Tapped in Eastern Ohio Jan 30

[SevenCreeksSap]

we started tapping Jan 30 this year, a few weeks earlier than usual But the weather and forecast is perfect for atleast the next week. repairing squirrel damage as we went, finished up yesterday with 146 taps. doesnt sound like a lot but my hill is steep. Not doing any buckets this year due to time and work, but looking for a good season with what we have on the gravity lines. Already have had two really nice runs with about 130 gallons of sap, and had the first boil monday and another today to sweeten the pans. I'll start drawing off with the next boil,gotta keep that first few runs separate, love that light amber first run stuff. that goes in the personal stash.

Just looked at my tapped in post from last year, and this is a full month sooner than last year, and didn't have a good boil until mid march last year. Love the el nino winters in Ohio.:)

[SevenCreeksSap]

Just bottled our first batch of 3 gallons of nice medium amber with that wonderful early season flavor, have boiled three or four times before the cold snap, cleaned up the pans and finished what we had. sap was starting to run again for the first time in about ten days, so all ready to get started again boiling tomorrow.

[Willis]

Great to hear you are off to good start. I finally got tapped Saturday the 20th way behind of what I wanted to be but work and kids put me behind. Switched to 5/16 Sapmeister taps this year and really liking them on my buckets. They are much easier to dump and have a small tube welded on for lids plus made from stainless for better sterilization. Good run Saturday and Sunday , collected 200 gal of 2% from 150 buckets. Today only about 90 gal.

[SevenCreeksSap]

sounds like it was running good for you. been a bit slow the last few days with the cold, ready for a run today and have to boil it off in the morning. Taking some time off work next week to make syrup and work on our cabin. hope it runs good, always a crap shoot planning vacation time around sap runs, but the first week of March is usually pretty good. we've had taps in for 4 weeks now, so hoping they don't start closing off in two weeks, as march is usually pretty good. we tapped in January 2 or 3 years ago and the season went about 8 weeks, so hoping for a year like that again. Finishing off another batch tonight, which always seems to come out between 3 and 4 gallons

[SevenCreeksSap]

well, a short 5 week season for us. we pulled all the taps last week on March 4. the weather forecast is 60s-70s in Ohio in March, with no cold nights. I figured trying to wait and see if a cold snap comes along would have the lines so clogged up with bacteria it would be a mess anyway, and the last couple of small runs were really slow and somewhat cloudy. I've boiled to sweet and froze about 20 gallons, to boil and finish sometime this month. probably my shortest season in seven years of tapping. so far have only finished off and bottled 6 gallons, hoping for at least 4 more with the sweet. Good luck to the rest of you.