Tapping New Brunswick 2016

[dscanuck]

So, is anything thinking about tapping yet? Been a string of warm days. Just not sure if it'll last.

[Marvel26]

I literally just walked in the door from my little bush. My trees are mostly reds and they are on flatland, the big ones (3-4 feet in dia) are dry as a popcorn fart, the smaller one and two tap trees are dripping nicely.

Rob

[robertman12]

Good morning! Would be better if i was boiling :)

We tap around 500 trees on buckets and have been Checking the weather 17 times a day watching for anything more than 4 days in a row of the right temps here (about 30 kms from moncton)

Buckets are washed and spiles are ready to go... im just waiting for ...something. a few years ago i tapped a little to early (about 3or 4 weeks) due to an unusual pre spring warm up. Now I dont want to take a chance Im checking on here to see what Felllow sappers are up to :)

Long term weather
4 days above 0
then -2 for 5 days after........

my wife is sick aND tired or hearing about sapping or weather or hearing the side by side going up the woods just to go see haha... One issue i see is that all the reds in my sugarbush have small buds in them due to about 4 days or plus 9 degrees we got in early feb...:(

anyways please if you have anything else to add for this area please !!!!!post it

thanks
Rob

[murferd]

We've been tapping for years & years, never have gotten anything before 1st week of March, it's usually 2nd or 3rd week.

[dscanuck]

Got my taps in, flowing well too. Welcome to the start of the season and here's to a long one.

[Nemo5]

Going to tap this Monday. The long range forecast is looking pretty good.
http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160301/a00dfa3681b1f2d08c530065deb411cb.jpg
In addition to my 100 buckets I put up 500' of 5/16 tubing with 26 taps on it. I am putting a shurflo pump on the end to see if I can get vaccum.
http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160301/a1b453743ea37d16253eb925ad3a310c.jpg
I built this ro for last years season but due to work commitments I didn't have time to really use it. It has 3 150gpd membranes in series.
http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160301/1d8328ba6cd7f491e81d29166755178c.jpg
I hope everyone in New Brunswick has a great season.

[Marvel26]

Nice looking set up! Just a question....is that a carbon prefilter?

[Nemo5]

No it's a 5 micron poly spun sediment filter.

[Marvel26]

I picked up a used RO system on eBay 2 falls ago in anticipation of a sunami of sap from my 103 taps....i didn't need it unfortunately. But it was cheap so I'll have it when the sunami finally comes. Lol

Do you filter your buckets as you collect if so do you need the sediment filter?

[mellondome]

You will need the 5 micron filter. Even if you filter your buckets

[Marvel26]

I picked up another 1500' of tubing and various fitting to go with it yesterday from Briggs maple. Dave showed me his setup and we had quite a chat about the differentiation between maple cream and maple butter. I now understand that NB and NS has a regional confectionery called maple cream which is neither maple butter nor maple candy.

In any rate, he was a very helpful man and based on first impressions a credit to the industry.

Rob

[murferd]

New vacuum pump hooked up yesterday, now just need to hook up new booster & the pipes to it. Taps should be all in today. Sap may start tomorrow or Tuesday!

[robertman12]

Good morning,
Im about 30 minutes north of Moncton and tapped on Saturday. On Sunday I was working on the shack and went home for lunch when i got back most of my buckets had an inch of water in them ;) I use 2 gallon buckets

I hope its a long season !!!!!!!

We finally decided on 404 buckets

[murferd]

We're ready! Today's the day sap should start

[Nemo5]

First boil of the year and first boil on my new 2x3 Patrick Phaneuf pan. https://vimeo.com/159288971

[Marvel26]

Last night was my first 'boil'. It was more of a CRAP I need to finish setting up! Lol.

The Beaver and Cub scouts were here today to see the process. Some were amazed and others appeared completely disinterested. Maple taffy was a hit though.

The boil really started after that which was around noon. So far i've gone through about 80_90 gal of sap maybe more. 3 more barrels left....all are about 2/3rds full so ~100 gal left to go!

[Marvel26]

Today was a great day....~120gal of sap and its still dripping. One tree over flowed 2 5 gal buckets!

[Marvel26]

It has been incredibly quiet this year on the NB thread! I hope that is a result of a great season for all!

I am going to pull the taps this week I think.....so far I have 400+ gallons of sap collected (still one more collection run to do) and 5 gallons of syrup ....I hoped for more syrup from 400 gallons but it is what it is. The semi syrup in the pan may give me a gallon or two more

Had my first real scare while boiling, I had a constant trickle of 8 degree over the boiling point of water (OBW) syrup going for about 20min, 4 stokings, turned my back for 30sec and suddenly the temp was 20 degrees OBW! Doused it with sap and heard a lot of sizzling.....I checked the pan after everything cooled down and it didn't warp....thankfully!

This year was much better than last year....I learned a lot about running the evaporator and lots of adjustments noted for next year!

[pete]

How many still have their taps in

[Fiddlehead]

I do in Cambridge Narrows, but pulling the plug after this weekend. Good season overall.

[ronnie 1]

also pulling the plug this weekend, will have about 35 gallons of syrup

[murferd]

Stopped collecting Sunday April 10. Wood all gone, had a good season. Sap seemed to stay high sugar most of season. Never had any snow, lot better season than we expected.
Bottled last batch on tuesday, ended up with 150 imperial gallons, great year for us.

[MarkNB]

Since I didn't post at all this season, maybe I can be last! I lost count on the exact number of taps, between 64-68 I'm pretty sure. Ended up with about 4.3gal of syrup, which is by far our biggest year. The year seemed to be much longer, and without all the snow, I was able to use my ATV and trailer to collect sap rather than the jerry-can/snowshoe/toboggan operations of the last two seasons. And, we had our son's cub pack by for a tour just last Thursday. I had taken out most of the taps by then, but had left a few in just for show. There was even the very last of the sap on the boiler too!

But, yet again, the rising river chased me off most of my trees before the buds started to swell. Third year in a row for that. Which has got me thinking, how much more sap can you collect with a vacuum system over gravity fed buckets? If I were to switch, I could leave the lines in until the water goes down again. I'd want to make sure making the switch was worth it sap volume-wise though.

Cheers all, that was another fun season. Now for the washing....

Mark