Finished for the year

[Greenthumb]

Here in Livingston county Based on the run(lack of) and looking at the weather pulled our 38 taps. Made almost four gallons. Was able to use my homamde ro machine we only have reds so our sugar content is about 1.8 although it was about 2 a few times. The ro took me to 7.5-8 which made my use of the half pint almost non existent. I did all but one boil on our modified steamer pans on a old propane stove in the sugar shack. Was really thinking we would have had a good season after what winter was like but just goes to show we aren't in charge.

[rayi]

Pulling out too. Bad year 20 gallons out of almost 400 taps

[MidMichMaple]

I'm still holding out for more. Had a good run yesterday. Based on the weather, looks like sap might run on Wednesday. My sugars don't even have a hint of buds yet.

[cpaq88]

Looks like I should see some flow today and Wednesday. But after that, won't be below freezing until Monday at the earliest. Next week looks decent, maybe the budding will hold off from five warm days and get an extra week. Not much in the way of budding yet.

[DonMcJr]

I'm holding off too and hoping... 20 Taps and only got about 200 gallons of sap since March 1st!

I do have to admit it looks like it is just going to be a bad season for us...

[BobMac]

I also pulled mine today . Saturday and Sunday had a good run , today real slow .Had
some ants on the taps on a few trees .First year 12 taps 3 gallons 1 quart of syrup. Can't wait till
next year, I'll be better prepared :):)

[H'Artwind]

That's about what we got, too with 20 taps! And we tapped March 1. Is your syrup a lot darker this last week?

[BobMac]

Yeah a lot darker ,its still running at 2.5 to 2.75 on the sap hydrometer. The yard tree of mine was a real dude 3 taps 1 gallon total
sap measured 1.0 to 1.2 wont be tapping it next year. First batch was real light , next was darker and this mornings boil even darker

[Too Tall]

I'm done. 4.5 gallons of syrup from 20 taps. It's still running pretty good here but I'm out of time to boil. Now it's time to start building my sugar shack for next year.

[michiganphil]

I'm holding off too and hoping... 20 Taps and only got about 200 gallons of sap since March 1st!

I do have to admit it looks like it is just going to be a bad season for us...

Bad season? If my math is correct 200 gal on 20 taps = 10gal/tap of sap. If you figure a 40:1 ratio that's a quart of syrup per tap, which by most is considered to be a "full crop" on gravity. It's definitely not what we got last year! But, this season has not been a total bust.

[bakerrunner]

I pulled taps on Sunday 4-7-14. The sap was still flowing great, but I have just run out of time. I have 15 gallons I'm working on now, and 2.5 finished gallons in the cellar. It has been a great year. Oh, and I gave away about 30 gallons worth too. Once it got going, it was really flowing good. Overall a great season.

[MidMichMaple]

Was surprised to find sap again yesterday. My freeman maple is starting to bud and there were ants in the sap, but it was crystal clear and still smelled and tasted great. Still no sign of buds on the sugars. I might wrap things up on Saturday, but only because I have other work that needs to be done. Still haven't finished cleaning up from the ice storm.

[Sam Caruth]

Pulling mine this evening here in West Michigan, Hasn't been a bad year, but from the winter, it is not what any of us expected. We got down to freezing last night, and the buds recessed. Fingers crossed for today. On the bright side, I can start building a Davy Jones style evaporator!

[mzstein]

Pulled our taps Monday - in the rain . Good year overall . about 800 gal of sap
on 120 taps . It was just way to concentrated - too much sap all at once . I
did a big boil Fri and Sat and finished up Mon and tues eve . It has been a
struggle to keep the sap from spoiling .

Its been above 50 here everyday for the past 5 days and supposed to be 60
Thursday . I never ended up with any Bud sap, but lloks like most of the
trees had budded out today .

I concentrated everything down to near syrup and bulk packaged - now I
need to spend some time finishing and bottling - and getting caught up
with all the things I have been ignoring .

[DonMcJr]

I'm going to start boiling down the 2 Gallons of sap i have on the turkey fryer and build a small fire in the evap to preheat the sweet to add to the turkey fryer in a few hours. Figured I'd boil down what i have left to almost syrup then finish it tomorrow. Then clean everything up and then leave the taps in and see what happens with the cold spell next week. If it flows good then start back up if not then it's all clean for next year!

I guess Michigan Phil that it's an OK season but my tress usually flow so i can't keep up and i have been waiting days between boils and counting today its only my 4th boil...

i expected 10 gallons of syrup and after today i might have 4 gallons if I'm lucky...

[hfitch]

I pulled too. Actually did have some buddy sap on a couple trees but decided to give in for the year. Not great here!!!! More than doubled my taps and only ended up with 1.5 gallons :( But, it was a very, very good tasting syrup!!

[Run Forest Run!]

Heidi, sorry to hear about you lackluster results. I know you were really looking forward to the season and your results were disappointing. Have fun with your chicks!

[MidMichMaple]

Had a small run yesterday that I boiled down to almost syrup. No buddy sap here yet. I did pull the taps on the freeman maple because it wasn't giving much and the buds are opening. Judging by the lack of buds on the sugars, I think the cold spell next week might give me another run. Might as well leave the taps in and see what happens. I'm going to finish all of the almost syrup that I have in the freezer on Saturday, and then if I get more next week it'll just be bonus syrup. It will also be a good experiment to compare Saturday's batch to next week's, if I get one.

[sugarmangraham]

I pulled most of my taps yesterday and boiled down the last 40 gallons. I ran roughly 275 gallons of sap through the evaporator off of 40 taps. Not the best year I have had but not the worst either. I will more than likely pull the rest of my taps today and call it quits for this year and start the cleanup process.

[michiganphil]

... my tress usually flow so i can't keep up and i have been waiting days between boils and counting today its only my 4th boil...


It's been like that for me too. I normally get a consistent sap flow, except for a couple HUGE days each year.

This year my trees flowed for a day or 2, then shut down for 3-4 days. I have only lit the evaporator up 6 times, where I would usually be up to batch 12 or 13. Overall, I have finished my average amount of syrup, just bigger batches with days in between each batch.

[tberryer]

Well, it wasn't like last year, was it, but being my second year I'm learning quite a bit and I'm happy. I put two spiles into each of two trees, one sugar maple and one silver maple on March 10. Even though the weather was warm that week, I think the trees or ground was just two frozen from our deep freeze this year. It took a week before it started flowing and when it did the trees averaged 4.25% for a couple weeks when last year it was 3.25%!! Then it seemed there was either a warmup each week where it didn't flow or a cool down each week where it didn't flow for the next three weeks except for maybe 2 or 3 days a week. I was thinking it was going to be a terrible season, but during the three weeks of flow on/flow off, I collected 37 gallons of sap. The last week or so the sugar averaged 3.25%. In the end, I reduced it to 2 gallons plus 1 pint of dark amber. My kids love it. It reminds me of the slightest bit of licorice and my kids describe it as very maple syrup tasting compared to last years medium amber. So less sap, higher sugar content, better taste, success! I'm leaving the taps in to see if next week brings anything. I'm thinking the buds on the silver maple will be opening by then, but then again, maybe not.

[shane hickey]

Pulled twodays ago cleaned up wait to see what next year brings

[Lethalbowman]

I have 45 gallons of sap nestled into the snow bank in my yard waiting to start what will most likely be my last boil for the season tomorrow morning. The forecast is for another cold spell next week but I am not counting on getting much more sap as a result. I will leave taps in until next weekend just in case and then pull everything. With the batch I am starting tomorrow I expect to finish the season with 2 1/2-3 gallons. I am good with that.

[DonMcJr]

Pulled twodays ago cleaned up wait to see what next year brings

Not waiting huh? Cold starting next Tuesday...How'd ya do this year?

[MidMichMaple]

Was surprised to find more sap from the hard maples today. Hasn't been below freezing for a couple nights now. But the ground was frozen up until just recently, so who knows. Based on what I'm seeing I will definitely leave the taps in for next week.

[ehausinfrats]

I pulled taps today. Still have almost 600 gal to boil. I would say I had a normal year far as finished syrup. Just in half the time. Trees we're not budded out yet. I'm just running out of gas.

[Yellowdog64]

Left 7 taps in to see whats gonna happen next week. But not holding my breath.

[MidMichMaple]

Surprise! It's 28 degrees right now here. That's not what the forecast said. Guess I'll get more sap again today.

[sugarmangraham]

I finished pulling the rest of my taps last night. I was surprised to find 10 gallons off of 20 taps when I got home from work yesterday. Maybe I should have left them in but like others have said I am running out of gas and time. Unfortunately for me this is only a hobby. Life doesn't stop for maple syrup, it only pauses for a few weeks.

[michiganphil]

I pulled my taps on Saturday. Spent the day cleaning buckets, evaporator, and sap tanks.

The official total for the year is 845 gallons of sap from 55 taps, all on buckets. I boiled 8 times for a total of 27 gal + 3 pints of syrup. It's about 1/3 medium, 1/3 dark, and 1/3 B grade.
Very sporadic sap flow this year, but it all worked out.

[BoarsNest]

Pulled the taps Saturday. The season turned out better than I thought. We made 36 gallons of medium and dark this year. About 300 taps yielded 1,472 gallons of sap that we processed. Our sap ran between 1.5 and 2.2 %. Last weekend we threw out some of the cloudy sap that was in the sun. Buckets are washed and the pans are soaking. On to turkey season!

[cpaq88]

Haven't had much of a flow since last week, and with the predicted temps here, it looks to be over. Pulled all 15 taps last night. Ended up with about 3.5 gallons of syrup from 3 batches. First batch was medium to medium-dark, last two were dark. No light syrup all season. Still tasty!