Tapped in Hopkinton!

[sappytapper]

During a break for lunch today while I took the dog out, I put in my first 3 of what will be 12 - 15 taps for this season. Have seen a few "neighbors" with lines up while out and about recently, and the weather looks decent over the next week, so I figured why not? Might be a week or so early, perhaps, but the three holes were immediately running, so away we go!

Second year doing this after only really catching the last run last season with 5 taps to yield about 3 quarts of syrup. Boiled it off over my firepit on a cooking grate welded together out of rebar, and a few big stock pots. Here's to a good season for all :-)

[eustis22]

good job. I have a boiling party coming up in a couple of weeks and it strick me JUST THIS MORNING :-s that I might need so, you know, whatchamacallit, oh yeah, SAP to boil so I moved my tapping date up to this w/e.

[sappytapper]

Hehe. Yeah I'm hoping to yield enough to do a second test boil on my new barrel evaporator with actual sap instead of water this time.

Good luck!

[eustis22]

same to you.

I am also curious to see the results from my low-slope 5/16 runs.

[sappytapper]

Great weekend getting my first batch of syrup. Made about 2/3 - 3/4 gallon from 30 - 32 gallons of sap after ruining the first 10-12 gallons the previous weekend. Got 4 more taps in, to boot.

Hope everyones' season is going well!

[mike103]

Glad to see somebody having luck out here in MA, Ive been shut down for almost a week. I went for a walk today to assess the heat wave impact on my woods and I can say that 1/3 of my taps buds are swollen pretty good, 1/3 have buds in upper canopy, and 1/3 still look good and Im leaving these ones in for cautious optimism this weekend getting another run. This weather is crazy! Wish I had Sugar Maples to have a longer season... Good Luck next week!

[sappytapper]

Yeah, the buckets in my yard ran real well after the couple colder nights we had a few days ago, and I saw a couple of pretty full collection tanks on the lines in the neighborhood where I walk my dog every day, so it's definitely running!

I'm expecting another decent run this coming weekend, looking at the temp forecasts after the warm spell yesterday and today.

[Bernie/MA]

Hi, where are you? I'm just north of Quabbin Res. I built a little rig for my grandson a few years ago for about 10-15 taps. Worked good. I'm working on an idea for a preheater off the stack. What size is yours?

[sappytapper]

In Hopkinton.

Mine's a barrel evaporator that I'm still working out the kinks with, currently just running 2 steam pans and pre-heating in a pot on my firepit. Averaged about 5gph with the barrel and two preheat/boil pots on my firepit this past weekend.

[sappytapper]

Not a bad night to be out boiling :)

15973

[sappytapper]

Swapped out a full 5g bucket this morning and saw a couple others that got a good run over the weekend.

How're everyone's trees doing?

[eustis22]

I imagine I will put about 150 gallons in the holding tank tonight. That since Thursday.

[mike103]

Collected about 10 gallons on 12 buckets since Friday. Shut down arch, ro, and vacuum today for the year. Might have a propane boil or 2 left.... time to break out the trout pole

[sappytapper]

Yeah I collected about 24 gallons from 15 taps last night, but the early taps i put in are pretty slow and probably won't yield much beyond this week.

[sappytapper]

collected another 34 gallons by yesterday from the 9 taps that were still running last week and made another gallon or so over the weekend. saw some sap in the buckets this morning from overnight, so maybe one more run and boil before it's over. :-)