Rochdale 2015

[Maplesedge]

Finally, this winter begins to end! Temps looking too good to wait any longer, so just finished putting in my taps. Had to dig to and around the trees to get the milk crates on the ground. Trees still cold enough that I barely got a drip from any of the holes, but I'm ready now for whatever comes. Last year I tapped on 3/7 and didn't get a decent flow until 3/25, but with the next two weeks predicted to get into the 40s every day, it could be better this year. Last year was colder. Have fun everybody, here we go again!

[Maplesedge]

Mid 40's today. Trees still warming up. Only a couple cups of sap trickled out so far. Bees are all flying.

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Had to dig down.

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Look at the crown on this queen!

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This is the king tree, 6 or more gallons of sap per hole on a peak flow day.

[Maplesedge]

Second day, mid 40's again, trees still waking up, maybe a quart in each bag. Not worth collecting yet. Probably be boiling into April again, like last year.

[Maplesedge]

Day 3, high 50's today, gorgeous! Taps all dripping now. Took off my first six gallons. If it keeps up, I could do a small boil on Sunday, but supposed to cool a little bit. Have to wait and see. Big puddles around the trees, ground too hard to absorb the melt off. Sap looking clear as crystal. Sweet and clean. Going to be a nice year.

[Maplesedge]

Day 4, only mid 30's today and winds gusting to 40 mph, so feels much colder. Hardly a drop since yesterday, but still early yet. Looks like I might skip boiling this weekend. Plenty of snow to keep my sap bags cold this year. Dug my evaporator out yesterday, so ready when the time comes.

[Maplesedge]

Day 5, high 30s, low wind but low flow. Not worth collecting. Forecasts for the next two weeks look much the same.

[Maplesedge]

Day 6-1/2. Had to take the electric car to Boston yesterday. Little hole in the wall called Carmen Trattoria next to the Paul Revere House in the north end serves an amazing mushroom crepe in bolonegnse sauce. Home too late to check the bags, but picked up over 12 gallons this morning, so that's about 2 gal per hole. Not bad for this weather. I think rain helps somehow. Maybe low air pressure? Should have enough to do a boil mid week. forecasts looking great for the next two weeks. Woo Hoo!

[Maple Douglas]

Excellent results thus far. I like reading the updates people post.

I have almost 5 gallons total. My milk cartons keep falling off the spile, I cut a fairly small hole and the bottle goes over the lip at the top of the spile. It's fun regardless. My red and a silver about 150 yards in the back are the big producers. My other 2 silvers and the other red are not producing anything at all.

[Run Forest Run!]

Maple Douglas, since you only have a few taps, I highly recommend you use some bindertwine around your cartons to better secure them to the tree. I do that with many of my containers and have never had one fall off since. You don't want to waste any of that precious sap. :)

[Maplesedge]

Good advice, Karen, losing sap is no fun. I tried milk jugs my first year and had similar problems, so went with the five gallon collapsible water jugs cause they were cheap at walmart. Five gallon plastic buckets would work too. That photo of your syrup must be the lightest color I've ever seen.

MD, are you boiling it yet? you can always boil it down a bit and save it in the fridge until you get more sap.

[Maplesedge]

Just finished racking my mead. Only do it in the winter and glad to get the first rack out of the way before I have to boil. This year is the usual dry berry mead (we have a 100 foot row of berries), also a sweet vanilla mead, and a maple mead. Opened a bottle of last year's to celebrate, and it seems to get better over time. But it usually gets consumed too fast to find out if it would age for years.

[Maple Douglas]

Thanks for the twine tip Karen, I'll have to get some.

I'm not boiling yet. I bought a few five gallon food grade plastic buckets with lids and right now I have one bucket fully covered in yard snow to keep it cool. Good idea about boiling down a little bit. I'll keep that in mind. Thanks Jerome!

[Maplesedge]

Day 8. Mid 40's. Steady drip from the south and west holes when I collected at 5pm. Took off another full bag. At this rate should have enough to make a gallon of syrup by Saturday, what with rain tomorrow. Saturday looks like good weather to boil outside, so I guess I'll boil whatever I have. Next week looking good here too, perfect sap weather. Well worth waiting all year for.

[Maplesedge]

Day 9. Was nice and warm today after the drizzly rain stopped, but then a real squall line just blew through and tomorrow's going to be cold. Could have picked some up, but decided to leave it in the bags to keep them from blowing away, it's really howling out there! Ah, nature! I remember boiling outside in a blizzard seven years ago, using one of those pop up screen houses with sides. Wife was right, that was nuts, but I had too much sap and it was the only day I had to boil.

[Maplesedge]

Day 10. Freezing! 20 degrees and wind chill at or below zero. Checked to see if the bags had blown away, and all's well. What I left in them yesterday is all frozen. Guess I might have to settle for a half gallon for my first boil, but could still get a small run by Saturday, which is supposed to be in the 40's.

[Maplesedge]

Day 11. Too cold. Nada. Two week forecast looks good. Mid to late April this year?

[Worcester]

THE SUSPENSE IS KILLING ME!
Collected and boiled about 300 gallons, have drawn off about four gallons of syrup.

things look good in the forecast!

Probably will go right through first week in april.
some of the trees last year were still putting out clear sap after april 7

[Maplesedge]

You could be going til May this year. Never can tell.

[Maplesedge]

Day 12. Cold. Snow. Didn't even bother to look at the bags. First day of spring. Every year I think, can't get much weirder than last year. Every year, I'm wrong.

[Maplesedge]

Day 13. Got up to low 40s after the snow stopped, but made no difference. Still frozen blocks of sap. This could be the first time I've gone 3 weeks before i boiled.

[Maplesedge]

Day 14. Still frozen, but hey, next weekend for sure!

[Maplesedge]

Day 15. Frozen.
Day 16. Just slightly less frozen. Next couple of days should push high 40's, possibly high 50's, so sure to thaw it out some more. Hoping to do my first boil Saturday. What a strange year! A year ago tomorrow was flood stage for my trees, and I had already got one good boil before that. This year, still waiting. Still hoping for 3 boils. Plenty of snow to keep the sap cold in. I've learned to cover a pile with a tarp and it's like a little outside fridge, in the shade on North side of the house. Could be boiling into mid-April.

[Maplesedge]

Day 16. The thaw begins. Steady dripping. May soon be flood stage! How long it'll last is anybody's guess. Some of today's sap was a little foamier than I'd like, but it'll have to do.

[Worcester]

yes it is starting to roll now. What do you think will happen with this warm weather? Hoping that the 3/16 tubing will keep pulling late into the night!

Today I noticed a couple of the "sleeping giants" finally waking up and producing the bigger amounts of sap that I remembered last year. Still quite a bit of now keeping the woods cool!

Weather has been too finicky to get a date together for any event. But come on by tomorrow if you get a chance we will be boiling off at least 200 gallons (hoping more like 400 though) off most likely into the evening. follow the steam!

[Maplesedge]

I think the next 10 days will be the bulk of this season's production. It may seem to be getting too warm at night, but with the ground still frozen sap will probably run all night too. Hope you have a lot of wood. If you run low, Buck may have pine slabs for you, he's always trying to give me some, but I've got enough already. Hope you don't need to sleep much, could be a busy week. Thanks for the invite, you're sure to see us at some point.

[Maplesedge]

Day 17. Dripping away, but not flood stage yet, next week I think. Took off about 9 gallons or 1-1/2 gal/hole. Saturday looks to be cold and snowy again so putting off the boil to Sunday. No shelter for me. Have about 40 gal of sap now, enough to boil, some frozen solid still but it'll thaw.

[Maplesedge]

Dan, just for comparison, this is what my little rig looks like, right as the first whiffs of steam are rising. My collection bags double as IV drip feed.

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[Maplesedge]

Day 18. Ten degrees colder and half as much sap. Colder and one to three inches of snow tomorrow, but still boiling Sunday. Had to put the rock hard bags in the garage to thaw. Next week should be great. The snow and frozen ground keep the trees cooler and 50's during the day should start the pump. But as usual, we'll find out when we get there.

[Maplesedge]

Day19. Cold. Snow. No Flow. Blows. Oh well. Boil what I got and like it.

[Maplesedge]

Day 20. Outside boiling right now. Nice enough day for it. Almost April and just starting to boil. Weird. Latest I ever pulled my taps was April 21, in 2007. Might give that a run for the money this year. Looks like two more weeks anyway.

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[Worcester]

wow looking good!

I do and don't want to be making syrup that late.

Not sure how many more weeks I can ride the emotional rollercoaster with the forecasts.
But hey, this week we are riding high!
I will be boiling all day tomorrow with more sap than last time so hopefully into the evening.

[Maplesedge]

Three weeks and one boil down, reduced ~50G to ~2.5 but still have to finish it on the turkey fryer.

Week 4, Day 1. Trees dripping nicely, refilled two bags today. Still not flood stage.

A friend in Paxton reports he's at 25 G when he'd normally have 100 and his first run was all B, and now it's coming dark. Says sap started at 1 to 1.5% when it should be ~3%

Strange days indeed.

[Maplesedge]

Second stage finishing boil. Almost syrup now.

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[Maplesedge]

Finished. Made 12 oz shy of 2 Gallons from about 50 gallons of sap, pretty good yield. I really should test the sap.

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[Maplesedge]

Day 22. Took off another two bags. Best holes gave 2.5 Gal each, so a good flow, but still not flood stage. looking good though.

[Maplesedge]

Day 24, yesterday. Another 2 bags, 10 gallons, still good, but that king tree has given over 5 gallons per hole on a flood day, so haven't hit that yet. But it's warming up and rain coming, so the real dam could be just about to burst. I'm gonna need more storage!

[Maplesedge]

Day 25. Another two full bags. Steady dripping with air at 58 degrees and windy and ground still frozen. Not a bad combination. Will get as much sap this week as in the previous three. Hope the rain ends early on Saturday so I can get a boil in. Then hold out until next weekend and done.

[Maplesedge]

Day 26. Only one bag today, not even full, maybe four gallons. Mid forties overnight not helping. Got enough for a very windy Saturday boil. Going to leave the taps in and see what happens next week. Pouring rain and lightning as I type this.

[Maplesedge]

Second boil. Very windy and a little sleet but some sun too so a good enough day. Trying to keep the leaves from blowing in.

This could be the last boil. Not sure how much sap I'll get next week, if any.

[Maplesedge]

Day 28. After two days, picked up 7 gallons. Trees still dripping and just enough snow left around the yard to keep sap cold with, so looks like I'll get in one more boil.

[Maplesedge]

Day 29. Cold enough last night I guess, picked up 8 gallons today. Sap still looking good. Buds still small and tight. Finished the second batch, made 7 quarts, so just over 3.5 gallons so far. Pretty good year for such odd weather.

[Maplesedge]

Day 30. Mid 40s and rainy. Not cold enough last night apparently, only picked up a pint between all six taps. Bugs were out yesterday but none today in the rain. Supposed to be a bit colder the next two nights, so still some hope to add to the 15 gallons I've got now. Might even snow. 1-3 inches? If I can make another half gallon at least, that'll be a nice quick boil on Saturday.

[Maplesedge]

Day 31. Cold enough last night, but cold all day too, low 30's. picked up more than yesterday, but still nothing really at just over a quart of sap from 6 holes. I'll leave the taps in until Friday and call it a season. Call it a career actually, as I'm giving my pan and other equipment to a deserving newbie who'll make good use of it. I've learned a lot, had a great time, and made plenty of syrup for very little cost, but a fair amount of work. Best thing I liked about making small batches from micro-bushes is that you can't buy this kind of syrup anywhere, it has "terroir" as they say in wine, it's the flavor of somebody's yard. I've got enough to last a couple years now. Maybe when I run out, I'll tap just one tree and boil it down on the turkey fryer and make "one tree syrup". Or just buy it from you, Dan.

[Maplesedge]

Day 32. Cold enough last night, blowing snow this morning. Not much warmer today yet picked up a full bag and taps are dripping steady. Just the slightest hint of cloudiness. Got enough to make 2-3 quarts now. Every year it's weird. Every year it's good. Did five weeks really just go by?

[Maplesedge]

Day 34, the end. Took 5 gallons of sap since Thursday, taps still dripping and clear, buds still small and tight, but pulled them anyway as I'm doing my last boil right now and that'll do it.

Hey Dan! Finally took out my mead hydrometers and one has a Brix scale and the other a Balling scale, not sure if that's the same but both read 4. So I guess these trees give 4% sap, at least this year. Expłains why I'm getting such a good yield this year.

Cutting up all the scrap wood I can find to finish this batch and then I'm done.

Maybe I'll tap my useless silver maple next year just to make seltzer.

What a nice day to boil. Luxuriously warm this time of the season!

[Maplesedge]

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Just enough snow left to turn the fire off.

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Out of the pan and into the pressure cooker.

[Worcester]

Wow Jerome!
4% is great!
I believe it, our yard trees were upwards of 3.5% the few times I isolated the sap from them and measured it.
It pays to have good trees. time to go wash up... for a couple days!
My one sugar maple 3/16 line was still full stream yesterday, but the pans have been drained and the sap very cloudy. gotta know when to stop...

[Maplesedge]

Yup, it's mostly each individual tree. I just checked the open tap holes as I dropped off some syrup for the tree's owner, and they're all still draining, sweet and clear, but it's time to stop. Most of the snow is gone that I need to keep the stored sap cold, and I can't boil every day. going to finish my last batch today and bottle it. Totally out of wood now anyway. It was a great season.

[foursapsyrup1]

We started at 4.5% and ended at 2.5% blended. Best season sugarwise that we've ever had in 20 years. Running mix of about 50% sugar maples and 50% reds and Norways.

[Maplesedge]

Cool. Glad you had a good season too. Also good to know that 4% is in the right range for big old sugars.

[Maplesedge]

Finished the last batch, nice and dark. Almost a gallon from about 25 gallons of sap.