2012 Somerset County, PA

[MikeL]

I see our old thread is outdate and closed so we may as well have a new one. We are making nearly as much syrup as the previous year. Made some lite for the first time on that old evaporator. Got flooded out twice, time to add a membrane. Made some darker last week at the end, but Im not complaing , I will take all the dark and GD b that tastes good that I can get. Went to the official tree tapping yest in Somerset county, I guess we are officially started. Saw a lot of producers discussed a lot of things. Give me some feed back someday , we need a field day someday on using some of the gadgets we have better. Seems its always heresay and self taught. Maybe I could get someone in for that. Kyle's place was great! Wish it were mine and his was bigger.

[pamaple]

I wanted to go to that but was too busy. No RO and low sugar content means I spend a lot of time fixing the fire lol. I at least got all caught up so today I can wash everything and be ready to boil again tonight. The forecast for this week doesn't look so good 3 days near 50 without a freeze.

[PATheron]

pamaple- How would you guys describe your season so far? Is your sugar much lower than normal? Weve had a lot of small runs here, off and on type of stuff with ok to lower sugar. Theron

[pamaple]

I seem to be getting a lot of sap for only having 1,000 taps out but the sugar content is barely over 1%. It's hard to tell with the float style tester I have. Seems like I have to boil forever to get syrup and it's pretty dark. I hit 50 gal of syrup last night and I have only been tapped a little over a week.

[PATheron]

Pa- Thats kind of how it is here. We get a lot of sap for the time of year but you process quite a bit of it to get your syrup. Theron

[Etown Maple Syrup]

Mike, Is the official start to the Somerset County maple season always the last Saturday of February? I went to the official start in 2009. It was at Brantview Farms in Berlin off of Vanyo Road. Richard & Lois Brant hosted. They have a Leader Evap and a great sugar shack. I think they had 3200 on buckets. I got to see the crowning of the Maple Queen. I even have pictures of the great event!

[MikeL]

I am not sure but I would say it is the last sat. I will defer to one of the So maple board that may look at this. Sounds like some of the county is low in sugar content, I am not going to complain about ours, has been all over the board, the lowest I saw on the vacuum was 1.25 after a long warm spell. Sweating this warm spell looking for the cold nite that is forecast next week. Guess the vacuum will have to do the work and hope the buds arent out too quickly.

[220 maple]

Mike,
When are the dates for the Festival this year? I always try to show up at some camps that weekend. Hopefully I can visit yours and Paul Bunyan's. I never go to Meyersdale, I perfer the camps because I can learn new things to try at my camp next year. I know it's the wrong time of the year for most syrupmakers, but the best festival is the Highland Maple Festival. All the big operations are open for vistors during the festival, in fact one of them makes 3 to 4 thousand maple donuts and sales out both weekends. I believe Henry and Rhoda told me once that the Pa. Festival when it started had the camps as the central theme.

Mark 220 Maple

[GIGI67]

I had bought a gallon of maple syrup in Somerset, I won't mention where at this time , but it tasted like mollasas or it was burnt. This is not what I was expecting. We had bought some from another place a few years ago & it tasted great. What can I do to fix it or am I just out the cost & learned a good lesson ?

[Randy Brutkoski]

I would call him and try and get him to swap that gallon for a good one. The seller should make it right. The next gallon you need should probably come from vermont, and i know a guy that can sell you perfect syrup at any grade. just saying

[GIGI67]

I would call him and try and get him to swap that gallon for a good one. The seller should make it right. The next gallon you need should probably come from vermont, and i know a guy that can sell you perfect syrup at any grade. just saying

I will be back in PA next week will stop.

[Revi]

A lot of people boiled after the warm up, and it tasted like crap. It could be that stuff. We bagged it when it got hot. It was a wierd year.