Central Ontario Tapping

[c0ps]

A few days ago I had to get to the top of my storage tank to reposition the supply pipe, so I used a little 3 stair step stool. I had to stand on the top stair, and I felt uncomfortable but it worked. Today, it didn't...my side into the top of the arch then the floor...oomph, ouch. I heard cracks in my neck and my back, but I've got full range of motion albeit it while hurting like hell.

A bit of advice; "Never use a 3 step if you can use a ladder"...

And what sucks the most is that the sap is flowing well today. Needless to day I let the fire go out.

Got to be carefully boy. Once you injure that back and neck it's reaccuring

[NTBugtraq]

Got to be carefully boy. Once you injure that back and neck it's reaccuring

I agree, next time I fall like that I will fall on a less fallen on part of my body...hmmm...???...;-]

[c0ps]

I agree, next time I fall like that I will fall on a less fallen on part of my body...hmmm...???...;-]

Land on your feet! If a cat can do it you can to!

[Mitchman]

How are you doing for your yearly production Karen? Mitchman

[Hkb82]

Couldn't resist a walk around my sap line this am to see how the day might go. Found most of my buckets were dripping by 9am. Gotta love it. Plus tonight is calling for around 2 but being a stones throw away from Lake Huron we usually get a bit cooler then the forcast. Then sun and cloud with +8 for Sunday. Looks like I might get another good boil or two this season.

[Run Forest Run!]

How are you doing for your yearly production Karen? Mitchman

I'm having a slow year Mitchman. With about 2.5 gallons of syrup made, and terrible weather in the forecast, I doubt I'll get much more. Most of the syrup that I've got was made during the strange early warm spell at the end of February. Thank goodness I tapped my trees then.

[c0ps]

I'm calling it quits. Emptied the last remaining buckets in the forest, 80 gallons. Boiling it today and removing taps tomorrow. Same here Karen, glad I tapped in feb.

[Run Forest Run!]

I'm calling it quits. Emptied the last remaining buckets in the forest, 80 gallons. Boiling it today and removing taps tomorrow. Same here Karen, glad I tapped in feb.

I pulled a bunch today and then put a few fresh holes and spiles into a couple of box elders that hadn't been tapped. They were dripping well. We are definitely near the end here. Usually I'm drowning in sap on Easter weekend, but that's not going to be the case this year. Crazy season for 2017.

[NTBugtraq]

I am in recovery mode, so if you are looking for somewhere to come sugar, you'd be welcome here...1918 County Rd. 48, Kirkfield, on hwy 48 just before Balsam Lake provincial park heading east on 48 before Coboconk.

[Mitchman]

Most around here are just over 50% production also, glad they tapped in early!!! Very strange season for sure. Like the Red Sox!! Wait till next year!!!!!

[Hkb82]

Anybody have a good flow today? Collected 27 gal at 8am. Things started to drip around noon but not a very hard drip. I moved about 30 of the taps I put in around family day for this week as I think it will be my last. Not thinking much will happen but would like to do one last big boil for my personal stash.

[Run Forest Run!]

Boiled 32L today that I collected over the past two days. Some trees are bone dry, and a few were dripping. I moved a few taps, but am not optimistic. I'll be getting under 1L from this batch, and it is absolutely delish! Very light and buttery.

[Hkb82]

I was getting very light finished syrup at the beginning of the season but since about early to mid march it's dark. I actually like the dark stuff though so I am happy to have got both.

[JDP]

Looks like the end folks. Friday is the last day to hope we go below 0 degrees here in my neighborhood to recharge trees.

If it doesn't happen the taps are coming out on Saturday.

Thank good we upped our taps this year.

Got about 50 gallons finished on 125 taps....................we had 45 gallons on 90 taps last year.

Started Feb 18th. Last year we made syrup til the end of April. Crazy weather this year.

[Hkb82]

Looks like I might get one last run in for the year but not holding my breath. We have had snow all day today just a wet snow but it's been cold. Tomorrow is going to get +5 ish then back to -2 overnight and +17 for Saturday. Fingers crossed. I am pulling taps Sunday or Monday regardless.

[c0ps]

I pulled all my buckets out but havent had time to pull the spiles out. Friday and saturday their will be a good flow of sap. I was debating on puting all the buckets out again but Im going to let this go. I have more than enough syrup for the year.

[Run Forest Run!]

It's a winter wonderland here this morning. Snow and ice make things look more like Christmas than Easter. With any luck Santa will leave some sap dripping into my buckets.

[Hkb82]

Yup same here. Just went around the lines and nothing dripping but real close. Still sitting at -1 plus windy so I think later it may start as the temps climb to +5 so they say. Tomorrow we should have a good run if mother nature allows it. Dipping back down tonight to 0/-1 then +8 tomorrow full sun. Fingers crossed.

[Run Forest Run!]

The taps are dripping like mad. A couple of fresh taps have given me 3L in the past two hours. :D Fingers crossed that it's perfect sap and buddy-free.

[JDP]

Cleaned buckets and crossed fingers for one last run. Had some sap flowing Friday afternoon but still not a full flow. Today is probably the final flow of the season. hoping to make another 5 gallons of syrup boiling on Sunday if we can get 200 gallon of sap from these temps. trees are charged and the sun and warm temps should unlock them. Pulling taps Monday if temps stay as forecast. good luck to all on this final weekend here in my area.

[Hkb82]

Well I got the last little run I was hoping for but that's about it was a pretty slow drip today yesterday was not too bad after I collect tomorrow will probably have gotten around the 70 gallon mark off about 70 taps since Friday afternoon. not the greatest but will have to do for a first run in my first year. Pulling taps out Monday. Now my real season starts up.

[Run Forest Run!]

Today is the day that the clean-up begins. I collected a total of 90L over the weekend, courtesy of Thursday's blizzard. My final boil of 2017 produced 2L of light syrup. Probably the most flavourful light syrup I've ever made. Surprisingly, even though the silver maples had flowers on the trees, none of the sap was buddy. I tested each batch before adding it to the boiling pan just to be sure.

I'm at less than half of last year's total, and very happy that I also decided to pull out the drill in February like so many others of you in Ontario did. That saved my season for sure. This year took some finesse, some finger crossing and a lot of guidance from the life-long sugarers on the forum to reassure me about drilling that first hole in February.

Good luck to those further north. Hope you get some more good runs before you break out the power washer!

[Mitchman]

Way to go Karen!!! I tap in Feb every year, just because of the way this year played out. It's a little more work but helps the season total balance out.

[Hkb82]

Wow should I get the drill out. This weather is looking pretty good for sap flow. Not so good for my snowmobile season.

[paulflikkema]

I am debating whether I should start tapping as well now. It does seem super early but this weather has me itching to go...

[Hkb82]

I am giving it 2 weeks then I will make the call. Hope the weather stays cold for a bit to be honest. Last year I put first taps in on family day weekend. That's early I thought but as others in my area were talking about tapping so did I. I was sure glad I did. Best runs of the year came early. Time will tell this year I guess.

[dmichel]

I am giving it 2 weeks then I will make the call. Hope the weather stays cold for a bit to be honest. Last year I put first taps in on family day weekend. That's early I thought but as others in my area were talking about tapping so did I. I was sure glad I did. Best runs of the year came early. Time will tell this year I guess.I'm tempted as well but the forecast doesn't seem like the warmth will last. I'm planning on mid February as well to get going. I'm itching for the season as I've some tuning out this year and have all my parts ordered for a small home made RO unit. Plan to rap every tree I can find on my property lol

Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Tapatalk

[Run Forest Run!]

I am debating whether I should start tapping as well now. It does seem super early but this weather has me itching to go...

Welcome Paul! If you are tapping in Beeton you are only ten minutes from me. Looks like we'll be sharing the same tapping season calendar. Obviously the same crazy warm weather got me thinking about sugaring as well - hence the reason that I'm on the site tonight. hahaha Are you boiling over fire or propane?

[paulflikkema]

Welcome Paul! If you are tapping in Beeton you are only ten minutes from me. Looks like we'll be sharing the same tapping season calendar. Obviously the same crazy warm weather got me thinking about sugaring as well - hence the reason that I'm on the site tonight. hahaha Are you boiling over fire or propane?

Thanks Karen! That is great to hear you are so close by. Last year was my first venture into this and I am hooked. I am boiling over propane. I was looking into a barrel burner but will stick with the propane for this year again. One of the properties in my area tapped over the weekend. To me it seems way too early as from here on out for the next 2 weeks it is back to frigid temps. I keep checking the weather forecasts and will go based on that. Last year I tapped on the Saturday morning of Family Day weekend and had 120 liters of sap by the Monday morning. I tapped 6 trees with a total of only 9 taps. By Monday night I had 3 liters of syrup boiled down. I did one more batch that following weekend for another 3 liters and that was it for me as our house was under renovation and my wife didn't see it as a great use of my time to be sitting in front of a burner for that long doing "nothing" hahaha. This year I am planning on adding a few more taps/trees and doing a few more runs.

[PCFarms]

Hello All!

We started tapping about a week ago, we are well on our way with about 7,000 in already, I figure about half done. We hope to finish off in the next week and half.
The warm-up was good to get all the snow out of the bush - made running around a whole lot easier.
Looking forward to the season, we have a ton more taps and have spent a lot of time rethinking our pumphouses, I am really excited to see how they run.

[Stevenick]

Hey there....
We started tapping on Sunday. Still pushing hard to rework lines, install new plumbing in the shack etc etc etc.... not enough hours in the day!

2018 - RO, 3hp vac, approx 1500 taps.
2017 - new shack, evap, vac 735 taps
2016 - 3 homebuilt evaps 160 taps
2012 - 5 pails - 5 taps turkey fryer

[paulflikkema]

Any thoughts on the warm up that is coming this weekend and next week? Think it will be enough to get the sap to start running ? Looks like average of 3 degrees daytime and -5 night time most of the week.

[Run Forest Run!]

Hi Paul. While some of the daytime highs look interesting, the evenings are still pretty frigid and it's pretty cold for the trunks to thaw out enough to start to run. If those daytime highs were 14, and not 4, then I'd be all in.

Last year I was very early with my test taps - February 19th. The sap was flowing that day. It was the earliest ever around here for me. I got some decent amounts of sap (but no overflowing buckets) for about a week and then everything froze up solid until March 19. Usually the daily, consistent runs come around St. Patrick's Day with Easter being tsunami time in our area.

To satisfy my curiosity, I usually put out a test tap or two early on. I also snap a few twigs on my trees that I can monitor from the house and watch for 'sapsicles' to form. I don't want to jump too early and dry out the tap holes unnecessarily, but you can bet that I'll be watching the forecasts closely.

Oh, and one other trick....keep an eye out for the snow to recede in a ring around the base of the trees. When you start to see a 'lawn donut' around the tree then the wood is definitely warm enough to release sap.

[paulflikkema]

Thanks for the great tips Karen. I am just itching to get going. I want to put the new stove and pan to work... hahaha

[Run Forest Run!]

Paul, did your new pan arrive yet? Post some pictures if you can!

Update:
The weather forecast has changed for the better. You may be tapping sooner than you think - but not just yet. :D

[paulflikkema]

Hi Karen,

I am still waiting for the pan to arrive. I should have it early next week. I will upload a pic as soon as I get it. It does look like the weather is warming up so might do a few taps on the weekend just to see if things will start running...

[Run Forest Run!]

Hi Karen,

I am still waiting for the pan to arrive. I should have it early next week. I will upload a pic as soon as I get it. It does look like the weather is warming up so might do a few taps on the weekend just to see if things will start running...

Paul, I was going to suggest that you could drill a few tap holes just to scratch your itch. If there are any trees you have that are large enough to take two taps, just drill one now and then drill the second one in a couple of weeks. That will go a long way to extending your season and make the sap flows more manageable. I'm dying to try out my Denali. It better work as well, if not better, than the propane fryers! I can't wait to get all of them fired up. :)

[brokenjaw]

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180216/25f5b65101992d20d6c90713ce24d0ac.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180216/821bcdf7fa5c8b800c4602557c7511d3.jpg

New (home built arch) and pan in place. Test boil last night got us ready to scratch the itch here as well...

[Galena]

Looks great!

[mwpreston]

The extended forecast has me puzzled! Don't know whether to start this weekend or wait till next, or wait even longer lol! What's everyone else thinking? I'm north of Belleville. Thinking of maybe putting a dozen or so taps out this weekend to test the waters :)

[Run Forest Run!]

I'm waiting. We have some interesting high temps in the next few days, but the nights are still really cold. The trees on my property are exposed to the elements and need some extended high day temps to thaw out enough to get the best run when the best weather arrives.

With overnight lows of -7C to -11C in the next two weeks, the daytime highs are too low for me to hang my buckets. Anyone that has unlimited number of trees to tap might want to give it a go. I'd definitely do that! Then it won't matter if some of your earliest taps have dried out, you'll just drill some fresh ones in some new trees.

[JWB27]

Broken jaw

Great looking evaporator. Hope it works out for you.

[paulflikkema]

I just finished putting in 10 taps. We will see how they do over the next week and will judge accordingly.

[Run Forest Run!]

I just finished putting in 10 taps. We will see how they do over the next week and will judge accordingly.

Paul, all of the four weather forecasts that I monitor have now increased the forecasted temperatures for the next two weeks. I think that putting in some test taps is the smart thing to do.

[Run Forest Run!]

And so it begins.........

I put in 10 taps this afternoon, all sugar maples, and had sap right away. Even if the temperatures at the beginning of March are as cool as the forecast is predicting, it looks like we've got at least a week of prime sap weather in the meantime. I'm going in!

I really lucked out as my neighbour has offered as many of their maple trees to tap as I want. I thought that they were only soft maples, like mine, but it turns out they are 90% sugar maples! They have never turned a brilliant fall colour, so I didn't realize they were sugars. How did I miss this???

They are all lawn trees, great crowns, no hills to climb and right along the road. What a score!!! Not only that, the gracious neighbours have said that they don't really use maple syrup so they aren't interested in any. I think I'll have to force a small bottle on them when I'm done just so I don't feel like a free loader! :o I still can have access to the forest 5K down the street if things dry up here, but now it looks like I likely won't need to make the drive as often with all of these new trees right across the street. What a nice surprise!

I've also purchased a Denali camp stove to try out this year. It will add a lot of extra boiling capacity along with my two fryers. Three full size steam trays can fit along the top! I can't wait to fire it up and see if it's as good as I hope it's going to be.

Got all four of my propane tanks filled and ready to go. Bring it on.

Good luck everyone in the GTA!

[Ghs57]

And so it begins.........

I put in 10 taps this afternoon, all sugar maples, and had sap right away. Even if the temperatures at the beginning of March are as cool as the forecast is predicting, it looks like we've got at least a week of prime sap weather in the meantime. I'm going in!

I really lucked out as my neighbour has offered as many of their maple trees to tap as I want. I thought that they were only soft maples, like mine, but it turns out they are 90% sugar maples! They have never turned a brilliant fall colour, so I didn't realize they were sugars. How did I miss this???

They are all lawn trees, great crowns, no hills to climb and right along the road. What a score!!! Not only that, the gracious neighbours have said that they don't really use maple syrup so they aren't interested in any. I think I'll have to force a small bottle on them when I'm done just so I don't feel like a free loader! :o I still can have access to the forest 5K down the street if things dry up here, but now it looks like I likely won't need to make the drive as often with all of these new trees right across the street. What a nice surprise!

I've also purchased a Denali camp stove to try out this year. It will add a lot of extra boiling capacity along with my two fryers. Three full size steam trays can fit along the top! I can't wait to fire it up and see if it's as good as I hope it's going to be.

Got all four of my propane tanks filled and ready to go. Bring it on.

Good luck everyone in the GTA!

Karen, you are ready for a small evaporator!

[Run Forest Run!]

Karen, you are ready for a small evaporator!

Don't tempt me, I have to hold myself back with this hobby. I'd run the risk of becoming a syrup baron(ess) and there would be no end to the madness. lol

[Ghs57]

Don't tempt me, I have to hold myself back with this hobby. I'd run the risk of becoming a syrup baron(ess) and there would be no end to the madness. lol

You may not realize it, but you are already there as far this community is concerned.

[Run Forest Run!]

You may not realize it, but you are already there as far this community is concerned.

You are right. That shipped sailed when I made my first batch 7 seasons ago. Denying it only makes it worse. :emb:

[BrutemanAl]

You are right. That shipped sailed when I made my first batch 7 seasons ago. Denying it only makes it worse. :emb:

You need a evaporator lol, keep an eye on Kijiji, that’s where I got mine from and it was only $400.00 for everything, I do need to drive 3 hrs to get it, but it will be worth it.


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[KV Sappers]

Don't tempt me, I have to hold myself back with this hobby. I'd run the risk of becoming a syrup baron(ess) and there would be no end to the madness. lol
Karen, you need to look into the Lapiere propane evaporator. I bought one 2 years ago and I love it. I tap about 30 trees and this raised flue evaporaor cut my boiling time in half.

[Run Forest Run!]

I didn't install additional taps yesterday due to the horrible weather. I'll do that today.

On a fantastic note, the sap ran for several hours through the night and I've got some pretty hefty results from the ten taps that I put in on Thursday. I'm heading out now for my first collection of 2018. The sap should be flowing this afternoon and I don't want to lose any due to an overflow!

[Stevenick]

Just posted an ad in classifieds for a double diaphram guzzler is anyone is interested. No need for a releaser or big vacuum. we used it on 235 taps and it worked great. expanded to 2100 taps and put in a 3 hp vac.

[ridgerunner394]

Greeting all! It seems to me that February of old was colder and although we did look forward to a bit of a Feb. thaw it quickly returned to winter ... It seems with the way climates are fluctuating these past number of seasons that our February is now our March.

Taps in this year on the 18th (28 taps) thus far collected 68 gal of sap with a few pails overflowing this morning. At this rate (and forecast) I will be done before mid March. My trail to the maples is quickly vanishing and turning to mud already. Without the snow to pull my toboggan - well I will be done.

Karen I see you have a Denali now! I have used one since 2014 and find it works very well. I had a pan made for it as you can see in the pic, a pail of sap elevated above the pan provides a nice slow drip to feed it. I usually keep the propane tank in a plastic tote / bin so I can give it a warm bath as the pressure drops.

Happy tapping all!

17837

john

[JWB27]

I put 10 taps in on Sat. Have collected 12 gallons of sap so far. Pails are set in the only snow bank left. With any luck the sap keeps flowing, the snow doesn't melt to soon and I will be firing up the evaporator on Fri night.
Then off to the cottage Sat night to tap the trees up there on Sunday. Hope everyone has a good season.

[BrutemanAl]

And so it begins.........

I put in 10 taps this afternoon, all sugar maples, and had sap right away. Even if the temperatures at the beginning of March are as cool as the forecast is predicting, it looks like we've got at least a week of prime sap weather in the meantime. I'm going in!

I really lucked out as my neighbour has offered as many of their maple trees to tap as I want. I thought that they were only soft maples, like mine, but it turns out they are 90% sugar maples! They have never turned a brilliant fall colour, so I didn't realize they were sugars. How did I miss this???

They are all lawn trees, great crowns, no hills to climb and right along the road. What a score!!! Not only that, the gracious neighbours have said that they don't really use maple syrup so they aren't interested in any. I think I'll have to force a small bottle on them when I'm done just so I don't feel like a free loader! :o I still can have access to the forest 5K down the street if things dry up here, but now it looks like I likely won't need to make the drive as often with all of these new trees right across the street. What a nice surprise!

I've also purchased a Denali camp stove to try out this year. It will add a lot of extra boiling capacity along with my two fryers. Three full size steam trays can fit along the top! I can't wait to fire it up and see if it's as good as I hope it's going to be.

Got all four of my propane tanks filled and ready to go. Bring it on.

Good luck everyone in the GTA!

I tried to pm you but it said your box is full :(


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Run Forest Run!]

Hey Al, I fixed my PM inbox problem. Sorry about that!

Unlike those of you living east of the GTA, I've been getting pitiful sap here for the past few days. I collected a grand total of 10L today. Nothing yesterday. Dribs and drabs from the days before that. It's just not getting cold enough in the evenings. Lows of -0.1C have not been recharging the trees.

On the plus side, I got to fire up my new Denali propane camp stove this afternoon and boiled off the 59L that I have saved up from the past five days. I had a leisurely day boiling away and ended up with 1500ml (about 1.5 quarts for our American friends) of light syrup. In fact, it is just a hair over what would have been considered extra-light using the previous grading standards. I filtered it before the final boil, and now I'll let it settle out in a large canning jar to decant later.

Here it is, the first of the 2018 season :)

17867

The stupid photo is sideways, now all of the syrup is going to run over the counter.

[paulflikkema]

Hey Karen, I have been getting much lower sap output as well compared to last year. I did boil down 80 liters on Saturday and now have another 120 liters collected since Sunday which I will be boiling down this coming weekend along with whatever else i get the rest of the week. I fired up my Denali as well. I do not have the custom pan as yet so I used 3 buffet pans which worked great. Boiled down the 80L is 6 hours so I was happy with that. I connected into my large propane tank that the house runs off of so no issues with freezing or running out. I am supposed to be getting the other pan tomorrow so will post pics hopefully on the weekend with it.

[jaystersj1]

Hello Peoples ( according to Trudeau ). New to the site. I'm located just North of Beeton. Thought i'd get in on the forums since we have something here in common . 20 Drop line taps, 15 Buckets. Collected just over 200 litres last week. Boiled it all down Yesturday to 8 Litres of Syrup. Tastes awesome. Just wanted to share some info. For those looking for Pails for storage, send me a message. If your not a big boiler and do it with Steam pans, hit up The Wholesale club in Barrie. Best prices around... I have no sugar Maples, all Reds from what I can tell. But still tastes great. Using 2 Barrel Stove Boilers with 2- 4 inch pans on one, 2 -6 inch pans on the other.. Good luck all!

[Run Forest Run!]

Welcome jaystersj1! Nice to hear from another local sapper. I've never heard of The Wholesale Club . . . :confused: Can anyone go there and buy stuff or do they require a membership card?

[jaystersj1]

No Membership needed. You can usually get Pans there for like $30 , instead of $100 online.. They even have a website which may show if they have them or not if I remember correctly. https://www.wholesaleclub.ca/Non-Food/Dinnerware-%26-Serveware/Cutlery/Steam-Table-Pan-Full-Size/p/20797874_EA

[paulflikkema]

Welcome Jaysters. I am just north of Bond Head so not too far. I collected about the same this past week. I just started boiling this morning. I am using a 3 burner propane stove with a custom made pan to fit. It’s about 38”x16”. Boiling great so far. Can’t wait to give it a taste when it’s all boiled down later today. 17961

[paulflikkema]

Well boiled down all 280 litres on Saturday and ended up with 7 litres of amazing tasting syrup. All bottled up and ready for the next run of sap. 17993

[Someclown]

If there's a S.T.O.P. restaurant supply in your area, they also have a great price on steam pans and variety of other equipment for us little back-yarders. Walk in and shop or online
Their website gives great product detail also.
http://www.shopatstop.com/en/home/.
happy sapping

[Run Forest Run!]

Great looking syrup Paul! I'm still waiting for my trees to really start up here on the hill. I'm off to another slow start but ready for the sap whenever it arrives.

Thanks for the tip about S.T.O.P. Someclown. Welcome to the forum!

[Hkb82]

Well just put the first 50 taps in today. Considering the temps some trees were running good. Kinda missed the first good run around me.

[ridgerunner394]

Hey paulflikkema looks like we need to start a separate thread for the "Denali" group! Here is my set up. did you put a divider in your pan? I feed mine continuously from the elevated pail into a smaller section at the end.
18047

john

[Run Forest Run!]

Here's my submission into "The Denali Group". I use a disposable steam tray poked with pinholes to drip cold sap into the taller steam tray. The hot sap in the middle steam tray is used to feed the other two trays which are boiled down to syrup. I can't wait until I can really get this setup ripping.

18051

[paulflikkema]

Hi John and Karen, initially I used 3 steam trays which worked well. I used the first steam tray as my warmer and then ladled the sap from pan to pan as it boiled. I had a friend weld up a stainless steel pan to fit the stove which I used last weekend. I opted not to have any baffles welded in this year, just a straight pan. I place a disposable steam tray on the corner of the big pan and it drips the sap into the pan slowly which worked great. I will have baffles added in as well as an outlet tap during the summer so it is ready for next season. I have attached pictures of the initial set up with the 3 pans, one with just the new large pan and then one with the prewarmer on top. I am also able to connect into my 1000lb propane tank so no worries about ever running out or having the tank freeze up. Thanks John for the video by the way. 180551805618054

[Run Forest Run!]

Day eight for me with no sap.

Today I fired up the Denali to boil off the sweet that had been sitting (freezing cold) for the past week. I also had a little bit of sap to add to it that had been frozen for a week. After a couple of hours of boiling I took what I had to finish on the stove inside. I got 2.7L of light syrup. I'm very happy with that.

Everything is all cleaned and scrubbed and waiting for sap. Perhaps I'll see some by the weekend.

[ridgerunner394]

I did the same Karen, boiled off all on hand and now await spring? this early run gave me 3 gallons syrup - Looks like it may be a while now ... thanks for the pics of the Denali set ups (paulflikkema / karen) great to see that steam rolling off !

[Run Forest Run!]

I agree, we may have to wait even longer for sap now that the week's high temperatures have been downgraded.

[Lespetras]

Day eight for me with no sap.

Today I fired up the Denali to boil off the sweet that had been sitting (freezing cold) for the past week. I also had a little bit of sap to add to it that had been frozen for a week. After a couple of hours of boiling I took what I had to finish on the stove inside. I got 2.7L of light syrup. I'm very happy with that.

Everything is all cleaned and scrubbed and waiting for sap. Perhaps I'll see some by the weekend.

Your run will come in hopefully soon. I find it so crazy the climate changes even from us to you Karen. In the meantime, youve at least got nearly 3 litres of that beautiful initial syrup! It's worth it's weight in gold in my family and we only ever produce a few litres if it ourselves..

[Hkb82]

Well did my first bottling of the season. End up with 9L of syrup from around the 350-370l of sap. Pretty happy with that give the weather we are getting. Looking better for the next little bit as long as they don't change it again. I am ready for the flood gates to open any time now.

[Hkb82]

Things are flowing today in red bay.

[Run Forest Run!]

A few dribbles started in a three or four spiles around 3pm. Hoping that tomorrow starts things off for those of us in my area.

[BrutemanAl]

I’m hoping it starts for you to, good grief, I have been boiling all week


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[wobbletop]

50L yesterday mostly from melting sap bags. 60L today. Running out of storage (as usual) but dont expect to much more for a couple days. 18 taps

[Run Forest Run!]

Around 3pm this afternoon some of the taps thawed out. I gathered about 10L. There is hope. ;)

[Hkb82]

Collected 85g today from yesterday’s nice weather. Didn’t get very warm today prob-2 at best. Not thinking much happening today. Boiling since 6am

[Run Forest Run!]

Crossing my fingers that the weather forecast stays true to its word this time. Promises of warmer weather have disappeared every week in March so far. I boiled my February 'early sap' on March 3rd and haven't boiled since. It will eventually warm up and I'm ready to go!

Lesley, I've been checking your signature stats and am blown away by your 2018 production total to date. Unreal! You must be exhausted. What a great year so far for you and your trees.

Bruteman and Susan, I'm eager to hear what you've made so far. Please post some updates for me to be jealous of! :mrgreen:


Update: Just noticed your stats Susan. I am definitely impressed.

[BrutemanAl]

I would have to check with my son as he is keeping track of collected sap, but if memory serves me correct last time I asked him last week, I think we were in around 850 L collected, from 32 taps, finished product is in around 20 L so far, I have found the sugar content this year is very low

[Hkb82]

I would have to check with my son as he is keeping track of collected sap, but if memory serves me correct last time I asked him last week, I think we were in around 850 L collected, from 32 taps, finished product is in around 20 L so far, I have found the sugar content this year is very low

Those numbers sound pretty good to me. Right around the 40/1 20L from 32 taps for this year is good I think. This year will still give lots more.

[master]

Hkb82 I see your from Redbay. Is that the Redbay next to Oliphant on the Bruce peninsula?

[Hkb82]

Hkb82 I see your from Redbay. Is that the Redbay next to Oliphant on the Bruce peninsula?

That’s the one.

[Hkb82]

Bottled 10L last night. Back at it today. I should have some pretty full pails. I had a large amount of niter in the bottom of this last run. More then I am use to. My first batch had nothing compared to the one last night. Sure make for some slow filtering.

[jaystersj1]

Well. I went out to the bush last night at 5. Figured Id have some sap. Walked out with nothing. Went out this morning to pull my taps and just came back with 160 Litres. Some 15 litre jugs were over flowing and 1/2 my 2 gallon pales were too. Guess i'm not finished yet..

[jaystersj1]

Collected another 135 litres today here in New Tecumseth. 2 Days = 295 litres off 50 taps. So far this season I've collected 655 litres. Already have 9 Litres of Syrup. Tomorrow is my last day of collecting. Firing up the 2 barrel stoves and boil away. Should end up with close to 20 litres of syrup this year. 11 I have sold.

[Run Forest Run!]

Seriously jaystersj1? I've got nothing in the past two days. Zilch.

[BrutemanAl]

Wow Karen... I have pulled all my stuff and my season is done and you have hardly even started. I should have saved all the sap I dumped today and brought to you. Now I feel bad.


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[Run Forest Run!]

Yes Al, a road trip was definitely in order! BTW, I've updated my 2018 stats in my signature.

All of the sap I collected in March made me 2.6L batch of amber syrup the other night. No wonder the syrup was dark, a lot of the sap was three weeks old. It was mostly frozen all of the time, but still three weeks old none-the-less. It tastes great!

[Bruce L]

Good morning Karen,a lot in our neck of the woods here have pulled already,either from running out of wood,or making more syrup than last year,or combination of both.Personally I am quite happy with the season,haven't totalled in a while,but sure I am at a full crop,if it weren't for open house next weekend would call it quits now. Keeping a close eye on trees,buds are definitely popping,had one guy try to tell me he was trimming brush the other day and buds hadn't started to swell, told him he needed glasses,and look up into the canopy,not low to the ground where it is cooler

[Galena]

...Keeping a close eye on trees,buds are definitely popping,had one guy try to tell me he was trimming brush the other day and buds hadn't started to swell, told him he needed glasses,and look up into the canopy,not low to the ground where it is cooler

Good point, I do tend to look at the lower branches. My trees still going strong but I'm not! Busy bucking up pallets and putting some aside so I can build a real sugar shack this year with them. Have to clean out my shack's chimney cause it's full of creosote fluff and the last thing I need is a fire, or it'd be going right now. So back to doing stuff indoors with windows open, dehumidifier and fan going. Planning on visiting CDL in Perth today, need more glassware.

[Run Forest Run!]

Well everyone, it looks like the trees in my part of Caledon have finally awakened. I'll be collecting today! :D

[Run Forest Run!]

I've been driven inside by the hurricane force winds and the rain. The taps are still running like wild, closing in on 4L per tap. Gathered 80L in a constant loop of racing from tree to tree to tree. Empty, run, repeat.

I swear I could hear the theme song for Hawaii 5-0 as I imagined myself riding the wave of sap that was rushing in. What a great day!

[Galena]

Hehe sounds like our sap tsunami is finally hitting you! Enjoy the late nights and countless amounts of sap! :-)

[Run Forest Run!]

Thanks Susan. Before I had to call it quits due to weather today I had collected 92L from 28 taps. I'll have to empty them ASAP tomorrow morning because the forecast is looking good for Round Two.

[Galena]

..Before I had to call it quits due to weather today I had collected 92L from 28 taps.

Yep that sounds like a sap tsunami to me! Maybe I'll come up with a design for it :-)

[BrutemanAl]

Yaaaa Finally it’s happening for you Karen, I was getting worried for you.


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[Fireguy124]

Great boil today!!https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180402/80baaa1a92ee760ad205148044300ce9.jpg


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[ridgerunner394]

All done for another year at my stove! Pulled my taps on the 31st, my trail all but disappeared and turned into an exercise akin to walking on a wet bar of soap! No complaints - ran really well at the end. Finished of with 6 gal of syrup - should keep the grand kids bouncing off the walls a while :{)

Till next year - best to all, enjoy your bounties!!

john

[jaystersj1]

Finished my final boil the other day. All jarred up now. Ended up with 19 litres of Syrup, 905 litres of sap, over 500 collected in 3 days last week. From 52 Taps 18455

[Run Forest Run!]

Wow jaystersj!, I can't believe that you are done already. I'm just getting going.

[Smokeshow]

I’m done this year as well. 15 litres off of 900 and I would have kept going but I ran out of wood.

Last weekend I collected 300 litres in 24 hours off of 30 taps (buckets).

[Hkb82]

Still boiling in my neck of the woods. Clear sap and cold nights. Two thumbs up. Next week will prob be my last week for collecting I think. We have had a very good past few weeks with on and off days. I am running low on the pile of wood I dedicated to maple season and have already bottled psat my last years totals. Good year for me and my little setup. 46L of syrup so far and with 90 gal of sap in the tanks plus a few more good days of drips in the buckets I think I could hit the 65-70L total. That’s more then enough.

[Run Forest Run!]

Finished off 3.9L of syrup on the stove yesterday. Turned out to be a nice rich amber. I would have had an even better time of it if I'd be paying more attention to the pot. Then I wouldn't have had to spend an hour scraping off burned on black carbon from my stove top and running around the house taking the batteries out of the smoke detectors. You'd think I've had learned by now......

I've had one good run of sap (Easter weekend) and am still waiting for my season to really get ripping. It's been one weird weather season.

[Hkb82]

Ya that sucks Karen. I don’t finish on the stove for that very reason. I use a Colman stove with LP gas or a turkey fryer when I am finishing over 10L of syrup. Still glad to hear your boiling sap these days. More to come for those in Ontario that have not yet got their fill for the season. Had the stove fired up at 5am today. A new record for me. Going to boil everything down today that is in the tanks plus maybe grab what’s in the bush I hope.

[sinker]

Hey folks, first time checking in here this year. Still tapped here just south of PTBO.

Tapped on Feb 20th. Collected 380l of sap by Feb. 28th and finished 9.5l.

Nothing to collect from Feb. 28th, until March 28th. Crazy!!!

Since march 28th, i have collected 535L of sap, and finished 10.5L.

We have some still to finish, and evaporator is full, just need to get enough for one last boil this week. Sap is still running clear, all our shady trees are still running good, sunny trees kind of slowed down and a few with cloudy sap. Our bush is mostly shaded though.

Oh, I have 46 taps on buckets. I'm hoping for a busy week, but its been a weird season so far, with unpredictable flows! See what happens I guess. I'm hoping to get a bit more, but also hope it ends this week lol

S.

[Stevenick]

Crazy weather, yesterday we had 2300 l of sap, no boil since last Thursday! Hoping today it finally starts running again. No signs of budding our woods. We have run 151000l of sap since feb 19. Produced 1950l of amber syrup. Hoping for a couple of boils to finish the year off.

[Run Forest Run!]

Crazy weather indeed! I gathered some sap yesterday and hope that the temperatures start to cooperate better. I'm itching to get some serious boiling done this season.

[Hkb82]

Still slowing pushing through in red bay. We have had pretty good days nothing crazy but steady in my bush. Still clear and fresh. This is my last week of collecting.

[Run Forest Run!]

Here comes the ice. Good luck everyone and stay safe!

[wobbletop]

Done for the year I think. I'm out of seasoned wood and the ice storm is making a mess of things. There is still some full bags of sap hanging on some of the trees but I think I've made enough.

Switched to mostly bottles this year instead of mason jars (still used some mason jars just in case).
Using a coffee urn to fill the bottles was an awesome tip. Made filling bottles a one man operation.
Tried getting a preheater working that wrapped around the evaporator flue. Made a hell of a noise and gave up on that.

20 taps. Three trees I double tapped as they are coming down in the summer. One of them produced zero sap! I guess it will be coming down first.
1050L of sap, 40 hours of boiling (not counting finishing on the stove inside).
17.6L of syrup. Started light then ended darker.

Bought a welder. Plan is to make my own small evaporator instead of the barrel evaporator. Also plan to build a small shed to get out of the weather. I only had to boil in the rain once this year buy watching the weather forecast.

[Run Forest Run!]

Collecting today with snow boots and spikes. Doing a lot of looking up. ^^ Don't want to get knocked out by falling branches. Still can't get my car out of the driveway after the ice/sleet storm this past weekend. Good thing I've got lots of things to keep me busy around here. Looks like it's going to be a juicy weekend. FINALLY!! :D

[Run Forest Run!]

Can you believe it? It's April 21st and I'm in the middle of my first major sap tsunami for 2018. It's going to be a fantastic weekend! :D

[Run Forest Run!]

Well that stunk. :confused:

The sap ran really well for the first few hours yesterday and then shut down completely. Today there are only a couple of taps giving any sap and the others are dry as a bone. Looks like this year I'll end up with half the syrup with twice the work. I'm happy for what I did get I just wish it hadn't taken as much effort as it did to get it.

[Galena]

Wow that is a crazy sudden screeching halt to what sounded like an awesome tsunami. Dang it! Poor Karen :-/

[Run Forest Run!]

Wow that is a crazy sudden screeching halt to what sounded like an awesome tsunami. Dang it! Poor Karen :-/

Susan I bet you could hear the breaks squealing all the way to North Grenville. Boiling what is likely my last batch right now. I collected almost as much sap as you did, but your sugar content is far superior with those old sugar maples of yours. My sap total is something like 796ish L. Syrup total to come.

[BrutemanAl]

Gezzz I went through the forest today where I tap trees to go do some work for next year and most of them were all running, trees were soaking wet, made me want to go get my buckets and taps and jam them back in.


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[Galena]

Gezzz I went through the forest today where I tap trees to go do some work for next year and most of them were all running, trees were soaking wet, made me want to go get my buckets and taps and jam them back in.

Al, I bet you probably could too! Some of my trees are still trickling a bit, I wish they wouldn't. Others have been sensible and dried. Karen, well at least you do have a lot of sap to boil. Maybe use the poor man's RO to make life easier? Sure worked well for me, and will be doing it in the future.

[paulslund]

I had left one tap in my largest sugar maple until yesterday. Collected another 12L for a stove top boil (although I had two pans boiling and went into the garage thinking I had "primed" them enough.. opened the door and smelled burned marshmallow! Ugh.. ruined a good pan I think. at least it was only one of them..). Still getting good sap just slowed down now.. my silvers are still dripping a lot but I don't want those anymore.. went buddy around Easter time. Got a 500ml jar from that last boil though.. I've done that twice since I pulled my taps..just for fun.

These little batches I filtered with coffee filters.. I think I figured out a system to make it work decently.. man do they filter nicely!

[Run Forest Run!]

Sorry to hear about the burned batch Paul. It happens so fast!

[Bruce L]

Doing the chore of cleaning up here Karen. Haven't touched sap since Good Friday,sure stinks coming out of the lines. Peepers and snakes out in full force,few mosquito scouts out so hope to get finished cleaning soon

[Run Forest Run!]

Bruce I'm starting the clean up here as well. Calling it a season. Haven't heard a single peeper yet, but a pair of bluebirds were checking out accommodations at one of my bluebird boxes this morning. Moving on to installing additional raised steel garden beds in my veggie garden. Those things are fantastic!

[BrutemanAl]

Al, I bet you probably could too! Some of my trees are still trickling a bit, I wish they wouldn't. Others have been sensible and dried. Karen, well at least you do have a lot of sap to boil. Maybe use the poor man's RO to make life easier? Sure worked well for me, and will be doing it in the future.

whats a poor mans RO?

[Run Forest Run!]

Al, Susan is talking about removing the ice from your buckets and discarding it. I do that all the time, except I put the ice into another container and use the melting liquid for making syrup until the remaining sugar content in it is about .5% and then I toss it out. At that point it's not worth it for me to boil it.

[BrutemanAl]

That’s what I thought, I only use the ice to keep my sap cool most times.


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[Run Forest Run!]

Yesterday I pulled all of my taps for the season. I almost made syrup in May! That's crazy.

I made syrup once in February (the 26th), twice in March (the 11th and 27th) and three times in April (the 5th, 13th and 23rd). My sixth and final batch yielded 3.7L of Amber, bringing my 2018 total to 16.9L of syrup. A respectable total, but not spectacular.

It was a cold year where the daytime temperatures had trouble thawing the taps. For the month of March the taps were frozen solid from the 3rd until the 25th. Then came the ice storm......followed immediately by the warm weather.... and it's over. Average sugar content was hovering around 1.8%. The lowest ever.

I was hoping for closer to 25L of finished syrup but the sap refused to cooperate. I ended up with all grades of syrup which is a definite plus. The darkest of the batches provided a nice glaze on the salmon for tonight's dinner.

On the subject of equipment, I give my new Denali camp stove from Costco two thumbs up. It was easy to use and held three full size steam trays. I can't wait to fire it up again to make syrup next season. However, I know that I'll be finding ways to use it this summer when I'm in full BBQ and grilling mode. :D

This year certainly had its challenges but in my mind there is no better way to spend February, March and April. :) Counting down the days until the start of the 2019 season.

[Galena]

That’s what I thought, I only use the ice to keep my sap cool most times.

Actually what I do is collect it, sap and ice and all, measure it (and melt the ice) so I know what my production is like, then put it in 15l water containers. As you noticed the ice has its uses and keeps the sap cold. But when it came to boiling time,I was thawing the containers fully, but no more. Now that I know better, when they freeze up, I'll just drain off the sweet and discard the ice once I can no longer taste any sweet dripping out.

[BrutemanAl]

Hi Galena


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[Galena]

Hey Al, what's up? Is the weather in your area starting to look promising?

[BrutemanAl]

No not at all !!! Looks like the 2nd or 3rd week of march


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[Galena]

Yeah same for here, I'd say. Which kinda sucks cause if the season is pushed back a couple weeks, I am going to have to pull spiles before the trees are done. Hate doing that.

[SuzukiSapper]

Cayuga Ontario 1/2 hour south of Hamilton on the shore of Lake Erie . Feb 21to Feb 24 averaging +2 or +3 during the day and -4 to -6 at night with one night staying +1 would be an awesome start but unsure how long that trend will last.

[BrutemanAl]

I am going to start tapping next weekend.


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[Hkb82]

Yup seems the same all around. Still pretty cold on the Bruce. I won’t be tapping for at least another 2 weeks by the looks of things. Not a bad thing for me as I enjoy the trails being open a bit later this year. Was a real crappy start for all us sled heads

[Dlee]

Well maybe get a small run this weekend going to be +3 +7 this weekend . Just finished running another 3/16 line with 16 taps on it see what happens if it runs.:lol:

[SuzukiSapper]

I wouldn't get your hopes up, even though the forecast shows +3 refer to the hourly forecast. Here in Southern Ontario it doesn't get to +1 until 3:00pm then back to 0 by 5 pm . Not much time to get running. But I will keep my fingers crossed for you!

[pdiamond]

Hey Dlee
Are you anywhere near Lakefield? If so, is the cheese factory still there? My grandma had a place on Chemung lake heading towards banroft. Really miss her and going up to that area.

[Dlee]

Haven't been to lakefield in a while so not sure if its still there. I am about 45 min from there a little more to the north.Hope you enjoy your visit'

[Dlee]

well the sap did run abit but only enough to clean the lines. The weather isn't looking promising for awhile yet just have to wait it out . Plus we
got another storm so that much more snow to try and get through oh the joys of making syrup:lol:

[Hkb82]

Well going to start tapping this weekend. Lots of snow in the bush still. should make for a fun start of the season. Not sure how many taps I will run this year.

[Fireguy124]

Tapped 30 today. Sap was running instantly. Looks like it’s going to be a good week!https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190309/f74938d3b4d5fdf461db63b48ff31aaa.jpg


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[BrutemanAl]

Tapped 30 today. Sap was running instantly. Looks like it’s going to be a good week!https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190309/f74938d3b4d5fdf461db63b48ff31aaa.jpg


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Where are you located Fireguy? I tapped 75 trees yesterday and most of them were pouring out when drilled.

On a side note... I see your using the buckets like ice cream come in with drop lines... I do the same thing but bring my lines in the side so not water can get in. I also drill a small 2nd hole just under the rim to allow air in and out and that way I can snap the lid on tight.


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[Fireguy124]

Hey Bruteman, I’m just south of Grandvalley. Between fergus and Orangeville. I do have some Pails drilled in the side as well. I just make sure I set them all on a slight angle so the water doesn’t run in the tube hole. I find it’s easier to dump the sap with the tube through the lid. Where are you located?


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[BrutemanAl]

I’m in Codrington, North of Brighton/Trenton area. I collected 145 L today. Going to boil tomorrow


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[paulflikkema]

I tapped Saturday afternoon and not much running yet. 95% of my taps are in very large 4-5' diameter trees so they do not seem to be thawed out quite yet. Have approx 20 liters of sap so far from 20 taps. How is everyone else doing so far?

[Run Forest Run!]

Hey all. I have 30 taps in so far this year and things are looking very promising for great sugaring weather. I still have trees for more taps, but I will see how these ones produce for me first. Most went in yesterday and are still waking up. I am anxious to see what the warm weather on Thursday brings. Hopefully there will be a lot of gathering required.

Best of the season to everyone.

[Run Forest Run!]

Boiled my first 'batch' yesterday......well, if you call making one litre a batch. lol I couldn't help myself. :lol:

[Run Forest Run!]

Wow, what a day! I collected three times today for a total of 117L. Jugs were overflowing left, right and centre! I still have more spiles to put in but these 28 sure kept me busy today! The Denali propane burner is still going and in about 45 minutes I will shut everything down for the day. I have processed 150L today!! Final finishing to syrup is for another day.:D

[jaystersj1]

Hey Guys. Hope everyones syruping is going well. I had to pull all my taps due to my landlord. So if interested im selling all my taps, 15 clear bucket taps, 13 plastic buckets, approx. 20 15 litre pails with lids, approx. 20 down line 3/16 taps with line, 7 larger diameter ones. Already sold my Evaporators . plus 3 75 litre storage containers. $50 for it all, just want it gone. Removed it yesterday. Will need hosed off. Located In New Tecumseth. Thanks.

[Run Forest Run!]

Drip................drip.......drip....drip.. dripdripdripdripdrip.:D

[Dlee]

Doing the same where I am to Karen but its running tomorrow should be a better day fingers crossed:lol:

[Run Forest Run!]

Things have only really started within the past week. So far I have collected 384L of sap and made 4.2L of syrup - some light and some amber. I have a backlog of both sap and nearup. Had to fill my four propane tanks at Costco this afternoon.

I tested the sap's sugar content for the first time today. My trees are averaging 2.75% and the ones I tap across the street are 3.3%. The weather is looking promising for a bumper crop of sap tomorrow and I will be boiling by mid afternoon.

At the moment I have 16 taps here and 15 across the street. I intend to install a few more taps unless these 31 start to overwhelm me. If the long term weather forecast looks less than favourable I will drill more holes. This year I resisted the urge to tap early and am glad I did.

[Run Forest Run!]

How is everyone else doing in this area? My trees are pumping and the sap is from 2.75 - 4%. Five propane burners going so that I can make the most of my time outside today. This is what sugaring is all about. A perfect spring day. Did I mention I haven't even had breakfast yet?

[Fireguy124]

Collected 200L from 40 taps this morning. It was running good yesterday in Dufferin county


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[Run Forest Run!]

Had six inches of snow last night and got a call from my neighbour to say some of the jugs over there were overflowing. Looks like another very busy day. Have made just under 18L so far this season and am very pleased. Still haven't caught up boiling all of my sap in storage and now I am adding more.

[Run Forest Run!]

102L today. By 11:30 pm I had all of my sap boiled down to nearup. Had four propane burners running. It's freezing out there tonight. I don't think I will ever be warm again. :o

[Fireguy124]

What’s everyone’s plans with the upcoming weather? Trying to decide whether to pull taps or ride out the warm spell, looks like it might cool off again next week.


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[ennismaple]

Depends on you exact location. Can't hurt to ride it out and see what syrup you are making by the middle of next week.

[Fireguy124]

I'm just west of Orangeville. It's going to be 13-15deg for sat sun mon Won't freeze again until tue night.


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[Run Forest Run!]

What’s everyone’s plans with the upcoming weather? Trying to decide whether to pull taps or ride out the warm spell, looks like it might cool off again next week.

I am leaving mine in Fireguy.

[Fireguy124]

Pulling my taps today

40 taps/buckets
1844L of sap
51.5 L of syrup
Sugar content was high this year.

Going to 3/16” gravity lines next year


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[brokenjaw]

Anyone in central have tapping on their mind, lol?

I know I do, but unsure as it’s hard to judge with this strange weather winter...

[paulflikkema]

Yes I too have tapping on my mind. I went for a hike through the bush on Saturday just to see how it looks. Keeping a close eye on the weather as well. For me the challenge is I have a trip to Europe booked from March 25-April 11 so I want to try and get as much done before that time. Last year i went to Italy for 2 weeks at the same time and I was able to get 1 run in before the trip as it stayed cold until almost the end of March and I was lucky to get 1 run in after I came back.

[SAS]

I tapped yesterday. I do 50 on buckets. A couple of sun facing taps were leaking sap. Thinking I might get an early run this weekend!


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[eeks]

I'm going to tap today 110 taps. looks like we might get a couple of days before it gets cold again.

[paulflikkema]

Well I managed to get 16 taps in on Saturday mid-day. I checked them yesterday at around 4pm and there was approx 15 liters combined. I went back this morning and there was just over 40 liters so I collected that and hauled it to the house. Hopefully things start running better today and fill up all the buckets by the time I get home tonight. Would like to get a decent amount for an early season boil on the weekend. Anyone else tap as yet?

[Maplesapper]

Plan to tap next Thursday- 400 taps
Parry Sound is still in a deep freeze but temps look to swing late next week- so they say

[Stevenick]

finished tapping last weekend
2366 taps
Collected 7853litres yesterday and today.
First boil sweetened pans - 10litres finished.

4x14 wood fired
5hp bush mink LOVE it
H20 mini 8 RO

[brokenjaw]

I do 250 taps just north of Barrie - tossing up between tapping this weekend or next. This weather is hard, starting to get warm, but lots of sub zero days in the 14 day forecast. Feel like this will be a short season... 😢

[Maplesapper]

Hey Brokenjaw- Lets hope late season not short season.
2012 was a super short one for us

[brokenjaw]

Hey Brokenjaw- Lets hope late season not short season.
2012 was a super short one for us


Finger crossed good sir!

[TonyMo]

First year for me!!! I'm jumping in with both feet. Just about finished building an oil tank evaporator. I will be tapping 50 trees at my cottage near South River/Sundridge. I will be watching this thread closely.

[Maplesapper]

First year for me!!! I'm jumping in with both feet. Just about finished building an oil tank evaporator. I will be tapping 50 trees at my cottage near South River/Sundridge. I will be watching this thread closely.

So I guess you will be starting a tab at Kidd Home Hardware !!
Enjoy

[TonyMo]

^^^LOL. Great store and helpful staff!

[naturenitwit]

Hey there. Anybody in Minden/Haliburton area seeing sap. I am heading up this weekend to tap.

Ralph

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[Maplesapper]

I hear that Broadbent has already had one run.
Not too far as the crow flies

[paulflikkema]

Well I did my first boil last weekend. Did not get as much sap as I was hoping but was good enough for a quick boil and package. Here is a picture of my 2019 amber syrup on the left and this years first run of Grade A Golden syrup on the right.
21132

[Bruce L]

Where’s Karen (RunForestRun) at this year? Haven’t seen any posts from her on starting up

[naturenitwit]

Well I put in 50 taps in Minden on Sunday. South facing trees were running pretty well. I will be back up on Friday to see how it ran.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200311/8cb292af69b82de672f229ffa0e62ed1.jpg

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[Hkb82]

So how is central Ontario doing?

[Wmmaple]

So how is central Ontario doing?

Really just getting started in our area. Weather looks good for the next 3 weeks. Snow base has dropped from 36” to about 16” in the bush. The sugar bush has turned out to be a great place to social distance. 40 litres of finished syrup, evaporater is full of sweet, 850 litres in the feed tank for today. Minus 2 this morning, going up to 8 Celsius.

[Wmmaple]

Anyone else experiencing lots of sugar sand this year? I usually drain both pans and flush with water after every boil but this year I have to do complete cleaning. 1/16” of sand in the front pan again after yesterday’s boil, killing the boil rate.
The syrup is clear with no sediment, but what a pain.

[Maplesapper]

yes- loads of sand.
I actually use a couple of prefilters pulling the near syrup off the arch- seems to help
Only bottled one batch and it came out cloudy.
So, I presume its time to order some new cloth coffee filters

[Wmmaple]

Well finished boiling last 900 litres Friday. Pulled the taps Sat morning and started cleaning up. Only the totes left to pressure wash. Could have went one more week, but made enough syrup and the wood pile was getting low. With the social distancing I was able to spend a considerable amount of time at the shack. It turned into a haven for us and the kids. Last week with bedtime rules relaxed, they were able to sit outside in the dark and listen to the tink of the buckets in the perfect quiet. Completely mesmerized. Made 114 litres of syrup, fought sugar sand the whole way, but the syrup is crystal clear with no sediment. I made more Fancy then ever before. Plannning for next year already.

[Hkb82]

Time for central to start talking lol

[paulflikkema]

Well I just went out and did some tapping. The sap was running pretty well seeing as how the temp is -2 degrees today. Hopefully everyone has a successful season!

[Maplelane1]

In Peterborough here and plan to tap next week. Producers on tubing are tapped here but not a lot of flow. Temps still need to improve in my opinion. Looks like we’ll have a pretty standard year in these parts as far a timing. Good luck all !

[brokenjaw]

hoping to get taps in this weekend.... And that its not a super short season!!

[Canada Maple]

Tapped about 150 trees, all on 3/16 tubing. Not much slope, but I tap high and still think it flows as well as buckets and a lot easy to collect and clean at the end of season. My spouse made order that no buckets are to be hung. With the winds tonight, she might be right. I will sneak a few buckets into the bush just for old times sake. Taps were running pretty well on Saturday and Sunday, but just let it run onto ground to clean out lines. Ready to go once the next warm up arrives. Hope everyone as a great season.

[Hkb82]

I’ve also gone the gravity way and like you not the best slope. I use a short ladder to gain extra height when needed. I’m prob at a gain of 10-12 feet over 300-500 feet of line. I don’t think I collect as much as I did with buckets but I think it’s cause the time it takes to thaw the lines. Some days it’s 1pm before I get a drip going. The buckets would be dripping once them temp were up. I just added more taps lol. Sure makes my back happy though. I still put a few buckets out just cause I love that dripping sound in the bush when I collect them and have a coffee and captain.

[JWB27]

12 taps last weekend in front of the house. Spikes and buckets. Ran some on Sunday and again yesterday.
49 taps in today at the cottage in Muskoka. Probably another 20 tomorrow. All drop lines to pails. It will be a bit before it runs. Must be 2.5-3 feet of snow in the bush.

[paulflikkema]

How is everyone's season going? I shut it down yesterday and pulled my taps. Got a total of 620 liters of sap this year from 18 taps which is the most I have done in the past 5 seasons. Boiled in 3 separate batches over the past 3 weeks. Boiled down the final 320 liters yesterday and will finish it off inside today.

[MustardSeedMum]

Hey!
I’m back this season after a 6yr hiatus.

Saturday was a great day for us - 630L from 110 taps and it was still going strong in the evening.
My big sugar maples only really woke up starting Wednesday last week.

A bit bummed that this warm spell might be it for us. Anyone know quickly sugar maples bud out?

Boiling hard on a new-to-me 2x5 flat pan to keep sap from spoiling in this heat.

The trees are again dripping sap slowly today - still clear. I’ve never been able to figure out buddy sap.
Probably keep it aside so I don’t spoil what’s currently in the pan.

[paulflikkema]

Anyone here in central Ontario tap yet for 2023? I am ready to go but the long range forecast keeps changing and extending the cold. I did not tap at all last year due to some personal challenges so really looking forward to getting back out this year.

[Hkb82]

Central Ont has been pretty quiet the past year or two. I’m wondering what other folks are doing this season date wise.