Tapping NE Wisconsin [Florence County]

[Sundown]

Looking at the long range forcast, it looks like I will tap around March 20. I've been making syrup here for 40 years and this is a pretty normal tap date. The last couple years of early spring got some thinking that late February was normal, but that has not been the case through the years. I packed my haul road last week. We still have about 2' of snow in the woods and another 4"-8" in the forcast for Monday. I'm hopefull for a good run this year. Last year it lasted a grand total of 10 days for me.

[TerryF]

I usually tap on St Pat's day, be later this year. We are back to normal spring here. A few miles into Marinette county from Florence Co.

[Mikeh]

I tapped a few weeks ago (yeah, I know.....). I'm between Crivitz and Pembine and I have gotten 1.5 gallons of sap per tap so far for the season. Not great but at least I'm making a bit of syrup.

[fhedmark]

I tapped on March 8th and 9th. At this point I'm letting the sap dripple onto the ground out of my tubing. I don't want to take a chance of letting the sap freeze up in the releaser, pump or tanks. At least my tubing is getting some additional flushing. In the last week, we have gotten over another foot of snow, so I'm glad I tapped before this additional snow arrived.

[ginters]

tapping in forest county we have a new RO (first one)can't wait to use it.

[Sundown]

More snow yesterday, the forecast looks like warmer weather is just around the corner. I'm going to tap tomorrow. Looks like snowshoes will have to get dusted off!!

[Sundown]

I put in 75 taps,buckets & bags on the 20th. They finally started to drip a little yesterday afternoon. Looking at the forecast we should be boiling this weekend.

[TerryF]

Put out 21 taps yesterday that were the easiest to get to, running pretty fair then. Today we're getting blasted with snow, wet, heavy snow. Will have to call in help to plow some trails so I can get started for the big run. Snow forecast tomorrow ,Easter snow storm is here.

[Sundown]

I had a good run Thurs, Fri,Sat. Finished 4 gallons yesterday. Real cold the last couple days .9 deg this morning. Looks like it should start to run again tomorrow.

[TerryF]

Cooked first batch on Friday the 5th, 75 gallons tested at 4.25%, yielded just over 3 gallons syrup. Best I've ever done. Got another 75 gallons to cook today and still waiting for a good run. HAGD guys this year is having fun at a cost, mud, snow, rain,cold, wind and very little sun.

[TerryF]

Not a good week for being in the great outdoors making maple syrup. Snow, wind, rain. sleet.mud, water,and ice. Oh ya some sun too. In spite of it all have been plugging along making some nice light colored syrup. Getting enough sap is a problem but under the conditions I really don't care. This week does look better weather wise.

[fhedmark]

I agree with Terry, the weather has given us all kinds of different weather , sometimes within 2 hour period. The sun will come for a while, melting some snow and then it clouds up and starts snowing, replacing the snow plus some that sun melted. With the amount of snow in the woods and the cooler temperatures, we could be making syrup into May. Also the sap sugar content is the highest in 4 years!

[TerryF]

Mother Nature has turned into a real bitch this week. Despite her we had a couple good days of sap running, best days of the season so far. Today is another story, it's ugly out there guys. Still hanging in there tho ain't much else to do this time of the year. Sugar is at 3.50 yet and it's like dangling a carrot in front of the horse pulling the wagon, just a little more. Latest I ever made syrup was 4-22 and could go past that this year.

[Sundown]

I pulled my buckets down on Wednesday. Still running good, but I need to get a house ready to sell and start building the new one. I agree with Fred that we could be making good syrup into May this year. His brother told me that he remembered his dad making syrup into May one year. That would be unusual!! I had a good season. Lots of sap and good sugar. Made plenty for the family to enjoy.

[TerryF]

april 24 andd still collecting sap and cooking, nice day today.

[TerryF]

Finished the season Friday. Really nice syrup this year. Weather was the nastiest ever but over all good season.Snow is about gone April 28. Enjoy them pancakes !

[Mikeh]

This year sure made up for 2012. I got 20.5 gallons of syrup from 46 trees on buckets. The biggest lesson learned was that tapping Feb 20th didn't really hurt my sap yield as far as I could tell.

[TerryF]

Getting crew together for tapping end of month,29th will be the day. Twenty inches of snow yet,not good.

[fhedmark]

We tapped on Saturday March 15th and Sunday the 16th, on Sunday we were able to walk on top of 2-1/2 to 3 feet of snow with snowshoes. It hasn't done anything yet with the January temperatures at the end of March.

[Plungerke]

Tapped today, 50 buckets hanging and hoping for better weather.

[Late Bite]

I collected about 7 gallons of sap today off 20 taps. First time (over the weekend) the trees dripped a bit this year. My sugar bush is located in a mix of hemlock and pine so it is alway a slow start for me. Glad to hear some are boiling already. Looking forward to doing some boiling myself. Anyone else getting starting to get anything in NE Wisconsin?

[Sundown]

I tapped 75 bags & buckets on the 31st. That is the latest that I can remember tapping in my 40+ years of making syrup. There was still about 24" of snow here in S.E Florence county, but we had a pretty good rain last night to settle it down. I would imagine we have "snow soup" to walk in today with the snowshoes!!

[fhedmark]

Sap has been running in a little bit every day. I have about 1,000 gallons in tank, but the weather is nasty today. Raining right now, expected to change to snow later today, reports say anywhere from 3" - 6" to 6" - 12" expected, with the highs in the low 30's. I will wait until tomorrow (Saturday) to start boiling. Saturday is suppose to be a beautiful day, sunny and highs in the low 40's. This will be the latest to start boiling sap in many years.

[Late Bite]

Sap was flowing good today in Marinette county. Just finishing up first boil.

[TerryF]

Finally got trees tapped today. Lots of snow that's really soft and fairly easy to get thru. Tapped all but 3 big ones we couldn't get to. Will get them in a few days tho. That Gator works really good in the snow. Sap is running but nothing to write home about.

[TerryF]

Sure isn't a high volume operation going on around here and its cloudy. Anyone else making cloudy syrup? Better days are coming.

[Late Bite]

Syrup this year is much darker than other years for me. My buddy got dark stuff this year also.

[TerryF]

Big run is finally here. Sat was full bag day at the sugarbush! Easter Sunday cooking it off, happens every year.

[TerryF]

Cooked last Thursday, turned out pretty nasty. Taste is ok but is like blacktop and can't get it cleared up, cloudy. Filter bags had some ugly, slimy goo in them. I never sell my syrup and give it away to family so don't think anyone will refuse it and it cost nothing. Every batch I made this year except first one turned out cloudy and understand lots of guys in northern half of the state had same problem. Do we blame Mother Nature for it by sending us such a horrible winter. Production was half of last year also.
Will need new arch for next year my fuel oil barrel burned out so on the lookout for a 2x4 arch. Fair year for me.

[Sundown]

I pulled my taps on Saturday, drained the last sweet from the pan and got that finished. The sugar was low here this year. I averaged 2.3% on 577 gallons. I ended up with 14 gallons of medium to dark amber, none that I would grade as "B". Not a lot of sap sand, but I noticed the last batch had some Fuzz in the jars. That's the down side to canning everything in glass. You see everything that the filter bag misses. All in all, it was a good year even though it started late and the run was start/ stop. The only good run I had was Easter weekend.

[TerryF]

Put in the easy taps to get to yesterday and will finish up in a few days. Should start to run by middle of the week, March 13 or so. Forecast is great for the week so lots of guys out tappin this weekend.

[Sundown]

Tapped 80 yesterday. Looks like I'll be firing up the evaporator Wednesday.

[fhedmark]

Finished tapping yesterday, have the normal 1,200 taps all on tubing with vacuum. Most everyone is saying hardly no frost in the ground, but my water line froze on Sunday going from the well to the sugar shack. It is buried 6 feet under ground. The guy that came out yesterday to un-thaw the line with a portable welder said with the warmer weather, the frost is actually going deeper into the ground. He has been un-thawing water lines for 23 years and the last two years are the worst for frozen water lines.

[Sundown]

I ran about 50 gallons thru the Half Pint yesterday. I'm hoping for a good run today to get enough to at least sweeten the pan and start drawing off. The first run sap was as low sugar as I've seen. Only 1.5%. Is anyone else seeing low sugar?

[lpakiz]

Yes, very low sugar in Clark county. I did manage to pull in about 2-2 1/2 gal per tap with vacuum, but where's the sugar?

[jvolkman]

Hmmm. I am southeastern WI (Dodge County), very slow and 1.5%. Thought it was rather weird. Has always been very high since I started about 4 years ago.

[TerryF]

Usually start with sugar of 4 but was at 2 last week. Next collection was 3 then next morning it was little over 3 so it's coming up. Haven't had a good run yet but looks like rest of the week it will happen.

[fhedmark]

Been getting a fair amount of sap the last several days, but the sugar content has been low here also. It started at 1.7 but slowly going up to 1.9 - 2.0. It looks like a repeat of last season when the sugar content started out low and went up. Normally the season starts around 2.8 - 3.0 and goes down as the season progress.

[Sundown]

Good run today and the sugar has come up to 2%. Finished a couple gallons was dark amber.

[TerryF]

Sugar is bouncing around 3% but not bragging about sap flow. Will put in some more taps after the cold spell is over this weekend.Sure has been a good week weather wise tho.

[TerryF]

Only had 70 gallons to cook off in my little operation. Surprised to see it clear up from a medium amber to a nice light amber. Yielded over 2 gallons. It's improving overall gang.

[Sundown]

Gathered 40 gallons or so today and the sugar was at 2.8%. I've been having trouble filtering. The niter seems so fine it is going right through my good orlon bag with 4 prefilters. Filtering is always a pain but I"ve never seen it this bad. I saw somewhere on this forum where someone was adding filter aid to the syrup before sending it into the bag. Does anyone have experience doing this. I guess it is possible that the DE would help to gather up the fine stuff. I only filter a couple gallons at a time, so have been letting it settle for a couple days and carefully pouring off the clear syrup. My operation can't afford even a small filter press, so we're always looking for better methods that are somewhat affordable.

[TerryF]

Looks like the end is near for me. Last 3 days have only been minimual run. Will hang on one more nite to see if it freezes good enough for a run in 50 degree weather tomorrow. Testing at 2.25 last nite. Been an ok yr and think I've had about all the fun I can stand.

[TerryF]

looking for a good used 2x4 raised flue pan. 715 336 2495

[maple flats]

You'll get more exposure listing it in the free classified want ads. Good luck.

[TerryF]

First time I ever tapped before March 15. Got them in over the weekend and caught the small first run on Monday. Now it's supposed to hit around 60 degrees and no cool weather in sight. I have the feeling I will be doing a lot of waiting this year. Snow about gone and rain forecasted, mud anyone? Will collect today and cook off.

[TerryF]

Messed around last week and did get a little sap for my little operation. Was good to be outside getting it done. Real nice lite color syrup and started at 2.5 then up to 3.0. Hope to make the 4 I usually had and middle of the week looks like big time action will hit for us in the area.

[Sundown]

I put in 50 last Friday in an area that is easy to gather close to the house. I've got my left arm in a sling from Feb 9 rotator cuff surgery. I wasn't going to tap, but with the snow gone it is easy to get around. This is the first time in a few years that I didn't tap on snowshoes. This is about half of what I usually put in, but will keep the family in syrup for another year. Gathered 40 gal on Saturday, but nothing since. Looks like a cool down toward the end of the week that should get it flowing again.

[TerryF]

It's been a slow season for the entire month of March with the month going out like a Lion and a freeze coming that will last too long. The sap is crystal clear and the syrup early was really nice with a reddish tint to it. Getting darker now and lots of goo in the pan, filters harder but sure is good syrup. My production is way down but quality wise it's really nice stuff.

[fhedmark]

Tapped on Saturday 03/10. The weather was cold (8 degrees) in the morning, but it did warm up into the upper 30's. With the colder temperatures, we used snowshoes and went right on top of the 20" plus snow. Since then the temperatures have been below freezing until yesterday when it got up to 40, but the trees still didn't run a whole lot. The Florence County Highway Department has a frost pit close to me and there is 6 feet of frost in the ground and it isn't thawing any. it is going to take some extended warm weather to get the trees going. Today the temperatures are back below freezing (25) for the highs.

[TerryF]

Got some help so tapped today and the sap was running. Forecast long range looks good so will find out how much I can rely on this computer forecast in a week. Help coming next weekend so hope to fill them bags to the top a bunch of times.

[TerryF]

My post of 3-17 I found out that the weather man was wrong. It's now April 5 and have collected 15 gallons from 65 taps. Not enough to start a fire in the evaporator. I quit last yr on April 3 and thinking I'll be finishing this yr in May. WTH

[fhedmark]

It looks like we are back in the 60's and 70"s again Terry. When my Dad was making syrup back then, he would only start making syrup maybe 1 out every 5 or 6 years in March. Otherwise all his syrup was made in April. It is looking better later next week.

[fritzl]

I had one boil at the end of march. and a second one yesterday. looking at the 10 day forecast it should be good for the next 2 weeks(I hope). We still have 20 inches of snow on the ground yet... This my 3rd year tapping but it sure does seem late in the season.

[TerryF]

It was a disaster! 22 quarts for the yr. 2018 was so pathetic it doesn't even get entered in "the book."

[S.S.S]

It was a disaster! 22 quarts for the yr. 2018 was so pathetic it doesn't even get entered in "the book."How many taps do you have?