Ludlow '07

[powerdub]

Here we go. Let us start by saying we are not ready to start. It looks like the tapping season is upon us so starting Satuday we will tap. The help I thought I had lined up is gone but I am hopeful that the pleas I have made will come through. Never fear, it all comes together, usually. I will post again after the weekend. C U later.

[Russell Lampron]

Scott,

Hope you find somebody to help out. With all of this snow tapping will be a bit harder this year. Good luck and have fun.

Russ

[powerdub]

Thanks Russ,
Have fun is the key here, right?

[Russell Lampron]

I was thinking "this is supposed to be fun" Sunday night at about 11:00 after being up and at it all day since 5:30 am as I was watching the temp gauge needle get ever so close to the draw off temp only to drop back down and come back up again.

I did make some nice syrup though and it will be easier for the rest of the season now.

Russ

[powerdub]

Just a quick note before I fall asleep. 1200 tapped over the weekend, pans sweetend today with about two whole gallons of fancy made. The other 300 or so are going to have to wait a couple of weeks. That is all I can muster for now.

[danno]

Scott, great to see your up and running. Looking forward to followoing your progress. Keep us posted.

[Parker]

Scott-what is the latest?

[Russell Lampron]

Scott,

It's good to hear that you have got that much done and made some syrup. It has been running pretty slow here but I have boiled 3 times and have gotten most of the bugs worked out. It has been one problem after another here. I will be on vacation next week though and should be able to relax some and make some syrup.

Happy sugaring and good luck.

Russ

[powerdub]

Glad to hear I am not the only one having trouble, sort of. I think we are 17 gallons strong, mostly medium. Everything has been starting to smooth out except some pesky vacuum problems I can't figure out. I hope we don't get any more snow this weekend. All in all, its starting to come together.

[powerdub]

Boiled tonight, Nine and a half gallons of medium. It boiled so well I wished we had a thousand gallons to boil. That don't happen very often. Sap was still running when I left, I hope the tank runs over in the morning, I am calling in with analglaucoma tomorrow because I just can't see dragging my a$$ in to work due to a case of the runs. I am also short on supplies but that is another story.

[Russell Lampron]

Scott,

I didn't boil last night although I should have. Had the best run of the season yesterday and my 600 gallon bulk tank is 115 gallons from the full mark. I wanted to save some sap for the upcoming open house weekend but I am going to boil some tonight so that I have room for todays run.

Russ

[powerdub]

I have not checked in for a while so here is where we are at as of tonight. 156 gallons mostly dark. Some medium and B mixed in here and there. Yesterday we had the kindergarten class over for a good time and tapping demo. After they left we had a chance to relax and watch the sap run. It ran the hardest I have seen it run in a long time. That double vertical was dumping every 45 seconds. I felt like a little kid watching that. So far so good this season.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Scott,

Glad to hear from you and glad you are having a great season. Keep it up, I am pulling for you!!!

[powerdub]

Time for another check in. Up to 205 gallons or so. Mostly A dark and B. Happy for a break but I hope it kicks back in again. We have had some of the best runs I have seen in a long time. Very low sugar though. Call me a fool but I am still holding out hope that we make some light syrup this year. The frost is aweful deep here and the last time we had frost like this it took a long time to thaw out. When it did we lightened some but that was before we were cleaning out spouts and the sap quit just as it seemed the syrup was lightening up. That end is covered this year as we put all new spouts out there. I still remain optimistic, even if we don't get into lighter syrup that this will be a banner year.

[Russell Lampron]

Scott,

It is good to hear that you are having a record year. The only record I am going to set here is that it will be the longest season that I have ever had. I don't know if you will make any Fancy syrup but the sap looked good at my house so I am hoping that I might get back to grade A. I hope so I need some to fill orders that I have.

Russ

[powerdub]

Tonight we made the lightest fancy I have ever seen. We had a small run but it made nice syrup. More later, deadliest catch is on...........Back, the taste was a little funny so we, through a very complicated process of elimination, narrowed it down to the defoamer. The stuff stunk. Funny thing too, I just bought it three weeks ago. I should have just kept last years. Oh well, chalk up another first for this year.

[powerdub]

I guess it was not the defoamer, quit using it, same taste. Maybe metabolism, not sure what that tastes like but it may explain a few things.

[Russell Lampron]

Scott,

It's too bad that you have an off flavor especially with it being the lightest syrup you have ever made. After making dark, darker and darkest for over a month I couldn't believe the medium amber that I was making the other night was really syrup. The hydrometer said it was though and it tasted like medium too.

Russ

[802maple]

Scott- I buy syrup for Maple Grove and the most prevailent flavor that is out there so far is metabolism. There are a couple flavors from that, one is a musky-earthy taste and the other is a sort of chocolate taste, sweet but not maple.If it is real bad it sometimes gets graded as commercial and if it is not to bad it gets a grade or 2 penalty, but with the price of bulk syrup being where it is, it is certainly worth making

[HanginAround]

802, we made one small batch at Ed's that had a definitely woody/earthy/musty flavour to it, VERY noticeable when you taste the syrup plain, not so much on ice cream LOL. So... I guess the question is why... it was a mid season batch, weather never got that warm, everything was clean and gathered and boiled quickly. So is this preventable, or just something going on in the trees that came and went?

[802maple]

According to the powers that be from Proctor and other testing facilities it is some sort of prebud that will come and go with the"metabolism" of the tree. In other words you can't do anything about it.

[powerdub]

290 and still going. I still have that off flavor too but Bascom will buy it. Even if it does not clear up this has been one heck of a year. Those new spouts have really paid off, we have not dropped vacuum all year.