This is getting Silly

[backyardsugarer]

I have said this every year since 2003 but this has to be the worst year ever for me. 4 weeks of taps in (I have over 200) and I am lucky if I have made 10 gallons of syrup. Starting to get restless and frustrated. I have to clean up in a week.

Chris

[tstew]

just curious chris to the grade of the syrup u made. I've not made much either but the first boil was light and the second was dark

[mountainvan]

I know how you feel. Weather is just getting right. Hang in there and enjoy it while you got it.

[backyardsugarer]

The first run (sugar the pans) was light. I made some medium last weekend. What I have in the pans now looks dark to me. Hopefully after this long freeze I can get back to medium

Chris

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Chris,

Why do you have to cleanup in a week. You may make 50 gallons in the next 2 or 3 weeks. :?:

[maple flats]

I have 300 taps in and have only made 7 gal as of last nite. The first four were dark, the 3 in the canner look lighter, likely med but have not canned nor graded. Yesterday only my trees in the open or more open woods ran, the deeper woods still did not thaw yet. I only got 70 gal yesterday as of 5:00 last pick up. Many lines were running a small but full stream into the tanks at that time and should have run til 9-10 pm. I will collect after 9:00 this am and might have more than yesterday. Will run all day and most of the night tonight. Should be a good weekend finally. I have a whole school invited to an openhouse (180 students and their families) Sat. Want to be boiling all day without needing to add water or slow way down. I think the harder and longer the boil on good sap the lighter the syrup ends up. Hope to can as much as possible tonight and sell out tomorrow, time will tell.

[backyardsugarer]

Brandon,

I own a swimming pool installation company and we get started the first of April. I have to clean all the syrup stuff up before I get into that. The sun is out this morning and we are supposed to reach 40 so they better run. I have a lot of people coming this weekend also since they advertised maple weekend as being 2 weeks long this year.

Chris

[TroutBrookSH]

I've made ~11 gals on 200 taps. 50/50 light and med.

Cleared a lot of ice from my buckets last night. Roadside and fieldside were overflowing, but most were 1/4 to 1/3 full of ice.

Looks like we're going from 20's to low 30's right to high 30's to 40's. Figures that any sort of a big run is going to hit right after the weekend. :?

Greg

[TWhite]

We went form Half pint to new 2X6 and all new mainline and tubing this year and have had barely enough sap to fire this evaporator up. The first 2 gallons we made a couple of weeks ago was great but what we made last sunday was pond swill. It would be nice to get about a week of steady sap flow to see if we can make something else beside pond swill.

[jmattice]

we have about 650 taps and as of yesterday morning had only made 12 gallons. last night, though we made almost 9 gallons and got a decent run overnight, and had made 3 or so gallons early this morning. Looks like a good week!!
john

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Chris,

Maybe you could delay the start a few days. You can wash up everything on weekends and evening if you have the time. There may be a lot of syrup to be made the next two weeks. :D

[backyardsugarer]

Brandon,

I wish I could clean up on weekends but that is when I work. My primary occupation is education so I teach all day. I do pools in the evening and weekends. I had a good weekend and will pull the taps Thursday. It looks like we are going to get a big warm up and the buds will be out soon. My sugar content is terrbile now too 1.5% last night. Best of luck to everyone else, at least I will have some wood left over for next year.

Chris

[Dropflue]

Things really turned around this weekend. Taps running like crazy, sap back to 1.9-2.0%.
Bottled 13.5 gallons so far this year. Mostly light amber. Expecting a great run today and tomorrow.
Talked to some people in Wyoming County on Saturday, they said their taps were not running hard. I won’t be on the trader for the next few days, too busy collecting and boiling.
This has been one of the strangest years for syrup that I have ever seen.

[TWhite]

What a difference a week makes. We washed and sanitized tanks and evaporator & installed a sap filter. Had 150 gal of 3% sap and made the lightest syrup we have ever made. I thought the sugar content would go down later in the season?

[maple flats]

as of tonight I have only canned 38 gal on 1400 gal sap with about 5 gal in the canner now. I had to pull my reds and silvers because buds were ready to break. Sugar is now still over 3% a little on the sugars but my flow has almost stopped. Not sure it will run again but I'll wait and see. My woods trees started late and seem to have quit as early as the roadside ones almost. Got a few days of too warm and then some cold again. It may start again. I'll clean up over the weekend and be ready to go if it restarts. What I made so far, 1st batch barely dark, then 5 batches med with each getting lighter than the previous until today when it went real dark as it got too warm. I'll need to address that in the future, either hook up the compressor to the bulk tank or get a freezer and made sap ice for cooling as temps rise. Not sure which I'll do. If tank was ready I could only turn it on when needed and meke sap last much longer. The UV helped til today but I might have caused it myself. I fired it up 3 hrs this more then left it for 5 hrs with the preheater full of sap and just simmering (with bacteria?), as I restarted this eve the color changed immediately. Live and learn, usually I shut down and drain the preheater but not this time.