Running Good Hudson Valley

[Maple88]

Tapped on the 8th of Feb and it ran OK for the last 3 weeks, but the sap is coming on hard this week. Looks good for at least a couple of weeks left.

[Snowy Pass Maple]

We are slightly more north of you in central Dutchess in a cold valley - has been intermittent with some big runs and lulls, but turned on again yesterday and expect today will be amazing. Long range forecast for March looks like only 1 day cracking 50, and every single night freezing - most into the 20s. Could be a phenomenal season if that holds true, and seasonal spouts/CVs/specailized tapping bits live up to the hype!

[Maple88]

Homemade RO sounds pretty interesting. Any pics/description of that unit?

[Snowy Pass Maple]

I'm going to get pictures up soon - have not completely put things together as photo-worthy - using it to process sap and didn't totally finish mounting board. It's two 2.5" x 21" small commercial membranes running off a low voltage pump at about 50-60 watts on deep cycle batteries. Helps me keep up with a lot more taps using my 2x4 flat pan evaporator!

Great run today - saw a few trees in the 2-4 gallon range - not sure what to expect tomorrow yet!

[Snowy Pass Maple]

207 gallons on 127 bucket taps in 24 hours Tues-Wed AM. Looks like we may actually get a run this weekend instead of all the weekday runs we've been having... really tough with a day job! Hopefully the warm spell through early next week doesn't end the season - unseasonably cool weather to follow... will find out of seasonal spouts can keep us alive longer.

[Maple88]

This rain can't be doing much good in terms of extending the season; maybe this weekend will be the end of the run? Any more experienced hands out there that know when to pull the plug due to budding?

[RUSTYBUCKET]

Given the weather this past weekend, what was expected to be a good run yielded far less than anticipated. I'm not a commercial producer so squeezing every last drop is not a priority. Finished up what we had and decided to call it a season.

[Maple88]

Thanks Rusty. Yeah, way slower the last 3 days than I had hoped. Maybe today? I'm going to hang in for another few days as I don't see buds on any trees except right next to the house where my dryer exhausts... Still, the flavor and color this year was real good so far, with a little bit of a butterscotch taste in the early batches, so overall no complaints.

[Snowy Pass Maple]

I'm not seeing a hint of budding yet and hope things to really pick up well again later this week... we're running seasonal taps for first time too, so we'll see just how long they can run. At least 6/10 days in 10-day forecast look good for sap running, starting Friday for us as Thursday may not crack freezing for the high. We barely got a freeze in open areas last night and I'm not counting on much today.

We and maplepancakeman (also on mapletrader and a few miles from me) seem to be making tons of light syrup so I'm hoping to see if all this warm weather finally starts to yield some darker stuff as well. I like it all, but variety is nice!

[Maple88]

I'm a little south of you, so I'm seeing good-sized buds on a number of the red maples now, even those deep in the woods, so I'm only pulling from sugar maples at this stage. Fortunately, that's most of my trees.

Had a pretty good run today and its actually spitting snow right now, so looks good for the next maybe 5 days... here's hoping there's a last hoorah here.

[Maple88]

Decent yesterday; I have a couple trees that are on the edge of the forest next to a pond and they produced oddly yesterday; emptied all at 830 am, and by 5 pm they had produced a gallon per tap (!) and the Shrine of St. Sap-in-the-Wold (my gravity-fed tank) took at least a half gallon per tap in the afternoon. Looks like a big boil tomorrow!

[Maple88]

Pretty much all ran at 1 gallon a tap yesterday, so the fire's lit and the steam is rising. I haven't made anything dark this season so far, but maybe this batch will be.

I've been getting more niter than in the past; any hints/tips for a small hobby op like me? I've just been letting the finished syrup settle over a couple of days and pulling off the clear stuff, but it means canning everything twice to keep things sterile, which is a pain.

[Snowy Pass Maple]

We have also made nothing but light syrup so far - even from the warm spell last week. Has been a pretty awesome season and looking at the 10-day, seems we'll keep going for at least another week - just want to get some dark syrup too!

On the syrup settling, you should be fine for a couple days of settling without hot-packing it - esp. since it's so cold - as long as you then hot pack after you decant it. No different than putting opened syrup in the fridge while you're letting it settle. I also started adding the food-grade DE even with a flat felt filter and that seems to help speed things up a lot. I would imagine it could also help on a cone filter if that's what you're using.

[Snowy Pass Maple]

Things took off today - pulled some taps in hemlock forest that haven't done much all season; among the ones I've kept, 2 gals/tap... going to be a busy weekend to catch up. Has been an amazing season here - looks like it may wrap up early next week.

[Maple88]

Still running very well here as well; we'll be boiling all weekend and will likely have another group of Girl Scouts "helping". Silver maples still showing no signs of swelling buds, so maybe one more week? Serious hang time this year.

What's a "food grade DE"?

[bowtie]

yeah yeah, keep rubbing it in! the only thing running here is the heaters and people getting the hell out of here. windy,cold and snowing and it looks like that for at least a week. 2 weeks since last run.was 1 degree f in wellsville thrusday morning! my friend is working in freedom ny and said they have gotten 12-15 inches of snow this week. hello spring!!!

[Snowy Pass Maple]

Still running very well here as well; we'll be boiling all weekend and will likely have another group of Girl Scouts "helping". Silver maples still showing no signs of swelling buds, so maybe one more week? Serious hang time this year.

What's a "food grade DE"?

Food grade diatomaceous earth - based on advice from mapletrader, this really helps speed up the filtering and improve clarity.

[daniel_wentworth]

Just cold her in the Cooperstown area........leaked a little 2 days ago but nothing since. Got 5 gallons bottled so far this year.

[sugarman3]

Same here in ephratah,hopefully after the weekend looks good,better hurry up,the sun really starts to get good warmth in it toward end of march,crossing my fingers,only at 50% with 375 gallons made


2100 taps
1100 vaccumn-buying sap from 900 other taps

[Snowy Pass Maple]

I imagine the rest of the state has to open up today - going to be well into 40s down here for next week - now our question will be freezes - 26, 30, 31, 31, 32, 32, 36 in the forecast... probably at least two more days for sure, but will be real interesting to see how many more we can squeeze out. Excluding ~30 taps in a thick hemlock forest that never did much for us this year, we are closing in on 1/2 gal syrup per tap on buckets - this has to be a rather extraordinary season in these parts. Good thing after spending a ton of money on new equipment - my wife just may be convinced there is money to be made here and we should continue to "invest" :lol:

Getting this year's birch taps planned and setup this weekend... so I'll also be rooting with all your northerners that is doesn't get too hot too fast - we got slammed on birch with that heat wave last March!

[Maple88]

Good luck to you upstaters! Looks like a good shot at a decent run for you maybe starting Tuesday? Still running hot here - at least a gallon a tap both yesterday and today. Haven't posted cause I can't keep up with the run using my homemade hobby boiler, which can only reduce maybe 6 gallons an hour of raw sap. Still, the sugar content has been relatively high, with about 32:1 being my average for the season so far. Have now pulled the plug on about a third of my trees as they are starting to show buds and I can't keep up anyway - Looking at the weather predictions, I'm betting I'll be closed down completely by the end of the coming weekend and will come in right about Snowy Pass Maple's rate of 1/2 gal syrup per tap.

[georgelineman]

Hey , Maple88 where are you in Orange County? Im in the Town of Cornwall.

[Snowy Pass Maple]

The end may be near for maple - looks like not much of a freeze tonight; Tues night projecting 28 - last run may be on Wed. Can't complain as we're looking at about 1/2 gal syrup per tap on buckets - has been an amazing season.

[georgelineman]

Pulled all my taps tonight. Got next to nothing the last few days 100 gallons in the tank to boil off. Im done! then the clean up... By Easter it will be time to start on next years firewood.

[Maple88]

Pulled all my taps tonight. Got next to nothing the last few days 100 gallons in the tank to boil off. Im done! then the clean up... By Easter it will be time to start on next years firewood.
Pretty sure we're finished as well - still a few with no buds, but no sap for 4 days now, so I'm pulling out tomorrow or Saturday depending on work. Still, a great season overall and I'll definitely tap early Feb next year if the weather cooperates again.

[Maple88]

That's it; all pulled out, rolled up, cleaned up and hanging to dry. Boiled off the last 30 gallons today and it didn't come close to the syrups of even a week ago in terms of flavor and smell, I'm in the same boat as Georgelineman; stacking firewood and dreaming of equipment improvements for next year...

[Snowy Pass Maple]

We got back in the game! Sap was still running a good 50-100 gallons/day on the 90 taps left, we've been getting freezes even when forecast said 33-34F, and now the forecast in our area is showing 3 straight nights 27-28F. And I just really want to say I made some syrup in April - it'll be a first for me.

Sap started getting cloudy last week, but we've powerwashed the buckets staying out for this last run and the sap in them looks great. I'm worried we may actually end up making light syrup again! Seriously, this season has been insane quantities of light syrup.

If I had been one of the guys who tapped in January, it would have been even more impressive - but we didn't start until mid-February.

Bigger question for us will be deciding whether we want to hold a lot of this over to cover a slow year, or try to sell it all and expand enough to ensure we can keep our customers in a normal/poor year of production - which would require doubling our taps. Knowing how things go with maple, I think we all know the answer... :lol:

[Snowy Pass Maple]

Finally pulled the last ~70 taps left today - last boil is well underway! We'll see how it turns out, but 3/4 the buckets still had nice clear sap; had to toss a few that were yellow.

Last day of maple is indeed a nice feeling... has been an amazing year here. We averaged somewhere around 110 taps over the season, ranging from 80-140 at various points, and made over 50 gallons of syrup on buckets. It's been so chaotic that it'll be a few days before I finally figure out exactly where things stand.

Totally sold on seasonal taps and the Canadian tapping bits.

[Maple88]

Great to hear it turned out well for you as well. Had a good time with my tiny operation and made some fantastic syrup this year; more taps next year? Only time will tell....