Finally some cold weather.

[sgsommers]

Maybe this will put the brakes on the buds. Actually feels somewhat like presugar season.

[sgsommers]

Cranked out about 85 gal of light amber this last weekend.

[maplehound]

Sounds like a good year for light syrup here in Ohio.

[maplehound]

Made 65 gallons of light syrup this year and then the weather got warm with a large run. Couldn't keep up so the sap has sat for a couple days in 60+ deg temps. Now I am making a B grade :cry: It still has good flavor though so I will blend it out with all that light.
Ron

[maplehound]

WOW another decent run. It looks like we will be getting more sap for the next week or so. I have already made 97 gallons and have enough sap waiting to make several more gallons. My best year was only 100 gallons, so this should be a record year for me. I haven't hit a quart per tap since I went over 200 taps. This year I should get close.
Ron

[markcasper]

Ron, That is great, I bet you are very happy! Mark

[maplehound]

Went to a B-grade ( Maybe even C) last night so we cleaned the pans today in hopes of restoring our grade.
We did get our 100 galons in the can now. Everything from here on is a +. :)
Ron

[maplehound]

We boiled today. Still making a Grade B or C but it has good flavor so I might be able to blend it.
We where honered today to have Gary Graham come to visit today. ( professor of natural resources from OSU) He is doing a study on the high yeild sugar maple trees. I have several of them but unfortunatly they arn't big enough for his study :( . He did however stay and visited with us while we boiled. Another sugar maker from down the road stopped in as well and shared in the conversation. We discussed the Canadian syrup that is being sold in the SAM Clubs. Evidentlly it is substandard and has an off flavor. Also it is being sold at a very cheap price that we can't come close to meeting. He agreed that something should be done but right now Ohio has no means of doing anything about it. Also we discussed the laws in Ohio regarding inspection of our sugar houses. Right now it is voluntary and not many have been inspected. since there is no reason or benifit to doing it. We aren't even alowed to advertise in any way that we have been inspected.
It was fun having him here today and if you get a chance to hear him speak, do so. He might even have a picture of my sugar house in his talk.
Ron

[maplehound]

Sap is still running today but I think it will end tomorrw. I have made 125 gallons of syrup and by the time I finish everything in the tanks what flows in tonight and what I have on the pans I should get 150 gallons finished off. That will put me at a quart per tap this year and the most syrup I have ever made. :D
Ron

[Parker]

What do you contribute the high yeild per tap too? The year or are there improvements you have made to your opperation that have helped the yeild,,I am always looking for way to increase my yeild,,,Thanks

[maplehound]

In the past I have had 2 woods that I tapped. In the woods I no longer tap I would occasionally have problems with my pump line breaking. So I am sure that helped. But this year I added taps to the other woods ( not as many as I lost in the first woods though) I think this woods has a better average sugar content and better root system for the trees. The woods I lost had several sugar maples that hung over a stream and I don't think they had a good root sytem although they would run alot. Never took samples from each tree but I think the sugar on them must have been lower. Also this year had more runs than the past years and they where mostly colder weather runs. On average we wil see 2 or 3 runs with temps around 65 -70 but this year we had 1 warm up and then it just got to around 60.
today it was in the mid 50's and we got around 150 gallons of sap. Although it never froze last night, so it did shut completly down around 3 pm. Long range forcast now do't show any days or nights below freezing so I am sure we are done at this point. Evenso we will start the vaccuume up tomorrow for a short while.
Ron