps are dripping fast right now. Some are literally streaming.

Got so excited I just put in two more taps.

[Fishgill]

That's good to hear. There may still be some good runs to come.

[Maplesedge]

Wow! Just like last week, flowing fast and furious. Just picked up 24 gal. from ten taps, so 2.4 gpt in a 24 hr period.

My bags are all full and they stopped carrying them at Walmart so I'm gonna have to improvise for more storage.

Maybe I shouldn't have put in those two extra taps. Oh well, hell with it, I'll just have to take Friday off and boil, too much to wait until Saturday.

Supposed to be 60 on Friday, maybe it'll slow down again and give me a chance to catch up.

[wcproctor]

Well I picked up over 95 gallons yesterday and this morning a big fat 0. I think it is all over down here. I boiled off about 130 yesterday and it was really dark. But still sweet.

[Maplesedge]

Your probably at least a week ahead of us so far down the Blackstone valley.

What do your buds look like?

Still flowing here. Just picked up another 20 so still at 2 gpt.

Gonna boil all day tommorow.

[wcproctor]

Some buds out. But today got 60 gallons

[Maplesedge]

Buds just ever so slightly starting to swell here. Fifty degrees last night and 65 now but still got 8 gals today and still dripping. Kinda glad it slowed down. Been boiling since dawn and will stop at dusk and probably wont finish the sap on hand. Maybe do a small boil Sunday to catch up.

Cant believe I'm running out of snow to keep my bags cold.

May just quit next week. I'll have over 3 gal and that's more than enough for me.

[Maplesedge]

Barely a gal today from ten taps. Nice break in the action. Still have 20 gal to boil tommorow.

Looks like good weather coming this week so guess I'll hang in and make some to give away. Ran out of bottles, back to mason jars.

Buds not growing yet but they look like they're thinking about it.

[Maplesedge]

Perfect weather on tap;)

Got 8 gal today and dripping fast.

Buds still not hurrying to open.

Syrup still light.

[Tithis]

I'm hoping the cold front will hold off the buds a little longer. One of the maple sapplings buds have started to swell and have some green poking out. So far all of the trees I'm tapping still have small brown buds.

[Maplesedge]

Cold and snowing here. Got 16 gal of clear sap, twice as much as yesterday.

At least one more week for sure, cold nights ahead.

Boiled twice this weekend for the first time ever, 80 gal, most I've ever done.

Up to 3-1/2 gal syrup now, may end up with 5 or even more, roughly twice of last year. Best season ever!

Was good to get some stuff done in the yard too. Nice weather for boiling outside.

[Maplesedge]

I'm hoping the cold front will hold off the buds a little longer. One of the maple sapplings buds have started to swell and have some green poking out. So far all of the trees I'm tapping still have small brown buds.

Maybe sapplings open first? Hope so.

How do you keep your milk jugs from blowing away?

[Tithis]

Not sure, it was never really a problem. The most that's ever happened is the wind turning them a bit sideways.

[Maplesedge]

Cold and windy, barely a gallon of sap from ten taps combined. Taking the break while I can.

Sitting on front porch finishing Sunday's batch, smell of maple is awsome.

Some buds seem to have swelled up and some show just the first faintest hint of separation at the tip but for the most part they're still brown.

Sap still clear, what there is of it.

Long range forecast doesn't look bad, may just go until April this year.

[Maplesedge]

Mid 30's today and no wind. Got 1gpt of clear. Trees dripping nicely.

Buds still hesitating in the cold.

Looks like another big boil this weekend and maybe even another week to go after that.

[Maplesedge]

40's today, no wind, taps flowing even faster, 20 gal collected so 2gpt.

Looks like perfect sap weather for the next week.

Was all done this time last year.

Buds still holding tight.

Syrup getting darker though.

Couldn't have asked for a better season.

[Fishgill]

The sap is running pretty good here also. I was gonna pull the plug this weekend but I'm gonna keep going until it's over. This has been the best season I've had in the three years I've been sugaring. It would be nice if all the seasons were like this one.

[Maplesedge]

Thought I might pull taps too, but find after waiting all year to make syrup again I just can't quit while the sap's still coming. Will probably even boil a batch of bud sap to see what I get.

[wcproctor]

I pulled all but 12, the 12 taps that I have in the trees have no buds and I got about 25 Gal yesterday at 2pm. Went out this morning and got 15 more gal. Ill boil it all this morning. WoW when you think your all done.

[Maplesedge]

Nope, not over yet.

Got 24 gal today. Trees just gushing. Perfect weather.

Hoped for 3 gal this season and will likely get over 6.

[Maplesedge]

Colder and windy today but still ten gal. This will be my second two boil weekend. Love making so much syrup.

[Maplesedge]

Pulled my taps today. Boiled my last 40 for 2011.

Trees still dripping clear and buds still small but prediction for next weekend is cold rain and snow and then warm nights so stopping here.

Can only boil on weekend and been lucky this year to have good weather.

Be nice if I had a shack but then I'd have to spend money and the whole idea is to keep my family in syrup for the year without buying it.

Got enough for this year and then some. Be surprised if I run out before next season.

From your posts I know you're all having a great year.

Bon appetite!

[Tithis]

Sorry to hear that. Weather around here still looks good for another week. Very warm days in high 40's, low 50's but nights still in the 20's. I'm hoping that this combined with the rain will mean the season will go out with a bang.

[sams64]

Weather looks good for a few more days ion Rowley too. I'm going to do a last boil Sunday and pull my taps before I have teh yard sprayed for ticks. I'm thinking pesticide laced sap would be a bad idea.

sam

[Maplesedge]

And now the weather predicts it wont rain and snow on the weekend!

Could have gone another week after all.

Oh well, the risk of having to boil in bad weather outweighed the risk of missing another gallon.

Plus, more wood for next year.

Heck, made so much syrup this year I could skip next year and still not run out.

Naaaaaaaaaaaaaah!