Eastern Ontario 2018

[Galena]

Hey Wisers, thanks, and hope you're having fun boiling today on that fancy new rig!

Good to see I'm not the only one who has a glasstop stove and syrup that doesn't finish at 219. My syrup does start to BOIL at 219, but nowhere near close to bein finished. Just got home from work, going to make a snack, relax for a bit, do some yoga then have supper and finally get batch #2 finished. Trees thankfully quiet today so enjoying it while I can, and am pointedly ignoring the 21l I got yesterday sitting out by the shack. Can wait til the weekend :-)

[Run Forest Run!]

When I finished my first 2018 batch on my glass top stove two weeks ago (sadly, it's also my last batch so far....still waiting for sap....) the final temp was hovering around 221/222.

[paulflikkema]

Hey Karen, I can not believe you have only collected the 59L so far. I finished off the 280 liters on the weekend and have another 60 liters from the past 3 days collected. Will hopefully have enough by the weekend do another smaller boil down.

[Run Forest Run!]

Paul, it seems that my property takes f-o-r-e-v-e-r to thaw out each spring. It's always the same story. :mad:

After I boiled that first 59L on Feb. 26 I have only managed to collect another 100L. That's not very much for ten day's worth on 28 taps. A week ago I reduced 80L of it to sweet, and I'm hoping to boil down the other 20L tomorrow and combine the two boils. With any luck the temperatures will unlock the spiles and I'll be able to add more sap if I get any. All I've seen for the past week is a dribble of frozen sap in the bottom of my pails. At least I was able to remove the slushy ice from my holding containers and increase my sugar content. That's a plus.

[Fort Wisers]

Woohoo, found another two trees to tap!
It's amazing how many trees make the cut when the measuring tape comes out instead of just eyeballing, sad we didn't put effort into tapping sooner, oh well, next year!
Boiled through about 30 litres in 2 hours today, that includes time to heat up from cold and time to cool down where it wasn't drawing anymore, so the rig boils off quick.
All out of sap again lol......product in the pan is starting to get that oooooohhhhh so yummy smell:)

18041

Karen, hope things pick up for you soon......

[Run Forest Run!]

Thanks Fort Wisers. That's one 'sweet' looking setup that you scored this year. Have fun!!!

[Asthepotthickens]

Man there is a lot of sap this year....b I have to boil ot down to 20% sugar and store it. Fun times but hard work

[Galena]

Enjoying the nice quiet lull in the crazy runs we've been having, trees barely producing. Thank gawd! Have 4l+ of light amber marshmallow-tasting syrup finishing off in the filtering. Love the crazy early season flavours :-)

ETA: cold-thermed it this morning. Right bang on the red line, and I took it off the heat at 223.0. Off to go say good morning to the trees and dig the sapsicles out of spiles.

[DrewCP]

Looks like we are set to boil. Arch is hooked up to new chimney, hinged steam flap is installed and flashing is done. Now we'll just need to see if the inside steam chute will actually work.
Going to be a long couple of days. We have over 600L in stock. Can't wait to try out the new shack. We've made syrup outside since the 70's. It's about time we had a real roof and walls!

I'm a little apprehensive to drop in the sap hydrometer. A lot of reports on here are not great. 1-1.5% sap can get frustrating fast. The temps have been great for natures r/o to be working. Not cold enough to freeze the collected sap solid but cold enough to freeze down the sides of our bins. We strain and chuck that stuff as it's typically below .5%. Hoping that brings us up closer to 2.5-3%.


Drew.

[BrutemanAl]

Well here is hoping everyone has a great weekend, I’m off next week to look after the kidlets for the March break. We will be boiling sap all week if I have it my way and looking for free pallets to cut up to burn. Tomorrow I plan collecting what ever is in the forest and boiling all afternoon and into the night.


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[Lespetras]

Seasonal average boiling ratio is 1:46 .. getting better

[Clinkis]

Well here is hoping everyone has a great weekend, I’m off next week to look after the kidlets for the March break. We will be boiling sap all week if I have it my way and looking for free pallets to cut up to burn. Tomorrow I plan collecting what ever is in the forest and boiling all afternoon and into the night.


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Precision wood products on the east edge of campbellford has free pallets. You just have to go pick them up. They are just off hwy30 in behind Nicholson Brothers construction.

[Galena]

Have 43l sap sitting in holding tanks, gorgeous sunny day, and a bunch more pallets to get bucked up. Better finish breakfast, get clothes on and get out there. And note to self: next vehicle I get is gonna have a trailer hitch and a trailer...so frustrating seeing 2-3 good pallets kickin around locally, hither and yon, and having to pass them by. If you've ever tried to fit a full-sized pallet into the hatchback of a semi-compact car (Nissan Versa) you can understand why :-)

[BrutemanAl]

Precision wood products on the east edge of campbellford has free pallets. You just have to go pick them up. They are just off hwy30 in behind Nicholson Brothers construction.

Good grief.... why didn’t I think of that??? I have them make us pallets for products at work.


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[BrutemanAl]

18084

Have the barrel stove good and hot tonight. Collected 67 L today and been boiling since about 2 pm.


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[Galena]

Way to go Al! Happy you have a lot to keep you busy!

I just read on another thread about filtering an absolute genius idea for filtering/bottling syrup...a big ol' 30-cup coffee urn with a spigot at the bottom. That would make things a whole lot easier and safer for me!

[BrutemanAl]

Way to go Al! Happy you have a lot to keep you busy!

I just read on another thread about filtering an absolute genius idea for filtering/bottling syrup...a big ol' 30-cup coffee urn with a spigot at the bottom. That would make things a whole lot easier and safer for me!

Yes I saw that on a Facebook page last week and thought it was a fantastic idea, I found a used one on Kijiji for 25 bucks and was going to buy it but the guy sold it to someone else before I could get there.


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[Lespetras]

Way to go Al! Happy you have a lot to keep you busy!

I just read on another thread about filtering an absolute genius idea for filtering/bottling syrup...a big ol' 30-cup coffee urn with a spigot at the bottom. That would make things a whole lot easier and safer for me!

That's a great idea on the coffee urn. Thx for sharing

[Galena]

Wakey wakey rise n shine everyone!!! Been up since 7am, got the sugar shack fire going again already, and checked trees, still only in my dressing gown. Running around outside in this nice brisk weather (balmy -4 out there) is like a reverse shower without the pesky need to get wet and towel dry afterwards. Have to go buck up the knuckles of the pallets with the bowsaw cause the circular saw has trouble doing them. Besides I don't want the neighbours to get mad at me for running a power saw at 8am on a Sunday morning :-)

[BrutemanAl]

I have been boiling since 6 am, boiled last night until about 10 pm. I also find the circle saw is hard to use on the pallets. I use a sawsall for the pieces on top of the pallet then I use a table saw to cut the side and middle wood into usable sizes. A chain saw would be even nicer and probably quicker but you have to use what you have I guess.


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[Galena]

Hehe been keeping similar hours! Think it was midnight or so when I last put wood in the sugar shack and topped up the pan. Fired it up again 7am and have the 43ls starting to boil down to nearup. Then I can toss in the 29l sap I got yesterday and keep on going!

I have very few power tools and really don't want to deal with a chainsaw, so a circular saw works fine for me. I guess I could adjust the depth thingy so I could also use it on the sides, but a lot of times there are overlapping bits of wood or nails, so I use the bowsaw to tackle them. Can be tedious but it's safe and a great arm workout :-)

[Maplelane1]

Finally found some time to post.

Ok. So I boiled down 190 litres of sap into just under 3 litres of sweet amber syrup! I finished it all yesterday. Have about another 70 litres of sap collected this past week but the drips have slowed significantly with temps hovering below or just around zero.

Here's a few takeaways for this newb:

Hydrometer is the only way to go to know when it's ready.

I put a chimney on my homemade block arch - didn't use one last year - and it made a huge difference in terms of getting a real hot fire. The two chaffing pans I used boiled equally as vigorous and my boil time compared to last year was almost cut in half !

I'm fortunate to have a wood lot so I used my own firewood however, splitting the wood into smaller pieces - about 3 inches in diameter or smaller - proved to be the optimal size to burn hot and efficiently.

After boiling, strip off those clothes and put a clean set on ! The soot that collected on the pans found it's way to the living room chair - my bad.

The syrup hit perfect brix sooner than I thought. Easily fixed by adding some nearup or a little sap to bring the red-line down. Lesson here is keep a close eye on things !

Here's a question:

I used a couple cone filters and while it removed a lot of dark particles there's still a 'cloud' resting on the bottom of the cooled syrup... Not a big deal but how can that be removed during bottling?

Have fun all !

[Run Forest Run!]

It's been eight days since I have had any sap flowing but I'm so happy to see that you guys are continuing to collect. I'm still at a whopping 154L of sap this season. I've been holding sweet in two pans for a week now, so it's time to finish it off. I don't expect to see any sap around here until the end of the week so today it's 'tiny steam' day.

I found a cool website the other day that some of you might find interesting https://elevationmap.net

My trees are at an elevation of 350m, 200m higher than most of you. To make things more interesting, they have no break from the west winds. It's no wonder they are so much slower than the awesome drippy trees that are keeping you guys boiling 24 hours a day!! But, at least I have a killer view from way up here and can see Russia from my house. :lol:

Keep up the great work in Eastern Ontario, it's been an incredibly early start in your neck of the woods. I can't wait to see what your final numbers end up being!

[Galena]

...Here's a question:

I used a couple cone filters and while it removed a lot of dark particles there's still a 'cloud' resting on the bottom of the cooled syrup... Not a big deal but how can that be removed during bottling?

Have fun all !

It sounds like some nitre still managed to get through. Somehow nitre can do crazy stuff like that! Either let the nitre settle, carefully pour off the clear stuff, and then put the remainder with nitre in it through a smaller filter *cough cough coffee filter*.

Be very careful of when reheating syrup to bottle: do NOT go over 190 or nitre will form. And DO NOT stir, poke/prod at nearup or syrup when it's filtering as it can and will force nitre through. Hope this helps!

[Maplelane1]

Hope this helps!

Thanks Galena. I'll give the coffee filter a try on my next batch.

I bottled the syrup at around 200 degrees (was already finished/at perfect brix) and the jars were well over 185. In fact, when I added the syrup to the empty hot jars the syrup instantly boiled then settled down after 30 seconds or so; on went the lid and after a few minutes heard the 'pop'. Anything I'm doing here cause nitre?

EDIT: I guess I should ask...is nitre ok to consume?

[BrutemanAl]

It's been eight days since I have had any sap flowing but I'm so happy to see that you guys are continuing to collect. I'm still at a whopping 154L of sap this season. I've been holding sweet in two pans for a week now, so it's time to finish it off. I don't expect to see any sap around here until the end of the week so today it's 'tiny steam' day.

I found a cool website the other day that some of you might find interesting https://elevationmap.net

My trees are at an elevation of 350m, 200m higher than most of you. To make things more interesting, they have no break from the west winds. It's no wonder they are so much slower than the awesome drippy trees that are keeping you guys boiling 24 hours a day!! But, at least I have a killer view from way up here and can see Russia from my house. :lol:

Keep up the great work in Eastern Ontario, it's been an incredibly early start in your neck of the woods. I can't wait to see what your final numbers end up being!

I have one of my sons keeping track of the sap collection, he just told me we have collect just under 600 L so far.


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[Big_Eddy]

Thanks Galena. I'll give the coffee filter a try on my next batch.

In fact, when I added the syrup to the empty hot jars the syrup instantly boiled

EDIT: I guess I should ask...is nitre ok to consume?

There's the issue. Warm your jars to 180, not more. Because your jars were above boiling, you reheated the syrup as it hit the glass causing more nitre to precipitate out.

Small amounts of nitre won't hurt you. If you let your jars sit for a week or two it will settle to the bottom. Enjoy the top. Dispose of the sludge. Or pour it all back into a pot, reheat to 200+, then refilter into warmed jars.

[Galena]

There's the issue. Warm your jars to 180, not more. Because your jars were above boiling, you reheated the syrup as it hit the glass causing more nitre to precipitate out.

Small amounts of nitre won't hurt you. If you let your jars sit for a week or two it will settle to the bottom. Enjoy the top. Dispose of the sludge. Or pour it all back into a pot, reheat to 200+, then refilter into warmed jars.

on the bold....sorry but why would he need to reheat finished syrup to 200+, when he now knows that going over 190 will make more nitre form?

[Big_Eddy]

on the bold....sorry but why would he need to reheat finished syrup to 200+, when he now knows that going over 190 will make more nitre form?

He's heating it before filtering. Heat to a boil and filter hot into a warm jar. It will cool before it hits the filter and leave the nitre behind.

This is not hot packing prefiltered or settled syrup. In those cases stay under 190 to avoid creating post-filter nitre.

[ennismaple]

We had the RO running at 7:30am and first fire at noon. Will be a long day. Need to get everything processed that ran this week so we can boil it through and drain the flue pan until later this week.

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[Maplelane1]

Thanks all.

I've been doing some more reading on nitre and it's got me a bit concerned, maybe more than I need to be but I'm gonna re-bottle everything.

Here's what I plan to do...please weigh-in:

I'll draw out the clear syrup from jars leaving behind the 'settled' particles. I'll dispose of the settled stuff.

Will reheat sap to no more than 190. Will use new clean jars heated to 180 (I'll need to buy a new thermo to make sure I hit that temp and not go over). Will run reheated syrup through a coffee filter, making sure my syrup temp remains at 190, then place in jars. At these temps, should the sealer jar tops 'pop'?

Thanks again.

[Galena]

He's heating it before filtering. Heat to a boil and filter hot into a warm jar. It will cool before it hits the filter and leave the nitre behind.

This is not hot packing prefiltered or settled syrup. In those cases stay under 190 to avoid creating post-filter nitre.

@ Big_Eddy....Oh OK gotcha, makes sense :-)

@ MapleLane1...attaboy! And have LOTS of paper coffee filters on hand, even if you leave the bulk of the nitre behind. Nitre is harmless to ingest, btw, it's full of minerals.

FWIW when I reheat syrup (which I have already filtered the nitre out of) to only 185, and heat glass jars or jugs. in the oven, set to heat at 190 for 10 min. Then, using something like a pair of Duramax gloves, I take them out and use a clean funnel to fill them with. This gives the jars a chance to cool and not be hot enough to form nitre in the jar with the hot syrup.

If using Mason jars, fill only to the shoulder (leave headroom at the top) and use clean new pop-top lids and yes they should make that noise as they seal down.

If I have a batch that is really super-nitrey and hot filtering it doesn't seem to work, I'll filter syrup cold (well room temp, not fridge cold) It is a painfully slow process, but then I have perfectly clear syrup to reheat and thus am not worried about nitre. So once you've drawn off all your clear cold syrup and left the nitre behind, you could include this step so you don't need to filter at the bottling stage but expect it to take some time...like usually overnight!!

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

[Big_Eddy]

We almost got caught up yesterday so shut down the evaporator early with a little sap left in the tank. I am off for the March Break, so wanted to have at least some sap to boil today or tomorrow. Was cold all day, so not expecting much sap. Went to do a quick sap survey about 6pm (Loving the light at night!!!) and immediately rounded up the collection crew. Another 120-130 gallons collected. So LOTS to boil today and tomorrow.

Right now I'm staring at 6 batches of syrup needing finished, filtered and bottled. I know what I'll be doing for the next several hours.

For any of you close to me - if you're around this week and want to pop by for a visit, drop me a PM and we can arrange something. Forecast looks like we will be boiling a lot. :)

[DrewCP]

Crazy weekend.
Had a rolling boil on by 7:30 Saturday morning. We went back and forth on whether or not to install a damper in the flue. We did not. Wow. Complete rocket stove. Pretty unmanageable and a wood hog but it sure made steam. The glowing orange base stack was a little over the top though... Ran until about 7:30 that night.
Got a really late start on Sunday. Time change then waiting until 9 for Canadian tire to open so I could buy a damper. Probably didn't have a rolling boil until 10:30 or 11. The damper made a huge difference. Ran in control for the rest of the day.
We were down to around 3.5" in the pan and decided to take a quick temp check. We were going to start thinking about moving from the arch to the T-fryer to finish...217-218*F... I guess well just finish this right here and now. By 8:15 we were down around 2" and running 220*f on left channel, 221*f in center channel and 219*f in right channel. On my 3rd brix test we nailed it right in the 66-67 range.

The math:
22 hours of boiling.
950L of sap.
26-28 liters of syrup.
34:1 - 36:1

Evap rate 43 l/h (I know we can do better. I think we can do 45-50 l/h if we pay a little more attention to the fire.)


Good news, our sap is as sweet as normal. We had around 140l of first day or 2 of collected sap. It was 100% ice free. It measured right around 2-2.25%. The rest of our stored sap had either top and side ice or some crystallized ice throughout. I strained the ice and pitched it. This brought all the rest of the sap up to 2.75-3%.

Did a collect right at dark yesterday and collected about 175l. Looks like we'll have another good boil this weekend coming up.

The new indoor setup worked pretty good. We had some issues with steam when we hit really high rates of evap. There are a few more modifications we can make to clear that up. Still really awesome to be inside.


Drew.

[Galena]

Wow, sounds like both of you had a crazy busy weekend! This season has been something else. I'm hoping to not have to boil again for a few days, I need more time to buck up pallets and probably source a few more just to be on the safe side. Batch #2 gave me another 4 beautiful litres of syrup. May have to run to Covill's for supplies!

[BrutemanAl]

Precision wood products on the east edge of campbellford has free pallets. You just have to go pick them up. They are just off hwy30 in behind Nicholson Brothers construction.

I emailed my guy at Precision Wood this morning and he said come on over and I’ll show you were the scrap wood is you can help yourself to, got a truck load that is pretty much the right size and I don’t need to cut it, probably try and go back again tomorrow or the next day for more.


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[Big_Eddy]

Right now I'm staring at 6 batches of syrup needing finished, filtered and bottled. I know what I'll be doing for the next several hours.



Fast forward a couple of hours.
55litres in bottles

First and last batches amber
Middle 3 batches dark
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180312/09b60a7699489110db47a2e23bd4e29a.jpg https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180312/570eb77f95edbf9bbaeb827287120ac0.jpg

[Galena]

Lookin good Big_Eddy! And Al, if you ever get the urge to grab a truckload of that nice scrap wood and head out for a drive my way, just say so :-) Off to power up the circular saw and get through the pallets I have left.

[paulslund]

Fast forward a couple of hours.
55litres in bottles

First and last batches amber
Middle 3 batches dark


WOW that's a lot of syrup!

[BrutemanAl]

Great looking syrup Eddy. I have been boiling away since around 10 this morning.... it’s getting there. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180312/172fcdc615e72c46e1db27db0835a6dc.jpg
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180312/8262be3f33aea98c47ae97a74fd58fe7.jpg


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[Run Forest Run!]

Great looking syrup Eddy and Al. If I lived closer I'd be helping you out rather than staring at empty pans. :mrgreen:

[Galena]

Karen, come do a maple tour of Ontario! Bring along a truck and trailer, and as you visit everyone on the thread, pick up a pallet or two and sling em in the trailer. Then dump them all here at my place. Kinda like a sugarbush version of a poker run ;-)

[Run Forest Run!]

I do have a trailer.....

And, maybe if I could trade a jar of homemade pickles or jam for a bottle of syrup at each location along the way I'd really have a great start to the season while I wait for my own sap to start!

[Newbie18]

Need any extra sap. I'm in Warkworth and have far more than I can use? .50 per gallon

[Run Forest Run!]

I'd do it in a flash if it weren't a four hour round trip. Thanks anyway Newbie. :)

[Galena]

Karen, sure, go for it! I already have a litre bottle of #2 set aside for you :-)

Newbie...nice try but no thanks, too far. Maybe check the Forum and see if anyone is offering to buy sap?

[BrutemanAl]

I have homemade pickles


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[deckers007]

I am going live at 9:25, more sap than I can handle!!

https://youtu.be/STNKfnCs21M


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[wobbletop]

Thanks for sharing... I was on... Walter.

[Run Forest Run!]

That was interesting to watch. Don't be afraid to talk more about your setup and what you were doing. It was very interesting when you did. That's a lot of stainless steel to clean!

[deckers007]

Thanks for watching, and I agree I should talk more, but never liked hearing myself on video, but I guess I should get over that...


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[deckers007]

Thanks for sharing... I was on... Walter.

Thanks Walter it was nice chatting with you. I am interested in this RO bucket you where talking about. Do you have any info on it?


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[wobbletop]

http://www.therobucket.com/

[Big_Eddy]

Our version of the RO this week

2x100 gallon collection tanks and only 70 gallons made it into the bulk tank. Very sweet to taste. Syrup came off a lot faster today.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180313/66707fad106cc317ed2e9a4b52f2bcc0.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180313/aeed0875df545fd763bea62f82e2bbe0.jpg

[BrutemanAl]

What is with the white crud falling from the sky lol? All it’s good for it’s keeping my collected sap cold but I only have 27 L because everything is frozen solid lol.

So I finish off a batch late this afternoon just because I could.

The picture is my attempt at filtering and trying to keep it warm, I cut a tomato basket in half and flipped it over and used clothes pegs to hold the cloth filter on. I put 2 prefilters in wrapped the thing in foil the best I could, got it all wrapped and the filtering almost stopped, so off the foil came and I removed 1 prefilters, got it all wrapped up... again and it almost stopped.... again , so off it all came... again, removed the 2nd prefilters and wrapped it all up... again and said screw it, I’m going to watch tv.

I scored more wood today, driving just outside Port Hope and passed by Viceroy homes and they had 2 bins out front of scrap wood, tossed my son in the bin and he dug our all the good size pieces and I threw them in the truck.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180314/4610e50544329ae9d8d27c6288453575.jpg


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[Galena]

Haha love the setup Al! That white crud is helping recharge things here unfortunately...did I really say that? If I didn't have to work tomorrow I'd be out there boiling, but with over 60l in storage I had to push the button and resort to boiling in the house (window wide open, fan goin, dehumidifier too) so I'm not swamped on the weeknd esp as Saturday have to go get more pallets from a place outside of Ottawa. Must be better prepared for next season, cause this one is going on forever. Over 400l already, think around 415l, and no end it sight. Argh!

[Run Forest Run!]

Hey Al. Nice work today, but I've got two concerns.....

1) "tossed my son in the bin" Once he dug out the good size pieces that you threw in the truck did you remember to retrieve your son?
2) I hope that your two little dudes are in bed, because when they come whippin' through your kitchen 'on two wheels and a door handle" as the saying goes, one little nudge on either of those chair legs and you've redecorated your kitchen with syrup. :lol: Dear God, please push those chairs up closer to a wall. ;)

All kidding aside, you certainly seem to be having an absolute blast this season with your sons. That's so wonderful.

[Fort Wisers]

We arrived home last night, from camp, about 8:30pm.......

Neighbours were kind enough to empty our buckets while we were north for the weekend, looks like they got about 45 litres!
Had to blow out the driveway last night and figured it was only fair that I cleared the neighbours driveway as well to say thanks.
After clearing out the driveways we took a quick look at a couple buckets, all seemed full again so we should be in good shape to start boiling again.

Cold weather in the forecast this weekend.......will be interesting to see how the trees respond when the sun comes back!

[BrutemanAl]

Hey Al. Nice work today, but I've got two concerns.....

1) "tossed my son in the bin" Once he dug out the good size pieces that you threw in the truck did you remember to retrieve your son?
2) I hope that your two little dudes are in bed, because when they come whippin' through your kitchen 'on two wheels and a door handle" as the saying goes, one little nudge on either of those chair legs and you've redecorated your kitchen with syrup. :lol: Dear God, please push those chairs up closer to a wall. ;)

All kidding aside, you certainly seem to be having an absolute blast this season with your sons. That's so wonderful.

Lol, it’s all good Karen, I remembered my son, no way in h@ll he would let me leave without him.

When the kids get up in the morning they go down the hall and pee and then they go directly back to their room until mom and dad get up, they spilt my syrup once before, let’s just say it will not happen again lol.


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[Big_Eddy]

WOW that's a lot of syrup!

160 taps this season.
55 litres syrup
~500 gallons or 2270 litres of sap boiled
3520 cubic metres of steam generated. That's enough to fill your town's water tower!!

I can't give a sap to syrup ratio, as the first 100 gallons or so goes into sweetening the evaporator and doesn't come out until I drain it.

[BrutemanAl]

Well here is the end product of my filtering experiment last night, hard to tell by the pictures but it is nice and clear..... and tastes yummy.

Have another 4 L that is near done, I’ll finish that tomorrow

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180314/707c1090fec644220054536444cfe6c1.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180314/99948e4b492aa75a1db4acc05360c276.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180314/502f4e0a473ca88d824f4c0ca0860cd0.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180314/e442a7923d804440f9f368fc58332a54.jpg


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[Galena]

A+ for effort, Al! hehe. I don't know if you can turn off the flash or slow down how long the *shutter* on your phone(?) is open for, so as to allow more light to wash in through the syrup, but you're on the right track :-)

[Big_Eddy]

We were surprised by the amount of sap today. Wasn't expecting anything as it hardly got above freezing but the trees on the top of the hill were very active. Those on the north slope not so much. One of those days where pails were either empty or full. Nothing in between.

Karen - this picture's for you https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180314/6058ec13d6236f6352549626c9afb410.jpg
Hoping you find the same soon.

Boiling again tomorrow

[cheesegenie]

Looks good. Yesterday we had a lot of snow in the buckets, even with lids, hard to strain it into the drum. Sugar content this year seems low, I don't have the hydrometer for sap, just syrup.
Not getting a big ratio, but lots of sap running with no sun, east wind and cold. Any thoughts please?

[Run Forest Run!]

Big Eddy, that picture is a welcome sight. Dry as a bone here since March 3rd. And the fact that there is a layer of slushy ice on top to discard yielding much higher sugar content below is almost too much for me to take. :lol:

I'm being patient, but eager, to begin my season as soon as Mother Nature decides to offer me up some sunshine and warmer temps. Hopefully she didn't give up all the sap to you lucky guys east of here.

[Galena]

...but lots of sap running with no sun, east wind and cold. Any thoughts please?

Same here, usually my trees hate this kind of weather...but instead they're giving me 16l on a slow day and up to 35 on a really good day. I'm just going with the flow ;-)

[Fort Wisers]

Boiled down about 100 litres yesterday and collected another 8 or so in the afternoon after collecting about 42 in the morning, which for us is decent considering the weather.
Agreed with some of the sentiments here that even typical "bad sap weather" is producing good runs.

The snow won't stop and neither will the sap!
Sorry Karen.....if it's any consolation, my bro in-law (up near the bruce peninsula) is having a frustratingly slow start to his season as well.

[Galena]

Over 400l total collected so far...here's what it's like at my place...notice the floaties? hehe

18134

ETA: this pic is currently entered in a competition, so please don't share on social media!

[jnexus]

I also didn't think we would get much of a run over the last few days temp -2 +2, but I went out and checked any ways..
Everything was full and the trees still running like crazy. Perhaps there was a big drop in barometric pressure that left the trees
relatively high or something, but I'm out of storage!


Jason

325 Taps on 125 AC, so 325 buckets
2.5ft * 10ft Drop Flue on masonry arch

Ski Doo Expedition 1000cc for the snow
Honda Foreman 500cc for the mud
Kubota 5740 for everything else

[BrutemanAl]

We were surprised by the amount of sap today. Wasn't expecting anything as it hardly got above freezing but the trees on the top of the hill were very active. Those on the north slope not so much. One of those days where pails were either empty or full. Nothing in between.

Karen - this picture's for you https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180314/6058ec13d6236f6352549626c9afb410.jpg
Hoping you find the same soon.

Boiling again tomorrow

Guess I better go check my buckets! I have not been since Monday afternoon.


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[paulslund]

It has been good in my area as well. Collected 120 liters from my 10 best trees last night, after being emptied for Saturday's late evening boiling run.. And 1/2 of those buckets were overflowing (I knew I should have emptied them in the AM when I was scooping ice off..just didn't have time as needed to get to work). I might get another 40 liters just from those trees today before the freeze locks them up.

So I have 120 liters of sap in a big 45 Gal Barrel. Any tips for keeping it from freezing solid over the next week? Don't think I'll be boiling this weekend with daytime highs of -3 and -7 (and lows of -11 to -15). :-(. Unless the forecast changes..

[BrutemanAl]

I collected 87 L late this morning, and all the trees were running, wasn’t expecting really that much to be honest


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[ennismaple]

Yesterday I processed the sap that ran on Monday and Tuesday so it wouldn't freeze solid on me this weekend. We had close to 1 GPT which was surprising when it barely got above freezing both days. We turned the pumps on yesterday but got basically nothing. I only got a few tenths above freezing for a few hours and was cloudy all day so it didn't thaw out.

The sugar content was OK but the RO didn't like processing sap coming through at 1 degree below freezing! I had a couple of brain farts to start the day but nothing got broken so I'll take that.

I fired up around 2pm and was basically done with sap before 7pm but I pushed 300 gallons of water through the flue pan to try to flush out all the sugar so we can drain and clean the pan.

By mid boil the syrup I was making looked no darker than a really weak tea. I checked and re-checked with the hydrometer because there was no way syrup that light in colour was thick enough. Nope - it's definitely syrup. We'll have more than enough candy and maple butter syrup for a while because what I was making was 80 LT! Normally Golden has very little flavor but it actually tasted pretty good.

With how well the sap has been running when it's barely above freezing I'm concerned we may need more storage if it ever gets more than +5 C!

No matter how long you make syrup there's always something that surprises you. This season is no different.

[BrutemanAl]

How much sap does everyone put I their pans when boiling?


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[paulslund]

How much sap does everyone put I their pans when boiling?


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I've been boiling it at the depth of my ladle.. so about 1.5 inches give or take...

[Buddy 58]

How much sap does everyone put I their pans when boiling?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Inch over flues ---- inch in the front pan ----3x10

[BrutemanAl]

Took the boys out to Sandy Flats Sugar Bush in Warkworth this morning for breakfast and a tour of the place. Not a big place, spent a few hours out there, took a horse and wagon ride, went for a walk down the walking trail until one of them broke through some ice and fell in the mud below lol.

Got to see 1 of the evaporators going, they were boiling off yesterday’s 1000 gallons they collected. That was interesting to see, once the temperature of the sap got to 218.5 degrees it opened and poured into the filters, and the guy watched the temperature and when it dropped below 218.5 it shut the tap off and started again. He told me it would take about 4 hrs to boil off the 1000 gallons they had. I also asked how much wood they go through in a season... 450 cords roughly and the majority of the wood is about 3 ft long. They have just over 4000 taps in this year.




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[Run Forest Run!]

Al, does this mean that you are all caught up with boiling your own sap? I assume your taps are all frozen up tight today for you as well.

[BrutemanAl]

I have about 25 L left to boil from what I collected yesterday, I have not been to the forest today, have family stuff I need to do today so I plan on finishing it tomorrow and go collect what ever maybe in the forest.


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[Run Forest Run!]

I have about 25 L left to boil from what I collected yesterday, I have not been to the forest today, have family stuff I need to do today so I plan on finishing it tomorrow and go collect what ever maybe in the forest.

How much syrup have you made so far?

[Big_Eddy]

I have about 25 L left to boil from what I collected yesterday, I have not been to the forest today, have family stuff I need to do today so I plan on finishing it tomorrow and go collect what ever maybe in the forest.


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We have a lot of half full buckets this afternoon but they are all frozen solid top to bottom. They need to thaw out a bit before we could even get the blocks into the tank.
Likely Sunday before that will happen.
Finishing off 3 more batches tomorrow's

[Galena]

Had a busy day...worked til mid-afternoon then hared down to Ottawa with my auxiliary brothers and loaded up on pallets. We managed to squeeze 36 onto a 5x10 trailer and in the box of an F150. So very grateful that the trees snoozed today cause now I can plan on making a dent in the 71l of sap in the holding tanks. Will bring em inside and leave in the foyer overnight so they thaw!!!

Oh and finished off batch #3 last night at 222.5, kissing 223. 3+l, marshmallow flavour but light gold this time. What a season.

[BrutemanAl]

How much syrup have you made so far?

I think I’m in around 10 L finished. 1 L is on its way to a friend in B.C and another 1L is on its way to Scotland to one of my cousins.


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[DrewCP]

All fired up with a rolling boil on the 18x48CDL. Think we have 550+L to hammer through. Going to be an all day event.

[Galena]

Hmmm someone on FB is braggin up their syrup as 'We have been voted by eastern and southern Ontario as have The Best Syrup.' When I asked what she meant the reply was, 'Maple producers buy our syrup because "it taste better than ours". Other people have said that our is the best they have ever tasted.'

I dunno about anyone else here but I've also been told that my syrup is the best someone's ever tasted. And I have the shiny red ribbon proving that I won the Light class at Richmond 2 years ago. There were only 2 entries ;-)

[JeffB]

Good mornin..

Everything been frozen up since last Monday.
I boiled everything in storage and bottled it .
I haven't been in bush this week to even look it's been to cold to run or even collect it all be frozen.
Bottled 40liters but need 20 more to finish of my 2 biggest orders.
Maybe cold will break this week and start the sap flow again.

Hey Al..
I run my pans at 3/4 inch. It can be a little hairy and very nail biting at times BUT on my set up i find it increasre evaporation rate 2gph.
My little 2x4 once I have it rocking and glowing red I can push 25-27gph but man she rips through the wood.

[BrutemanAl]

I collected 67 L late this morning, had to poke holes in the ice to get it out, when I was leaving the forest about an hour ago it was starting to run, I didn’t bring it all back, probably another 40 or so L still in buckets.


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[Galena]

Thankful that my trees are nicely frozen up at the moment and think they will be through til Monday. Just as well cause it took frickin forever to get the fire in the shack going - I keep forgetting that newspaper and cardboard left out there will get soggy, even if the rest of the wood is nice and dry. And made a good sized dent in the new delivery of pallets. Feeding it straight into the fire finally got it going again but so far only evaporated off about 40% of what I wanted to get done, and don't want to stay up all night.

[cheesegenie]

even my matches won't work when out there.

[BrutemanAl]

I scored more wood today, couple across the road heat with wood and a few hrs ago I heard him fire up the wood splitter, next thing I knew he was coming across the road on his atv and trailer behind him with a load of wood for me. He said that it has ants in it and he doesn’t want to bring it into his house so he figured I could use it.


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[Galena]

What an awesome neighbour! Good point, too...I have to take down a red maple and part of it when we bucked it up was just crawling with termites. So if the rest of the tree is similarly infested, will make sure it stays out of the household supply.

Oh yeah, happy St Paddy's day everyone, if you're celebrating while boiling, then be very careful!

[Run Forest Run!]

Hey Paul, empty your message box so that I can reply to you. Must be that all that sap has kept you too busy. :cool: :lol:


It has been good in my area as well. Collected 120 liters from my 10 best trees last night, after being emptied for Saturday's late evening boiling run.. And 1/2 of those buckets were overflowing (I knew I should have emptied them in the AM when I was scooping ice off..just didn't have time as needed to get to work). I might get another 40 liters just from those trees today before the freeze locks them up.

So I have 120 liters of sap in a big 45 Gal Barrel. Any tips for keeping it from freezing solid over the next week? Don't think I'll be boiling this weekend with daytime highs of -3 and -7 (and lows of -11 to -15). :-(. Unless the forecast changes..

[DrewCP]

Long day Saturday. Had more sap than expected. In the 600L range. Fought the cold and wind all day. Still some drafts to plug up in the sugar shack that will improve the steam flow.. We were lucky to hit 38-40L/h.
Saturday's run came out quite light compared to the week before.

18190

Looking forward to a weekend off. Don't think we'll see to much sap until maybe Thursday this week.

[Galena]

My third batch also came out really light, this was collected between March 7-12th.18191

[canadian_diesel1964]

Things have come alive here is SW ON. I always goto the eastern Ontario section because we are searching for a waterfront retirement home west of Ottawa and North of Kingston with maples! We are from Orleans in Ottawa and Stittsville originally. Cant wait to join you folks!

[paulslund]

Hey Paul, empty your message box so that I can reply to you. Must be that all that sap has kept you too busy. :cool: :lol:

D'oh! I didn't even realize I was full! LOL.. Sorry about that!

[paulslund]

Long day Saturday. Had more sap than expected. In the 600L range. Fought the cold and wind all day. Still some drafts to plug up in the sugar shack that will improve the steam flow.. We were lucky to hit 38-40L/h.
Saturday's run came out quite light compared to the week before.

18190

Looking forward to a weekend off. Don't think we'll see to much sap until maybe Thursday this week.


Were your trees running this weekend? You aren't that far from me and my trees are frozen up good!

[paulslund]

My third batch also came out really light, this was collected between March 7-12th.18191

Here's a question. I have a couple of batches or concentrate in the freezer that I haven't finished into syrup. I can specify which "collection period" they come from.

I was going to mix it all for processing all at once thinking I would get less waste in the process..

Do most people separate their batches to see how they turn out in terms of color/grading/taste?

Thanks!

[ennismaple]

Saturday was not a lot of fun. It took me over 2 hours to get everything thawed out so I could get sap into the RO, get concentrate and permeate from the RO and into the tanks and to thaw out the permeate lines that feed the RO for backwash. Once I got things going it was good boiling, short but great tasting Golden Delicate.

I had to stay in the sugar camp until late evening to allow everything to cool down enough so I could drain the flue pan and syrup pan. With the double digit cold nights we don't want to risk blowing a pan apart when it freezes! We'll start from scratch later this week once it warms up again.

Considering it hasn't ran well yet we're reasonably happy to have made 1/3 of what we'd consider a good season. I'm worried that when it does warm up enough to run well we'll be swamped for days!

[Galena]

Here's a question. I have a couple of batches or concentrate in the freezer that I haven't finished into syrup. I can specify which "collection period" they come from.

I was going to mix it all for processing all at once thinking I would get less waste in the process..

Do most people separate their batches to see how they turn out in terms of color/grading/taste?

Thanks!

Storage is an issue cause I simply don't have the room to store masses of nearup. And as I have small-scale equipment, I generally make a batch when I get around 100-120l, so convenience is another matter that I factor into things.

If you want to mix it all into one huge batch you can, but I kinda like being able to say that yeah, these batches taste specifically of vanilla and marshmallow and subsequent batches *should* start to taste more like the expected maple that people expect, with the flavour deepening throughout the season. I would think you might miss that individuality. It's entirely up to you - either do one huge batch of blend, or several smaller batches with their own flavour profiles.

For example a couple years ago I had a wonderfully weird little batch that tasted, very slightly, of fresh hay. It was amazingly delicate and had it been part of one large batch of blend, I bet I would have missed it.

ETA Ennis...oh I hear you, I don't want to say I am dreading when the weather gets better, but I would like to spend my weekends doing something other than constantly collecting and boiling and stinking up my hair and clothes with woodsmoke! And I have school this coming weekend and nobody whom I can leave to run things, so will just have to delve into it when I can.

[Ontario Ian]

Saturday was not a lot of fun. It took me over 2 hours to get everything thawed out so I could get sap into the RO, get concentrate and permeate from the RO and into the tanks and to thaw out the permeate lines that feed the RO for backwash. Once I got things going it was good boiling, short but great tasting Golden Delicate.

I had to stay in the sugar camp until late evening to allow everything to cool down enough so I could drain the flue pan and syrup pan. With the double digit cold nights we don't want to risk blowing a pan apart when it freezes! We'll start from scratch later this week once it warms up again.

Considering it hasn't ran well yet we're reasonably happy to have made 1/3 of what we'd consider a good season. I'm worried that when it does warm up enough to run well we'll be swamped for days!

I hear you on frozen lines. wednesday it was zero here and sap ran good. funny year, get close to frezzing and sap is running, just releasers arent reliable when it is like this, you turn your back on them and they stick open. what can you do!!

[paulslund]

Storage is an issue cause I simply don't have the room to store masses of nearup. And as I have small-scale equipment, I generally make a batch when I get around 100-120l, so convenience is another matter that I factor into things.

If you want to mix it all into one huge batch you can, but I kinda like being able to say that yeah, these batches taste specifically of vanilla and marshmallow and subsequent batches *should* start to taste more like the expected maple that people expect, with the flavour deepening throughout the season. I would think you might miss that individuality. It's entirely up to you - either do one huge batch of blend, or several smaller batches with their own flavour profiles.

For example a couple years ago I had a wonderfully weird little batch that tasted, very slightly, of fresh hay. It was amazingly delicate and had it been part of one large batch of blend, I bet I would have missed it.

Hi Galena.

Thanks for the feedback. The two batches I have frozen are roughly the same colour, but I hadn't considered they could still have taste variations. I think I'll keep them separate and see how that goes this year. It will be an interesting experiment!

[Galena]

...The two batches I have frozen are roughly the same colour, but I hadn't considered they could still have taste variations. I think I'll keep them separate and see how that goes this year. It will be an interesting experiment!

If you don't already have the Maple Flavour Wheel, here you go..http://www.agr.gc.ca/eng/science-and-innovation/research-centres/quebec/saint-hyacinthe-research-and-development-centre/maple-syrup-flavour/flavour-wheel-for-maple-products/?id=1231363888838

[paulslund]

If you don't already have the Maple Flavour Wheel, here you go..http://www.agr.gc.ca/eng/science-and-innovation/research-centres/quebec/saint-hyacinthe-research-and-development-centre/maple-syrup-flavour/flavour-wheel-for-maple-products/?id=1231363888838

Thanks! I'll have to print out for my file!

[Galena]

I keep forgetting to print out a copy, must do that so I don't have to do a headstand in order to read the flavour notes on the bottom portion of the wheel ;-)

On a final note, it's kind of fun to be able to give people a kit of 3-4 batches of syrup, all from the same trees, displaying different colours of syrup and different flavour profiles. Really blows em away!

[Fort Wisers]

Looking at the forecast, we're hoping the sap starts flowing again soon.
We also worked out a deal with a neighbour to take some of his sap, so we're very thankful for that.
Hoping to do our next boil this Friday or weekend depending on when we get another good run of sap.

Can't wait to actually finish some LOL....

[BrutemanAl]

I collected 90 L yesterday, didn’t bother going to check the forest tonight, I will go tomorrow, I expect to be boiling Friday afternoon all day Saturday


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[Galena]

Well, my trees came back from a nice week-long staycation...and, gawd help me, #2, my biggest tree by far and a superproducer, is showing signs of starting to kick into high gear. One spile on that tree alone had well over a gallon in it when I collected this evening. And some of the others, like #1 and #9, which started the season strong but are traditionally late coming to the game, seem to have slowed way down. Most clearly ran last night, lots of sapsicles. Two of the three dead spiles have returned to life, but the last one is taking its sweet time deciding what to do. Got almost 18l, will be interesting to see what happens now!

[BrutemanAl]

Home at 430, by 520 I had my 1st pan on the evaporator and a great boil going. Not sure what’s in the forest today, I have to wait till morning to go collect it and pick up the 87 L I left buried in the snow yesterday.


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[Big_Eddy]

Home at 430, by 520 I had my 1st pan on the evaporator and a great boil going. Not sure what’s in the forest today, I have to wait till morning to go collect it and pick up the 87 L I left buried in the snow yesterday.


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Al. Expect there to be a lot. We collected 120 gallons from 160 trees today, on top of 80 yesterday.

[BrutemanAl]

I am expecting allot, I boiled till 10 pm last night, filled the pans, stocked the fire went to bed.

It’s almost 540 am and I am back at it, got out of bed just before 5. By the time the family is up I will be ready to go to the forest and bring more sap back.


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[Fort Wisers]

Nice work Al!

Been up since 12:30am, but unfortunately it's been to work on our SxS (Yamaha Rhino) and not time spent on sugarin'!!!
Collected about 18 litres total over the last couple days (seems the trees are slow to thaw this time) and got 40 litres from our neighbour.
Was planning on boiling today but might wait for warmer temps of tomorrow.....
Will likely boil and finish our first batch on Sunday.......

[BrutemanAl]

I have been seeing a few Facebook posts that are in neighbouring towns that have burn bans in effect now because everything is so dry. Hope it doesn’t happen in my district.



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[cheesegenie]

Everything here is still covered in snow from last week. BTW, sap ran pretty good yesterday, boiling right now.

[Galena]

40l sap in holding, a lot of frozen this morning. Won't be boiling til Monday afternoon at earliest, so wouldn't mind if that brisk North wind keeps the run down today!

[BrutemanAl]

I have ALLOT of sap in the forest this morning, I gathered 40 L from buckets that were over flowing and left the rest were it is right now, if I had to guess I would say there is at least 200 L waiting to be boiled, not including the 87 L I buried in the snow the other day.


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[Run Forest Run!]

I have been seeing a few Facebook posts that are in neighbouring towns that have burn bans in effect now because everything is so dry. Hope it doesn’t happen in my district.

Al don't quote me on this, but it's my understanding (from my firefighter nephew) that a burn ban does not apply if the fire is being used in food preparation. Check with your township office if the ban extends to your area in the future. I think you'll be OK because you are making syrup.

I'm still being patient and waiting for my turn to join in the fun. Since March 3rd I've gathered a little here and there and stored it in the garage. Most of the time it's frozen so I have been lucky to peel off the ice to RO it. There's about 50L out there representing three weeks worth of collecting. Still almost -3 around here at the moment with a high of perhaps 1C for the day. Not really enough to get things going. By mid-week I expect things will change for the juicier.

[BrutemanAl]

Al don't quote me on this, but it's my understanding (from my firefighter nephew) that a burn ban does not apply if the fire is being used in food preparation. Check with your township office if the ban extends to your area in the future. I think you'll be OK because you are making syrup.

I'm still being patient and waiting for my turn to join in the fun. Since March 3rd I've gathered a little here and there and stored it in the garage. Most of the time it's frozen so I have been lucky to peel off the ice to RO it. There's about 50L out there representing three weeks worth of collecting. Still almost -3 around here at the moment with a high of perhaps 1C for the day. Not really enough to get things going. By mid-week I expect things will change for the juicier.

Pretty sure you are correct Karen, that rings a bell, they issued a burn ban a few hours ago for my municipality, I’m still boiling away though, I slowed the process down and don’t have 2 ft flames shooting out the end of the stove pipe any more.


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[Galena]

According to the local 'learn before you burn' pamphlet I got last year from the municipality of North Grenville, burn permits and bans are mostly for open burns like a bonfire. If you're making syrup over an evaporator of some sort, esp if it's enclosed, you should be fine. Double-check on your municipal website just to be sure.

[BrutemanAl]

I asked a few neighbors one of which used to be a volunteer fire fighter and they all said who cares, make your syrup, the volunteer said, F@&K that and them, burn baby burn, so I did.

I boiled down 110 L today, have about 6 L of Near up, wanted to boil more but I slowed down around 230 ish, didn’t want any issues with the current burn ban and it was starting to become a long day by that time.


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[Ontario Ian]

i would not worry about it al. I think is more for bigger fires like the way the farmers are cutting bush off around here!!

[wobbletop]

Had to drag the two frozen solid 120L garbage pails full of sap into the house to thaw to run the RO on. Brought it down to about 60L of concentrate. Boiled 8 hours today and have about 5L of (very close to) syrup.

The 40L block of RO ice that froze a couple weeks ago outside hasn't really melted at all... it's in a shaded area. At least no chance of spoiling sap this year.

[argohauler]

i would not worry about it al. I think is more for bigger fires like the way the farmers are cutting bush off around here!!

Trees are weeds you know, to some farmers. Inform your tree police.

[Galena]

i would not worry about it al. I think is more for bigger fires like the way the farmers are cutting bush off around here!!

Yeah exactly, and there's a good-sized lot within a couple miles of me being cleared, and they are burning every danged day. Mind we still have a lot of snow here so no burn ban in effect that I know of.

Meanwhile I have enough sap to get batch #4 underway but am in school this weekend, and have a big workweek ahead, so will have to boil in the late afternoons/evenings at the rate things or going. **NOTE TO SELF**...clean out ashes from last burn before building new fire so the new cinders don't drown in the ashes! Makes for a lot of frustration and extra work if the burn's not going for this simple reason.

[BrutemanAl]

Just got back from the forest, collected 127 L, still have 40 L buried in the snow and it’s pretty much half frozen.

Today I can’t do anything with it, the kids have a skating carnival this afternoon to end the year of the Canada Skate Program they are in. Not sure when I will get to the sap, may have to pick up propane and fire up the turkey fryer in order to get it done during the week.


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[Fort Wisers]

Boiled again yesterday afternoon, took some work to get the gravity tank and hose thawed out but in the end it all ran well.
And we finally finished and bottled yesterday.
Got 4.75 litres of liquid gold, nice brown colour and nice stronger taste (that's how we like it).
Galena we did our best to get some backlight but iphones suck at, well a lot of things, taking pictures included.
The actual product is slightly lighter in real life than what shows in the picture......should have pulled out the SLR but were too lazy and still had more work ahead of us LOL.

Filtering was decent off the start then slowed to a near halt, we kept the filter stand right near the stove body and it kept warm but the nitre must be very high (as others have seen), causing the slow down.
Happy to finally finish some.....going to boil again this aft.

18323

18324

[paulslund]

I think I went through about 230-240 liters between Saturday afternoon's boil (should have started in the am but was chasing snow for sledding.. didn't find anything worth it close to home so went home basically after driving for 3 hours! Ugh..) and most of Sunday's boil.. I've decided I need a more efficient set up.. or at least a set up where I'm not laddeling between four pans all the time.. my back is just killing me! LOL Time to invest in a proper pan set up for next year.. this weekend might be my last boil.. my silvers might be turning soon.. but also I'm getting tired! I made about 5L of nearup (like. 95% near) yesterday so I think I'll be over my season goal of 10L when all is said and done. Started with about 280 Liters and I'm down to big ice chunks in the barrel.. the buckets didn't even thaw completely in the house overnight Sat so I boiled what I could.. I'm pretty sure there is still good sugar trapped in there.. was too thick to throw away (so far.. I'll keep checking as it melts).

Gorgeous day out yesterday for boiling! It's neat when the steam blots out the sun! Lots of rain in the forecast starting tomorrow.. at least for Ottawa...

[Galena]

Oh dear gawd I have to go out now and get the sugar shack fire going and start on the 60+l waiting for me (including what I haven't yet collected). Help! :-/

[TurkeyJohn]

Hey All,

Warmer weather back again and forecast showing above freezing nights and the trees look like the leaves aren't far off popping... Great big buds coming and slow down in the sap, may have only one more boil down this year....

It's been a record year for us and like Paul, I'm thinking I need to fine tune even more, perhaps invest in a continuous flow pan, they look interesting, with the tap and all, some even with the thermometers.....

Afraid I've got pan envy..

Good luck all, not sure how long we've got...

TurkeyJohn

[BrutemanAl]

This will be my last week I think, I am boiling right now. After work I went over to the forest to bring back some sap I had buried in snow, I brought back 60 L. Everything was running great, most buckets were over flowing, I just left them for now, I have enough to try and get boiled right now.

Once this season is done I am going to start getting my shack ready for next year, start gathering wood, get the new to me evaporator in the shack, need to build some sort of trailer for the atv for next year to collect the sap....the list goes on and on lol

Also need to find some used taps

Sooo much to do and so little time


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[Galena]

Ditto everything Al said...frantically boiling trying to keep up. Next year I will, ideally, have a new sugar shack (one with actual ventilation!!) and a massive pile of nice dry cut-up pallets to feed the stove with. I keep toying with the idea of getting one of them teeny-tiny li'l arches for like $700...will have to think on it some more.

Main problem with current setup is far too small a shack, a stack of pallets and not pallet-pieces all set to go, and a woodstove where the front window panes were removed and blocked up with sheet metal,so I can't see how the burn is doing. I can open the side door and have flames shooting out but the sap isn't even close to boiling. Difficult and dangerous to add more wood via the side door, so glad that there is still lots of snow around so I have a little bunker of it between the door of the stove and the wood supply. Currently waiting on fire to burn down to cinders so then I can just jam the b*****d full of pallet bits and call it a night. And have had to resort to boiling on indoor electric stove, which I don't want to do, but have no choice if I want to get through this season.

[TurkeyJohn]

Hey Al and Galena,

Its been great keeping up with you two. FortWisers has the slickest set up I’ve seen. Didnt hear much from Lespetras this hope all is well for my most local maple trader contributor...

Great to have such a resource for all of us to trade info, this is what social media is for. Kids could learn a thing or two from all of us mapletraders.

Still this week, good luck all as we boil into spring and end a huge maple season, for me I know anyway...

TurkeyJohn


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[Run Forest Run!]

Well....I started to get some decent sap today. FINALLY!! :D I can't wait to be as tired as you guys are! I collected 36L from 13 taps late this afternoon. Most of my taps are still asleep and haven't thawed out yet. Tomorrow I expect to see that some will have dripped through the night so I will be eagerly looking out the window in the morning to see what the sap fairy left for me. Bring it on, I'm ready!!

[Fort Wisers]

Hey gang!
Well, ours trees finally seem to be waking up again and we collected about 17 litres tonight.
Also got another 42 from our neighbour source so the gravity tank is half filled and ready to go again.
I'm contemplating boiling tuesday during the day (which will require backing out of a previous commitment), or boiling tessday night through the night, or risking it through the warmer weather and boiling it all down on Wednesday.
What do you guys think? Think the sap will be ok for one more day in the warmer temps?

Turkey John, you're far to kind....there are certainly a lot of nice set-ups out there, not sure ours is worthy of any praise but thanks just the same!
We are happy with the new setup for sure and it's MUCH easier than what we did last year.
That being said it has come with a learning curve we weren't prepared for.
So we have had our moments of wondering "what the heck did we do to our little operation that was so simple" lolol
Finishing our first little batch yesterday was certainly a nice feeling.....hopefully the next round goes well.
After that, if all goes well, we may shut it down for the season as we'll have far exceeded our original goal.

We have a decent set-up now that we're happy with, now what we really need is the years of experience that the rest of you have to know more about the process itself.
That's why we're here on this board, everyone here has been so very helpful and for that we are much appreciative.

OK, time to relax with in front of the home woodstove for a bit then hit the hay...
Cheers everyone, wish you all much success!

[Galena]

Wisers, your sap should be fine for another day. If you really want to, bury it in snow or stash on the north side of the house or shack so it's out of the sun. But I just ready a post yesterday about someone boiling 3-week old sap and it was fine, just came out dark. Just never ever even think of boiling sap that smells funky - or if you do boil a very small amount of it in a saucepan. If it suddenly smells like swamp and dead frogs in your house, then chuck it!!! :-)

[BrutemanAl]

I boiled last night, boiled down 40 L. When I went out this morning to check it it is a nice light colour, up until this batch it’s been dark, my trees seem to be doing things backwards this year lol


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[Fort Wisers]

Wisers, your sap should be fine for another day. If you really want to, bury it in snow or stash on the north side of the house or shack so it's out of the sun. But I just ready a post yesterday about someone boiling 3-week old sap and it was fine, just came out dark. Just never ever even think of boiling sap that smells funky - or if you do boil a very small amount of it in a saucepan. If it suddenly smells like swamp and dead frogs in your house, then chuck it!!! :-)

Thanks Galena, great tip....scooped a little out of the tank and tried it on the stove in the house, in about 7-8 minutes we started to smell that sweet familiar smell I'm sure we all love.....
So ran out to the evap unit, opened the valve and let the fire rip. I have a class to give this afternoon but that will only drag me away for a little over an hour, no worse then taking a lunch break in the middle of a boil.
Might pull an all nighter and just finish it all off.
Thanks again for the tip.

[Ontario Ian]

Al, maybe i missed this but what in the heck does this mean? it’s . lol

[Run Forest Run!]

Al, maybe i missed this but what in the heck does this mean? it’s . lol

Al's phone substitutes '&rsquo'; for the apostrophe when he is trying to type the word 'it's'. In fact when I replied to you using the quote feature on this forum it substituted the correct punctuation. It took me a while to figure out what Al was trying to say too. :lol:

[Ontario Ian]

Thanks Karen, I even tried googling what ever al was saying, wasn't getting anywhere, so i had to call him out on it. lol the long range looks good, should make some syrup!!

[BrutemanAl]

Lol, it is my phone and using the app Tapatalk, up until this year I always used my laptop, but I love you all so much I downloaded Tapatalk so I can chat from anywhere. I could not figure out what and why it was doing when ever I posted so I just gave up trying to figure it out and figured you would all figure it out

Turns out if I do not use proper English , like it’s ... it is....or couldn’t... could not..., it adds the jumbled mess right in there to confuse everyone lol


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[Ontario Ian]

its al good Al, just did not know if I was that out of touch. lol

[Run Forest Run!]

Thanks Karen, I even tried googling what ever al was saying, wasn't getting anywhere, so i had to call him out on it. lol the long range looks good, should make some syrup!!

My forecast looks good too. Hope we both drown in sap this week. By the way, I think that Al swears a blue streak and this is just his excuse. lol

[BrutemanAl]

Lol, I have a potty mouth like a big bad trucker


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[Fort Wisers]

We finished and bottled another 2.25 litres last night, so our total syrup count is 7 litres.
Nice amber colour and a taste we like (fairly strong).
Emptied the half finished remains from the continuous pan into the flat pan to finish out the season.
I'm sure we have lots of sap left to come but what we've produced so far plus what will come off this final finish (assuming it comes out ok) is more then we dreamed we'd produce when we started this year.
Spiles are pulled and everything is starting to come in for cleaning....
Continuous pan is sitting outside soaking in water, we'll give it a good scrub this aft....

Always a little sad to end each season but we're happy with how everything is wrapping up.
We learned a lot this year and have many more ideas to make the next season even better!
What a great hobby.....
Thanks to everyone on this board for another year of great help and guidance!

We'll post some pics of the final finish when that's complete.....it's currently boiling at about 214 so we have a ways to go.
Cheers!

18363

[northwood]

Hey Forth Wisers, you could pack up your syrup gear, head to Mattawa and start your season all over. We're just starting to get sap up hear. Hope we have a few good week

[TurkeyJohn]

My phone does it too Al, when I get to an office computer, I fix if I think of it otherwise, figured everyone could figure it out...

Glad I wasn't alone,

Technology....duh!!

TurkeyJohn

Lol, it is my phone and using the app Tapatalk, up until this year I always used my laptop, but I love you all so much I downloaded Tapatalk so I can chat from anywhere. I could not figure out what and why it was doing when ever I posted so I just gave up trying to figure it out and figured you would all figure it out

Turns out if I do not use proper English , like it’s ... it is....or couldn’t... could not..., it adds the jumbled mess right in there to confuse everyone lol


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[michaelhh]

Hey Folks,

Looks like I'm all done for the year. I pulled the spiles last week. My last boil was on Mar 13 and I was out there in the woods in my shack with a flashlight at 8pm with no more sap for the flue pan and the stuff in the syrup pans not quite done. So I shut it down and brought the nearup home in 2 sap pails which I have been finishing on the stove in small batches.
The thing I did that was new this year was once I had syrup drawn off the pan and prefiltered, I would put it in mason jars (56oz/1.8L) and let them sit for a few days.
Then siphon all except the very bottom of the jars into a pot for heating up and filtering. Seemed to go through the orlon and prefilters easier since they weren't working as hard with all the nitre still in the bottom of the jars.
So it takes more steps but the filtering is better. The little bit of sludgy stuff that was at the bottom of the jars I was able to get some decent syrup out of by just pouring off the top for home use.
Still getting the hang of my refractometer since I spent 2 years just going by temp only.
I finished some of the nearup at 219 but my refractometer said it was 71 brix so either my Thermapen needs calibrating or I should have double checked the boiling point of water for where I am that day. I checked the refractometer and it is calibrated. I guess that is why all my syrup last year had lots of sugar crystals at the bottom!

Always lots to learn and it's been great to see how you all are doing with it and learning from your stories. Lots of hard work being done!

I've got one more sap pail's worth to finish on the stove and I'd say we'll end up around 12L total for this year which I'm happy with because we tapped for less time this year.

I'm thankful for every bit we get. It's a gift and I am just glad that I actually get to do this.

Hoping to re brick the whole arch for next year but who knows. Best laid plans....

[Galena]

Hey Wisers, dang sorry to hear you're already closing down...but trust em I understand! BTW can I visit and see your operation before you dismantle it (if you haven't already) just so I can see how big it is how it works etc?

[BrutemanAl]

I spent the day with my sons school at Sandy Flats Sugar Bush in Warkworth... good grief what was I thinking lol.

Came home started up the evaporator, went to the forest to bring home some sap, collected 60 L but everything was over flowing, I think I maybe calling it quits on Saturday, Friday I plan on boiling, and Saturday and definitely pulling everything Sunday, I have allot of finished syrup already and I have given some away already.


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[ennismaple]

We had a decent boil last night and today with the sap from the last 3 days. It still hasn't really let loose for us yet. In 3 days of good weather we didn't get 2 gallons of sap per tap. The pumps will stay on tonight and tomorrow and won't be turned off until it freezes Friday night. Hopefully we get 2GPT between now and then.

The upcoming weather does look good but once it hits April 1st I get worried that a quick warm spell can end things quickly.

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[Big_Eddy]

Steams been pouring off here. Started yesterday with over 200 gallons and collected 70 last night and another 30 tonight. Boiled 170+ last night and today. (Nice to have a son who got home from work last night, lit the fire and boiled for 8 hours) The last 100gals has plenty of ice left in it so will save it for Friday. Have 5 batches to finish tomorrow, otherwise there's nowhere to store more syrup. All my drawoff pails and finishing pots are full.
Had a great evening in Cobourg last night talking syrup making while my son was boiling.

[Fort Wisers]

Well our final batch was the yielded the most product (which we expected, assuming we didn't mess it up anyhow lol)
Yesterday we boiled off the remainder of the half finished product, only took a couple of hours.
Filtered and boiled 7.5 litres of syrup, I also spilled maybe 1/2 litre extra while fumbling around with a filter insert removal (totally being clumsy).
Pictured below is our last batch worth minus a 500ml bottle we gave to a good friend who stopped by with coffee while the bottling was happening and a small mason jar that collected the last bit of filter drippings while we did the main bottling.

So our final count is 14.5 litres of finished product, we're very happy with that.
We celebrated by drizzling our homemade syrup on homemade tea biscuits and chilli......that's what it's all about right?
Taps pulled, buckets rinsed and put away and cleaning of equipment etc is mostly complete (just have to rinse out the gravity tank and hose and put a few odds and ends away).


Northwood -> would love to tap the threes in Mattawa, just not this year LOL.....but soon!
Galena -> we have a number of projects on the go right now but after that perhaps we should have you over to meet the family and so you can see the set-up, we'll be in touch.
in the mean time if you want any pictures of the rig with dimensions let us know....


Take care everyone

18371

[Galena]

Hey Wisers, would love to see more detailed shots of the rig. And yes would be nice to meet more sugarers and just have more friends in general around here. Would go on but so tired I can barely lift my arms. Toying with idea of *accidentally* spilling sap once I hit the 700l mark. Already at 520 or so could do it! Just exhausted. Please stay in touch, you can also email me.

[Lespetras]

Well.. sugar content finally high!! Boiling at 1:29 sure beats 1:60.. doing a batch tonight and we may continue through until next week we'll see! It was a strange but prosperous season for sure.. after the 2 week lull we were dragging our buts to get back into it but with sugary sap like it is.. hard to shut it down...
Cheers

[Galena]

Good to hear from you Lesley, was wondering if you guys got swamped out too! I'm finishing off a batch right now that I thought was going to be 4L, it looks like it could come out to 5 or even 6. Crazy season.

[Lespetras]

Good to hear from you Lesley, was wondering if you guys got swamped out too! I'm finishing off a batch right now that I thought was going to be 4L, it looks like it could come out to 5 or even 6. Crazy season.

Yes.. the sugar content amazing right now.. we were swamped a few weeks back.. it's been a great year!! Gonna break from it this weekend and maybe continue next week if buds don't beat me to it. Glad your year is going well also Susan!!

[BrutemanAl]

Well this morning I collected 100 L, dumped another 100 or close to it and pulled all my spiles. Everything is home now and washed and sitting in the sun drying. I am boiling my last 100 L of 2018 right now, have about 60 L left to go.

It’s been a heck of a season, never had so much sap, once I am done everything I will update my totals.


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[ashadedacre]

Well we are done. Sap changing colours now. Did 40L this year on 40 spiles on 18 trees so 1L finished syrup per spile. All same colour. Cannot do more unless we up the equipment as we still bucket it. Hope this posts right side up it looks sideways right now!https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180330/e7edd264a8f6786465130457e718cb11.jpg

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[ashadedacre]

Grr no clue how to rotate pics on phone app!

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[BrutemanAl]

So my total sap collected for 2018 is.... 1206 L. By the looks of previous years that is almost double or triple the amount I usually get. Now to see how much finished syrup I will have.


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[BrutemanAl]

So my grand total for the year is 1206 L of sap collected and finished product is 19.67 L of syrup.

I’m good with that, although when I was bottling my last batch this morning I wanted to go put taps back in lol. But I won’t, I am done for the season and what a great season it has been. Lots of learning for me this year, wasn’t sure how to do it over the barrel evaporator but it worked out just fine and I am happy with the way it all worked out.

I have already started getting ready for next year, took the kids to the forest yesterday afternoon and cleared a spot in the forest for my shack, took a bunch of skids up and started stacking wood, cut a few trees up.

Next year will be a whole new adventure and I can’t wait.

Stay safe everyone, have a great year and we will chat again I am sure.

I will keep checking in to see how everyone is making out.


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[Asthepotthickens]

An all round good year with plenty of sap, very little sugar content in the sap though. We finished with 50 litters not as good as last year but better cleaner syrup. Looking forward to The Festival Of Maples in Perth on the 27th of April. 18406. Best of all it brings the family together. My two grandson's and I headed to pull the taps.

[Galena]

Hehe got some cute little helpers there, ATPT!

Still in the game here in Oxford Mills cause I'm too stupid or lazy to call it a day and pull spiles and/or spill sap. I have 142l of sap nearuped down to approx 25l, and looking at the numbers so far I should get around 7l of syrup. Reducing the nearup even more so I can fit in all in my biggest pot.

My trees are still going, got 45l yesterday and from the look of it easily another 45l today when I go and collect this afternoon. Have a mess of pallets out there to go and buck up with my brand new reciprocating saw. Works really well and much easier to use and safer than the circular saw!

Also have batch #4, all finished off at perfect Brix (222.5) to get hotpacked, perhaps later this evening while #5 gets run through the filters.

Well it's almost 11, about time I actually jumped in the shower and got some clothes on. And eat breakfast :-)

[Run Forest Run!]

Great shot of 'the lads" ATPT. I wish it wasn't such a long drive to Perth because I'd love to attend the big event. And, with any luck I'll still be boiling and not be able to venture far from the burners!

I was visiting family in Perth last June. Such a pretty little town. My mom was born there.

[Galena]

Ok it's official. As of today, 709l sap collected, 81l of it fresh sitting out there in the shack. 25ishl nearup in my biggest pot, using an ultra-slow way of reducing which actually works really well. And though there were some sapsicles and three empty pails - so only going on 14 spiles now - still got 36l today. Haven't even touched the saw and my shoulders are saying nope, not now! Batch #4 hotpacked at 4.9l. Planning on just taking it easy for remainder of the day and if the nearup reduces down to the anticipated 7-8l mark, will filter it off as syrup this evening.

Planning on going to 800l sap as I think it's doable, then call it a season.

[ennismaple]

Soooo tired. Three straight 14+ hour days has wiped me out! We had the best sugar content of the year on Friday. Saturday and today we finally got a bit of dark-robust syrup but after a few runoffs we were quickly back into Amber-rich. The sap is still coming in ultra clear so tough to say if we will even get much dark syrup?!?

We finally got our pan washer working and I love it! Do a rough clean with the pressure washer, drop the pan onto the rack, fill the tank with permeate and run it for 3 or 4 hours. So much less effort.

It looks like we'll get a decent amount of sap the next 3 days and then get a break through the end of the week. As long as we keep getting cold nights and some moisture we can go another 2+ weeks. I figure we have enough firewood for another 0.75L/tap if we have the ambition to boil it. We might need to scrounge up some drums if we go that long!

Our fields and roads are getting pretty beat up from all the trips to gather but there's still frost in the ground and snow in the woods so we're not close to done yet. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180402/0577ed5e0d0ae0b16d920082fcb6d3a9.jpg

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[Galena]

Wow, glad you're all set up to handle another two weeks worth...I doubt I could keep up for more than another couple runs. Bucking up pallets today and fire up the sugar shack again.

[paulslund]

Well my season is done. Fired up the evaporator yesterday for a few hours to show family how it'd done before Easter dinner.. Didn't notice it before but the sap in the barrel had turned cloudy and although the finishing pan seemed to smell ok, the sap pans had a bit of a "different' smell.. not a buddy smell, but different than normal. So I stopped everything and figured I would salvage the syrup I did make (actually almost lost that too... I thought I had enough in the pan but it reduced so much I had a pan full of taffy!). Reconstituted it but in tasting it this morning it has sour after taste to it...Might just keep it for making BBQ sauces out of it or something but I don't think I want it poured on pancakes.. If it can salvage this batch that means I'm only loosing what is left in the barrel.. so about 40 liters of sap.. if I loose this batch it means I wasted about 130 liters of sap give or take.. I thought it was safe enough as there was always some ice in the barrel but maybe the sun was stronger than I realized these past few days on that dark-blue barrel.

Lots of lessons learned this season. Upgraded from 4 taps to 20 this year. Collected I think around 700 liters of sap. Still have most of it in nearuped in the freezer, but I did finish my first batch on Monday and got 3.75 liters of dark syrup. Made for nice Easter gifts for the family yesterday!

The kids pulled the taps for me yesterday.. don't have enough sugars to keep collecting and my silvers started to go buddy last week so I pulled buckets as they turned.

Happy Easter everyone!
Paul.

[Galena]

Sorry to hear you lost a lot of sap there, Paul. Definitely sounds like sun on any dark-coloured storage container will lead to the sap warming enough to spoil. FWIW If I don't have any snow to bury sap storage in, or any shade or a shack to keep it out of the sun altogether, I use a tarp with a silver side, and have that silver side turned upwards so it deflects sunlight.

Here's my batches so far, #4 is more of a light amber colour....18417...and yes the bottles on the left are slightly out of focus, I was shooting at a little bit of an angle and with a shallow dof. And I took it before I had my morning coffee :-)

[DrewCP]

Still going strong but now we have no choice...

Got up at 04:30 on Friday after working until after midnight, headed to the shack and fired up. Ran hard until I had to leave at 15:00 for a family commitment. Dad was going to run another few hours then we'd collect and finish on Sunday.
I got "the call" on Saturday night. He left 4"+ in the pan, loaded some wood, turned down the draft and went up to the house to grab a quick bite. 20 minutes later once he got close to the shack he said all he could smell was burn syrup. It boiled over and then burnt what stayed in the pan. Huge mess. Still cleaning up. We've left the pan unattended many many times. Always run into the house for breakfast and supper. Never more than 15-20 minutes. I guess the concentrate was a little hotter than he thought. Probably lost what would have been 20L of syrup.

Did a collect yesterday picked up over 400L. We now have more than 1000L in stock. It's keeping well in the shop, out of the light on the concrete floor. We added some sap ice we kept to keep it cool. We'll run through what we have this week then see what our plan is from there.

Our north slope trees have just turned on. Getting tons of crystal clear sap still.

[Run Forest Run!]

Geez, that's a rough one Drew. Good luck with the sap flow this week.

[paulslund]

Oh geez Drew that hurts I'm sorry to hear that.. makes my little "taffy" mishap seem minor.

Upon further taste testing, the sour taste is actually closer to a molasses taste to be honest.. so I think I'm going to thicken it up a bit more and use it for baking molasses cookies! So in the end I only wasted about 50 liters of sap.

I had left the barrel in a sunny area as it had frozen pretty good two weekends ago.. and then couldn't really move it. Next year I'll make sure to keep it shaded and deal with cold as it comes.. I still have two sugars with their taps in.. if I get 30-40 liters over the next week or so I'll boil it on the stove to try to make up for lost sap! Lesson learned for next year!

[cheesegenie]

Old sugarmaker told me every sugar maker will burn a pan. Still sucks, sorry.

[Galena]

Rest assured, Paul, that molasses is definitely on the flavour wheel so you're ok :-) Drew, Ah feel yer pain. Even though I asked my trees very nicely to stop running, there's still a couple gallons or so froze up out there. Guess I'll just have to keep telling them til they do stop.

My sap is frozen up out there in the pails, so making the most of this brief lull to clean the sugar shack stove and boiling pan, buck up some pallets (so much easier with the recip saw if anyone's interested) and get the fire going out there. Got the first 15l of 81l out there just starting to warm.

Inside, the house woodstove is still doing its painfully slow evap down to either syrup or dense enough nearup that I can put that huge 30l-pot on my glasstop stove to finish it, without fear of breaking the dang thing. Got masses of glass jars all lined up and will prep filters closer to the time.

Oh and Saturday I went to the new CDL/Atkinson store in Perth, 38 Dufferin (aka Highway 7) and Drummond. Small space, but they had good prices and will be open all year round, not just carry sugaring supplies 3 mths of the year like most stores do.

[Bruce L]

WOW Marty,how many gallons did you have ahead of you? Sitting on fence here,leaning primarily towards the done for season side.Last sap out of the tubing was pretty milky,kinda thick and smelled,boiled it down,still making an old medium syrup,stronger flavour but not yet buddy. Ran vacuum pump all day on one bush on Saturday,didn't pull in much sap,pretty cloudy,thought I might clear the lines out and dump,then see if a fresh run would clear up,got to the main bush and could smell gasoline before I got to the generator. Needle valve or something is stuck allowing gas to flood right through onto the ground,so will have to get that fixed before we would ever fire up again. Maple Weekend Open House here this weekend,whether to boil water,or might get lucky with sap,but it will definitely be water if sap is poor,don't want that snotty stuff going through the pans.

[ennismaple]

Bruce - I cleaned up Thursday and Friday's sap on Friday. Saturday was the first day all year we got 1 gallon of sap per tap. We ran the pumps all night Saturday because it was calling for a very late(early) freeze just before sunrise yesterday. The sap ran decent yesterday but we pushed through all we could so there was only 500 gallons or so left in the woods when it froze up last night. From Friday to Sunday we got about 3 GPT total.

Those of you south of Highway 7 have had a lot more good runs than we have to the north so it won't be surprising if you finish sooner. I know Ray Bonenberg only just boiled for the first time last week! Over the last month we had a lot of marginal days where we got 1/2 GPT and guys 15 miles to the south were getting swamped. The tiny bit of dark we've made wasn't because of the sap but because of the concentrate sitting in the pans. The sap is still very clear - the pic below is looking through about 1000 gallons of sap with the reflection of the window above shining off the inside of the tank.

Hopefully you get a few more days and can save some sap for this weekend.

Marty

18433

[paulslund]

Rest assured, Paul, that molasses is definitely on the flavour wheel so you're ok :-) .

Oh I'm a dope!! Didn't even think to check the flavour wheel! I'm going to print that out right now so I don't forget again..

[cheesegenie]

Washed up for another year.

[Galena]

Around 760l collected now, 75+l out there in holding. I think I'm certifiable to still be going, but I just can't stop!!! Nor can (or will) the trees. Some have slowed down but others have increased their output.

[TurkeyJohn]

Around 760l collected now, 75+l out there in holding. I think I'm certifiable to still be going, but I just can't stop!!! Nor can (or will) the trees. Some have slowed down but others have increased their output.

You’re a monster for punishment Galena...stay at it, you put the rest of us who’ve washed up already to shame...proud of you!!

TurkeyJohn


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[nathancb]

Shutting down today in Lang (10km southeast of Peterborough). There is still lots of sap flowing, nice and clear, but the sugar has dropped below 1º, so its not really feasible to do anything with it. There hasn't been any cloudy sap at all this season. The sugar today is almost undetectable by taste. Overall, it was the same here as most everywhere else and sugar was down substantially from last year, but there were generally good runs to make up the difference.

Made ˜115l from 125 taps and about 7000l of sap on a 18x63 D&G.

Nathan

[Clinkis]

Still going strong here. Noticed my red maples sap was a little off tasting so pulled them (but that’s only 5). Sugars still producing nicely. Sugar content up over 2 finally too. No idea how much sap I’ve collected but I’ve made around 250L of syrup so far. I’d like to try and get to 300l if possible and then i’ll Pull the plug. New RO has been a godsend.

[Galena]

You’re a monster for punishment Galena...stay at it, you put the rest of us who’ve washed up already to shame...proud of you!!

TurkeyJohn

Hehe thanks TurkeyJohn :-) I just threw some more wood into the sugar shack stove to get it going while I go work today. Managed to book tomorrow off too so maybe I can actually finish that 60l still out there.

Oh yeah so far 758.5l collected. Haven't dared walk the trees yet.

[ennismaple]

I hope everybody has things tied down this afternoon!?!? This wind is crazy. Bucket producers may be SOL because if they don't blow away they'll all be empty by dinnertime!

We had a good run yesterday and overnight so my brother had the RO running at 7am. First fire was on by 11 but at 1pm he decided to shut down the RO and finish up the concentrate because it's so windy that we're almost certainly going to have a power outage today. Tough to concentrate sap and run a forced air evaporator without power!

We still have a LOT of sap left to process once this storm passes.

[Galena]

Hehe this bucket producer is kinda sorta hoping that a few buckets will get airborne...just sayin! ;-) The worst seems to be over now, but wait 5 minutes....

[Run Forest Run!]

To all of you sugarers east of me, please keep an eye out for one of my sap jugs. It must be close to Ottawa by now. Sheeesh! These winds are INSANE! You take your life into your hands checking on your buckets.

[Galena]

To all of you sugarers east of me, please keep an eye out for one of my sap jugs. It must be close to Ottawa by now. Sheeesh! These winds are INSANE! You take your life into your hands checking on your buckets.

Sorry haven't seen it, Karen, but amazingly none of my near-empty pails got blown off. Just a couple of lids. Was glad to see that more spiles are slowing or stopping altogether, but the remaining spiles that are going hot are in my late-running trees. I swear they do it on purpose! Leaving sap out there frozen til later today, have a lot of work to do.

Oh and batch #5 is a gorgeous red, a little over 5l. Going to hotpack later today and maybe get #6 finished too.

[BrutemanAl]

I hope everybody has things tied down this afternoon!?!? This wind is crazy. Bucket producers may be SOL because if they don't blow away they'll all be empty by dinnertime!

We had a good run yesterday and overnight so my brother had the RO running at 7am. First fire was on by 11 but at 1pm he decided to shut down the RO and finish up the concentrate because it's so windy that we're almost certainly going to have a power outage today. Tough to concentrate sap and run a forced air evaporator without power!

We still have a LOT of sap left to process once this storm passes.

Not really if you have a generator, we have a few customers that have sugar shacks and we have installed generators for them.


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[Galena]

Well been busy here cause I now can't use sugar shack stove, creosote buildup cause I was burning green wood from the pallets, even though I cleaned out stove and chimney as best as I could between burns, so I was risking both syrup tasting of creosote and a shack fire. Luckily the cold weather froze up storage jugs and pails hard enough that was able to get sap concentrate, though I felt guilty chucking away ice. But now that I have to revert to boiling indoors see no other way to do it.

[canadian_diesel1964]

You should be able to use a chimney brush and start fresh. Usually chimney fires are from quite a bit of stifled(low O2) burning and green wood...even a piece of chain will do the trick. That's what we use at work when we are called to a chimney fire. Good luck!

[Galena]

thanks for the advice, and it did work the first time, but couldn't brush out the stove so used a broom handle to knock loose as much as possible. But the whole interior of the stove was caked with that combustible black fluff. And it would form on the bottom of the stainless steel pan, then drip down onto the wood and burn. No fun.

[Galena]

Crickets chirping awful loud around here!

Well to date 766l sap and approx 25l syrup....haven't yet hotpacked batch #6 yet. Smokey syrup at last! hehe :-)

Batches 1-5.18500

[maple75]

Still slow in the upper valley - only had two decent runs since I tapped in February.
First boil over march break yielded 3.5 liters and boiled on Easter Monday for another 4 liters.
I collected another 110litres of sap from my 40 taps last week and put it all in the freezer until I have more to boil.
Slow year for me again, that's two in a row; if this keeps up I will have to send my fire wood to Galena!

[Galena]

...Slow year for me again, that's two in a row; if this keeps up I will have to send my fire wood to Galena!

Hehe please do, I'm out of firewood for the house though I have lots of pallets to buck up...but been too frickin cold. Luckily only one tree is still really going in earnest, most of the others have called it a day. I hope!

[DrewCP]

Looks like we are done for the year. Started our last batch on Thursday and finished up Friday evening. I don't know the exact amount of sap but we took off over 20L of syrup. It's fairly dark and has a great flavour.

Batch 1 flavour was good but clarity seemed off. We'll let it settle for another couple weeks then see what we have.
Batch 2 is our best. We will likely give all of it away once we let it settle then reheat and package into 250ml bottles.
Batch 3 was heartbreaking. Lost a whole days worth of boiling. 600+L of sap? Dad is still pretty beat up. It hasn't happened to him in 40 years. It was just his time I guess. He managed to save about 25L of the concentrate. We finished it off anyway. It is black like coffee. We'll let it sit and settle. Hoping maybe we can use it for cooking. It does have a bitter finish. I'm already thinking we'll have to dump it.
Batch 4 as mentioned is fairly dark but also has great maple flavour. It will also be suitable to give away.

Kind of a tough year for us. It was our first time inside and that itself created some issues that we had to band-aid as we went. We also got a slow start in setting up. Sap runs seemed to be all or nothing. For us, running 500L a day is perfect. This is essentially what we did last year. Started with a clean pan, ran all day and finished syrup that evening. Last year we believe we produced our best syrup EVER. This year we ended up with multiple 800-1100L runs that spanned 2 days. Not only does the long boil affect colour it also leaves up open to a whole other realm of issues.
We have some ideas on how to make our setup better for next year. We will need to change our current steam vent from a flap style to a true cupola. We were constantly fighting wind and the cold blowing steam back into the shack. A cupola will close in the large open end that was causing most of our problems and also allow more heat to build up to push the steam out.
We will also be going back to 1 day batches. No more multi day ones. As much as I love to be there for all of it I just have to accept that it's not possible. I have a young family, work odd hours with lots of random overtime, and coach hockey 3 times per week. I've got to face the fact that I'm not in a position to be there all the time.

Not sure of our season totals. I'll have to count next time i'm over that way.

Hope everyone had / is having a great season.


Drew.

[ennismaple]

We are definitely still going... Saturday we pushed through the rest of the sap from last week. It was our first boil where we made only Dark Robust. Flavour is great and the colour almost came back to Amber Rich. The sugar content is definitely down. I did the math on what we boiled between Wednesday and Saturday and it was about 44:1 so we're probably averaging 2.0%.

I'm getting sick of boiling in my insulated coveralls and having to worry about lines and tanks freezing up! This week looks like ideal temperatures for some big runs. We haven't had what we'd call a good run yet. Everything we've boiled has been in dribs and drabs from several days' sap.

[Big_Eddy]

We have not collected for almost a week. Checked on the buckets over the weekend and they are all 1/2 full or more with many full right to the top - with ice. We need a few warm days just to thaw them out enough to be able to loosen the blocks. Not sure how long it will be before that happens.

We've boiled off, filtered and bottled everything collected so far, with about 150l of syrup (from 160 trees) made now.
Grades from 47% LT (dark) to 77% (golden) and everything in between.

Will see what happens this week.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180409/d8804449295b8f5582b49d7810e616b5.jpg

[Galena]

Still gettin sap but finally being smart and using the poor man's RO - ice - and dumping it. Been at this too long just want to wrap it up but hate pulling spiles when sap still running.

[paulslund]

Wow Galena. I only had a few smaller sugars tapped this year and they've all dried up. My big silvers were pulled last weekend (actually about 10 days ago) as they were started to get the buddy smell.. I left two taps in my sugars for fun and I may have 10 liters between the two of them over the past9 days.. using 5/16 this year..maybe they close up sooner? Are you on 5/16 or 7/16? But you sure are getting a great ratio! I calculate about 30:1!! And your color contrast between batches is really cool!

[Galena]

Wow Galena. I only had a few smaller sugars tapped this year and they've all dried up. My big silvers were pulled last weekend (actually about 10 days ago) as they were started to get the buddy smell.. I left two taps in my sugars for fun and I may have 10 liters between the two of them over the past9 days.. using 5/16 this year..maybe they close up sooner? Are you on 5/16 or 7/16? But you sure are getting a great ratio! I calculate about 30:1!! And your color contrast between batches is really cool!

Hehe thanks Paul :-) All my trees are sugars and most of them are pretty **** big sugars. I'm a bad person, still on 7/16ths - I did try the 5/16ths but all they did was fall out of the trees. And very happy with my syrup colours and the ratio, I figured it had to be about 30:1... think some were around 28:1 and 29:1.

Think I will pull spiles today except on the 2-3 trees that are absolute diehards. I'm just done, in all senses of the word, and have to get on with my life.

[BrutemanAl]

Glad to see your all still going at it, I have been busy cutting wood in the forest and stacking it with the kids... getting ready for next year. Going to pick up a bunch of slab wood also at some point. Hope to bring home the sugar shack this weekend and then get the evaporator set up in it.


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[Bruce L]

A big kudos to Covells at Rideau Ferry. Had Maple Weekend at the bush this past weekend,had a hard time making what I presumed would be enough maple sugar leaves to have on hand for sale. Decided some time ago we needed more molds,so ordered from another place ( which I won't name on here publicly ) back in early January. Checked back end of January ,then again in February ,even in March to which they still responded could be any day now. Ordered from Covell's maybe 10 days ago,picked up molds today,so now when we are making sugar I can turn out 560 pieces at a time, instead of being limited to 240 Had a great time bubbling water away in the evaporator,biggest problem being amount of water needed to last the day,evaporator only boils at 2 speeds,fast and faster,even got to meet up with some fellow traders who were astounded at the evaporation rate.

[DrewCP]

A big kudos to Covells at Rideau Ferry. Had Maple Weekend at the bush this past weekend,had a hard time making what I presumed would be enough maple sugar leaves to have on hand for sale. Decided some time ago we needed more molds,so ordered from another place ( which I won't name on here publicly ) back in early January. Checked back end of January ,then again in February ,even in March to which they still responded could be any day now. Ordered from Covell's maybe 10 days ago,picked up molds today,so now when we are making sugar I can turn out 560 pieces at a time, instead of being limited to 240 Had a great time bubbling water away in the evaporator,biggest problem being amount of water needed to last the day,evaporator only boils at 2 speeds,fast and faster,even got to meet up with some fellow traders who were astounded at the evaporation rate.

I buy all my glass, filters, hydrometers.... you name it from Covell's. Always good for a chat and always have what I need or can get it fast. It also helps that they are only 5 minutes away. I really want to try to make some suckers this year. Might have to head over this week to see if they have any molds in stock.
Save some of those maple sugar leaves for Delta!

[Galena]

I also like Covell's and have bought a lot of glassware, hydrotherms etc from them. Problem is, that section of the store is only open for 3 mths of the year, and I live a good haul away so don't want to drive an hour or more to get there only to find that section closed down :-/

Still collecting sap, so am going to make a teeny little batch #7 of it, mixed in with the last tiny bit from batch #6. Don't want to mess any more with #6, even if it is going to crystallize a little cause it finished off two hashmarks over hot. Ah well.

[BrutemanAl]

I had someone sneaking around my sugar bush this morning. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180410/2ca6bffb0fba1d0cd4b69e3990353144.jpg

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180410/a4d181dbc0a48b9a7d9e5181889850aa.jpg

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180410/d2f3703071762bd5844d73d7565ab44c.jpg






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[Galena]

Cool pics Al! Game cam?

Even though I've taken down half my buckets, my best trees are still refusing to call it quits, though I suspect tomorrow I can pull another couple trees. Got no choice.

[TurkeyJohn]

Cool pics Al! Game cam?

Even though I've taken down half my buckets, my best trees are still refusing to call it quits, though I suspect tomorrow I can pull another couple trees. Got no choice.

Still going Galena?? You’ve got some persistent trees there. Good on you for staying at it...Took down my outfit just a few days before that wind storm couple weeks ago. So glad I did or I’d have buckets all the way to Gananoque...

TurkeyJohn


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[BrutemanAl]

Cool pics Al! Game cam?

Even though I've taken down half my buckets, my best trees are still refusing to call it quits, though I suspect tomorrow I can pull another couple trees. Got no choice.

Yep, just got it a few days ago.


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[Clinkis]

Just finished off 200 gallons of sap I collected today. Hoping for a decent run tomorrow and then I’m done. Been a long strange season. Probably end up with 270-280 L of syrup which is short of my 300L goal but still happy with that. Time to move on to my 100 other responsibilities I have been neglecting.

[Galena]

Trust me, TurkeyJohn, I am trying to quit...it's that my trees just keep giving me perfectly good sap!! I keep asking them nicely to stop ;-)

Ditto here, Clinkis. I also have 100 other responsibilities that I have to get to and the neverending sap run just keeps on a-runnin'. *sigh*

[Clinkis]

Tanks overflowing today with nice clear sap. Unfortunately sugar content is low, around 1.7. I know I said I was done collecting today but looks like tomorrow might be good again so HECK i’ll Collect again tomorrow but then that’s it! For sure this time!

[Galena]

Good news! 4 of my trees have slowed down enough to justify removing their spiles this afternoon with a clear conscience.

Bad news! The last two trees, little one-spiler Surprise and unassuming little 3-spiler #1, are still going strong. They gave me 11l this morning.

So that means I am now at 795l sap collected this season, could easily break 800l. I hope so, I just want to get this season done dammit!!!!

[paulslund]

Wow Galena!.. sounds like you'll only have to wait a day to break the 800 mark.. a record for you it sounds like?

And I was wrong about my sugars.. my little ones have dried up (although I could see sap running down the sides of them a few days ago) but of the two regular sized trees (i.e. about 10 inches across) I'm still collecting about 2.5 liters a day from one of them..the other slowed down so I pulled it..but it's still dripping. My other sugars were kind of small to tap, to be honest.. it was just an experiment to see how much I would get in relation to my silvers.. So I made about 350Ml of sugar maple syrup on Monday, and will hopefully get another 350Ml by the weekend (i know it's small.. but man I love the Sugar maple syrup! My kids actually prefer the Silver maple syrup.. one of them does not like the molasses-tasting one at all! Picky kids I have!)

[Fort Wisers]

Good news! 4 of my trees have slowed down enough to justify removing their spiles this afternoon with a clear conscience.

Bad news! The last two trees, little one-spiler Surprise and unassuming little 3-spiler #1, are still going strong. They gave me 11l this morning.

So that means I am now at 795l sap collected this season, could easily break 800l. I hope so, I just want to get this season done dammit!!!!

WOW, great work!
We'll send the pictures of our rig soon.

[ennismaple]

We are definitely still going. We had another good boil yesterday. We started out as a dark Dark-Robust but by the time the first drum was full we were back into Amber-Rich. Crap - we need more dark!!! By the end of the day we were all the way back to 65LT. The first 3000 gallons was at only 1.7% but the sap coming in afterwards was much higher because we ended up at a 43.5:1 ratio by the end of the day.

The sap ran decent all day and was still running some when I turned off the SP-22's at around 9pm. I expect the 2 woods on the auto-start/stop Airtech pump ran fairly well until midnight. The sap coming in was crystal clear so we won't be making dark syrup tomorrow either.

We are at a record 44 days since our first boil and still making good syrup - and still going. We might need to find a stainless steel bathtub to store the rest of our syrup if this craziness keeps going much longer!

[Big_Eddy]

I boiled all day yesterday and finally got all our tanks emptied. We had collected Tuesday night (after almost a week of below freezing) Made another 15 litres or so of syrup which will put me over the 1l per tree for the season.

My son's new puppy spent most of the day sleeping on my fire-stoking gloves - which resulted in a good burn on my thumb.
18527
When he got home from school he for took his puppy for a walk to check the buckets and came back with the "great!" ( great! ??@#??) news that there was lots of sap in the pails. By that time it was too late to collect before dark - so it will still be there tonight. I still have wood on the pile so we'll probably boil it - but I'm out of glass and almost out of "gas" as well. 53 days and counting.

[Run Forest Run!]

Wow, all you eastern folks are still killing it! Congrats on such a great season out that way. Sap AND puppies. You guys are living the dream!! hahaha

I'm hoping to see some sap today after things thaw out. I've got 60L in a holding tank to start to boil today but it's been a rather odd and discouraging season here for me. I freshened three holes yesterday and put in a fresh tap as well. I can't make heads or tails out of this year.

[ennismaple]

Wow, all you eastern folks are still killing it! Congrats on such a great season out that way. Sap AND puppies. You guys are living the dream!! hahaha

I'm hoping to see some sap today after things thaw out. I've got 60L in a holding tank to start to boil today but it's been a rather odd and discouraging season here for me. I freshened three holes yesterday and put in a fresh tap as well. I can't make heads or tails out of this year.Karen - I've been doing this all my life and I can't remember a season like this. We're over 1L/tap and the sap hasn't ran well yet. We've been boiling for over 6 weeks but only on consecutive days once. Some years it runs at night, some it runs in the rain/snow but this year it runs a little bit almost every day! I've put a lot of sap through the RO at zero or minus 1 and on only one day was it reasonably warm to allow for a decent permeate flow rate.

6 weeks into the season and 90% of our syrup is Golden or Amber-Rich. I'd be happy with 4 straight days of +15 C and be done with it!

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[Galena]

WOW, great work!
We'll send the pictures of our rig soon.

Yes, please do, as I think that's the direction I'm headed in. Either that or the loony bin, though I am not planning on taking more yoga school for another year or so.

And Paul, yes, my previous record was 701l, that was 2 yrs ago. Already broken it. Those two trees left on tap have approx 2 l or so at a guess between em right, the cold slowed the run. Thankfully!!!!!

[BrutemanAl]

Need everyone’s opinion, I’m looking at buying new spouts, next year I will be using drop lines into my buckets, next year I will be using allot of empty ice cream pails I picked up for free.

what kind of spouts would you recommend ?

Size? Colour? Why do you like what you are recommending?

I was looking at these in a 5/16 size.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180412/7d832b37088987e00a774237cefa621c.jpg


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[Galena]

All things being equal, AL, I'd say it's just a matter of personal preference in terms of size, colour etc.

Just checked the trees. #1 has about 3l (and is running), Surprise had maybe 1l but isn't running yet. Will collect later and pretty sure will be over 800l.

[BrutemanAl]

That is what I kind of figured, I ordered 100 of them and a bunch of other stuff


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[Maple4444]

Need everyone’s opinion, I’m looking at buying new spouts, next year I will be using drop lines into my buckets, next year I will be using allot of empty ice cream pails I picked up for free.

what kind of spouts would you recommend ?

Size? Colour? Why do you like what you are recommending?

I was looking at these in a 5/16 size.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180412/7d832b37088987e00a774237cefa621c.jpg


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I am switching my bush over to the white ones you have in the picture. I have found they seem to still be tight in the tree at the end of the season as compared to the black ones. I am guessing they don’t expand and contract as much on the sunny mild days- just guessing though.

[Galena]

Okay. It's official. As of this evening's collect, 800.3l of sap.

Batch #6 finished nice and smokey, just hotpacked it, a hair under 4.5l. Batch #7 will probably only be a litre or so, but just plan to keep nearuping til those **** trees quit!

[Run Forest Run!]

Karen - I've been doing this all my life and I can't remember a season like this. We're over 1L/tap and the sap hasn't ran well yet. We've been boiling for over 6 weeks but only on consecutive days once. Some years it runs at night, some it runs in the rain/snow but this year it runs a little bit almost every day! I've put a lot of sap through the RO at zero or minus 1 and on only one day was it reasonably warm to allow for a decent permeate flow rate.

6 weeks into the season and 90% of our syrup is Golden or Amber-Rich. I'd be happy with 4 straight days of +15 C and be done with it!

Thanks so much for the insight. This is a very confusing season. I had a pretty decent day yesterday and gathered 51L of sap. Combined with the 60L I had in storage, I boiled all day and made 2.5L of Amber-Rich. All of my batches this year have been Amber-Rich with the exception of the first Golden-Delicate batch. Out of frustration I have reamed my tap holes and it has made a major difference. That extra 1/4" has worked like magic. Several of the jugs were overflowing this morning. If we dodge this two day ice storm that the news is threatening us with I'll be grateful. I can't face a third ice storm in four years.

[ennismaple]

As of suppertime tonight we had 4000 gallons in the woods. We'll run the pumps all night and see what we have by morning. It's just after midnight now and still +2C so we may get a night run with the sugar snow that's coming in as part of this low pressure system. We could be surprised by How much we have in the morning!

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[paulslund]

Out of frustration I have reamed my tap holes and it has made a major difference. That extra 1/4" has worked like magic. Several of the jugs were overflowing this morning.

Man Karen..you sure are having a challenging season.

Quick question for you... when you reamed the holes, did you use the same bit and drill a bit deeper? Or did you really ream and and go from, say, 5/16 to 7/16 and put in different taps? "They" generally don't recommend reaming out holes but your comments, and others on FB would indicate it seems to make a notable difference on sap yields! Fingers crossed you miss the storm!

[Run Forest Run!]

Hi Paul. I used the same bit (5/16) and just went a little deeper. We've been getting freezing rain and sleet since early this morning. It's so unsettling seeing the trees getting covered with ice - again.

[Galena]

Dang Karen, you are having a tough season to be sure.

[Run Forest Run!]

Dang Karen, you are having a tough season to be sure.

Yes Susan, but a big plate of hot oatmeal pancakes with sliced bananas and a generous helping of yesterday's fresh batch of syrup sure put a smile on my face today! I'm ready for whatever Mother Nature dishes out this weekend but I truly hope that my trees don't take another beating.

[argohauler]

We are definitely still going. We had another good boil yesterday. We started out as a dark Dark-Robust but by the time the first drum was full we were back into Amber-Rich. Crap - we need more dark!!! By the end of the day we were all the way back to 65LT. The first 3000 gallons was at only 1.7% but the sap coming in afterwards was much higher because we ended up at a 43.5:1 ratio by the end of the day.

The sap ran decent all day and was still running some when I turned off the SP-22's at around 9pm. I expect the 2 woods on the auto-start/stop Airtech pump ran fairly well until midnight. The sap coming in was crystal clear so we won't be making dark syrup tomorrow either.

We are at a record 44 days since our first boil and still making good syrup - and still going. We might need to find a stainless steel bathtub to store the rest of our syrup if this craziness keeps going much longer!

Hi Marty. When the colour went lighter, did the flavour change at all?

[paulslund]

Hi Paul. I used the same bit (5/16) and just went a little deeper. We've been getting freezing rain and sleet since early this morning. It's so unsettling seeing the trees getting covered with ice - again.
Ah..thanks for the clarification..I"ll keep that in mind next year if it looks like they are slowing down..
Hopefully you don't get too much freezing rain.. Am I remembering correctly that you lost a/some good tree(s) a few years back due to ice damage?

[Run Forest Run!]

Ah..thanks for the clarification..I"ll keep that in mind next year if it looks like they are slowing down..
Hopefully you don't get too much freezing rain.. Am I remembering correctly that you lost a/some good tree(s) a few years back due to ice damage?

Yes, a few years back we had a vicious ice storm over the Easter weekend. I lost several trees that year - with the buckets attached. Lots of damage was done to the trees that didn't rip right out of the ground. A year before that, over Christmas, we had another vicious ice storm and lost a lot of our tree canopies. It was carnage twice.

As for me reaming the holes this year, I'll soon find out if it was worth it or not in the long run.

The ice and freezing rain is making a heck of a racket on the windows here today. Good thing I've got some syrup to eat. ;)

[Galena]

OK math geeks here are my final figures:

Batch #1 123.8l sap, 4l syrup
Batch #2 1119l sap, 4l syrup
Batch #3 106.7l sap, 3.75l syrup
Batch#4 132l sap, 4.9l syrup
Batch#5 146l sap, 5l syrup
Batch #6 138.3l sap, 4.5l syrup
Batch #7 35.3l sap, 1.75l syrup

Sooo...overall totals....801.1l sap and 27.9l syrup. That seems pretty decent! Batch #7 really surprised me, I was expecting 1l and got well over that, and apart from Batch #3 which finished a couple hashmarks too high, all these batches Brixed out perfectly at the red line. Very, very happy!

[Run Forest Run!]

You've got some very sweet trees Susan - 28:1! :D

Congrats on such a great season. You deserve it!

[Galena]

Thanks Karen, yep I attribute those numbers to an all-sugar sugar bush! Now I need to get my butt in gear...fell a tree that has to come down, build and outfit a real sugar shack, and buck up a bazillion pallets so I have lots of dry seasoned wood to burn...the usual ;-)

[Big_Eddy]

We pulled taps today (in the sleet). Dumped over 100 gals of sap in the process. Most of the buckets were full or overflowing, but I'm done for this season. I beat my 1l per tap goal so that is good enough for me.
First time I've ended the season with more snow (ice pellets) in the bush than I started the year with.
Now we need some warm weather for cleaning up.

Last full pail picture of 2018
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180415/a9dca978f5e99903baac4c4fe86f41fe.jpg

[Galena]

OMG Eddy, you dumped 100g sap...I'd've taken some :-/

[Dlee]

I was going to dump 120 gal but found a buddy to take it

[maple75]

Got a decent run last week, boiled yesterday and bottle 12 liters today... up to 19.5 liters for the season, hopefully picks up this week again after this weather. Still lots of snow around.

[Clinkis]

Did my final boil yesterday and then drained and finished off what was in the pans. Today I bottled up the last of my syrup and began the cleanup process in the sugar shack. Pretty sure there will be a couple more good runs this week but I’ve had enough. Once things warm up I will go pull my taps and get things cleaned up and shut down in the bush.

Final tally 299L of syrup from 289 taps. I didn’t keep exact track but figure based on my lower then normal sugar content I collected around 4000 gallons of sap. Overall I’m pleased with my results even though I’m down a bit from last year.

[ennismaple]

Hi Marty. When the colour went lighter, did the flavour change at all?

Not much change in the flavour. Because the darker syrup was from the partially boiled sap sitting in the pans for a few days it doesn't tend to be too strong. Once we push 20 to 30 gallons of syrup through the evaporator the colour almost always comes back 10 to 15 LT depending on the quality of the incoming sap.

[Galena]

Final pic of all 7 batches, though I had to cheat and carefully 18570decant #7 into a clean jug due to nitre cloud in the bottom...wtf it came from is beyond me. Can always tell when it's time to pull spiles when you get nitre clouds, no matter how much you filter and how careful you are to keep temp below 190. *sigh*

[Run Forest Run!]

Gorgeous shot of your 2018 haul. I always look forward to your pictures.

[paulslund]

Now that is a nice haul, Galena! That picture should go in your signature!

[Galena]

Thanks Paul and Karen! Hey that's right it can go in the signature! Will get on it...oh pooh, where's there the linky for attaching a pic or does it have to link to an external pic?

[BrutemanAl]

One day I will take pictures as good as you and I will make you proud lol

I need a small utility trailer for my atv to use in the Bush, nothing big, nothing pretty as it’s life will be in the forest collecting sap and gathering wood, soooo if you know of any let me know.


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[cowboy729]

I wasn't planning on making more maple syrup this weekend but the weather has turned very favourable. Thanks to my new to me RO I have plenty of wood left to boil the sap storm that should be coming. Some great plus and minus temps and no sign of a bud on my tree's. The beaver pond is still frozen which is unheard of for this time of year. I guess I'll pull my taps late Sunday now.

[ennismaple]

Final pic of all 7 batches, though I had to cheat and carefully 18570decant #7 into a clean jug due to nitre cloud in the bottom...wtf it came from is beyond me. Can always tell when it's time to pull spiles when you get nitre clouds, no matter how much you filter and how careful you are to keep temp below 190. *sigh*

That is pretty! A basement full of SS drums is just a pretty but in a different way.