DONE in SW Indiana

[kiteflyingeek]

I'm calling it! This has been a weird season but I was able to make more syrup this year than last so that's a good thing. Going to tubing this year (both 3/16" & 5/16") helped with that as did adding about 15 taps. I've got just about 13 gallons in jugs and another 3 gallons out of the syrup pan waiting to be finished.

I know you northern guys probably haven't even started yet but that is the difference in where we live. I hope you get a better season that I did: 2 or 3 runs in Jan & early Feb and then highs of 20*F for 3.5 weeks. Then the weather went to 55*F highs and 40*F lows. The trees ran all week this weekend that is what saved my season. I was really expecting to have buddy syrup in the latter part of the week but I think the trees are just now beginning to be fully thawed out. I probably could have collected & boiled yesterday (Friday) and maybe even today but I was tired and had to keep working the day job.

Thought I'd post that my season has finished.

--andrew

[Run Forest Run!]

Congrats on a good season Andrew. Sixteen gallons of syrup is fantastic! Cross your fingers for those of us just starting. :)

[sawyerkirk]

We finished today also. It doesn't sound like we had quite as good of a year as you did. It was just so stinkin muddy! Got the 4 wheeler stuck trying to empty buckets got the tractor stuck trying to get to the 4 wheeler. Ended up packing 300 gallons of sap 1/4 mile through the muddy woods. Made some buitiful light golden off the first batch. Second batch not so pretty and this last one isvery dark. Next year I'm going to buy my syrup. (Not really I just say that about now) I told my daughters to hurry up and invite all of their friends over forbreakfast so I can remember why I do this.

[dsaw]

Also done in SE IN (Crawford County). I managed to get about 2 runs before the big freeze (not enough taps out though), and the weather/mud has killed me since. Out of about 30 taps, got 2 gal. Due to mud, I left about 30 gal of sap in a tank at a bottom of a hill (still there since last weekend, will have to wait till much drier climate to retrieve trailer). This is a remote location for us, so we can only check it 1-2 times per week; so we also lost some sap due to buckets running over. Previous sap haulers were a tractor and a CJ-7, which did fine until last weekend (very muddy). I now finally added an ATV, so hopefully the mud issue will be fixed in the future. I had a bucket shortage, so I didn't get as many taps out as planned. My new Smokey Lake 2x3 did great, but I hardly had a chance to fully exercise her. I planned to add another 50+ taps, but the season already ended. I was late prep'ing for the season to prep the building to stay in while at the land. I have the components to put together an RO, but that's obviously not necessary now.

[Gandolf]

Still hanging in there, as of yesterday anyway we were still getting some sap. I am hoping the cold for the next few days will get us one more run. We have produced some golden syrup this year, something that hasn't happened in the last two seasons. Should make some of my customers happy, although most folks (including my wife and I) prefer the darker syrup. Keeping my fingers crossed........

[TonyL]

All done here in Owen county, plan to pull taps this weekend. We ended up with 625 gallons of sap from 55 maple taps, and almost 50 gallons of sap from black walnuts. The maple yield was 14 gallons of syrup, some of everything...light, medium, and dark. Hope to try and finish the 3-4 gallons of sweet from the walnuts in a couple more days, fingers crossed.

All told, it was a good year. We surpassed our goal of 10 gallons of syrup, we upped our tap count over last year, my wife showed she can run our homemade evaporator every bit as well as I can, if not better, the cone filters and filter tank helped a bunch, and our new cupola made for a much more pleasant experience in the sugarhouse.

But the one thing we did that made the biggest difference, was tapping early. Those January runs saved our season. Taps have been in for eight weeks now, still dripping but sap is cloudy. Well satisfied.

[Locust Farms]

All done in Gibson county. Maples are flowering. sap stopped. collected 1250 gallons of 1.2% sap. Lots of boiling for small amount of syrup.

Dwight

[gibsonman]

We finished up last week. Usually we are done collecting and boiling after our pancake breakfast on the first weekend of March but this year the trees kept running so we kept boiling. The bad part was with the warm weather some of the sap would spoil before we could get it boiled. We didn't make as much syrup as we have before but ended up making around 6 gallons from our 21 taps.

Locust Farms, I'm from Somerville. My grandpa told me one of his buddies made syrup around home but i never knew where. Could this be you? Joe Bill is his name.

[Locust Farms]

Yes Gibsonman. I have coffee with Joe Bill every morning. He was supposed to bring you by to see my system , but cannot seem to coordinate his time,Too much fishing.
My bush is three miles west of Somerville across road from Providence Church. Come visit anytime.

Dwight

[Gandolf]

Heard the peepers last week but didn't want to believe it....... Well, we got a few more days out of it but we had to call it Saturday morning. The sweet we had in the pan was buddy. Spent the weekend pulling and cleaning equipment.

Sap - 915 gallons
Syrup - 15 gallons

[TonyL]

The results from our last finishing session.

[maplefarmer]

Hey TonyL, how much does your small jars hold and where did you get them. Randy

[TonyL]

1.7oz Randy. These are Cracker Barrel "syrup" bottles, but we have the same size on order from Fillmore container, due in tomorrow. Going to use them for the black walnut syrup, since the supply is low and the interest very high.

Speaking of which, how are you progressing on the walnut syrup?

[Run Forest Run!]

Tony, those bottles are beautifully done. The wax is a really up-scale touch.

[TonyL]

After much tribulation, here it is. Black Walnut syrup. We ended up with 29, 1.7 oz nip bottles.

http://i1067.photobucket.com/albums/u434/sprkplugphoto/2965CC75-4C40-43ED-9C8E-524D7E754BFA_zpsqvp0kcgn.png (http://s1067.photobucket.com/user/sprkplugphoto/media/2965CC75-4C40-43ED-9C8E-524D7E754BFA_zpsqvp0kcgn.png.html)

[WI Sugarpop]

It looks great. Does it taste good?

[TonyL]

It's quite good, very sweet with a taste that's different from maple.....just what we were hoping for.

[maplefarmer]

Tony, like the look of your black walnut syrup, well done. I am going to gather walnut sap today, for or 2nd collection, and plan on boiling it tomorrow. I'll let you know what happens.