2012 wrap up- how did you do?

[Stamford sugarmaker]

Shut down today. Very disappointing year considering we bought a new 2 X 4. We are down near the MA border and ended up with about a third of usual yield. Never had any real good runs, it only seemed to trickle out. Sugar content was average. I was beginning to think it was just me but several local friends said they got a lot less than normal.

At least we got lotsa wood left over for next year!

I've read that some guys up north had a good run today and are looking to continue. What about the rest of you? Did you get the yield you had hoped for?

Peter

[steve J]

It was terrible year I also got about 1/3 of what I produced last year one set of taps on line barely ran the entire season. I may hav eused no more then 20 percent of my wood so like you will not take long to restoack it. But unfortunatly dues to Irene I have an abundance of down wood available and no place to go with it lol

[chevypower]

While we were expecting a better season we are still getting sap and boiling (commercial grade right now). We boiled over 3,000 gallons of sap today and made 46 gallons of syrup. It was running pretty good when we left at 2:30 this afternoon so we'll be boiling again tomorrow.

[smokeyamber]

Close to last year's yeild, but I had 1/3 again taps and a bigger rig. If I hadn't had the bigger rig I would have lost my sap to spoilage cause my snow went so fast. When I pulled taps on Sunday it was still running, but I had no way to keep it cold. Next year I will be setup for boil as it comes...

[farmall h]

Looks like its over.....made 150 gallons. 40 gal. med. amber The remainder is borderline B. Normal season would have made close to 500 gallons. Will we break even on $$$$ spent? Maybe. Just came and went to fast...80 degree days sucked the life right out of the season. :(

[sjdoyon]

We're still going, sugar maples still not showing any signs of budding. Sap stopped flowing this morning with temps hitting 9 degrees. Have just under 1,000 gallons made to date. Hope to get another 2-3 weeks in with these cold temps forecasted.

[MapleChaser]

We're still going, sugar maples still not showing any signs of budding. Sap stopped flowing this morning with temps hitting 9 degrees. Have just under 1,000 gallons made to date. Hope to get another 2-3 weeks in with these cold temps forecasted.
Keep us posted. Nice to hear your having the season we all wanted to get down here in chittenden county.
MC

[tuolumne]

We yielded 1685 gallons of sap from 248 taps here in Danby (Rutland Co) which is about 60-70% of typical. Sugar content was consisitently around 2.2 until the last day when it dropped hard. We pulled our taps when the weather got warm...it may run good again the next few days, there are no signs of buds here. I left 3 pails out to see what happens.

[Randy Brutkoski]

Still going i hope. At 1600 gallons. First 16 barrels were fancy and then to really dark.

[Galena]

Though this year has been disappointing, I haven't pulled the taps yet. The weather is now getting back to seasonal temperatures, and more importantly, the trees I am tapping are not budding though some immediately around them are (those ones are non-producers and not tapped). So I am holding out for a few days more to see if there is a 2nd run after this weird weather. Need more sap anyway so I can try to clear up the last batch of syrup, which is a nice cloudy mess :-)

2008: 6 taps in 2 trees, 11.5 gallons sap
2009: 6 taps in 2 trees, 8 gallons sap
2010: 12 taps in 4 trees, 25.6 gallons sap
2011: 12 taps in 4 trees, 59 gallons sap
2012: 12 taps in 4 trees, approx 20 gallons sap (so far)

[GeneralStark]

Total Sap Collected: 3747 Gallons
Sap Sold to local brewer: 700 Gallons
Sap dumped due to fermentation: approx 300 gallons
Total syrup made: 50 Gallons (all dark and 5 gallons commercial)

Buckets: Approx. 6 gallons sap/tap
Tubing: Approx. 13 gallons sap/tap

Syrup: Approx. .15 gallons/tap

Averaged about 55 gallons of sap per gallon of syrup. Last year was closer to 40:1. Sugar content was considerably lower this year.

The vacuum pump is still on but I don't expect to be making more syrup.

Not a great year but I have product to sell. I will need to buy some syrup as well to meet demand for candy and cream. Any VT producers interested in selling 30 gallons of fancy/medium at bulk rates?

[TunbridgeDave]

Pretty sure we are done in Central VT, so here is what we got. from 740 taps on vacuume we got 225 gallons. Never shut the pump off and maintained 25" of vac. I boiled every day from 3/1 to 3/22. getting anywhere from 1 to 3 gal of sap per tap per day even through the 80 degree weather. It started out at 2.1 and by the last day it was .9 and very milky. When I couldn't keep the foam down and couldn't filter what syrup I made anymore I called it quits. I left the pump running hoping for some better weather this week, but i'm not holding my breath. The sap kept right on running for several more days. I had another 100 roadside taps on gravity, but only gathered that 3 times.

[chevypower]

We finished up with around 750 gallons. Kind of a rough year to start out on but hopefully next season is a little kinder to us.

[sjdoyon]

Had another 2,000 gallons of sap come in last night. Starting to smell so we're shutting it down for the season, considering the weather we had this spring, we're fortunate to make so much and last so long. Nearly four pounds a tap and all bills are paid for so we'll declare victory. Only 120 gallons of commercial, last three weeks consisted of dark amber. Time to clean up and add another 1,500 taps this summer.

[Flat Lander Sugaring]

.11 per tap, 189 taps not a good year

[maplwrks]

SJDoyon---did the syrup lighten up the last 3 weeks? What did it taste like. You're the only guy that I know of that made table grade syrup. Most of the guys around made Med A or Dark color, but the syrup had a horrible flavor.

[sjdoyon]

Never lightened up for us. A few sugarmakers in the area boiled until last week of March, first few days of April. They were making beautiful fancy looking syrup but tasted like wet socks. Our last six barrels graded at dark amber and had that late season taste. The syrup in this corner of the state has a strong distinct syrup taste. At least that's what our buyer tells us. We decided to call it quits yesterday due to the sap coming down the line and starting to smell (we had enough). Every condition locals told us would hurt syrup production, probably worked in our favor. We think a number of factors came into play, north facing slope, 2,000 ft elevation, didn't lose our snow during heat wave, 100% sugar maples, never turned off our vacuum pump and only used Check Valves. Ended up with 3.76 pounds per tap so very happy. As you know, we might not do as well next year but we went with a dealer who consistently gets 5lbs per tap (not this year) and Leader came and gave us plenty of pointers to make the sugarbush as efficient as possible. We spent more in the sugarbush than originally planned but we're happy with the results.


SJDoyon---did the syrup lighten up the last 3 weeks? What did it taste like. You're the only guy that I know of that made table grade syrup. Most of the guys around made Med A or Dark color, but the syrup had a horrible flavor.