2015 season report

[Mr. Red Maple]

Hey I know not all of us are done with the season but those that are could you please post how your season was. If it was good or bad and what state you are located in. I live in southern NH and i didn't have a good season but I want to know how your season was. Thanks mr. Red maple

[Cedar Eater]

This was my first season, so I really have nothing to compare it to, but I ended up with a gallon of syrup per 5 taps. Considering that most of my trees were frozen woods trees, that doesn't seem too bad to me.

[Tweegs]

0.3 gallons of finished syrup per tap would be a great year for us.

This year we got 0.22 GPT.

I’d call it fair to middlin’ for my place here in south central Michigan.

[TunbridgeDave]

We had another good year in Central VT. Made just about 1/2 gal per tap. I threw away a lot of .8% sap at the beginning, but it got nice and sweet during the short season we had again. My first boil was 3/29 and last was 4/21 with some pretty cloudy sap at 1.2%. It still made Dark Robust but tasted strong.

[brookledge]

Record year for me .6gal per tap
Keith

[Vic99]

Second year. Eight taps in MA. Season 6 weeks last year vs 4 weeks this year. Production increase from .66 gallons to 1 gallon. I'd call it a win.

[MichtonTree]

First year for me, .375 per tap in Connecticut.

[eagle lake sugar]

It looks like it was a good year for the producers more to the South. Up here, it went from -15 degrees April 6th. to 60 degrees and no night freeze by the 20th. We had maybe two weeks that it ran decent. All you can do is set up the best system you can and hope for the best. We have no control over the weather.

[madmapler]

I made 1200 gallons on 3200 taps in spite of missing most of the early part of the season and having numerous issues. All in all it was a real tough year for me with not too bad results in the end. I really spent myself though.

[WESTMAPLES]

.423 pre tap for me

[GeneralStark]

Just under .42/tap here. All excellent quality except the last batch that was good cooking syrup. About 60% GD, 25% AR, 10% DR and 5% VDS. Considering the challenging weather and the fact that I did not have all my taps in right from the beginning, I'm very happy with how the season wrapped up.

[groomer_guy]

We made 5.17 gallons of total syrup this year. Just a little over a gallon of golden and the rest amber. We did not have a good start but it seamed to catch up at the end, only a little too late. We only averaged .246 gallons per tap. We are at 2150' elevation and the trees just stayed frozen longer. We had six boils and the final one was 4/19. We only had two decent runs and there rest were ok. There is always next year.

[TheMapleMoose]

We got about half our normal crop. Great tasting syrup this year, and very high sugar in the sap. Also low invert, or at least lower than we usually see. We had a very short window for sap production. As soon as the days stopped freezing, so did the nights. 2 weeks of weather in the 50s with little snow cover makes a short season for us.

[Mel]

Nova Scotia, very bad.

We traditionally don't get near the taps/gallon ratio as in other regions anyway, but this year was another world of bad all together. Like maybe around 0.02 gallons CDN per tap of bad.

(Yes, the decimal point is in the right place...)

[regor0]

As Red Green would say "we're all in this together"! I'm in the UP of Michigan, and I only got .05gpt. Probably worse than that but I'm rounding up on the syrup total.

[Swagner]

I tapped only 7 trees this year. Couldn't get to the rest when weather was good for running. By the time i was able to get into the woods the season was over. I did fairly well for what i was able to tap. From the 7 trees i got around 1 and a half gallons. Mostly all amber. My road trees did great. Some days got five gallons a day. Made up for the few in woods that barely if lucky gave a gallon a day. Not sure on sugar content but every five gallons i got made me a pint of extra thick syrup. I bring mine 9 degrees over boiling to make it little thicker.

[Randy Brutkoski]

2300 gallons on 5800 taps this year. Which is .40 gallons per tap. not bad

[maple2]

1247gals.Mostly light.Last 2 brls were off flavor.Non vac. didnt do squat.(400 taps) We took 16000gals off our small bush with 870 taps.Pretty good year

[Russell Lampron]

I had my 3rd best season ever. I made 178 gallons from 690 vacuum taps and 85 gravity taps. On Easter Sunday I accidentally pumped the concentrate from 600 gallons down the drain that would have yielded another 12 plus gallons of syrup. I also didn't boil out the evaporator at the end of the season and probably would have hit 200 gallons doing that and with the accident which would have put me at .25gpt. I tap mostly red maples and hitting .25gpt or higher is pretty tough. Most of my syrup was Amber with the rest being Golden. The last boil yielded 16 gallons of off flavored and ropey syrup. (That's why I didn't boil out the evaporator.)

[Marvel26]

Well this was my rookie year and it didn't turn out so well. My plan was to make enough syrup to sell at local farmers markets so I could get the kids involved in money management as well as working with me in the bush. My research pointed toward 45-50 taps to make 10 gallons of syrup or so and that a 2X5 would handle the sap in an acceptable amount of boiling time while allowing for growth. I bought a bag of 100 CV2's and the urge to use them all was too great so I thought...ok 20 gallons would be good to make.

Then reality hit me square in the butt, 82 taps went in the first weekend in March and the remainder went in the 2 weeks following. Final total was 103 taps on gravity. I had one day when the sap "ran" and the rest of the time was barely a drip. Total SAP collected off of all taps was 205 gallons from the first weekend in March till two weekends ago, that's 1.99 gallons of sap per tap for my entire season. Final syrup about 2 2/3 gallons. I had a loss of semi syrup in the pan via a drip I forgot about in my homemade float box which was heartbreaking....there was probably a gallon in that so overall it would have been 3 2/3 gallons for the season. Similar to Mel in my mother province of Nova Scotia, I had 0.025 gallons of syrup per tap

My wife asked if I was going to sell the pan and give up.....this is where the syrup sickness kicks in...my response was, "No...of course not, I have a plan for next year." She then asked if it would cost more money....me,"ahhhh, yeah a little but not as much as I have invested so far...". Her response was non verbal after that.

I may be in trouble, both mentally and maritally!

Rob

[Z/MAN]

My best season so far. Was only tapped for 28 days and made most of my syrup in the last week. Made 21 gallons off 63 taps this year for .333 per tap. High sugar content this year sure helped.

[Mr. Red Maple]

Now I see that there are very different results from different people. Some are saying they had a terrible season and others are saying it was there best. Now what state or province are you guys from saying that it's good or bad? I want to see if there is a relation with how far north you are.

[Russell Lampron]

Now I see that there are very different results from different people. Some are saying they had a terrible season and others are saying it was there best. Now what state or province are you guys from saying that it's good or bad? I want to see if there is a relation with how far north you are.

I'm in Loudon, NH

[Mel]

Now I see that there are very different results from different people. Some are saying they had a terrible season and others are saying it was there best. Now what state or province are you guys from saying that it's good or bad? I want to see if there is a relation with how far north you are.

I think everyones location is already there - top right corner of posts.

Our area has always had lower production than most everywhere else - and we have never seen anything close to the production that most of the NE area has, I could only dream of some of the figures I see posted. Historical records show this. Mostly climate related, but also somewhat soils too I think. But this year was our worst ever.

[BreezyHill]

Rob...I know the state you are in.
I have been in maple since I was 5 (1971),when dad first started the adventure. He died 2010 with no sugaring that season.

Middle son 15 at the time, 2-2011, begged to fire up the Maple operation. We have a beef farm and a commercial feed mill, three sons that do soccer 12 months a year and school seasonal sports. And 4-H and snowmobile club. that oldest and I groom trails.
Family vote was three sons with me on yes and wife was a NO! All the equipment was there, we just needed to pull up the lines...hahaha right. The wife was right again.
Lines were useless. One main that I tried to use, imploded so it was off to Bascoms...2 hour ride for mainline and I alreaady had plenty of tubing, spouts and tees. That season we did 230 or so and it was great. .47 G per tap. Next season was not so good. Last season sucked with the cold and we expanded and fired up the RO...New vessels and membranes were a major expense. So the book keeper informed me.

So this season we expanded some more as the middle son and I had done some great marketing and sold nearly all the syrup in glass in retail outlets. Our marketing plan was requiring a larger supply to grow more so we aimed at 850 and thought we had made that but when washing lines found 2 bundles of drops that had been dropped while tapping in the deep snow and we only washed 737. From that we only made just under 200 gallons for another poor season.

On the bright side it was nearly double the season before and the wife reluctantly didn't stop our plans for hitting 1200 in the main bush. Hooking up the top bush of another 350 will need to wait for another season. And we are already past 25% of expense payed back to the book keeper.

The bright spot is the middle son was excepted to Siena College for Marketing & Business Double Major. Wants to live on campus and has a truck to expand the Sales even more. Oldest son is at Morrisville with his long time girl and they plan to come back to the operation part time also after 2017 season.
So keep working on those money management skills with the kids...it really does pay off; and they get to see the reward for a sweet job well done. So after two more seasons we will be expanding at a faster rate to see what the operation can handle. After the marketing son graduates who knows.
Youngest son is into science and is thinking of teaching but he enjoys the maple also so who knows...he is 17 this year.

My wife doesn't mind the majority of sugaring. But this season I had several break downs so we are planning backup plans and expanding storage. We will be ready for a banner season but will be fine if we have another poor season.

Remember the important dates in her life and all will be good...Mothers Day is around the corner so pancake breakfast with your maple is a great idea!!!

Reason for poor season the last seasons: the main bush is sloped slightly to the east and south so we need early sun to thaw quickly
Open fields to the west limit production on windy days,
the extreme cold of the winters have made for a slow start to the season and then we get high temps in the 50-60 range that popped out the buds.
Snow cover helped to freeze at night this season but previous two seasons we had none.

We had one good run and had two three day runs that were fair. Several poor runs with cloudy days and wind on sunny days. The one good day we pulled in just over 2.5 gallons of sap per tap.

Sugar house is in NY and majority of bush is the border and east...everything is vacuumed to the sugar house.

Our valley trees did a great job for use this season as they as protected from the wind and that line rocked this season nearly ever run. This area is where we will finish tapping this season with a small section on the border line. Don't expect much from those as the wind is a killer; but end of season those trees usually come on fast and hard on those warm days.

Good Luck!

[5050racing]

My best season yet!18.5 gallons in one month,north west New Jersey,some new 3/16 on 7 taps was unreal,added to the about 50 taps! I will take a season like this always short n fast not dragged out! My 5 batches 11745

[Locust Farms]

Here in southern Indiana

Had 44 days that sap ran from 31dec 2014 till 14mar 2015. Had a short run with sugars from 30 mar to 2 april on 7 .

Production, very poor sugar content 1.1 %. Finished season at .075 gal syrup per tap.

Dwight

[CampHamp]

Just over .5 gpt, in Southern NH (north facing hill in Temple). Family and friends will be very happy this year!

[Marvel26]

Now I see that there are very different results from different people. Some are saying they had a terrible season and others are saying it was there best. Now what state or province are you guys from saying that it's good or bad? I want to see if there is a relation with how far north you are.

I'm in Southwestern New Brunswick, just to the east of Calais Maine.

Technically this is my best year ever....but it is also my first ;-)

[Z/MAN]

I'm in Northeast Pennsylvania.

[S&STappers]

Shy of 100 gallons medium to dark amber off 300 taps on tap pullers. About .33 gallons per tap. Boiled over 5000 gallons of raw sap at about 125 gallons/hour. Going to 1000+ taps next season. I see an RO in the future.

[16jharris]

Terrible year, we got only 0.17 gallons of syrup per tap.

[wrushton]

I am in Nova Scotia and again as reported by others .05 a real bad year and hard work to keep everthing dug out of snow , snow won i lost 300 taps under 3 feet of snow.

[jrm]

I'm in metro west Boston and have been done a few weeks. Two boils. Depending on how you look at it, this second season was better than my first as I ended up with more finished (and had a slightly better handle on what I was doing.) however, I had 3x the number of taps, and 2.5 x the number of trees, and ended my season with the same amount of sap this year as last. Due to a shorter season, frozen trees, I'm guessing. Ended with roughly 0.07 gal per tap, depending if I factor in the tap that was dry the entire season.

Still fun. Still sweet. Still planning on next year.

[Flat Lander Sugaring]

260 gal, started season with 600 and added all season. We had 1200 at the end. 460 High vac, 121 on sap suckers and 619 gravity. .21 for season if you figure 1200 all season. So we might have done .28/.30 maybe.
Highland gave us 2.43LB so help a little on bills, now just have to retail everything else

[sapmaple]

2015 started out real slow with a cold March but just like 2014 the first 12 days of April were balls to wall We made 3600 gallons that would be .46 gals per tap It was all Golden and Amber Very happy with the season except I need dark to satisfy some of my customers My neighbor will help me out there I'm in the southern part of the Champlain valley in VT

[maple marc]

34 gallons of dark syrup from 100 taps with buckets. Ratio of sap:syrup was 41:1. Very late start and finish. Last four days of the season--extending into April--saved our ***. Made almost half our production in those four days. No big runs until then.

Experimented with walnut syrup. Made half a gallon on 10 taps. Very interesting flavor: like apple jelly. Pleasant but different. A bitch to filter--had to squeeze it through a paper pre-filter. Probably came through the seams, as it is very cloudy. Not sure I will do it again.