Late Season Sap

[Mike Wacker]

Newbie alert! I have two Sugar maples in the front yard that keep producing. Left the taps in just to learn. When do I give it up? Taste? Color? Any random thoughts are appriciated.

[John c]

Well I'm no expert, but I'm down in Maine NY and I've got 7 buckets on 15 taps and they are full every day with nice clear sap and I'm still getting 1 gallon of syrup to every 45 gallons of sap! I guess I'll just keep going till it turns cloudy or it takes more than 50 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup.
Its been my best season ever, I am gettin pretty wore out though!!!
Good luck,

John c.

[Mike Wacker]

Thanks John,

Being a newbie just wondering when it is time to pull the "plug". I wasn't expecting to still get sap, given that we haven't had sub-freezing nights for a week. But the two taps keep producing. Gallon or two a day.

[supersapper]

watch the trees for buds. quit when they start to open.

[PerryW]

I can never tell when the sugar maples are budding. I stop when i hear the peepers.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Perry,

I heard peepers hear two or three weeks this year before I quit. I usually quit when the trees quit running. I have never had a problem with bad syrup. The sap I boiled the last 2 or 3 boils seemed ok but the steam down wind and in the sugarhouse didn't smell good at all and can't describe the smell, it just wasn't anything you wanted to smell but wasn't terrible but the syrup turned out really good. Down here freezing usually quits around March 21st but the sugars don't bud until usually May.

[markcasper]

Brandon, You said it about the smell but that not affecting the taste of the syrup. I wonder if anyone has an scientific answer of why this is?

[mathprofdk]

This is interesting, because I had the smell and some really horrible tasting syrup. This was my first year, so I wanted to keep going, just to see, and I will definitely not keep processing if the sap smells like that again!

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

You could smell the steam from 100 yards downwind of the sugarhouse and it wasn't bad enough to make you want to puke, but it just didn't smell like the normal sweet maple steam. Hard to describe, maybe the wet cardboard terminology would apply. The sap tasted good raw, maybe just the slightest hint of off flavor raw, but very minimal and was fairly clear for late season sap and a little cloudy.

This is not the first year I have had this happen though with late season sap.