It's on in Southern Ohio

[buckeye gold]

I can say now that it is full blown syrup season here. I have been collecting pretty good runs almost everyday. Tomorrow morning will be a bag buster as many are already half full. Since last Wednesday I only had one day it did not run and I had one day that averaged over 2 gallons a tap. Looking at past years this looks to be the start of the main runs. It looks more like an early season and early end all the time. Heck I have already made half of what i made all last spring, in a week. Now if this old man can just live through the next week, it's gonna be tiring.

[GSCampChris]

We are right there with you in Columbus. We doubled the number of taps this year, and are struggling to keep up! I have an exciting couple of days of boiling ahead of me.


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[SouthOf70]

Yep, I pulled about another 18 gallons from 18 taps last night

[buckeye gold]

The last two days have been big runs. I was ok with a small run overnight as I could take a breather. Yesterday wore me out with that big run. Looks like a cold night tonight for a reset and then more of the same coming this weekend.....got to love!

[bmbmkr]

I'm Lawrence county, Southeastern Ohio, I tapped a little over 50 sugars and reds Sunday afternoon, put 75 more taps in Monday morning,started boiling at 730pm Monday evening and boiled until 2pm yesterday,I fell asleep standing up in the shower when I finally got in. I boiled off almost 175 gallons in my cobbled together rig, my pans are CDL 18"x30" (it's a front pan made to go sideways on a 30" wide arch), and 18"x42" drop flue from Bascoms, on a homemade 55gal drum arch. Man what a night, did I mention this is my first boil besides some steam pans 4 years ago. I learned ALOT and will be ready to boil again day after tomorrow, luckily not much ran yesterday and today.

I have been readin your guys posts,thanks for sharing all of your info and time, good luck with the rest of the season.

Ben

[Grand Square Acres]

Glad to see this freeze up. I need a break. Have boiled over 1000 gals since Monday. Made 45 gals syrup already this season. (More than what I made all of last year) Got to clean pans and get ready for this weekend. Sap has been running 2 to 2.2% on the sugars and blacks and 1.5% on reds and silvers. I think this weekend will be the last major flow if the extended forecast holds true. We'll just have to wait and see.

[Matt-Sycamore]

I'm a newbie here is Hamilton County (Harrison, OH). I have 7.5 acres and only 2 maples big enough to tap, so this year I thought I would try and tap my sycamore. I have about 15 tappable sycamore's, most are 3 foot to 4 foot diameter along a creek. I placed 6 taps on this past Saturday, February 4th, same as I would for a maple (5/16 drill and 1.5" deep) and I have not gotten a single drop yet! Does anyone know if the sycamore's run later than Maple? It's hard to find information on the sycamore. I was thinking that maybe because the trees are so huge maybe I didn't tap deep enough. When I drilled the wood was solid and alive and damp but no flow. I am waiting to place more taps till I see something. Thanks for sharing any thoughts and good luck to all! - Matt

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[Lazarus]

It may be "ON", but we're seriously having trouble processing before it spoils. 60 degrees today. Felt like 70. Not good. A way too small RO is contributing a lot to my woe, but even fresh the sap is kinda crappy and not making the best syrup. We had a day off yesterday for a 25 degree all day freeze (then 60 today - does that not alarm anyone?). Pulled everything off the evaporator into buckets to clean and the flue pan contents turned to jelly in less than 24 hours. Ewww.

[buckeye gold]

I hear you Neighbor! I collected mid day yesterday and cooked just because of the warm weather. I don't think anything held over 24 hrs will make it without spoiling in this weather. The syrup I made last night was good but not like what I was making last week. It did not filter as clear. I can't imagine it's any fun trying to stretch an under sized set up in this. Most years we get some cold snaps that allow people to catch up, but not this year. Even as small as I am I had one pan of sweet spoil and had to clean. That is when I broke off my draw valve, so it cost me just due to the heat. I think trees will stop running today as It never got below 57 all night. I'm glad I gathered and cooked yesterday afternoon. I have to leave this Friday for a few days and i told my wife last night I may as well drain the pan and throw away my sweet, or finish it if I have time. Finishing a whole pan of sweet on propane is kind of a waste of a lot of propane. I will be gone a week so I'll pull bags and buckets and let sap run on the ground I guess. I expect season will be over when I get back. Maybe we'll get lucky and have a cold snap, but it is not predicted. This is what I've been fighting since fall, cold then way to warm, but I done really well making a good bit of great syrup fast.

[asknupp]

Have you guys managed to make anything lighter than medium amber?

[buckeye gold]

asknupp, I made a couple batches of light, but most of mine is medium. I have not made any dark. I had another 75 gallons of sap (that's 130 gallon in 24hrs off 70 taps) this morning and when I started up the evaporator I caught a slight hint of off smelling steam. So i shut off the head tank valve and played chicken with the sap in the pan so I could finish off the holdover sweet just in case the flavor was off. I manged to pull it off and draw while flooding the pan with fresh sap. I finished off the hold over sweet and it was ok but not quite as good a flavor as my regular syrup. It was so warm last night that I bet that sweet would have been ruined in another 4 hours. It's cooling off today so that will help keep sap flowing and fresh. I am betting my season is over before March 1st. Since I have a trip the end of this week, it may be my last 4 days coming up. I am glad I never got the rest of my 100 taps out. I put out 75 and have 5 non-producers. i have had more big runs this year than I can ever remember.

[asknupp]

I have had a lot of big runs and thank God for the RO. It saved a lot of sap that I was able to do after work. Still had a couple nights where I crawled into bed around 1am but without RO they would have been all nighters. If it would have sat all night and the next day it would have been snot. Syrup is starting to get dark. Need to pull flue pan off and clean but I think it really is looking like the last week. I tapped most trees during that warm spell we had back in early Jan. Have made a lot of mistakes this year and have had some uncontrollable issues but so far it's been productive.