Really good 1st week

[valleyman]

Just an update on my 1st weekend. To sum it up I collected about 75 gallons from 14 taps. Boiled 40-45 gallons on Saturday, 25 or so on Sunday and gave 10 gal to a friend who's messing around on a turkey fryer. When I finished it down to syrup I ended up with a little over 2gallons from aprox 65gallons of sap. Must of been high sugar in the sap. Best I ever did. I'm happy for opening week.

[lisound]

That's awesome. I got 4 taps in on that 50 degree day and was able to get about 5-6 gallons in 12 hours...boiled sunday on the LP grill, ended up with a cup of honey after i brought it inside. Not much maple flavor, but very sweet.
got a hydrometer on order now.
Collected today after yesterdays rain and 15 taps gave me 18 gallons.
do you boil everyday? how long will you hold onto your sap if it's kept cold packed in snow? I think I can only boil on weekends. and I only have 2 storage containers

[markct]

I agree the sap has been flowing better than i have ever seen it this early in the season, interestingly enough my gravity lines have been doing especialy well, my vac lines are not doing bad but not as great of difference vac vs gravity as usual, altho it may be hindered by the fact a few vac mainlines still need to be dug out of the snow and my sap ladder had a good bit of snow frozen around it also. my gravity taps tho have all been running about a gallon or more per tap on the days it ran decent. so far gathered about 2200 gallons of sap, still have about 200 taps left to put in, will be a bit over 900 when all tapped in this year.

[Tom59]

Valleyman sounds like a good run for you. Just tapped in yesterday, hoping for a good season this year. Good luck

[valleyman]

Thanks Tom you too. I saw your link for Lisound's handle question. Looks like we're on the same track.

I'm going out on a limb (maple of course) and say that you're going to be very busy collecting sap this season if Enfield is anything like where I am. Maybe a few degrees cooler than here but man I've collected about 120 gallons from 14 taps in 11 days. Friday looks be another good flow. Then we have to deal with more adverse freaking weather conditions on the weekend!

[bunkerchump]

Congrats, Valleyman. I did end up getting in the game on Friday. Similar to what your seeing, high sugar content as well. Hopefully it stays like this for a bit. Take care,

[valleyman]

Hey John
And what a tough but satisfying game it is. Glad you're in! Flow is really good today. Oh man, here we go again!

[Tom59]

Valleyman it has been a busy week!! Been averaging 20 gallons/ day. Did 1st boil this weekend, 26 gallons, finished off tonight. Very happy with results, just shy of 3.5 quarts. Looks like medium amber. ( I let it settle out rather than filter, dont have a good filtersystem yet. Works for me. ) Hope everyone has a good week.