Eastern Ontario 2017

[Big_Eddy]

Yup, that's the case. Just 50 buckets catching the drips, one spile per tree. We tapped Friday, February 17 and the trees have been kind again this year. I can't explain it although it sounds like Big_Eddy to south of us is having some good runs too.

I'm about 15 km due south of Bushfrog, to the east of Frankford.

180 buckets (all volumes in Cdn Gals = 4.54l)
Sun 19 105 gals
Mon 20 155 gals
Tue 21 65 gals
Fri 24 25 gals
Sat 25 60 gals
Sun 26 65 gals
Mon 27 90 gals

Boiled Tues, Wed, Sun, and yesterday.
Have the 90 gallons from yesterday in the tank to boil tonight, plus whatever comes today.

Our season total was 90 litres (filtered and bottled) as of Saturday evening.
Have another 35-40l ready for filtering after the last 2 days.

(Note: We boiled 450l on Sunday and produced 20l of (67.2 Brix) syrup. That's about 22.5:1 - much better than 40:1)

[JeffB]

Sunny in cambellford right at this moment ..
Sure beats the rain the fog and the drizzle I been in since Monday morning !

[Big_Eddy]

Sunny in cambellford right at this moment ..
Sure beats the rain the fog and the drizzle I been in since Monday morning !

We can sure use some sun to dry up our trails. It's getting pretty mucky and rutty in the low spots, especially after the snow from last weekend melted.

[Galena]

My trees want sun, especially the biggest ones. Just got sap from three of them. The little bush maple continues to be a good producer, and one of my late runners is starting to kick in. A little concerned about one of them, though, it hasn't really done anything much this year...yet. However it is also close to one of the consistent producers, which is also bigger than it, so thinking that they share a taproot? Is that possible?

[JeffB]

The verdict is in...my trees are running wide open 475 liters since Monday morning.. that's a average of 4.5 liters per spiles....will see what Wednesday brings ....

[Big_Eddy]

The verdict is in...my trees are running wide open 475 liters since Monday morning.. that's a average of 4.5 liters per spiles....will see what Wednesday brings ....

Complete opposite here today. Yesterday was good. Today more bugs than sap (15 gals from 180 buckets)

[Lespetras]

Complete opposite here today. Yesterday was good. Today more bugs than sap (15 gals from 180 buckets)
Me too! Almost like some of my bigger producers have quit for the season. Does it have anything to do with the super warm spells followed my freeze spells? I'm wondering if I did in fact tap too soon.

[Clinkis]

I hear ya on the mud. A few sunny days would be welcome that's for sure. Using my Big tractor for collecting which works really nice but ruts keep getting deeper and deeper.

[Big_Eddy]

I hear ya on the mud. A few sunny days would be welcome that's for sure. Using my Big tractor for collecting which works really nice but ruts keep getting deeper and deeper.

We have been using our gator if there isn't that much sap. Much less ground pressure than the tractor. But it's only good up to about 60 gallons. After that the sap weight exceeds its braking ability on our hill.

[Bruce L]

Finished off just over 30 gallons today,didn't seem to be a lot coming in on the vacuum,left it on anyway and found another tank full after supper. Haven't checked the sap for sweetness,but it sure has picked up! 1.5-2 gallons every 10 minutes now,keeps my wife busy bottling

[DrewCP]

Turned around 400+L of sap into concentrate today. First boil on the new pan and arch. Run's like a champ. Somewhere around 45L (12USG) per hour. Can't really ask for much more from an 18"x48". May be able to squeeze another 5L/1G per hour on a high pressure day but who knows.

[Galena]

Still twiddling thumbs here...think I got all of 6l yesterday...yayy, fireworks!

ETA: just got home from small road trip, sun out, sap in pails, will probably collect mid-late afternoon to make it worthwhile firing up stove. FINALLY!

[ennismaple]

Our sap barely ran yesterday. We got 2300 gallons (1/2 GPT) plus the 1500 from the weekend so we boiled it. At times the releaser in our New Bush was dumping at 3 minute intervals (100 GPH) but then the sun went in and the north wind kicked up and it slowed down to 10 minutes!

I didn't measure the sugar content of the sap coming in but it must have been high because we made over 110 gallons and I started with an empty flue pan. The first runoff was 63LT (the contents of the syrup pan from last week's boil) and by the end of the boil it was probably closer to 70. It was some of the prettiest syrup I've made! The sap quality was great with no crud in the tanks. I got 70+ gallons of syrup through the first filter in the press before I needed to swap it out.

I am still optimistic that we have 2 good weeks in front of us. The 10-day forecast looks ideal and the snow forecast for Friday will help as a re-set. Because we're on the eastern end of the lake the west wind blows cold air off the ice into our woods so we'll freeze most nights if it gets close to zero.

[Galena]

Just got 18l sap in. Good, cause I really didn't want to make another microbatch of only 2-3l from what I currently have nearuped down for batch #4.

[Bricklayer]

Been a great 2 day run for me. Got over 200 gallons from 100 on vac and 30 on buckets in 2 days. Sap is still comming in strong. Still got a huge iceberg in my tank so I'm going to wait till tomorrow night and RO it and boil. Should be a good run tomorrow also with it freezing up tonight.

[maple75]

Starting to run in the north end of the valley, collected about 60 litres today from 80 buckets... it's not that much but it's our biggest single day collection this year so far. Hoping it's just starting! Finally have enough to boil this weekend.

[BrutemanAl]

Monday I collected 47 L, yesterday sucked poop, only got 33 L, was sure I would have much more, but no go, tree's were not giving me the love lol. Im good with it though, I had to catch up a little, so tomorrow night I should be caught all up and ready for more, if it happens.

[JeffB]

Im just leaving Thunderbay tring real hard to get ahead of this weather rolling in to make it home to see what.. or if trees gave me any significant results

[Maplelane1]

First post. And first time tapping.

Tapped 7 Sugars at 5 pm on Wednesday and by 6 pm today I have so far collected 10 gal of clear sap, and they continue to drip! Not sure if that’s good production or not but regardless I’m ecstatic and planning to boil on Sunday.

[Run Forest Run!]

Welcome Maplelane1. :) Your trees are doing you proud. That's a very respectable sap run. Have fun with your first boiling session and then break out the French toast.

[Galena]

First post. And first time tapping.

Tapped 7 Sugars at 5 pm on Wednesday and by 6 pm today I have so far collected 10 gal of clear sap, and they continue to drip! Not sure if that’s good production or not but regardless I’m ecstatic and planning to boil on Sunday. Sure sounds good to me Maplelane! Whereabouts you located? Like which county?

[Lespetras]

Well, unless something changes. I think this morning was our last boil. Strange season indeed. Hardly any sap flow from our trees in the past week despite having good temps.
This last boil produced 4350 ml of syrup, using 165 litres of sap ratio 1:37, sugar content 2.3. We are happy with our numbers this season, regardless of the strange weather patterns!

Good luck to all in the coming week or 2, but I think the Petras clan is tapping out!

[Lespetras]

OK.. OK..
O have been convinced to leave the taps in for a bit longer. fingers crossed for another run or two!

[TurkeyJohn]

Hey Les,

I'm not far from you, closer to Kingston, right by Rideau Acres, we had a good run yesterday, was thinking of pulling taps too, perhaps this weekend. I agree, things have slowed way down from earlier in the season. I'm glad we tapped during that warm spell when we were second guessing ourselves. It's been a great year for us too, the most ever sap and syrup. Has me thinking bigger pan for next year. Do you know of anyone local with pans they'd like to unload?

Keep posting neighbour, nice to see we're not alone with this condition, or obsession, whatever.....

TurkeyJohn

[Lespetras]

Hey Les,

I'm not far from you, closer to Kingston, right by Rideau Acres, we had a good run yesterday, was thinking of pulling taps too, perhaps this weekend. I agree, things have slowed way down from earlier in the season. I'm glad we tapped during that warm spell when we were second guessing ourselves. It's been a great year for us too, the most ever sap and syrup. Has me thinking bigger pan for next year. Do you know of anyone local with pans they'd like to unload?

Keep posting neighbour, nice to see we're not alone with this condition, or obsession, whatever.....

TurkeyJohn

Hey neighbour,
I honestly don't know anyone that has extra pans.. we only use steamer pans ourselves.. that being said, we'd also like to upgrade.. I'll keep an eye out and let you know.
Yes gonna finish up soon. We are at Washburn road. There's a few of us small time syrup makers in the area. I like comparing notes also.
How many spiles do you have?

[Maplelane1]

Sure sounds good to me Maplelane! Whereabouts you located? Like which county?
Hi Galena. We’re in northern Peterborough County.

Pulled off about 2 gal this am but when we got home after work today the pails were empty. It was cool today (+1 and rain) so I’m thinking that may have slowed things (??) but it’s supposed to dip tonight and jump to 6c tomorrow, so I’m hoping we get another run. Regardless, we’re boiling on Sunday.

[DrewCP]

Big day yesterday. Turned the first batch of concentrate into syrup. Ended up with about 10L of syrup. Great looking stuff. Also ran another 500L of sap into about 25L concentrate. Finished it today and ended up with over 16L. We collected late yesterday and now have another 200+L of sap in storage. Looks like our season is finally getting started.

[DrewCP]

FYI,
Careful with any roadside gear. Scum bags everywhere..... Only a few minutes from my place. Close to Toledo I heard.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/sap-collector-equipment-theft-leeds-1.4050060

[Lespetras]

FYI,
Careful with any roadside gear. Scum bags everywhere..... Only a few minutes from my place. Close to Toledo I heard.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/sap-collector-equipment-theft-leeds-1.4050060

Thanks for sharing, that's crazy!!

[Galena]

Thanks for sharing, that's crazy!! Yeah, that is...wonder if KyleBaker is OK? he was running a couple bushes if I remember correctly.

Also I found a handy-dandy way to calculate what boiling point of water should be at your location: http://virtualweberbullet.com/boilingpoint.html Interesting to see that I've been right all along with using 210 - 211 as a base!

[NTBugtraq]

Yeah, that is...wonder if KyleBaker is OK? he was running a couple bushes if I remember correctly.

Also I found a handy-dandy way to calculate what boiling point of water should be at your location: http://virtualweberbullet.com/boilingpoint.html Interesting to see that I've been right all along with using 210 - 211 as a base!

I'm missing why 210-211 should be used as a base? My thermos are adjustable (for the boiling point of water), so I just stick them in a kettle outside near my arch and bring the water to boil and adjust accordingly.

[Bricklayer]

I've been using this app. Uses the closest weather station to your location. I've calibrated my thermometers many times this year and numbers were spot on. I've tried to prove it wrong a couple times but it's super accurate with the boiling temp of water. I set my drawoff to the syrup temps also and I stay .2 degrees below the posted syrup temp and it was spot on. Give it a try.
http://mapletrader.com/community/showthread.php?29580-boiling-temp-app&highlight=Saptapapps

[Galena]

I'm missing why 210-211 should be used as a base? My thermos are adjustable (for the boiling point of water), so I just stick them in a kettle outside near my arch and bring the water to boil and adjust accordingly.

That would be for my location, not necessarily yours.

[TurkeyJohn]

Hey neighbour,
I honestly don't know anyone that has extra pans.. we only use steamer pans ourselves.. that being said, we'd also like to upgrade.. I'll keep an eye out and let you know.
Yes gonna finish up soon. We are at Washburn road. There's a few of us small time syrup makers in the area. I like comparing notes also.
How many spiles do you have?

Hey Les,

Only 16 spikes, we've only silvers and norways, no sugars, so I collect a lot more for less.

Bumper crop this year though, best year yet. I really need to start tracking and writing stuff down. But I'm more a roll with it type....

Finished our season today, pulled spikes while the last bunch boiled. Surprised that some buckets had no sap, only a bit of mold to clean up....

Great season had again, but they still don't charge enough in stores...

TurkeyJohn

[Galena]

Les, remember how you were saying you had insane amounts of nitre? Same here, batch #4 been a mutha to get filtered through...and it's still several hashmarks under Brix, grr. So have to fix it. Debating whether or not to add sap from today but think I won't, it'll just screw things up further. Glad paper coffee filters are cheap!!

[NTBugtraq]

If anyone has run out of bush to filter, I still have a ton of sap to boil, on Country Rd. 48 just west of Balsam Lake Provincial Park, just west of Coboconk. Any and all are welcome.

[Jeannette]

Hey Les,

I'm not far from you, closer to Kingston, right by Rideau Acres, we had a good run yesterday, was thinking of pulling taps too, perhaps this weekend. I agree, things have slowed way down from earlier in the season. I'm glad we tapped during that warm spell when we were second guessing ourselves. It's been a great year for us too, the most ever sap and syrup. Has me thinking bigger pan for next year. Do you know of anyone local with pans they'd like to unload?

Keep posting neighbour, nice to see we're not alone with this condition, or obsession, whatever.....

TurkeyJohn

What size pans are you currently using


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[JeffB]

I'm thinking of upgrading to a 2x6 raised flue pan set for next yr ...so I might have a 2x4 hybrid pan for sale . I can let you know if your interested

.

[Bruce L]

Hey Jeff,got a young lad near me thinking of upgrading to a flue pan next year. PM me pictures and price and I can let him know

[Kyle Baker]

All good here! Nobody messed with my stuff yet, though I'm just down the road from where the theft was.

[Clinkis]

Sap still coming in well with help from vacuum. Fired up pump yesterday at 2 and by 9 had a 100 gallons. Fired it up again this morning around 9:30 and brought in another 100 gallons by 1. More then triple per tap then my buckets. Looking like the end is in site though. Calling for a freeze tonight then nothing for a week. Hope for another run tomorrow and then probably time to pull the plug unless the forecast changes.

It's sure been a strange year! A year of extremes. Reasonably please with my results but I'm sure glad I tapped early when I did against my good judgement or it would have been a very disappointing year. Should end up with a little over 300L. I would venture to guess I would have ended up with less then 200L without vacuum.

I know it's been a disappointing year for some but here's hoping that it finishes strong for everyone !

[maple75]

It's been disappointing here. I tapped a few trees in February's warm spell to see how things were. Wasn't much flowing so I waited it out. Put my 80 taps in march when forecast started looking better. The weather just never seemed to cooperate. I collected 280 liters (60 imp gallons) of sap so far this year. Boiling it all his weekend. Hopefully this week will bring a little more but the forecast doesn't look good. Last year I had 40 taps and finished 38 liters, I think I will be lucky to see half of that this year from twice as many taps. I guess it ain't over yet though!

[Lespetras]

It's been disappointing here. I tapped a few trees in February's warm spell to see how things were. Wasn't much flowing so I waited it out. Put my 80 taps in march when forecast started looking better. The weather just never seemed to cooperate. I collected 280 liters (60 imp gallons) of sap so far this year. Boiling it all his weekend. Hopefully this week will bring a little more but the forecast doesn't look good. Last year I had 40 taps and finished 38 liters, I think I will be lucky to see half of that this year from twice as many taps. I guess it ain't over yet though!

I know it's been a strange year. Hopefully you get some more sap.. your up in Pembroke area, you should still go for a few more weeks yet.

[Galena]

@ maple75...don't call it quits just yet! Now that there is finally a warm spell you may get a few more good days of sap.

@ KyleBaker....glad to hear that they haven't tried to pilfer any of your stuff. Are you tapping the bush near Merrickville too?

[Lespetras]

Hey Les,

Only 16 spikes, we've only silvers and norways, no sugars, so I collect a lot more for less.

Bumper crop this year though, best year yet. I really need to start tracking and writing stuff down. But I'm more a roll with it type....

Finished our season today, pulled spikes while the last bunch boiled. Surprised that some buckets had no sap, only a bit of mold to clean up....

Great season had again, but they still don't charge enough in stores...

TurkeyJohn

Hey John,
That's fantastic that your having a bumper crop year. I wouldn't say the same for us, but February probably gave us much more than expected! Had we not tapped back then, we wouldn't have made as much. I haven't actually pulled the spiles yet.. gonna wait another week, but I don't expect much, just want to bring my totals up to 50 litres of I can

And Susan,
I hear you about the niter.. what a bugger the filtering is.. we think it could be sugar sand.. it settles a bit different than the nitre.. looks grainy

[DrewCP]

Hey Les,

I'm not far from you, closer to Kingston, right by Rideau Acres...... Has me thinking bigger pan for next year. Do you know of anyone local with pans they'd like to unload?

TurkeyJohn

TJ,
Not sure exactly what you are looking for but I may have a 24"X48" flat pan for sale. It was purchased new from Atkinsons a few years ago. All stainless and welded. We've upgraded to a hobby arch setup so it's kind of just sitting up in the shop. I can grab some pictures this week if you want.

Drew.

[DrewCP]

Just got a call from Scotch Corners. We're now swimming in sap. Apparently we now have over 600L stored and with a freeze tonight expect another big collect tomorrow. Looks like we'll do a 2 day boil starting tomorrow.

Pleased with the results so far and not a single spec of cloud. We almost always have a cloud like precipitate form in our bottles within 24-96 hours. Not huge and it always settles within 2 weeks but bad enough that other than a couple "test" bottles we bulk bottle everything, let it settle, then break it down into 2501ml and 500ml Kent's. Wouldn't want to offend someone by giving them free, less than perfect syrup. (sarcasm abound on the last comment!)

16317

[Run Forest Run!]

Those look gorgeous Drew. I'm jealous to hear about your sap tsunami. We didn't get a single one of those here this season.

[Galena]

...Susan,
I hear you about the niter.. what a bugger the filtering is.. we think it could be sugar sand.. it settles a bit different than the nitre.. looks grainy

Hehe, Les sugar sand and nitre are one and the same thing! Both grainy though this batch does look more like sand... got something like almost a good 250ml of nice tan-coloured nitre as opposed to the more usual grey/muddy/black sludgey stuff. but it's all good ol potassium nitrate, aka saltpetre, and just for fun this year I am collecting my nitre and drying it out...want to see if I can make my own explosive out of it! muwahahahaaaaa ;-)

ETA: collected almost 38l sap today, so happy....and yes I am bracing myself for the sap tsunami cause my trees produced from 10am on. All weather conditions favourable and they've been ready to go for awhile now. And now they're going.

[BrutemanAl]

Pretty sure I will be pulling my stuff come Wed or Fri. I collected 27 ltrs on Saturday, and added it to what I was working on boiling, shut down boiling around 9 pm saturday night due to sleepyness, and just left it sitting in the garage like I always do tucked off to the side where it is safe.... so I thought.... grrrrrrr !! Sunday morning after breakfast, the boys went out side, about 20 mins later the oldest comes in from the garage crying and says, "daddy I am sorry, but I tried walking by your syrup and spilt it, not all of it, but allot of it". WELL, dad was not a happy camper at that point, they were not to be on that side of the garage, to many things on that side that can harm them, they know this, that side of the garage is dads work area, that is where all my tools and wood working stuff is, so they know not to be over there, all he could tell me is he was walking by it and it fell over. GRRRRRRR, thank god it was not on the turkey fryer boiling when that happened, good grief.

Thought we would have a good day yesterday for sap, but come 4 pm when I went to check, probably not even 1 ltr. I will collect either tonight or tomorrow and that will be it, not the greatest of years for me. No idea just yet how much I collected or have finished, not going to do any addition until everything is done.

[Lespetras]

Hehe, Les sugar sand and nitre are one and the same thing! Both grainy though this batch does look more like sand... got something like almost a good 250ml of nice tan-coloured nitre as opposed to the more usual grey/muddy/black sludgey stuff. but it's all good ol potassium nitrate, aka saltpetre

OK.. good to know, because this definitely looked different from our other usual niter experiences!

[Galena]

OK.. good to know, because this definitely looked different from our other usual niter experiences!

Yep I should post a pic...the nitre from batch #4 is a nice warm beach-sand look to it unlike the more grotty lookin stuff. Usually it's muddy grey/brown but I think last year was the year I got nitre that was almost black!

@ Al...ouch on all levels. Probably not practical to try and partition off the garage and kids will be kids. Maybe you can squeeze a gun safe or similar container which you can securely lock up?

On a happier note, glad that I was able to rescue my professional-chef grade $$$ Taylor digital thermometer, where the LCD end took a dunk in water when I was cleaning it off...hell I went all the way to Hendrix in Brockville to get it and at $30+ they ain't cheap...so I did the only thing you can do with damp electronics, put it in a bag of rice and tightly sealed it up, left it for two days....and was actually planning to go back to Brockville to get another, as today I am planning on bottling and like to take the heated syrup off at exactly 185...but dug this one out of the bag o' rice, hit the button and it turned on and it back to working as per normal. Yay! :-) And trees gave me a good amount of sap yesterday and anticipate a good run today. Tomorrow not so sure as it'll be rainy but we'll see.

[JeffB]

Ouch that hurts AL.. good to hear kids didn't hurt themselves in any way ..
Just remember you can always think " I know you don't like
table syrup on your pancakes but if u hadn't been "walking" by you would have real maple syrup " lol you can think it but never say it lol .. kids will be kids tho

[JDP]

Hey Galena.....

If you want to eliminate that sand, wait til your syrup is below 190 degrees before you filter it. Syrup still produces niter until its below 190. I think I read that once in Dr. Perkins posts. Since we have applied that rule, all of our syrup has been crystal clear with no sand or impurities.

[TurkeyJohn]

What size pans are you currently using


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Using a single 12x24 by 8 inch deep pan, thinking of doubling it next year for my barrel evaporator, hotel steamer like LesPetras is using...

TurkeyJohn

[TurkeyJohn]

Hey John,
That's fantastic that your having a bumper crop year. I wouldn't say the same for us, but February probably gave us much more than expected! Had we not tapped back then, we wouldn't have made as much. I haven't actually pulled the spiles yet.. gonna wait another week, but I don't expect much, just want to bring my totals up to 50 litres of I can

And Susan,
I hear you about the niter.. what a bugger the filtering is.. we think it could be sugar sand.. it settles a bit different than the nitre.. looks grainy

Yeah, I pulled mine Saturday as well, whilst the last batch boiled down. Didn't catch much the past week and the warm forecast and rain this week didn't inspire much confidence in any further runs. It's been great, quite happy with this year, already making plans for next year, need to shorten boil downs, so need a bigger outfit or pans....

TurkeyJohn

[TurkeyJohn]

TJ,
Not sure exactly what you are looking for but I may have a 24"X48" flat pan for sale. It was purchased new from Atkinsons a few years ago. All stainless and welded. We've upgraded to a hobby arch setup so it's kind of just sitting up in the shop. I can grab some pictures this week if you want.

Drew.

That might be just what the doctor ordered Drew, please do send pics, I'll measure the barrel up tonight and see if it'll fit, may have to MacGyver it, but sound good...

TurkeyJohn

[Clinkis]

Hey Galena.....

If you want to eliminate that sand, wait til your syrup is below 190 degrees before you filter it. Syrup still produces niter until its below 190. I think I read that once in Dr. Perkins posts. Since we have applied that rule, all of our syrup has been crystal clear with no sand or impurities.

The rule is not to go above 190 when reheating to bottle. If it's already been boiling then the nitre has already formed but reheating cold syrup above 190 can cause nitre to reform. All my syrup is filtered strait off the evaporator at around 221 and I have no issues with nitre. I tend to go a little heavy because it's easier to thin heavy syrup when bottling then have to boil more off because you need to filter again.

[Galena]

Hey Galena.....

If you want to eliminate that sand, wait til your syrup is below 190 degrees before you filter it. Syrup still produces niter until its below 190. I think I read that once in Dr. Perkins posts. Since we have applied that rule, all of our syrup has been crystal clear with no sand or impurities.

Thanks JDP, good idea, I do ensure that it's at 185 when bottling it....and with 99% of all my batches, take it to 224-225 when finishing it, and have had nowhere near the problems I've been having with this batch in terms of sheer volume of nitre. The fact that my good digital thermometer was also out of action til recently didn't help matters.

[ennismaple]

I'm sure the sap is pouring today! Friday's sugar snow made the trails really sloppy but it also added a bunch of moisture and kept the sap crystal clear.

Thursday was a monster day. A couple of drums we made got up to 74LT with great clarity.

Saturday was a surprise. We got more sap than expected but had great sugar content. It was a later night than expected.

Sunday morning we drained the evaporator pressure washed the flues. Overall they were pretty clean which we attribute to the reduction in foam because of the auto-defoamer we got from CDL. The RO was on just after noon and we fired up about 3pm. The RO was done by 7pm and we were out of the camp by just after 9pm. The sugar content was again excellent and we had several drums of syrup made that were over 70LT - not bad for the first week of April!

I've always said we can make half our syrup in a good week. We got close to that in 4 boils over a 6 day span! Hopefully the snow we have left plus the ice on the lake keep us cold enough to get through this week's warm spell.

[JeffB]

Doesn't that just figure..3 days of good runs collected 1400 liters and now I can't boil it..grrrr:mad:
Work called just after I collected today and I got thrown into a caustic soda holding tank spill ....there goes my chance of getting home before Saturday .
That pretty much ends my season ! :mad:

[Motoman89]

Anyone else disappointed with this season? I tapped in March just after the nice weather in Feb and got next to nothing. With the weather looking brutal and warm for the next week I am pretty sure my season is over and my biggest daily haul was 60 gals from 118 pails. Most of the trees that over flowed buckets last year seemed to struggle to make even a quarter of a pail. Thought today we'd have some sap and left the bush with 9 gals. Guess I am buying syrup this year.

[Run Forest Run!]

Motoman89, I'm with you. No big sap runs and crazy weather. On. Off. On. Off. I'm just over 1/3 of last year's syrup total. The biggest downside is that it takes just as long to clean up your maple syrup supplies when you make 10L as when you make 100L.

[Gerrrr]

I did not tap until March 17th an have made about 30L of Syrup off of 110 taps. Aboutb1/3 of last year as another poster mentioned.

Really wild weather and I don't know what I missed from mid Feb to mid March.

I added lines and Shurflo pump to half the trees and built a mini RO system so a little frustrated that they did not get a good workout. Now it is just more stuff to clean.

Will boil the sap that ran yesterday in the monsoon tonight.

[Galena]

About to go out and see if monsoon resulted in more sap flow or just lots of tree pee. Frustrating season. Off and on, like Karen said. And despite having carefully filtered yet again, still have suspended nitre in the batch I bottled last night and yes I took it off at 186. *sigh*...

ETA nope. Same amount of sap in all buckets except for #9 which is traditionally a late starter anyway. Starting to think that there may be no sap tsunami this year :-(

[Big_Eddy]

I think I'm done. We collected about 45 gallons of sap on Sunday evening and there was nothing yesterday. (not surprising) Forecast is not encouraging.
Last night I boiled down everything that we had in the tank and now I just need to drain the flue pan and finish what's left using the syrup pan only. Probably get that done tonight.

It was an on and off season for us, but overall better than 2016
………………………………………..2016………..2017
Buckets…………………………..185……………180
Tapped…………………………..27-Feb………19-Feb
Done……………………………..03-Apr……….03-Apr
Days…………………………………36…………….43
Sap Days………………………….19…………….20
Sap Total Gal Cdn………….1347……………1235
Syrup Total litres……………142……………..150
Ratio……………………………..43 : 1……………37 : 1
Syrup l / tap…………………..0.77…………….0.833

(Note that the ratio is calculated based on bottled syrup versus collected sap. It does not take into account spillage, tasting, amounts absorbed in the filter or over filling. It always surprises me how 20l of syrup in a finishing pan ends up as 15l in bottles)

[Clinkis]

Just checked weather and forecast appears to have changed for later this week (at least in Peterborough area). Looks like a good freeze Friday night and sunny Saturday. I thought I was done collecting yesterday. Managed another 150 gallons off of vacuum which I was surprised and pleased with. Barely a litre from 10 buckets around the house. I was planning on starting to pull taps tomorrow but may hold off til weekend to see if weatherman is right. Buds still look tight.

Keep your fingers crossed folks maybe we're not done yet!

[ennismaple]

We've got about 1 GPT that ran Sunday evening through this morning. Not bad but not the sap tsunami we hoped for.

If the long range forecast holds we might be done by early next week. We might get one freezing night between now and then. The +18 C forecast for Monday & Tuesday will likely be the end of it.

I estimate we missed about 0.25L/tap by not being ready for what ran the week after Family Day weekend. That amount would get us from it being a meh... season to an OK season.

[Run Forest Run!]

Just checked weather and forecast appears to have changed for later this week (at least in Peterborough area). Looks like a good freeze Friday night and sunny Saturday.

I checked our forecast based on what you posted. Same here! OK, so the buckets are staying up until I see what happens. Maybe there is a little more I will be getting before I start cleaning everything for the season.

[northwood]

Here in the northern part of syrup country, (North Bay) We've had 2 boils and produced a wopping 14 litres from 100 taps. looks like 2 or 3 night of -2 to -5 later this week and then double digit highs into mid april. I tapped March 18 and since then we've experienced the deep cold and then the extreem warm. The snow cover went from 12-16 inches to exposed ground on the south slope in 3 days. So far looks like a poor 2017. I'll definitely hold out for a couple weeks and hope for good sap run. Good thing we have a reserve from last year.

[Clamer33]

I am just minutes north of Belleville, and after the one and only big sap run of the year last weekend we hit the 1 LPT of syrup. I have had the pumps running all day and night since last Sat. Starting to slow down, (thou the high winds this evening sure had the lines running good, when I was leaving) The sugar is dropping .1% a day. We ran most of the season at 2.5 to 2.8 which has been the highest since tapping this bush a few years ago. This morning we were at 12401 gallons of sap at 1.8% and 213 gallons of syrup. Wasted about 1000 gallons of sap at the beginning of the season to clean what may have been contaminated membranes that were supposed to be cleaned from CDL.
We started tapping Friday of family day weekend and had all the pumps running that Sunday. Buds are starting to break, no off flavored syrup yet. Hopefully a few more days to go. Planned for 200 gallons on 800 taps so anything extra is a bonus. Thou the wood pile is going down fast.

[ennismaple]

Yesterday was a good day - not spectacular but good. Sugar was still decent at 37:1 We made about 20 gallons of Dark-Robust at the start of the day but it lightened to 60LT once The Beast got rolling at full speed and the new concentrate pushed through to the front. The sap coming in is getting tougher to pre-filter going into the RO causing it to shut off from time to time when the supply pressure drops.

The freezing temps Friday and Saturday night will help extend things a bit but I'm not hopeful that we can get through +13, +20, +19 and +12 with no freeze up from Sunday-Wednesday and still make syrup that doesn't make your face pucker up! The fat lady may be warming up her voice...

[Run Forest Run!]

Sounds like a pretty decent day ennismaple! I'm hopeful that the forecast lows here on Friday and Saturday nights will give a last gasp for me. On the other hand I've heard peepers for the past three nights. Not great. I'll do my best to keep them off the 401 so that they don't find you too soon. Good luck with the weekend!

[Big_Eddy]

I am just minutes north of Belleville, and after the one and only big sap run of the year last weekend we hit the 1 LPT of syrup. I have had the pumps running all day and night since last Sat. Starting to slow down, (thou the high winds this evening sure had the lines running good, when I was leaving) The sugar is dropping .1% a day. We ran most of the season at 2.5 to 2.8 which has been the highest since tapping this bush a few years ago. This morning we were at 12401 gallons of sap at 1.8% and 213 gallons of syrup. Wasted about 1000 gallons of sap at the beginning of the season to clean what may have been contaminated membranes that were supposed to be cleaned from CDL.
We started tapping Friday of family day weekend and had all the pumps running that Sunday. Buds are starting to break, no off flavored syrup yet. Hopefully a few more days to go. Planned for 200 gallons on 800 taps so anything extra is a bonus. Thou the wood pile is going down fast.

Chris - glad to see you back. I've seen the truck parked a few times so knew you were boiling. Big difference between vacuum and buckets. We have had no sap since Sunday, less than 5km away.

[ennismaple]

Sounds like a pretty decent day ennismaple! I'm hopeful that the forecast lows here on Friday and Saturday nights will give a last gasp for me. On the other hand I've heard peepers for the past three nights. Not great. I'll do my best to keep them off the 401 so that they don't find you too soon. Good luck with the weekend!

Thanks Karen! I hope you get another kick at the can this weekend.

We got 1/2 GPT overnight, plus what runs today and tonight should make for a long day tomorrow. We're desperately trying to go from a bad to an OK season before we hear the peepers! We still have lots of ice on the lake and that creates a micro-climate.

[JeffB]

Hi all..
Well I'm done..I arrived back home today and found stored sap really cloudy and nothing in collection sites ...Soooooo I pulled taps "I'm tapping out" ..
Returned my cloudy sap back to the earth as a offering to the sap gods for a good run next year.

Drain the pan and finish it off then start the cleaning process this weekend .
Good luck to those who are still plugging away at the season .
I will add up the numbers and tally up all the totals of bottled product .
I don't think I hit last year's total that's for sure !

[Clamer33]

Yes big eddy only the one big run this year. Everything else has been like 1/2 GPT a day. This is the most I have run pumps around the clock. Gas bill will be high this year. We are still running. Pulled up alost 2000 gallons since yesterday morning. I always waiting on my RO. Think it's time to upgrade to the 600 GPH. If anyone's is looking for a Hobby RO. Let's talk

[JeffB]

I'm interested in the RO . Email me I will private message you my number to text or email

[DrewCP]

We ran our last 500+L of sap on Tuesday. Made around 15L of syrup. There is no question we could have come up with enough for 1 more boil but decided to pull the taps and clean up instead. Dad and I both needed to move on to other things this spring.

Nice and short. Tapped on March 17, all cleaned up by April 4.

I thought we had all 65 buckets on but it turns out we only had 50. There was a whole stack that didn't leave the shop. I thought something was amiss when I was collecting but honestly only got to collect once this year. I currently live 40 minutes from my parents place where we tap. They did almost all the sap slugging this year. I was lucky enough to be there for 2 of 3 boils and all 3 "finishes"

We've had a perfectly average season. 50 trees tapped, 3 400-500L boils, 40L of syrup made. This will keep us in syrup all year with lots and lots of 250ml and 500ml bottles to give away.

Very happy with our new CDL 18"x48" Hobby Evaporator. We ran the same amount of sap as usual but slightly quicker (even though the new pan is smaller) and used about 25% less wood. Also, for the first time EVER I didn't smell like smoke after loading the arch all day! Really clean running, well sealed, efficient unit. Already looking forward to next year.

It's crazy to look at this Eastern Ontario thread and see how spread out the results have been. It seems like 30 minutes North, East, South, West of any 1 location can have wildly different results.

[Galena]

...It's crazy to look at this Eastern Ontario thread and see how spread out the results have been. It seems like 30 minutes North, East, South, West of any 1 location can have wildly different results.

yeah exactly, that's just how it is! Impossible to offer advice to local noobs asking my advice other than to shrug and tell them what to watch for, and when the trees dry up or the sap turns, pull your spiles then. Got 15l over last couple days but maybe this weekend will produce something.

[Kyle Baker]

Hey Galena, ya, I tapped down near merrickville as well, but I tapped it later in March when the weather kind of looked right and only put about 20 taps down there. It was very disappointing, I only gathered maybe 45 gallons total off those taps. I'm pulling everything now... total for the year was 21 litres of syrup off of 36 taps. I tapped fewer trees this year which was a stupid idea, but I only boiled 3 batches, so I didn't work that hard this year either. All the taps at the merrickville spot were on tubing into 2 55 gallon drums, so ive only got a few barrels to clean up and 18 buckets from my yard. Next year I'll do my usual 50 or so again I guess.


@ maple75...don't call it quits just yet! Now that there is finally a warm spell you may get a few more good days of sap.

@ KyleBaker....glad to hear that they haven't tried to pilfer any of your stuff. Are you tapping the bush near Merrickville too?

[Galena]

Think I've made a grand total of 10.5l this year, a far cry from last year. Maybe just maybe this weekend will be it...?! Meanwhile still messing around with a few litres that will make 2-3l for batch #5 but not holding my breath. Very glad I still have about 2 gallons from last year in reserve.

What a frickin frustrating year.

[Clinkis]

Finished off the last of my sap, drained and finished off what was in my evaporator and everything bottled. But taps still in with fingers crossed for one last run this weekend. Weather still looking very good for Saturday and ok for Sunday with lows predicted of -6 and -2 respectively and warm sunny days. It seems every year I hold out for that one last late run and always end up being disappointed. Here's hoping we get it for a change. That said, I have 302L of syrup from 265 taps which already exceeds my 300L goal so if we don't get another drop I'm happy.

Here's hoping that everyone who's still in the game drowns in sap this weekend!

[halladaymaple]

The weather has not been the friend to producers with buckets from sure. I put out 40 buckets a year to go alone side my 700 pipeline with vac and I noticed only 1 really good run with buckets. The pipeline and vac produced very well. I had a really good week and boiled 4 times in 6 days and made 300 litres 1/2 my haul in 4 days. I haven't pulled out yet, I think we might be in for a run Sunday. Still making medium syrup now.. but that can change quick. Hope everyone gets another kick at it before it's over

[Galena]

Right now we are *enjoying* weather better suited to BC...which is why I left BC in the first place and returned to Ontario! Trees no liking all this damp though maybe my cold-weather guy, #9, has produced some, haven't checked yet. Going to pull on floaties and slosh around as I say thanks and night-night to the trees...*sigh*

ETA: Ok soaked to the skin now and 2/3 of my bush is asleep...but #1 and #9 are happily pumping out sap,including some lovely tree pee (which I use anyway, it's perfectly fine) from the west spiles. Wondering if they'll go all night.

[Bruce L]

Quit boiling Monday night,would have been Sunday,but while I had a sugarhouse full of visitors/ customers the flexible pipe from the blower to the steam away decided to come off in pieces,so had to shut down,make a trip to Lowes Sunday night to get solid furnace duct work so that won't happen again.
No giant runs here this year,and pretty well everyone of the runs was late afternoon,which meant boiling at night after supper. Not a full crop,but still pleased with the season. Made 250 gallons,full crop would have been 300-325. Missed the first runs getting set up as my back was out for two weeks unable to do anything. Sap deep freeze lifted the ice on two tanks letting probably 500-600 gallons on the ground,and transfer pipe from tanks to sugarhouse froze solid that couldn't pump sap up for two days,so didn't have the vacuum on bringing more in.
Steam away worked great,wouldn't have had enough wood without it. Kept the last 600 gallons of distillate from it to put back through the pans,syrup pan is spotless,not sure about flue pan until I lift the steam away off,but it is not looking like we can count on more sap to fill the pans to clean if needed,so whenever the monsoon quits here I will check to see if the flue pan is clean,or need to fill with sap

[northwood]

I'm hoping for a tsunami this weekend. I'm in the northern region and the weather has not been on my side. Either it's too cold or too warm. -7 tonight and +7 Saturday could be the best conditions all season. After tomorrow, it looks like double digit daytime highs with plenty of rain and only 2 nights bellow freezing. So far I've made 14 L from 100 taps.:cry:

[ennismaple]

Yesterday was a much longer day than expected. The RO went on at 7:15am and went off exactly 12 hours later (with a few short rinses in between). The initial colour was 35LT, rising to 54LT and then falling again later in the day as the pans got gunked up.

We kept the pumps on all night and I'm sure we'll get some sap today now that we're back up to +3 C. Tonight's freeze should mean a decent day tomorrow. Saturday's freeze should mean another good one on Sunday. 10 days ago I was really worried we were going to have a disaster of a season. We're now at "average" and aiming for good/great after making almost 0.75 L/tap over a 9 day span. It's not how you start it's how you finish!

I've seen a few comments that folks are pulling taps because the sap was cloudy. Cloudy sap doesn't mean it's bad! We have one section of the woods that runs cloudy all season and we still make Golden (maybe 30% of our taps from that section). Cloudy sap will tend to make darker syrup but that doesn't mean it's gone buddy. We've made good tasting syrup on the last day of the season that graded medium (old classification) out of sap that looked like skim milk!

[Galena]

Just saw the OMSP report for this week, it's also basically saying for my area to expect a sap tsunami this weekend and that's it. Glad I still have some snow on the north side of house cause may need to dig bunkers, I'm taking a seminar on the afternnons this weekend so the timing couldn't be worse!

ETA just got in 10l of tree pee from my two cold-weather trees...better than nuthin

[Run Forest Run!]

The trees with fresh taps are dripping like mad here this afternoon. Even the older taps have been producing. Looks like there will be some boiling tomorrow!

[Clamer33]

WE pulled over 1200 gallons of sap from Thursday at 8pm till Friday at 6pm. 1.6% and bit cloudy but still tasting ok. It actually lightened up as the fresh sap from this morning starting working thru the evap. Hopefully with everyone that is still going that this weekend will be good. Last weekend I was hoping to hit 9600 gallons of total sap for the season. WE are at 15910 as of tonight. Wow what a week this has been. Glad I hung in for the long haul. I too am with Ennismaple, we have had cloudy sap all week with the warmer weather running 1.8% and making golden and amber till yesterday it dropped to 1.5% and made dark. I tested today's sap 1.6%. All I did was keep the tanks clean of the scum, and changed the prefilter on the pump line and also the RO daily, to keep all the sap as clean and fresh as possible. HE's hoping for a strong finish this weekend. Good luck everyone....

[BrutemanAl]

I pulled everything Wed after work, nothing was running and everything was pretty much empty.Not a very good year, it definitely was a strange year. Last year I had to much sap and didn't know what to do with it, so I scaled back abit so it didn't happen this year and Now I think I should have put more taps in lol. Now I know what it feels like to be a Toronto Maple Leaf hockey player.... "there is always next year", "next year will be my year". HA !!

[Run Forest Run!]

Al, how much syrup did you make this year?

[Galena]

Definitely looking like the sap tsunami swells are coming in now...just been writing up a list of things to do for my sap collection person, so they know what to do with overflow sap etc. Thank gawd I only have 6 trees!!! Long day ahead with seminar going to 6:30, then at bf's for a few hours, then home to see what sap collector got at 5pm when she's due to come, and what the trees may have produced since then. Could be in for a very long night!!!!

[Run Forest Run!]

Susan, things are really ripping here for me today. Good luck with your trees. :D

[Clinkis]

Sap running like crazy here too. Took my buckets down on the 3 trees by my house this week. It broke my heart to see all the sap running down the bark so I put them back in! That's a first for me. The collection tank on my vacuum was 1/4 full by 11 so should have a full tank by mid afternoon. And as an added bonus a couple neighbors packed it in and are giving me their sap from the weekend. Looking like it's going to be a busy couple days and the decision to stick it out to the bitter end is going to pay off for a change.

[Clamer33]

Running hard here too. Hopefully a good run the next 24hrs

[Run Forest Run!]

I stuck some spiles back into empty holes too! I've been hanging anything that I can find onto the taps - including mason jars tied with string. I have a few taps down the street and need to check on those - but I had to dig out the driveway (by hand) so that my car can get out. I'm already exhausted for the day. Can't wipe the smile off my face though. hahaha I've been testing all of the sap on the stove and nothing is buddy even though the silvers are setting flowers. What a surprise that was.

Hang in there everyone. It's going to be a BUSY few days.

[Clinkis]

Just got home and tank overflowing and still running hard. Not sure how long it's been over flowing. Looking like this could be one of my best days of the year for sap flow. A little cloudy and I think the sugar is probably a little on the low side but we'll take it.

UPDATE: Sugar tested 2%

[Run Forest Run!]

I boiled through 69L on my propane burners. It's the 3rd best run of this season. I've shut it down for the night and expect to see lots more sap by morning. Sounds like you had a fantastic day too Clinkis.

[Clinkis]

I boiled through 69L on my propane burners. It's the 3rd best run of this season. I've shut it down for the night and expect to see lots more sap by morning. Sounds like you had a fantastic day too Clinkis.

Yes, unfortunately no time to boil today so will be having a long day tomorrow. Calling for -1 here tonight so hopefully another modest run tomorrow. Glad to here your perciverance is paying off Karen and everyone else who getting good runs today.

[BrutemanAl]

Al, how much syrup did you make this year?

I collected 465.5 L, and ended up with only 10.5 L finished. Went for a drive on the atv yesterday to the forest to double check I didn't forget anything, and every single hole was pouring sap out, part of me wanted to go back and get some stuff, but it was already 3 pm and by the time I went back and put stuff back in, it wouldn't have been worth it. I even yelled at 1 tree, I tap it every year, get nothing from it, every year I say i am not going to tap it, yet I still do in hopes of it producing something for me, yesterday the **** thing was running so hard there was a puddle on the forest floor where it was gathering lol.

[Big_Eddy]

We quit last weekend. Boiled the last of the sap Sunday, drained the flue pan and boiled the rest in the syrup pan. Last batch of syrup was pretty dark and a bit caramalized. Baking syrup. Pulled the pans and washed them all. Buckets were left hanging until Saturday which was the first avail day to wash them. Got up Saturday morning to ice on the pond so quickly dumped all the goo in the buckets and left them up. We collected another 100gals this morning before we pulled the taps. I'm down to the last 25 gals now, all the buckets are washed, and the syrup coming off is very light and delicate. I guess washing the pans well was a good thing although I'm going to have to do it all over again now.

[Galena]

Still getting good clear sap here, got 59l over last 48 hrs. BF just finished final heat shield work on tiny sugar shack, still have to burn a good fire in cast iron stove out there to get out any paint stink before I trust it to boil sap. Ah well electric stove and cast iron indoor woodstove used to carrying the load. If this, batch #5 is my last, will be happy cause hardly any nitre and at about 127l (so far) should make a true gallon+ syrup. If trees keep going and give me a batch #6 will be ecstatic as I love the late stuff :-)

[Clamer33]

Walked in this morning with two full tanks to my surprise. One with single passed RO and over flowing for bit by the looks of the floor, the other 95% of fresh sap from the morning. No way the RO could keep up today so we pulled the plug this evening. What a shame to end the season on the largest flow of the year! We pulled up 2.25 GPT in just 20 hrs. God knows what would have been if I had the storage. Either way only have enough wood to burn the balance off tomorrow and do a clean up. Looks like we are going to end around 1.25-1.5 LPT for a total syrup count. Im out of kegs, bottles and using buckets.

On a bad note wow really hard to boil off, really heavy niter. The colour lightened up so much in the flue pan I thought I was just boiling water. Instead of draws coming every 5-10 minutes, it was like every 30 and large draws at a time.. Not something we have had to deal with. However we have run out of cedar slats that we use, and have had to dig into the 4 cords of well seasoned hard wood. That I'm sure is giving us all the trouble. The sap dropped to 1.5% the RO is really slow, sap is warm 54 deg, clear coming in, but cloudy and a little smelly after running thru the RO. Stopped to rinse the RO several times. Didn't help much. Sure it's the end too many issues.... Oddly the syrup has a really buttery flavour 4 of us tasted it and all said it tasted different but good..

On a side note, and good reason for a pump. Last Friday march 31 we were at 9300 gallons for the season. AS of today when we pulled the plug 16993 gallons. Pumps ran all week, day and night except this past friday night. If you need a reason to buy a pump I can assure you it saved a lot of guys seasons this year. Everyone on buckets around me have not boiled much at all this year.

[Clinkis]

What a great weekend. Collected around 550 gallons of sap from yesterday and today. Got through 400 gallons today. Will get that last 150 gallons processed tomorrow afternoon when I get home from work. Syrup was excellent quality. When I went back this evening to shut down the vacuum pump for the last time the peepers were going wild marking the end to a great season for me. Will post my totals later this week.

I 2nd the advantage of a vacuum pump. My next door neighbour collect 60 gallons from gravity pipeline on 200 taps in the same period of time I collected 550 gallons from 265 taps.

[Run Forest Run!]

Glad to hear that you Eastern Ontarians had a great weekend. I did my final boil today. Because of the blizzard on Thursday I was able to collect 90L over the weekend. It made 2L of light, but deeply flavoured, syrup. The sugars and some of the box elders are still dripping, but I've called it a season. With temps heading into the 20s this week, it's just too warm.

My numbers are less than half that of last year. I'm so happy that I grabbed the drill in February and rolled the dice. Looks like it was the right call for me.

[maple75]

Best collection of the season was today. 70 gallons from 80 taps. So far this year I have 14 liters finished. Sure is a slow year compared to 2016. Still lots of snow so I'm hopeful that we get a couple more good runs.

[ennismaple]

Surprisingly, the sap ran well on Friday even though it was barely above freezing. With 3500 gallons in front of us the RO went on early Saturday morning. And then... our good friend Murphy showed up and we blew a tractor tire on the 2nd load of the day! Several hours later we'd borrowed a smaller tractor from my uncle and we were back running on partial loads. One hill was so muddy from Thursday's rain that we had to set up a temporary pump line to the top of the hill or we wouldn't be able gather that sap. This went so well that a permanent pump line will be installed for that tank next year!

We pushed through just over 5000 gallons on Saturday and then shut down while I continued to gather until midnight to get the RO feed tank filled for the morning. Yesterday the sap ran some but was really slowing down as the temperature climbed. Total sap for the say was just over 4000 gallons.

Both days the first runs of syrup coming off were well into dark-robust (verging on very dark) and lightened to about the line between amber-rich and dark. Flavour was excellent with no off taste.

We left the pumps on overnight hoping to get one more boil today. There wasn't enough sap to fire up this morning but hopefully we can get one more boil tonight or tomorrow morning to finish off the season.

Yesterday I managed to get our H2O Innovations Smartrek monitoring system set up - better late than never! For now, we bought the tablet and gateway for the camp plus 2 vacuum sensors as a trial. Installation was quite easy and once I figured out (with help from John from H2O) where I messed up on setup of the gateway I was getting vacuum readings in the camp. I found a couple leaks in one section of woods and the 2" Hg increase was noticeable several thousand feet away on the graphs that each sensor keeps on the tablet. We will definitely be adding more nodes for next year.

[Galena]

Fairly good sap run this weekend but sure sucked balls today, more moths and flies than sap in 60% of the pails....ugh! Still got a couple gallons. Buds on sugars still shut but heard peepers this evening. So a little p.o.'d but ah well what can you do. At least sugar shack works well, so homemade it's hilarious. Will try to remember to get and post pics tomorrow, dead in the water at present. Night night.

ETA: Walked the trees this am and basically no sap, just drowned moths, poor stupid things. And one spile, the east spile on #1, looked like it had just gone and dumped straight nitre into the pail! I was going to try and leave spiles up til weekend but may pull tonight and just make one huge batch of #5 and call it a year. What a season.

[ennismaple]

My brother is doing our last boil of the season today. We got about 1 GPT from Sunday evening until this morning but the releasers are only dumping at 20 minute intervals. We have no sub freezing temps forecast for 2 or 3 nights so it looks to be over. Reports from the sugar camp is the RO is having trouble processing the sap and the flow rates are way down. You struggle with ice and snow to start the season and then struggle with mud and slimy sap to end it.

After the last 2 weeks' craziness we won't shed a tear that boiling is done for 2017! Now we just need 4 days to get everything cleaned up.

[ennismaple]

The last fires of the 2017 are on now. The sap is almost impossible to pre-filter and process through the RO. The foam is extremely difficult to keep down in the pans and the syrup is not filtering well. We are definitely done.

The first syrup of the day was definitely Very Dark with a strong taste - likely from the evaporator sitting for 2 days. As fresh sap came through the colour came back to about 30LT and the taste softened up a little. I don't have final numbers yet but it will be our 2nd best season for total production and on a L/tap basis. Total sap collected was down from 2016 but the excellent sugar content made up for it.

Update: Apparently the sap in the RO feed tank was so slimy it took 25 minutes inside the tank with the pressure washer to get the stainless cleaned and shining again! I am not looking forward to cleaning the tanks and releasers this weekend...

[Galena]

Well I have batch #5 nearuping down on the woodstove, maybe it'll do what a couple other batches have done this year and go to perfect Brix all on its own overnight....but not counting on it though!

This coming Easter weekend looks like the last possible chance to salvage something from the sap tsunami that never happened (unless of course it happens this weekend). Pails had moths in them and in a couple of cases, nice clear sap but only in small quantities so I watered the tree with it. A couple other pails had sap with that ropey snotty texture to them. Most pails had swfa in them. So after some thought I brought in all the pails, cleaned em with hot water and bleach, let them air-dry...then put em back out on the trees. Still fairly cool temps here, warm next couple days at least. Let's see what happens now!

[Clinkis]

Finished everything off last night. Tonight bottled the last of it, cleaned up evaporator, RO and sugar shack. Still have to pull taps and clean lines. Overall it was excellent season. We made 345 litres from 268 taps.

[Galena]

Well, what sap I am getting today is clear and perfect...but only 4 spiles are producing it. Bummer. Planning on finishing batch #5 today and see if I can get 5-6l out of it.

[Galena]

Just finished off #5 at perfect hot Brix, somewhere around 5.5-5.75l. Finally, after 3 batches of light and medium light, a prima donna medium batch that refused to nitre out completely, a decent batch of MAPLE syrup with brown sugar notes. Took long enough!!!! Will collect what my trees gave me today, then pull spiles tomorrow, nearup down their offerings and chuck it in the freezer til next year. Somewhere around 475l total, so not a dud season...just a very long, very painfully drawn out one. And no sap tsunami.

[Galena]

Finally finished pulling spiles and filtering out a little batch of salvage from #4 and #5, which I don't count in the total of 15.75l...some of which already been given away! Grand total of 474l sap. And that little 2-spile bush maple, Surprise, did indeed kick butt and produced almost 80l sap, beaten only by the long-time dark horse of #5 with 101l.

[Run Forest Run!]

Very impressive total this year Susan. It wasn't an easy season, but you did great. :)

[Galena]

Thanks Karen, it was such a crazy year but quite happy all things considered. I kept a daily journal of days I collected and those I didn't - either due to the spiles being dry or a freeze-up -, and the # of days I didn't collect, outnumbered the ones I did. Let's hope for a lot more rain this summer!

[ennismaple]

We managed to get all our taps pulled this weekend, the releasers and tanks washed plus a bunch of other misc cleanup done. One producer I know was planning to boil Saturday evening and dumped it because the sap was too slimy. With what was coming out of our lines Friday there's no way we could have still been boiling.

[butler]

Looking for someone with bulk syrup for sale around the Ottawa valley.
Looking for 10-20 gals if possible in bulk... let me know what you have and prices. Thanks

[Galena]

Looking for someone with bulk syrup for sale around the Ottawa valley.
Looking for 10-20 gals if possible in bulk... let me know what you have and prices. Thanks

Butler, try pm'ing EnnisMaple and BruceL, they are both pro producers and can probably help you out.

[TurkeyJohn]

TJ,
Not sure exactly what you are looking for but I may have a 24"X48" flat pan for sale. It was purchased new from Atkinsons a few years ago. All stainless and welded. We've upgraded to a hobby arch setup so it's kind of just sitting up in the shop. I can grab some pictures this week if you want.

Drew.

Hey Drew,

Did you ever get pics or a price for that pan? If so and I missed sorry. Is it still available?

Turkey John


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