Tapping today?? -Harvard MA

[tgormley358]

I’m itching to get started too. Like most. I’ve set up lines for 60 or my 100 taps so far, all in 3/16 gravity tubing. We have a nice change in weather the next 4 days which id like to ride, but then the forecast is at lest a week of cold (<40). From what I’ve read this is less risky with 3/16 on a slope providing some natural vacuum, as far as tapping too early and having taps dry up before the season is done. I’ll probably hold off tapping the other 40 on 5/16 tubing and buckets until we get the next warming wave. Curious if anyone else in central Ma tapping this week?

Tom

[Biz]

I'm going to tap about half of mine on Saturday. These are all red maples which tend to quit running earlier than the sugars. One run of 30, one new run of 50 which have never been tapped, all 3/16 tubing, one on line vacuum one on gravity. Hoping for a first boil on Sunday.

Dave

[tgormley358]

Sugaring seems to be finally in full swing in MA, certainly in Harvard anyway. On 125 taps, a new high for me, ive collected roughly 900 gallons of sap and the runs over the past week are closer to what I was expecting this season. But it’s only. Around 7 gallons per tap so far which isn’t great, and I’m hoping for some big runs over the next week before trees shut down. That’s what it looks like to me anyway. I’m hoping for another 6-7 gallons per tap over that time, we’ll see. Due to some mistakes aka lessons learned (pretty big ones) I’ve only made 7 gallons of syrup as of yesterday, but hope to end up with 25. Again we’ll see. How about others?

[jrm]

Down the road, so to speak, in Acton. I've boiled three times. 12 taps in 11 trees this year. I've boiled roughly 50.5 gals of sap (I collected more, but got rid of ice at various times.) I've made 3/4 gal. I, too, am hoping for a last run this week. I suspect after that, it'll be done.

[SeanD]

We've been in full swing for a while down here. We tapped on 2/16. It's the first "normal" season in a long time and we've been crushing it. By the end of this week, we'll be in the 50s and 60s with nights above freezing, so we might be wrapping up next weekend. Who knows? We woke up to a blanket of snow this morning. We've gone about a week into April here, but never further than that. I don't know how different our areas are, though.

[tgormley358]

What a day yesterday. Biggest sap hail of the season for me. Some of the taps or containers have cloudier sap,
Some still clear. I know that can be just fine, I can’t taste a difference in the sap so I have to makenayrup and find out if it’s starting to go bud-dy. Made a couple gallons last night that tasted good but not great and the aroma sometimes isn’t
Wonderful. So I’m going to taste again and might hang it up this weekend depending n