Big Sap in NE Ohio !

[johnallin]

With the thunderstorms that rolled through here last night, I didn't expect to see anything at all, but sap is finally running over here in Lake County, Ohio.

Went out at first light this morning and collected 130 gallons from 135 bags! Lots were full to the brim, others about ½ full and it was running at about a drip a second.

Hustled like hell to beat what looked like more rain coming in and it took two trips to gather it all. I only have two 35 gal tanks in the gator and sap tank is only 150 gal, so I may have a storage problem if I don't get crackin'.

Will be boiling tonight..and from the looks of the forecast, will be busy most every morning and night till Friday.

After the fiasco - new shack and evap... but no sap - last year, it feels good to think we may finally make more syrup than we did on the ½ Pint.

Hope everyone else is seeing the same.

[Jeffery G.]

John,
My son just called me at work and said grandpa and him just brought in 225 gallons tonight from our 215 taps. Looks like I as well will be digging out the extra sap storage tank tomorrow.

[CrossBroMaple]

im right with you! got home last night battled flooding creeks and brought in the sap i could get, 125 gallons on 130 buckets. couldnt get to all of them because of high water but luckily the creek didnt take any buckets, planning on getting everything in tonight and boiling!

[johnallin]

Collected another 30 gallons last night - for a day's total of 160 out of 135 taps; that's a record for us. Sugar content was 2% per the refractometer.

Fired up and boiled off 95 gallons between 6:45 and 10:00 for a gph of 29, not bad considering I was being a bit cautious making sure everything was set up right. First, out of 2 boil overs made me scramble to the house for the defoamer; which of course - I'd forgotten all about.

If we hit 40° today, we may see even more...let's roll.

[jluckay]

boiled off around 100 gal. last night. couldnt belive it , trees acctually ran.

[woodburner]

Love to make light syrup with good sugar when the ground is white. Great day, sap holding at 2.25 , grade went to very light. Boiled all day finished off and had to put the evaporater on idle for a couple hours then the trees opened up and kept me going till 7. Looks like there will be sap to start tomorrow the sap is dumping every 5 min. The season is looking better every day.

[heus]

Yes awesome sap run Sunday night and Monday morning. Collected 475 gallons from 331 buckets. Best run Ive ever had.

[johnallin]

Taps began running here about 6:00 and collected 40 more gallons. Boiled it off tonight so to have room for towmmorow's run. That's two nights in a row that we've boiled and from the way some of them were dripping; I'm thinking it's going to run all night.

This is more like it - lots better than last year.

[Monster Maples]

Have to agree with all of you! The sap was great Sunday into Monday. One thing though, I don't care if I am ever in the sugar house during one of those kind of storms again. That was wicked. We boiled through the night Sunday and left at 5:30 Monday morning. The sap was coming in so good we had to stay and boil. Got up Monday and headed to the other woods to find more mega sap. Boiled that off last night. Just got done boiling off another 300 gallons tonight that came in throughout the day. Stopped at the other woods to check on things on my way home tonight. Up in a couple hours to haul sap and fire up again tomorrow. Hopefully early start. Weather looks awesome for the next 7 days. Possibly another mega sap run this weekend. More rain and warm nights. Bring it on, we will be ready. If we have enough wood!!! Boiled nine days so far this year:D

[CrossBroMaple]

boiled in 400 gallons last night! took about 4 hrs love this new rig and glad im going to actually run it this year! made nice looking light syrup, ill check buckets when i get home today but thinking they might be alittle frozen in my neck of the woods. waiting till this weekend which looks like some long hours in the woods and sugarhouse!

[johnallin]

Our trees ran through the night and I was able to collect another 85 gallons this morning - I think it was about 40° out at 6:45.

But I'm thinking also, that it's too cold today for much of a run, but will check when I get home. So another 85 in the tank waiting to be boiled - should be pulling syrup this time...

Compared to last year we are way ahead, didn't even start to boil over here until March 6 and as of last night we've already boiled off close to 140 gallons!

Hope everyone else is seeing the same.

[odskaggs2]

Same here in Hudson. Taps ran through the night so this morning I had quite a bit. Came home from work this afternoon and not much to speak of.

[woodburner]

Boiled again today and finished off over off 14gal. I agree it looks a lot better than last year. The sap is at 2 deg. and holding, syrup is a nice light fancy grade. The last two runs have held well into the cold temps. Need a rest, hope tomorrow is a late start and I can move some syrup out. and get ready for the next round. Keep up the boil can't completly evaporate yet!

[christopherh]

Gathered and boiled off another 80 Gallons last night. I have to remember not to leave the defoamer in the sugarhouse were it can freeze solid! I'm lucky I noticed it when I fired up!

[johnallin]

Not much over here yesterday after work- maybe 30 gallons tops - so I didn't collect.

What was there is now frozen solid and is going to stay in the bags until I go out tommorow night. Thinking the 41° temps they're calling for will thaw it out and it will keep the sap - if it runs - cool enough until I can get out there.

christopherh
I have a stainless, coffee can like, canister 1/2 full of water right next to the stack at the back if the rig that I keep the defoamer bottle in. Water warms up real quick and the defoamer thaws and is always close by. Never boils just stays nice and warm. Hope that helps and sure beats running to the house because I left it in the fridge...

[Doc]

What a run!!! I'm with everyone else. The Sunday through Monday run was insane!!! I also need to invest in something to carry the 5 gallon buckets up from the lake. I collected and carried 16-5 gallon buckets up from the lake to the evaporator in the dark after work by hand.
My sidekick Shar Pei was no help. He has no thumbs. I need to get him to pull a wagon or something.
Had a couple inch scorch to the pan also while I was taking a call from work. I was able to save it quickly by flooding with sap. First time that ever happened. A closer look showed me that my setup wasn't completely level. It is now!!!
What should I expect from this 2 by 3 inch scorch? Any suggestions to deal with it. I actually rotated it to the back, sap (not syrup) side of the setup.
Thanks and enjoy this year!!! Much better than last year already!!!
Taking tonight off to lick my wounds. Back at it tomorrow and this weekend. Lot of taps for a 2x3. All good though!!!

[woodburner]

Clean up as best you can. Scrape what you can, go easy with stainless. Remember you are not a real syrup producer until you scorch a pan! bin there done that.

[WI Sugarpop]

What a run!!! I'm with everyone else. The Sunday through Monday run was insane!!! I also need to invest in something to carry the 5 gallon buckets up from the lake. I collected and carried 16-5 gallon buckets up from the lake to the evaporator in the dark after work by hand.
My sidekick Shar Pei was no help. He has no thumbs. I need to get him to pull a wagon or something.
Had a couple inch scorch to the pan also while I was taking a call from work. I was able to save it quickly by flooding with sap. First time that ever happened. A closer look showed me that my setup wasn't completely level. It is now!!!
What should I expect from this 2 by 3 inch scorch? Any suggestions to deal with it. I actually rotated it to the back, sap (not syrup) side of the setup.
Thanks and enjoy this year!!! Much better than last year already!!!
Taking tonight off to lick my wounds. Back at it tomorrow and this weekend. Lot of taps for a 2x3. All good though!!!

Make yourself a yoke out of wood and chain. We did that last year after our arms got 3" longer. We are on a hill so this year we are going to send the sap down to the tote in our truck via 800' of tubing.:)

[Doc]

The scorch is small (2 by 3 inches). Would it hurt to leave it there and continue to boil until I get a break in the action then empty and clean the pan?
A yoke. Good idea! My wife has always called me an 'ole ox anyway. :)

[christopherh]

Bottled everything last night from the last run. 5 Gallons of Light amber :) Things are looking pretty good to fire back up tomorrow.

johnallen, I'll have my heating can ready!

[woodburner]

Doc, you can scrape it with a flat piece of hard wood or use the green Scotch scrubbers ,no chlorine, go easy with the scrubber, if pan is sound it will not hurt to use it. I would run it a little deeper, keep it over an inch deep.

[Doc]

Doc, you can scrape it with a flat piece of hard wood or use the green Scotch scrubbers ,no chlorine, go easy with the scrubber, if pan is sound it will not hurt to use it. I would run it a little deeper, keep it over an inch deep.

Thanks for the advice. I was heartbroken when it happened. I can come up with many excuses but it happened. At least I saved it from the 'ole mighty burndown. I will run it deeper!!! I just got a little shallow on that end. She's dead level now!!!
Thanks everyone!!! Back at it this am under tarps in the rain!!! Shooting for a sugar shack off of a new garage for next season!!!
Still having fun!!!

[johnallin]

Huge run over here yesterday and last night...135 taps, most bags are full and it's still running. I thought the rain and wind would shut it all down, but it didn't.

Going to be a busy day and starting to wonder if I have enough storage. If I can only boil 30-35 gph and if our 135 taps run faster than that; I'm in trouble...
Never thought I'd say that.

Hope everyone is seeing the same.

[johnallin]

Collected 185 gal today from our 135 taps and boiled off 135 gal from 2:00 to 6:00 for a gph of 29.6.

I gather using two 35 gallon tanks in the back of the Gator; so it was 2 trips with 2 full tanks and a yet a third trip for another 45 gallons.

Taps were running pretty good as we collected but seem to have slowed down some - but that's just fine with me as I have some catching up to do. Still have 75 in the tank for tommorow and think we'll get yet another run.

To date I've brought in something like 430 gallons, and all of that since Monday. Last year at this time we only had 125 collected - I'm thinkin' this is going to be a good year.

Pulled off 9 draws today so we now have syrup too.

Hope everyone is having as much fun as I am.

[OneLegJohn]

John, we had a good run here, too. We ended up with 2400 gallons on march 4th & 5th. A total of 2900 for this boil. We had 260 gallons trickle in throughout the week. And I have about 250 gallons from after we called it and shutdown Saturday night. It looks like we will end up with some more runs later this week. Our total sap collection is 6600 gallons for this year. We collected 7600 gallons last year. I figure the season is 1/4 to 1/3 over, however, I hope I'm wrong.

[christopherh]

How is everyones syrup turning out? Mine has been light and medium. cleaning pans tonight.

[OneLegJohn]

1st run, dark amber. 2nd run, medium amber close to light amber.

[woodburner]

I think we are closer to half over, long rang doesn't have to many cold nights after this week. Still need more medium and dark syrup. Went for more containers today just in case. Pull syrup out today andget ready for tomorrow. Made 88gal. so far and that matches the total for last year so we are looking good.

[heus]

I've made almost all light amber. One day was medium but almost passed for light. Hoping for some dark amber I have a few people who are requesting it. My goal this year was 50 gallons and we have bottled 41 gal so far with another 5 or 6 waiting to be finished and bottled. Niter has been terrible. I have had to shut down and clean my syrup pan every 4-5 hours of boiling.Also, 331 buckets is hard work with a 2x6. Hope to get a small RO in the near future and will probably go with mostly tubing next year. I have had my eye on the IPL Rapitube for some time now. If not the Rapitube then regular wire and mainline with the IPL side straps.

[dobbs4m16]

Southern Ohio thinking of travelling to "March Maple Madness Tour" in N.E. Ohio this weekend. What will it be like getting around? Any deep snow or muddy conditions? Will N. E. Ohio most likely be boiling sap this weekend? Thanks in advance--Keith

[OneLegJohn]

Southern Ohio thinking of travelling to "March Maple Madness Tour" in N.E. Ohio this weekend. What will it be like getting around? Any deep snow or muddy conditions? Will N. E. Ohio most likely be boiling sap this weekend? Thanks in advance--Keith

Keith, I hope you can make it out to the other corner! Stay at the Geneva Lodge on Lake Erie, you won't regret it. We have the Ice Wine tour going the same weekend. Hit a few wineries in between sugarhouses. Good times.

[christopherh]

Kieth, most of the deep snow is gone. With the rain coming, there is plenty of mud. Good luck

[johnallin]

Sap is running like crazy last night and this morning.

Over 200 gallons collected this AM and had to leave some out there - not enough room. This sure beats last year and by the looks of things isn't going to let up anytime soon.

[jluckay]

boiled off around 60 gal of sap last night , finally figuring out all the fine tunning & filtering . ended up with a real nice med. amber. looks as if its going to be another late one tonight! my neighbor just called & said he collected 100gal. so far. sure alot diffrent from last year!!



2010 50 taps
2011 80 taps

2x4 flatpan with forced air & preheater

[christopherh]

Collected nearly 400 gallons after work yesterday. Boiled down 280 last night. Drew off 5 Gallons. I was close to maxing out my holding tanks! I didnt have time to check buckets this morning, but I'll collect late afternoon before the snow storm. Nice run!

[OneLegJohn]

5200 gallons this run, most in last 48 hours. Still running. I'm getting 180 gallons every 2 hours four last 12 hours. We still have 8-10" of snow in the ravine. That could be why we start later than most, and end later than most.

[Holliemac]

Hi.....sorry for the ignorance but...where is that hygrometer supposed to float exactly? am in Mansfield OH and had sap running before the heavy rain and now it has stopped. Thinking i'll get more when it warms up but i was in Cumberland last weekend so missed the first of the run. syrup was so light this week i boiled too long and ended up crystalized. figure i better get more scientific since i have no experience to draw from. Thanks for help

[heus]

5200 gallons this run, most in last 48 hours. Still running. I'm getting 180 gallons every 2 hours four last 12 hours. We still have 8-10" of snow in the ravine. That could be why we start later than most, and end later than most.

Nate how much syrup have you made?

[woodburner]

Holliemac, using the hot test line and the syrup hot, the red line should be totally visible. Note that hygrometers are not always dead on. I took two to the local meeting last year to have tested and one was one half degree off and the other was one degree off both registered light one was new the other 2years old.

[johnallin]

Another big run over here, 4 gallons off today for a weekly total of 8.2!

Sap today at 1.8% still looks good for the next few days

[WoodButcher]

if anyone is interested ... this guy in auburn has free sap .

http://cleveland.craigslist.org/zip/2262315450.html