Done for the Year

[Tapping Wolf]

Only made 10 gallons this year, half of what I hoped for...all fancy, and medium amber, I prefer the dark stuff but ya get what you get...gotta get on with spring and summer

[Indiana-Jones]

We boiled for the last time this year on Sunday. Tonight I plan on untapping the trees and washing up. I'm not sure how much syrup yet, guessing 40 gallons = or -
We have nine 5 gallon buckets stored in 3 refrigerators.

We are to get bottles Thursday.

Good luck to all.

[DougM]

We're done, too. We boiled 490 gallons on Saturday & got 10 gallons of syrup, just over 43 total for the year. That's about 2/3 of an average year, so not what we were hoping for, but it could have been worse.

[Indiana-Jones]

Correct you are Doug, it could have been worse. This is a record for us, but we had to work it to the end. In past years we quit before the trees.

At least I got some exercise. I'm not sure if it is cheaper that a gym membership, but working in the woods is alot more enjoyable.

Chris

[DougM]

Working outside is definitely better, although when we were tapping trees & I got my feet tangled in a branch under the snow & fell flat on my back I was thinking maybe the gym membership was a better idea :)
But there are more workouts to come; we have several trees to get out of the woods & cut up for next year. And clean up from this year, and move the evaporator, and....

[Indiana-Jones]

Yes this is a year to be remembered as a old time winter. I spoke to a white haired gentleman yesterday that likened this past season to what he remember as a child.

It will fun to enter this info in the log book.

[Dutch Ridge]

I put 58 taps out this year, 14 more than last year. I collected 60 gallons of sap on tuesday. I haven't noticed my trees budding yet. Holding my breath for a cold snap this weekend. This is only my fourth year. What prompted you to pull your taps?

[DougM]

After a pretty good Thursday and Friday, Saturday some bags had a few inches and some had nothing by early afternoon. Not really enough to make it worth collecting, and we knew we had about 10 hours worth of boiling on Saturday so we just took care of that.
Overnight Sunday it did freeze, but we like to have at least 200 gallons to make it worth starting up and we weren't even sure we would have that, the runs have been very erratic this year.
The forecast for this week was sunny days around 60, and no nights below freezing so we didn't really expect to get more sap after Sunday. We normally only boil on Wednesday & Saturday meaning we would have had to store the sap in warm weather, so overall it seemed like a good time to hang it up for the year.

[Valmere Farms]

We also finished up on Thursday with our last boil and pulled all the taps. Sap really turned quick is year. Not sure of the total yet but I have 60 gal in glass and 16 gal in buckets in the freezer of almost finished syrup. My first year with the vacuum and RO system and what a life and time saver. I really notice the time savings when I collected the 60 buckets that I couldn't hook up to the vac. It was nice to be in the woods collecting but I enjoyed it more watching the sap being pulled in through the extractor. Research shows that it increases output and with only 50 gal last year with 6 weeks of tapping vs. 3 weeks of tapping this year (also, half as much wood used) and close to 25gal more then last year makes me a believer. It's an investment that should pay for its self in a few seasons. It will also allow me to hook up more taps. I will miss the maple sap coffee though.

[Indiana-Jones]

Valmere, I checked out your FB page and I must say that you really have it going on. Fine job.
Grain, beef, maple and I saw a cellular lease too.

Do you have your own road side stand?

Happy days

Chris

[Valmere Farms]

No roadside stand but I do have store inside the barn. We sell Daylilies during the summer months and get a lot of additional sales from these customers. The free range organic product has a good repeat customer base as well. It's funny how starting out with a few chickens and cows mainly for my family turned into 80 egg layers, 500 meat chicken, 50 head of beef, 6 bee hives for honey, 500 different Daylilies and over 70 gal of maple syrup. I still have a regular 50hr week job as well along with 2 kids under 7 and a supportive wife! I don't want them to grow up too quick by I do enjoy their help. I believe in the old saying the if you enjoy what you're doing the it doesn't feel like work. Cheers!