Tapped in Hopkinton

[SeanD]

Got 28 taps on gravity tubing in today. It's my first time using tubing. Next to watching water boil, watching it travel down a little blue tube is pretty exciting. I also got 37 buckets up before it got too close to game time. I hope to get the last buckets up this week to get to 90 or 95 taps this year.

Many thanks to the Saps in Bellingham. The last-minute tubing lesson revolutionized how I went about it!

Let's hope for a good (however early) season!

Sean

[remkel]

It was great having you in Bellingham and we all appreciate the help you gave us. The more the merrier. Glad to hear your lines and buckets are up. I am going to have to stop in on my way to Bellingham one day. take care and happy boiling.

Sap 3

[SeanD]

Only averaged about a 1/2 gallon per tap today. Some put out close to a gallon. Others are still waking up. Thought it would be bigger, but hey, it's sap. Didn't test sugar, but it tasted sweet. I'll check it tomorrow.

Looks like the temps are set up for a decent run over the next few days and then it looks like an extended, big chill moves in. Trying to scramble after work to get more taps in this week. Not sure if I have enough buckets. We'll see how it goes. If not, I'll definitely be ready for the next warm up. Hopefully, I'll have enough to light the evap. this weekend.

Sean

[wcproctor]

Ha Sean good the here you in. I got just about all my taps in and in finished 2 gallons today. And made some candy for the kids and some maple coated walnuts for my mother, so good. I you are looking for some 4 gal buckets I have about 20+ left over. Give me a call if you need some.
Eli

[SeanD]

That's awesome. Two gallons already!

I think I'll take you up on your offer. Ten should do me. I'll give you a call tomorrow.

Thanks!

Sean

[SeanD]

Wednesday was a small run due to the cold temps, but the other days have been running at a 1/2 gal per tap per day. The big chill didn't show up yet so I got another 25 taps in. I'm up to 89 now. Sugar content is still down around 1.5%. Not good, but not terrible. Hopefully things will pick up. If not, I may put out more taps.

Sweetened the pans Wednesday night. Not a good boil, but it was fun to be back at it. I think my problem was the wood going in was the last wood to come inside this past fall, so it may have been a bit damp. I'll boil again tomorrow morning. If things don't get ripping, the leaf blower is coming out. Then we'll see what this thing can really do!

Sean

[foursapssyrup]

hi sean,

what time are you firing up? I was thinking of heading up your way in the AM

phil

[SeanD]

That would be great.

I'm hoping to get at it around 6:30, so I can be done before my son's birthday party at 2:30. That should give me plenty of time in case I get a slow boil like the first one. I have enough sap to keep me busy all morning, so you are welcome to come by any time.

Sean

[SeanD]

When the trees were giving me no love on Valentine's Day, I figured they were going to make it up to me today with their sweet talkin'.

Nope. Mostly dry buckets and very little from the tubing either. Although a handful of buckets were half full.

After that really hard freeze this weekend, they should have been cranking for the last 24 hours. Something is really off this year.

Sean

[eustis22]

lotta sap today....any hints on the quality?

[SeanD]

Yes! Today things got really rolling again - a little over a half gallon per tap. Looks like I may be boiling this weekend after all.

I checked the sugar content last night and got the same result as last week - around 1.5%. Something I have definitely noticed both weeks is how crystal clear the sap is and there are very few bugs. Maybe 2-3 damselfly looking things out of 60 buckets, but not one moth yet.

Sean

[eustis22]

My boil tonight is very foamy compared ti the prior two boils....is this indicative of higher sugar content?

[Westwood_Maple]

Guys - I see that you are in a nearby town. I am in Westwood. Any suggestions on local places to go for basic supplies (taps, buckets, bottles, basic smallish starter evaporating pan...?

[SeanD]

Only got down to 44 last night. Looks like most taps except for the big trees are shut off. Only got 9 gallons from 21 buckets this morning from yesterday's run. Tubing is harder to measure. I'm at about half a barrel since my last boil on Saturday so maybe 27 gallons off 28 taps in 5 days.

Things are way down here. Let's hope the freeze this weekend starts things back up again and we get a normal March.

Westwood, there's an Agway in Franklin that has a starter kit - spiles, buckets, no pan though. That was a couple of years ago. Your best bet is to order on line or make the trip up to the Maple Guys. They are the closest at 1.5-2 hours. Call ahead to make sure he has everything you are looking for. Bascom's is a much longer drive, but they have everything.

You can also scan Craig's list. Sometimes a producer who is upgrading or downsizing has stuff to unload. Down here in the flat lands there aren't many options.

Good luck,
Sean

[remkel]

You could also look at Bascoms on line- they may have some used equipment.

[SeanD]

Things got going pretty good yesterday and today. For the two days I collected about 45 gallons off of 92 taps. Not a bumper run, but the best so far this year. Things were still dripping decently when I collected around 6 p.m. It's not crazy like last year, but if it can keep this rate up for another 3-4 weeks, I'll be very satisfied with the season.

The best news is that sugar is up since I last checked last week when I was tossing ice. All of my various collections today were between 2% and 2.25%. An even bigger surprise was a cloudy 5 gallons that I thought snow had gotten into or that it was starting to get old. It came from section where a few buckets had their lids blown off. That one came in at a solid 2.75%.

I can't wait to boil this sap!

Sean

[SeanD]

Looks like this season is going out with a bang like last year. Had the best run of the season today and collected about 60 gallons off the 95 taps. Thought I was just going to warm the pans a little tonight and ended up blasting through 100 gallons in 5 hours. Had the best boil of the season as well. Got the rig up to temp very quickly and I had a good run of 25+ gph - best ever. Must be the wood because I don't think I was doing anything differently. Drew about 1.75 gallons of probably B.

Things are still running well right now (midnight), so hopefully I'll get another day like today. The big warm up could end it all, but freezing temps are called for the weekend. Could this season keep limping along?

Sean

[SeanD]

Yahoo! 95 gallons collected today!

Things ran all night and most of the day, though it's slowing up now. One or two more frosts this weekend and I think we'll be all done. Good times!

Sean

[wcproctor]

Ha Sean, sounds like you had a good day. Check this out on Tes. I got 60 gal, Wed 115 , Thur. 80 had a big boil today I don't know what I'll get in the morning but yaa.

[foursapsyrup1]

Sean & Eli,
Had the two best runs of this year - 100 gallons Wenesday and 80 gallons yesterday - and still running. Looks like it might be the last hurray for the year , though.
Will be boiling later today.

[NedL]

Same here in Foxboro. Yesterday Morning collected 30 Galons from 29 taps and it looks like there's @ another 20 gallons around today. Have blocks of frozen sap, hopefully keeping it fresh enough until Sunday!

[wcproctor]

I got 90 more this morning, but every thing is still dry at the end of the day. That is a total of 345 for this week. It was a long night last night, but I did it (with a little gas(BEER) This may be it.

[SeanD]

I was really surprised to see the run go into today. I collected another 38 gallons - nothing amazing by normal standards, but still more than a typical day this year. Most of that is from taps that are still going. I haven't counted, but I'd say around a dozen are all done. That put me at 165 gallons for the last three days and enough to finally pass last year's sap totals.

The sap was very cloudy and yellowish brown in many buckets, but the taps that are still cranking out 1-2 gallons per day are pretty clear. It was too dark to see what the sap from the tubing looks like by the time I got home. I'm going to set these aside and boil what I have in the barrels first. There's a frost coming tonight and tomorrow night so we might get another run Sunday into Monday. After that, there's no frost in the forecast at all.

I'll do a big boil tomorrow to make room (and syrup!) and see what happens after that.

Sean

[SeanD]

All tapped out here. Collected the last five clearer gallons from buckets today and did the final boil on the arch tonight and knocked out the 74 gallons picked up since Sunday. The 260+ gallons collected in the last week really saved the season. There's probably a gallon or more still on the arch I'll pull off and finish. I'll figure out final numbers later. It was a nice night to do a final boil (aside from the Bruins game). Frogs are croaking out back and the mosquitoes are all over the buckets and barrels.

Sean

[SeanD]

Finished off the last of the sweet from the pans this morning and ended up with a gallon and a half of B. That brought the season total to a little more than 17.5 gallons. I can't complain. I picked the right year to expand and tap early, so I ended up with 5 more gallons than last year.

The trees didn't put out much sap each day, but the season was 38 days long with a big run at the end. That's what really saved it. Of course, if it was a more typical year, I think I might have been over my head. Big thanks go out to wcproctor and the Saps in Bellingham for giving me the push to tap early. If I had waited, the season would have been a total bust.

The sugar content was a little lower overall, but not terrible. I collected 811 gallons from 91 taps. It took a little over 46 gallons of sap for each gallon of syrup, so the sugar averaged out to a little under 2%.

Started on some of the clean up today by flushing the tubing. I'll collect the buckets and give them a rinse tomorrow. Then it's on to bottling.

Good times.

Sean

[foursapssyrup]

congrats on the good season sean, you did better than us. we had a bad burn out early on which cost us a lot of syrup. our grand total was 10.5 gals of syrup, 2 of which is grade A fancy, and the rest grade B. thanks again for helping us with the tapping this year!!