Anything Happening North of Duluth?

[jeepv8pwr]

Newbie here, just about an hour straight north of Duluth. Got 25 trees tapped, some mature, some not so much. Nothing running yet here. Anybody getting any action up this far north yet? What can I expect from 30 total taps? How often will I need to be checking them? (tubed into 5 gallon buckets with hole drilled in lids. What kind of sugar content is typical around the Western Boundary of the Superior National Forest? Would I need an evaporator for this many spiles or would a large stock pot work? thanks and happy mapling.

[TerryEspo]

Hey Jeep

I am not from Minn. but on a map same longitude, we are more north than most of us here.

I have about 50 taps in so far in the last week. Only smaller trees that have direct sun are giving a small, small amount of sap for maybe a couple hours a day if above freezing. Nowhere near enough to save or collect.

If your forecast is the same as mine, this weekend it should start flowing. Starting Thursday day temps are going to be above freezing and the nights dropping below, until Monday, that is 4 days of what we need to get sap flowing,,,,it should.

Let,s keep our fingers crossed this weather kicks in the start for us Northerners.

Good luck

[jeepv8pwr]

Terry, it is looking like the weekend will be in the temp range. Ill keep u updated if things start flowing. Thanks for response.

[mrnorthshore]

Hi Jeepv8pwr, welcome to the trader! We have a 1800 tap sugarbush in Finland, near the silver bay area. We have only got 30+- gallons of sap this year, I hope that this sunday will get things going. When We started out we used 7-8 buffet pans on block and build a fire under and had a small 6" smoke stack out the back. It worked ok for 50 or so taps. Last year we had really high sugar 3-3.5%. I hope we get the same this year!

[North!]

Hi Jeep, We had a 2 day drip a couple weeks back when the temps got into the 50's. Collected around a thousand gallons. I was surprised at how quickly the sap flow picked up considering how bone chilling cold it had been prior to that warmup. It has been quiet since that time. Last year was a late/cool season but the sugar content ran in the 3.3 to 3.5 range the entire season. This allowed us to make an average crop even though the temperature rarely exceeded 35 degrees for most of the season. We made 80 percent of our syrup after April 15th. This season looks like déjà vu all over again. I did put out 10 bags on never before tapped trees and they produced well. As much as 2 gallons of sap per tap on some days. I would expect your trees to produce similarly. You may be a busy person, but that's better than the alternative. We are located 90 miles north of duluth at Lutsen, 6 miles away from Lake Superior. The temperature was -7 when I awoke this morning. Unbelievable winter. Good luck to you. If you get bored check out our facebook page at Sawtooth Mountain Maple Syrup Company where we posted a short video of that sap flow that occurred earlier this month.

[jeepv8pwr]

A few drips today, hit 40 degrees. Approx. 28 inches of snowpack still in woods. Sucks for walking around. Looking at 6-12 inches Sunday into Monday, hopefully the meteorologist are wrong!!! Meanwhile caught some crappies through the ice.

[chad]

well at least the fish are biting you won't starve