Anyone else get sap today?

[Mike Swally]

I didn't pull my taps yet, so I lucked out with the weather and got about a couple gallons from each of my trees in my yard today. I only have 5 trees in my yard., but that has kept me busy for my first season. I'm hoping for more sap for the the rest of the week. :-) When is a good time to pull the taps, do watch the weather or the maple tree buds?

[doop]

Today was the first day my taps started to run good my shaded trees still haven't started, but tomorrow will be first boil of the season. We still have a foot or more of snow in the woods. I pull my taps when the frogs start peeping. Hopefully at least a couple weeks away for us up here.

[PerryW]

I didn't pull my taps yet, so I lucked out with the weather and got about a couple gallons from each of my trees in my yard today. I only have 5 trees in my yard., but that has kept me busy for my first season. I'm hoping for more sap for the the rest of the week. :-) When is a good time to pull the taps, do watch the weather or the maple tree buds?

If your last syrup tasted good, keep boiling. When syrup starts tasting too strong, put it in a jug and use it for cooking syrup then pull your taps. Also, when you hear the peepers, it's time to pull taps.

[dufftj]

I didn't pull my taps yet, so I lucked out with the weather and got about a couple gallons from each of my trees in my yard today. I only have 5 trees in my yard., but that has kept me busy for my first season. I'm hoping for more sap for the the rest of the week. :-) When is a good time to pull the taps, do watch the weather or the maple tree buds?

Hello Mike,
It depends on what type of maple you have tapped. I pulled taps on two silvers that I had tapped in St. Paul around the w 7th area because the buds started to open last Saturday. Most of my other taps are around my neighborhood just north of you, the buds on the silvers are really swollen, The reds are tight and so are the sugars..Watch for open buds if you have silvers tapped or test boil about 1 cup of sap from each collection to see if it smells or tastes funny. And yes I collected about 15 gallons on wed. and about the same on tuesday...
Hope this helps,
Tim

[Doug Shovel]

I was out of town on business this week, but returned today and collected 25 gallons of sap to add to my storage. Looking forward to the next few nights of below freezing for one last push. I should be able to boil off another 100 galllons saturday afternoon if all pans out. I have a few trees that are getting close to budding, but most of the producers are in good shape yet.

[Mudcat_21]

We got 160 gal of sap on Wednesday night and hopefully with how the trees are running right now we will be around 300 tonight. Good weekend of cooking ahead of us I hope.

[CP-Maple]

Temperatures here dropped to 28 overnight so even though it wasn't real warm today we still had good production. The trees are still running at about 75% of where they were earlier in the week. Finishing up our sixth boil today and hoping we still have enough sap coming in the next few days to do two more.

[maple man-iac]

We haven't had a freeze for a few days now but, I am still getting about a gallon of sap per tap on my vacuum.

[supersapper]

I have 85 gallons in totes and 40+ sacks and pails full on trees now. Looks like full time boil sat and sun. Bring on the bush lite!!!!

[dufftj]

Collected 36 gallons at 2:30 pm. Most of the trees are dripping good and some are 2 drips per second. Had to grab another holding barrell for the sap! Have about 85 gallons burried in the snow banks and will be boiling today, should be my largest boil yet!

Tim

[PerryW]

nope. it was either too cold or not cold enough the nite before.

[mrnorthshore]

We had a very poor day today, collected about 200 gallons. Thats on 1300 taps only good thing is that sugar was high 3.2 brix.

[CP-Maple]

Today was crazy busy with sap production. I ran out of storage and had to leave a bunch hanging on the bags. I'm starting to think I will not be able to keep up and am actually hoping it slows down. This is nuts, I thought we would be winding down this week...

[Gissert]

My wife collected about 80 gallons today on our 135 taps. Som trees were still running very well, some were still dry yet but the flow is definately increasing.

[Leo]

Collected 210 gallons today and only got about 2/3 done. Many bags with 3 gallons .
Hang on, belt in, its gettin wild.
Leo

[Kesky]

Got 17 gallons off 25 taps. It will be interesting to see what happens with the snow moving through tomarow!

[doop]

Collected about 90 gallons, but had another 80 or so left frozen in bags many were frozen solid. Had 50 from wed. And had first boil on New rig didn't have enough sap to get a draw off, but I got to boil and bags were filling fast today.

[doop]

Forgot to add trails were terrible. So glad I have a winch on my machine stuck 5 times on way out and once on way home,and more snow on the way.

[warners point]

Just got done boiling 350 gallons of sap. Our sugar content was just over 3, which is the best its ever been. I have a feeling next weekend I'll be doing a couple of 12+ hour boils.

[dufftj]

Yesterday at noon collected 36 gallons off of about 40 taps.....The rest of the day was a blurr...............Many family, friends and neighbors comming by to check out the process.......Collected again before sun down and now have two more barrels to boil off monday, looks like its gonna snow, rain sleet today! Should be another good collection.....Started to boil around 10 am and took it to syrup on the wood by about 7 pm. Boiled off at least 100+ gallons in tht time and wound up with 2.5 gallons bottled up...The only time I used a digital temp probe was after it was filtered and bringing it back to temp to bottle.....Realied on the hydro when it was getting close to syrup.....This is the most interesting hobby I've ever had , each boil I'm learning more how to tell just by looking at the boil and how the bubbles form in the syrup and especially around the edges of the pan where a thick offwhite scum starts to cling when its close and should be checked with the hydro.

Tim

[S&S Sugarbush]

Wed Nite snow = 6 in
Thu Nite snow = 4 in
Fri nie snow = 1 in and we had over a foot already on the ground.

Had to snow blow the road leading to the neighbors summer cabins in order to get my
F250 4WD sap hauler through on the steep hills.

Sure sleeping good!!!!!!!!!

Never have seen sap run like this - in the 15 years we have been doing this.
Off 80 taps collected 120 gallons - TODAY !

It has been running in the driving snow, Cloudy windy .... looks like nothing will stop this, and with 2 ft of snow.....?

We needed this after last year.

[PerryW]

Looks like the colder taps ran well, some buckets were 2/3 full but my warmer taps have almost no sap. Looks like I'll only get maybe 75 gallons of sap this afternoon, but better than nothing.

[Leo]

Hi, I collected 360 gallons yesterday and today. Will be up early boiling tomorrow!
Leo

[dufftj]

Great day for weather! Snow followed by freezing rain, then just a cold rain....Trees ran good even though its really windy and it did'nt get much above freezing. 32.7 deg F is the highest I saw .....Collected around 5:30 pm and got about 37 more gallons on ice....Some sacks were overflowing and some jugs were only 1/2 full.....Looks like batch # 6 will be fired off tomorrow should be around a 100 gallon boil......Starting to run out of wrist sized pieces of wood, time to haul out the splitter...

Tim

[Mudcat_21]

Collected Friday night (200 gal) then collected again Sunday morning and got another 240 gal. Didn't finish cooking that batch till 1:30am this morning. Looking at collecting again tonight. We had one woods test at 4% and another woods at 3%. Never thought it would be going this crazy this late in April! We "normally" are cleaning equipment by this time. Instead, this week it will be a mad dash to the end!

[Kesky]

13 gallons off 25 taps, tomarow looks good! Partly cloudy and mid 30's!

[dufftj]

Collected approx 60 gallons yesterday boiled approx 100 gallons and brought it to syrup. My filter pot is 3/4 full with some nice dark amber syrup! It holds over three gallons.

Tim

[Leo]

As of yesterday I have collected over 1000 gallons of sap for the year. Last year 500 total. The trees are running so hard I can' keep up boiling or collecting. I am just plugging along at a somewhat reasonable pace. Last night a friend called me to ask if I wanted more sap.
Leo

[MapleSue]

25 gallons from 50 taps.

[Gissert]

Of the 90 gallons that I boiled yesterday, it finished into 3.5 gallons of lovey light amber when the hydro said stop. Lots of ice thrown out, so that's the reason for the great yield. Running thru 75 gallons from this morning and going to collect again this evening. Its turning into an excellent season now.

[dufftj]

Collected 40 gallons today, boiled down approx 50 gallons and letting it settle out overnight, looks to be a strong gallon. Going to bottle tomorrow and hopefully collect off my silvers if they run. Syrup no longer smells like cotton candy when its close to syrup. The last two batchs smelled more like black tea leaves when I pulled them off the fire. Still tastes great!

Tim

[doop]

Finally had a good run collected 230 gallons and my pan is sweetened for tomorrows boil.

[Kesky]

Collected 17 gallons today! Going to finish up my second batch of syrup tomarow!

[Run Forest Run!]

Hey Kesky, how much syrup did your first batch yield? Having fun?!!! :) Aren't you glad you decided to try sugaring?

[Kesky]

First batch was 40 gallons sap and yielded just under 1 gallon, would have been a gallon if it werent for all the taste testing! But thats the best part! I am definately addicted!

[Run Forest Run!]

Yeah, all the effects of that taste testing is starting to scare me. We should be sugaring BEFORE we put on heavy winter clothes, not when the lighter spring clothes are coming into rotation. :o

[Studhauler]

This is my first year, the sap finally started to run on Saturday, at least on some of the trees. I tapped a boxelder (ash leave maple) with two splies, I get 3 gallons of sap a day out of it. I get 3 gallons a day out of the 10 other maples I have, but some have yet to produce.

I can only boil on the weekends so I must store the sap until then. WIll boxelder and sugar maple syrup taste the same? Can I store the sap in the same container or should I keep them separate?

[Kesky]

You got that right! But its all worth it!

[ennismaple]

Yeah, all the effects of that taste testing is starting to scare me. We should be sugaring BEFORE we put on heavy winter clothes, not when the lighter spring clothes are coming into rotation. :o

Funny - I come out of syrup season at my fighting weight. 16 hour days and walking 100,000ft of tubing tends to make you lose weight no matter what you eat or drink.

[Run Forest Run!]

I can only boil on the weekends so I must store the sap until then. WIll boxelder and sugar maple syrup taste the same? Can I store the sap in the same container or should I keep them separate?

They don't taste the same to me, but there is no problem with mixing them if it's easier for you. I find box elder more butterscotch in flavour than mapley. Each is delicious and a blend would be equally delicious. FYI, don't be concerned if the box elder sap smells a little 'grassy'. That aroma boils off and is not present in the syrup.


Funny - I come out of syrup season at my fighting weight. 16 hour days and walking 100,000ft of tubing tends to make you lose weight no matter what you eat or drink.

Gee I hope you're right! It's been a pretty tough work-out for the past two months and I'm about to find out as I'm gathering my stuff for a beach holiday. It's bad enough that we Canadians looks like ghosts after the winter, let alone spongey ones.

[Mike Swally]

As this is my first year at tapping maples and making syrup. I feel like got a lot of sap from only 5 maple trees. I took off my taps this week. Grand total for my sap was 90 gallons. I boil small batches of 10 or 5 gallons of sap. I only boil off about a gallon or so an hour. I've boiled 30 gallons of sap so far. I still have 60 gallons of sap in 5 gallon buckets buried in snow in my yard. Trying to find time to boil some sap. I made room in my chest freezer for one bucket of sap and I'm letting it freeze a little at a time and then take the ice out. I'm hoping to concentrate the the sugar in the sap, so maybe I can boil the sap quicker. Has anyone tried this?

[PerryW]

As this is my first year at tapping maples and making syrup. I feel like got a lot of sap from only 5 maple trees. I took off my taps this week. Grand total for my sap was 90 gallons. I boil small batches of 10 or 5 gallons of sap. I only boil off about a gallon or so an hour. I've boiled 30 gallons of sap so far. I still have 60 gallons of sap in 5 gallon buckets buried in snow in my yard. Trying to find time to boil some sap. I made room in my chest freezer for one bucket of sap and I'm letting it freeze a little at a time and then take the ice out. I'm hoping to concentrate the the sugar in the sap, so maybe I can boil the sap quicker. Has anyone tried this?

Yes, letting the sap freeze and tossing the ice is called "poor-man's R.O.

An average taphole will yield 10 gallons of sap per season and one quart of finished product. Although my scraggly woods trees won't run quite that good, my roadside trees and field trees with big crowns do well over 10 gallons of sap (per taphole) per season..

[Mike Swally]

"Poor-mans R.O" Sounds good to me :-)
I'm checking my sap Brix reading as I progress through the freezing of the sap. The sap starting Brix is 4. I put the 5 gallon bucket of sap in the freezer without lid 10 pm yesterday, now it's 10 pm a day later and I took ice out a few times. Now the sap is down about to less than half full and Brix reads 6. Not sure how much more I should freeze, before I take that bucket out and add another full bucket. This should help me get through my buckets of sap quicker when boiling to sap. Looking forward to boiling the sap again, hopefully soon.

[PerryW]

glad you guys from MN are finally getting some sap! I love the area! My wife & I were up there the summer before last and drove along the shore of Lake Superior and up along the Lake and on to thunder bay.

[doop]

ISlow day for sap today. Pulled 5 gallons of syrup off before I burnt my last couple and a minor scorch on my finish pan. Still figuring out my new to me rig. It sure happens fast. Luckily I caught it right away.

[Mike Swally]

Perry, I agree that the drive along Lake Superior is very scenic. I haven't been as far up as Thunder Bay yet...

[dufftj]

Not much sap yesterday, but I did bottle up another three gallons. Only collected three gallons of sap throughout the neighborhood.I think I'll have to pull taps this weekend too many other things to tend too. Its been a great season!

Tim

[SilverLeaf]

glad you guys from MN are finally getting some sap! I love the area! My wife & I were up there the summer before last and drove along the shore of Lake Superior and up along the Lake and on to thunder bay.

Wow! Nice to hear a compliment from someone out east. Don't get me wrong, I love my state and wouldn't live anywhere else. But our scenery - while beautiful - is perhaps somewhat less striking than some of the stuff you've got in NH.

Glad you had a good trip!

[Mudcat_21]

We collected another 260 gallons of sap last night. Turning out to be a good season, just 3 weeks behind schedule!

[dufftj]

Theres sap out there, but I think I'll wait until the snow stops...So none collected today, but the next few days look good!
Just came to my senses, the last post were I stated pulling taps this weekend? Total crazy talk, looks like about 8 inches of new fallen snow and the temp is still slowly dropping...Too bad I have to go to work today, but can't wait to see if the next few days flow great!

Tim

[doop]

Sap slowed down with this colder weather, but that's probably a good thing as I can't make it 100ft. Down my trail with my wheeler to collect anyway. Snowmobile is stuck too. Hope it melts fast.

[dufftj]

Collected 50 gallons off of 40 taps and there still dripping, going to do my eighth boil starting tomorrow morning.

Tim

[Kesky]

Got 19 gallons today! Make the total 133 for the yr so far! Be finishing another batch soon! I dont know why i never got into sugaring until this year, this is a blast!

[warners point]

This snow is getting old. Snow depth is back to where it was in mid March. The trees are pouring sap, but it saps my strength wading through all the snow. We have 500 gallons to start with tomorrow morning and another 200 plus on the way tomorrow

[RileySugarbush]

collected 300 gallons today. I'm sure we will get lots tomorrow too! I started collecting with the garden tractor/trailer but had to switch to the snowmobile. On April 19th!

[sk8heaven]

Up here by Bemidji it's been a tough year so far :cry: I still have 2 feet of snow in the woods (thank goodness this last one missed me). Barely above 32 degrees this year yet ..... only 140 gallons of sap from 170 taps over the past three weeks. This week finally looks promising ....... then by next Sunday not going below freezing. Could very well be a bust for me this year for exactly the opposite reason that it was a bust last year (too warm too fast last year). Oh well it's still great to make the little bit that I am making - unfortunately, some of my regular customers are going to be disappointed again.:cry:

Sounds like you guys further south are hitting it good right now - enjoy!

[dufftj]

Collected three times yesterday for a total of 85 gallons off of about 50 taps. Boiled around 75 gallons during the day and bottled up a little over 2 gallons. Syrup is still getting darker, but I can still see through the quart mason jars.

Tim

[S&S Sugarbush]

Had a 3rd run yesterday. Had 12" of snow last week and 16" this Thur-Fri. This heavy/wet snow is settling some, but in the woods - where there was still winter snow, we must still have over 2'.

I guess this is helping the sap. On 75 taps I have collected over 600 gallons so far.
This is approaching my highest production ever of 10 gallons per tap - only have 15 years experience.

I cook outside - but after this year, a sugar shack seems to be the next project.

May have to start using my prime oak fireplace wood to cook with if this keeps up.

Keeep the faith faith near Bemidji ----

S&S Sugarbush

[rjenneke]

Just had to pull the pin today. We are out of wood. We had about 80 taps out about an hour west of the metro. We pulled over 1000 gallons of sap. Was just insane since the first snow storm 2 weeks ago. Many times our 5 and 6 gallon pails were overflowing and we couldn't get to them due to the bulk tank being full. The taste is really good this year. When we pulled the taps today, most were dripping at a very fast rate.

Has anyone had this kind of year in the past? This is only our 4th year.

[Kesky]

Got 20 gallons today! Makes the total 167 so far!

[Shorty]

We collected 350 gallons today, we're boiling now, my shift is from 11:30 tonite till 9:00 in the morning.

[RileySugarbush]

Snowmobile collecting yesterday, tractor today! We are over 42 gallons of syrup for the year, a new record and I don't think we are done yet! Plus a great visit from SDdave! Still making very light syrup. Earlier the light stuff was very mild, but todays had a great Maple flavor. No sign of buddyness.

[jeffeich]

Yep, I was making syrup today and will finish up on Monday. Pulled all my taps (260 of them) on Saturday. Have to get ready for 50 packages of honey bees that are coming next week.:)

[SilverLeaf]

Snowmobile collecting yesterday, tractor today! And looks like it'll be snowmobile again tomorrow!!! :o

I pulled about half my taps yesterday. Some are running good still but many are slowing down, and the warm-up in the forecast (after tonight's blizzard) looks for real this time. (No sign of buddiness yet though even though some buds are partially open... although they got a good frost nip the other night so that's probably why...) I'm running out of wood, and more importantly I'm running out of time!

A good year, though, for sure! In my seven years I've had one year that was definitely better (2009) but that was it.

[Mudcat_21]

This forecasted snow storm is just plain NUTS! It has been a busy year, we are going to make one last push at the end here and then pull our taps on Friday. Rumor is that the trees are running hard in our area today. So we'll see what we get tonight when we collect.

[warners point]

l pulled an all nighter Sunday, but finished the weekend with over 20 gallons of syrup. This week still looks good. Lets hope the sap stays at 3.5%. This will be the last week for me and then its time to work on the wood supply.

[Tom P]

Looks like we should have 2 more good days on the sugars. Pulled the silver maples a couple of days ago. Yesterday's sap from the sugars was running at 3.75. Drove to Andersons for glass a couple of weeks ago and picked up what I thought was enough for this year and next, turns out we used it all and might have to make another quick trip to Wisconsin. All in all it has turned out to be a pretty good season.

[Mudcat_21]

We gathered another 275 gallons last night....Hopefully get that cooked down tonight and tomorrow. Then turn around and collect again Friday and pull all the taps and call it a season....And a very good season it was!!!

[RileySugarbush]

Snow last night! And a good run with sunny warm weather today! I walked down to the sugarhouse and was in danger from falling ice from the trees this afternoon.

[MapleSue]

27 gallons on 50 taps. Still running around 4%. Maybe another day or two of ideal weather left.

[PerryW]

I'm going to Minnesota and bringin me back some of those 4% maple trees!

[Kesky]

16 gallons off 25 taps, total of 196 gallons so far!

[Shorty]

We collected 150 gallons today, 1600 gallons so far this year. It takes 55 gallons of sap for one gallon of syrup.

[dufftj]

Collected 30 gallons yesterday and pulled a few taps on silvers with open flowers. Going to start my 9th batch of the season around 7am. It's 25 degrees F out right now and the forecast looks like this will be it for the season. Been a great 2nd year for me.

Tim

[mrnorthshore]

Shorty, Are you with the nature center in austin? I thought that they did some taping. I have some reletivies In austin. We have been having a pretty slow year up north so far, We have made 190 gallons so far this year. Thats on 1300 taps and pulling 25" of vac, but our sap has been around 3% all year and yesterday it was almost at 4%.

[Gissert]

Pulled the plug on what ended up being an excellent year for me. 22 gallons of syrup, about half of it light amber, the the remaining half medium. SUgar content was excellent, and production was boosted by a lot of collections with discarded ice. This was on about 135 taps and a 2 x 4 evaporator

[dufftj]

bottled another 1.5 gallons today snd collected another 32 gallons of sap. Pulled my taps and will boil off whats on hand tomorrow, clean up and wait for next season.

Tim

[Purdy Farm]

Still pulling sap in northern Minnesota (about an hour south of the Canadian border). The sap is actually starting to run good here. Averaging 3.5 % sugar content. I just finished a another gallon and a half bringing my season total to 11 gallons so far. Strange thing is I am still bottling A very nice light amber color syrup. Last year I only got about a gallon of light amber. Snow is still 3 feet deep in the woods!

[Shorty]

Shorty, Are you with the nature center in austin? I thought that they did some taping. I have some reletivies In austin. We have been having a pretty slow year up north so far, We have made 190 gallons so far this year. Thats on 1300 taps and pulling 25" of vac, but our sap has been around 3% all year and yesterday it was almost at 4%.

I have nothing to do with the Nature Center. They only do a few gallons to show the school children how it's done. I've been doing it for about 25 years, here in Austin for 2 years (Soft Maples), and then near Barnum for 17 years (Sugar Maples) and now near Brownsdale using Soft Maples again. We have 300 taps. I don't know how to do the math but we made 32 gallons of syrup from 1600 gallons of sap...... not very good, but that's all we have down here. We use 5 gallon buckets and our cooker is homemade out of stainless steel 19X18 is the finishing end and 19X42 with a drop flu is the business end. We also put a 21X21 tank on that same end to pre-heat the sap.

[Shorty]

bottled another 1.5 gallons today snd collected another 32 gallons of sap. Pulled my taps and will boil off whats on hand tomorrow, clean up and wait for next season.

Tim

We fill our tanks with the "Too strong to cook" sap and let it set (covered) until some time in August (when it reaks super bad) and then dump the tanks, rinse with water and they are really clean with no scrubbing.

[Kesky]

Got 21 gallons today (i guess technicly yesterday as its after midnight) off 25 taps, tomarow looks like it should be a good day as well!

[Kesky]

Got 21 gallons today (i guess technicly yesterday as its after midnight) off 25 taps, tomarow or i supose today looks like it should be a good day as well!

[Mudcat_21]

Our season ended last night with a collection of another 275 gallons of sap. We will be over 85 gallons of syrup for the year! Not bad......Now the real fun begins with cleaning everything.

[doop]

It slowed Down a bit today pretty warm last night. Made 22 gallons of syrup so far. A buddy tested some of his sap and it was 4.2 . Going to be warm for a few days and cool down into the 20s at night on Wednesday so hopefully we get another week or so, still have 2 ft. Of snow on the ground and buds arent showing signs of opening so here's hoping for at least another week.

[mrnorthshore]

We had a slow day also up north further, we only collected about 600 gallons. We made 30 gallons today, for a total of 230 for the year.

[Shorty]

We collected 150 gallons yesterday, I cooked a 100 gallons down today, and the other 50 gallons uncooked will go in the cooker tonight to clean it up, it will smell really nice in August when I dump it out but the tanks will be super clean. This is one of our better years, collected 2100 gallons (minus the 50 for clean up) and still made 37 gallons of syrup. Now we start pulling the taps and washing buckets. We also ended up with 2 bushels of burnt nails..... we burn pallets for fuel... hey they are free.

[RileySugarbush]

We are all done here. Frogs are peeping and our sap is buddy so the taps are pulled. A bit over 47 gallons is a record for us, mostly light and medium.

[dufftj]

Did my last boil for the season on Thursday and bottled up 2 more gallons. Syrup is darker but you can still see through it. So season # 2 totals are 650 gallons of raw sap from mostly silver and red maples = 16 gallons of bottled syrup. What a great season! If I keep the same ammount of taps next year I'll have to build a hobby sized r.o.

Thanks to all who contribute to this site!

Tim

[BriJack]

Sap has been running good for the last week, at least in my yard. Neighbor has been doing better but he has more taps. He has done up 250 gallons of sap. I am just starting on my first good 40+ gallons. Warm for a couple days then it's back to freezing with enough snow on the ground to help it cool down at night. Really I think I could still be doing this up the opening of fishing!!! Way late this year!!!

[syrupdreamer]

A slow start on sugars ended with a bang. Collected 5200 gallons and made 155 gallons of mostly medium. My first year with the new evaporator couldn't have gone any better. Everything worked great! A constant 65GPH.

[doop]

I'm up to 29 gallons of syrup so far sugar content must be pretty high, I had about 20 gallons of sweet in my pans collected 250 boiled that down left about 20 gallons of sweet again and drew off 11 and a half.gallons. Hoping for one last run.

[Birddog]

Are the trees budding out yet up around Cloquet? Maybe it will get cold enough over the next few days to produce a little run. I've got a few taps still in near Barnum and I'm debating whether or not I should run up and rehang some buckets. Any thoughts?

[doop]

The reds are budding, but the sugars aren't I don't know if it will get cold enough. Didn't get cold enough last night hopefully tonight though.

[BriJack]

Well in Itasca county it has been below freezing two nights in a row.

I think I got a gallon or two from my taps in the last two days.

I finished off 6 gallons of sweet and got 3 gallons of syrup!! In two days of finishing, it was syrup at 217 degrees first day and then 219 the second day, still used my hydro to know it was syrup but wanted to try my new digital thermometer.

This is turning out to be a slow year not as bad as last year. It is MAY and we are all still talking about getting sap and making syrup. So late and such a weird year!!!

[doop]

Well looks like its over hasn't ran since last Friday. It was another short year some trees hardly ran at all some for only a day, if it wasn't for some experimental trees it would have been dismal, but I ended up okay. 33 gallons and probably 4 more From concentrate in pan when done.

[Birddog]

It looks like it stayed at or below freezing for 8 hours or so and got down to the mid 20s. I'm hoping it was enough to wake a few of these trees up. I have no idea. I think maybe it's too late for me anyway since the buds on my trees are all beginning to swell. I'm new to this so I'm kinda curious to see and smell what buddy sap looks like anyway.

I learned a lot from everyone on this board this year, I want you all to know that for someone new to this like I am, your williness to share your knowledge and post it on this board is really appreciated!

[mrnorthshore]

we pulled 550 gallons yesterday, and today by the time the lines were thawed it droped cold again. We got about 50 gallons today.

[Birddog]

I got about 12 gallons off 20 spiles yesterday near Barnum. I'm boiling it now. All appears fine so far. The trees were still dripping a little sap when I collected last night. So still collecting on May 4th. I did pull out 3 taps and dumped their sap as it looked a little cloudy. If I would have kept that would have been 1.5 gallons more.

[BriJack]

I collected 18 gallons on Thursday afternoon, cooked that and another 3 yesterday. Ended up with 20 gallons today and I am cooking that today with the sweet of yesterdays cook.

Cold and raining here today, nice day to be next to a hot fire!!!

[doop]

Have about 90 gallons in my bags. some trees were dripping good,but the ones I tapped about a week earlier athan the rest aren't doing much. Probably collect and pull taps tomorrow or Monday, then start planning out a tubing system fornext year. 330 taps is too much for one guy to collect from bags., even with a subpar season.

[Birddog]

Have about 90 gallons in my bags. some trees were dripping good,but the ones I tapped about a week earlier athan the rest aren't doing much. Probably collect and pull taps tomorrow or Monday, then start planning out a tubing system fornext year. 330 taps is too much for one guy to collect from bags., even with a subpar season. 330 is a lot. Especially if you have to trek through snow! I also noticed the taps I put in most recently produced more. Is your sap still really high in sugar. I guess I need to get a sap hydrometer because now I'm really curious.

[mrnorthshore]

We pulled 700 gallons today and it still coming in pretty good, the bad part is the sugar has dropped to just over 1.5%

[Birddog]

I only have 17 taps still in but collected 22 gallons around 2:00 today and there were all still dripping. I'm going to collect one more day. I wish I had a sap hydrometer, I'll be getting one for next season.

[doop]

Collected about 200 gallons today while pulling taps for final boil tomorrow. It was a decent season for sap,but not great. Weather just nevercooperated. It was cold then when it warmed up it was cloudy or 60 degrees. Some trees seem to be just starting to run, but gforecast has no more freezing night

[mrnorthshore]

We got just over 800 gallons and made 20 gallons of extra light fancy, Anyone ever hear of that light of syrup this late in the year? That brings us up to 350 gallons for the year.

[Revi]

I can't believe you guys are still collecting sap. Leaves are on the trees here. I know they go for a long time up in northern Maine too, but I think even up there the season ended a week ago.

[Birddog]

Well it looks like I'm done. Looks like the weather is going to stay warm for a while. It was fun while it lasted. The buds on my sugars still haven't popped but with this warm weather its not going to be long now. Pulled my taps today.

[mrnorthshore]

Our syrup has changed a little up north here, It has a slight off flavor. We will still try and make as much as we can and sell it to andersons or some where else.

[mrnorthshore]

Has everyone pulled there taps? We have some cold nights coming and just wanted to see if I am the only one with taps still in? The next 4 nights look like they will be below freezing! We pulled 350 gallons today and it has not froze for a few nights here.

[doop]

I'm all done, probably could have left taps in a little longer as they still aren't budding. Woke up this morning and saw frost I kinda wish I left em, but I'm getting lots of spring cleaning done. Good luck!

[Birddog]

I pulled my few taps on Monday. The Sap I collected Monday turned cloudy. I am wondering if that is from being out in the heat that day. It was pretty warm and I didn't get out until pretty late. I started boiling it and the steam had an off smell to it. I kept tasting it but the taste seemed fine. I ended up dumping it just because I was afraid if I could smell it in the steam, someone could taste it in the syrup.

The buds still had not opened. Could this off smell just be from being out in the heat?

Second question from a newbe, is it OK to put taps back in after you have taken them out? I'm looking at these 20 degree nights and thinking maybe I could catch another sap run?