Grassy Meadow Maple Syrup Tapped

[lharris1]

I have been away from internet access for some time. We were 95% tapped on 2/20 and got some runs but got off to a slow start. We are now up to 340 taps (250 in 2005) and have collected 1500 gallons. Flows have not been bad overall and sugar content is higher than normal, running a litle above 2% except for the first run which was really week. We have not had a really good volume day. Looking for next run on Monday and Tuesday 3/5&6. The ground has been frozen deep which is really unusual for us.

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

Sounds like you got your hands full with 340 taps on a 2X6-Luckily the other 2 guys are retired?? to help keep all the sap boiled.

[lharris1]

My brother has a ~400 acre farm with about 70 cows having caves, so he has other things to deal with. So far we haven't had trouble keeping up with the sap. The most we have operated was about 10 hours in a day but we really have not had a heavy run.

Not much running this week so far- a little Monday- too cold Tuesday- Hoping for runs Wed, Thurs & Fri. It has sure been nice boiling with sugar content above 2%.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Larry,

Don't look now, but it looks like it is the last week. Hate to see it end this early, but no freezing after thurs and temps in upper 50's every day thru next Thurs. Hope and pray it changes, I would like to get one more week, but guess we'll have to leave that up to God. 3 weeks is awful short of a season after all the work of getting ready.

[Parker]

Brandon- COME ON UP,,we have knee deep snow and REAL cold temps,,hasent even really ran up here yet,,mabey this comming week,,Ill put you up for the season and you can run the evaporator,,,

[Dave Y]

Brandon,
You are worring about the season ending , Iam worried about it starting.I finshed putting in over 600 taps on the 24th of feb. and had one small run just enough to sugar the pans. hopfully this weekend thing will break lose. good luck with the rest of your season.

[lharris1]

You were right about having our hands full to keep up with 340 taps with our 2x6 evaporator. We are getting 30 gal/hr. I just got back from a hard week at our syrup operation and have not had internet access. Here is the way the week went: Sap started running some Tuesday and had a surge Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. We boiled starting Wednesday afternoon and on Thursday, Friday and Saturday we boiled 13-14 hours averaging over 400 gal/day and each day had a little more sap than the day before. Boiled some Sunday and Monday this week to catch up. The freeze Sunday night yielded only a modest 230 gallons which we boiled off Tuesday. Ground is dry and we need rain. Sanitized our tanks and pulled lines to wait for next and probably last run this weekend if budding holds off.

With the late start we though we would be doing good to get 30 gal but it has turned out to be a good season. We are approaching 0.25 gal/tap. Bottled over 60 gal as light side of medium, about 11 as dark and another 8 as grade B. We’ve got around 5 gal to bottle plus what is in the evaporator.

Good luck up north.

[maplehound]

Always glad to see the season come and even glader to see it go. That is what we always say. I have been there with that many taps or more and only a 2x6 evaportor to work with. One year I mad e 75 gallons on a 2x6 and was told by aonther producer that it wasn't possible to get that much from my 2x6. But we did.

[tapper]

I made 75 gal one year and the very next year I made 80 gal. on a 2x6 with 200 buckets. Both seasons were 8 weeks long. I can count on the season ending here last week of March or first week of April but never know when the start might be.

[maplehound]

It's alot of boiling on a 2x6 isn't it. But it deffinitly can be done if you have alot of time to boil.

[tapper]

Yes! Way too long on a 2x6. I love to boil but there were times I had to dump sap and that wasnt fun. This year I bought a 2 1/2 x 8 and so far have spent more time gathering than boiling .

[maplehound]

We decided one year that our 2x6 was just to slow so after tapping that year we ordered a 3x8. got it just in time for the last boil of the year. Since then we have gone from 300 taps to 700+ taps and again we have those long days boiling. I guess we are just a gluton for punishment. LOL Maybe some day I will be able to afford an Ro. then we can get even more taps. :)

[lharris1]

We are expecting another sap run this weekend going in to Monday. With a little luck we should be over 90 gal on the 2x6. We are fortunate to be retirees and can devote as much time as needed. We can gather and boil at the same time. It has been a lot of hard work. It has been a short season. We were 90% tapped by February 20th so we have made about 76 gal in about three weeks. The whold season is likely to be only four weeks.

[lharris1]

I just returned from finishing out the season. Last Saturday & Sunday were too cold to run. Monday warmed but run was slow with some trees not running. Run continued through Wednesday boiled some Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and boiled out the evaporator on Thursday. Collected over 500 gal in the slow three day run, so that wasn't bad. Finished out the year with 4200 gal collected and made 92 gal. We normally have a ratio over 50:1 and last year must have been at least 55:1. This 45.6:1 was a nice surprise. The 2x6 evaporator on 340 taps was a challange when we boiled seven days in a row (Seven days makes one weak ;-) Good luck up north as the season continues.

[220 maple]

Larry,
Good news that your sugar content was better, Our your trees in open areas?
Almost all my trees are in wooded areas where they compete for water and sunlight. I usually have good sugar content but never get as much water per tap as you and Brandon in Beckley. I usually lose water every year due to lines coming apart and this year was no exception, one day my sugar bush in Grant County ran 300 gal. and my Pendleton County bush which usually runs double, had the main line come apart right before the catch tank, found it around 4 pm. We estimated 500 gallon loss. Hopefully I can get vacuum on that bush next year. Will make it easy to find leaks. I can't complain however I still made some nice syrup. Plenty for my regulars, some dark for a friend in Highland County, Va. And hopefully I and can spare some to a fellow West Virginian in Hardy County who had a miserable season. He had 2000 taps and made 100 gallons. If I could've got all of my 2000 taps open I'm sure I would have easy made 200 gallons plus. This by far was the most intense 4 week maple season I had ever experenced. My Hardy County friend trees did not run when the wind kicked up, Mine has always ran good on windy days, Does yours run on windy days after a good freeze?
Mark 220 Maple

[lharris1]

I have been out of touch due to computer problems. Our trees are mostly in wooded areas, with sugar trees competing for light. A few are more in the open. The new bush we tapped with around 70 taps was unusual - 24 very large trees in 4-6 acres where other trees were under one foot diamater. We tap only hard maple. I agree that it was a short intense season. A lot of our syrup was on the light side of medium which is lighter than what we have made in the past, but none of it graded fancy. I hope our customers don't complain about it being too light. All of it, including the grade B was very good tasting. With this cold weather we are in to now, I wonder if we could have kept our lines in and got some more runs. I'm pretty sure most of the taps would have sealed off.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Larry,

I can't imagine the trees would have ran a drop and even they did, the sap would probably be bud sap and very strong syrup and you wouldn't want it anyway. You are like me and are not going to boil it to sell it in bulk as a grade C for $ 15 a gallon when we get $ 50 a gallon retail

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Just an update as Larry is away from his computer, he tapped all of their trees yesterday and today which is between 350 and 400 taps.

[lharris1]

Thanks Brandon. I just returned home from Grassy Meadows.

It may be too early to tap but the weather forecast gave us the bug. We did tap Monday (272 taps) & Tuesday (100 taps). That is up about 30 taps from last year. The run those days was disappointing - only around 120 gal. Some sunny side taps ran really good and all ran some, but very slow. We are holding the sap for the next run.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Larry,

You might want to start a 2008 thread. I didn't want to for you, just added to last year. Might get ready, it may rock Sat thru Tues if the forecast does what they are saying which is not likely, but we'll see. I may tap one of my 3 bushes later this week, it has about 230 of my 500 taps and hold the other 2 bushes for later.

Here's the link to weather.com for Meadow Bridge. The warmup on Monday and Tues will help get the trees thawed out some. I don't think I have ever had too many good runs in Feb, they are usually somewhat slow.

http://www.weather.com/outlook/events/sports/tenday/25976?from=36hr_fcst10DayLink_sports