Northwest Ohio

[RC Maple]

I thought I would see what others are doing in this quarter of the state. Who is already tapped and who's waiting out the next deep freeze? I did wait until 2/20 to get started and had pretty good runs right away. So far we've made about 4 gal of some really nice golden delicate syrup. All the sap I have gathered is boiled for now. I'm hoping today and tomorrow will give enough sap to boil on Sunday before the temps drop again. Sugar content has been better this year. My sap hydrometer has been testing a strong 2%...I haven't been @ 2% or higher for the last 3 years.

[Ed R]

I tapped the trees at my house in temperance on the 22nd but I held off tapping the 5 trees at my office in Toledo. Its kind of open there and I was worried about having to chase down my buckets in the road last weekend. I boiled on Monday, sweetened the pans and drew off about a pint of syrup. My sugar was only 1.4 and I threw out quite abit of ice, which is not the greatest. I tap all reds and silvers.

[clw]

I tapped on Feb 20. Collected 5 gals of sap per tap. Boiled 6 days in a row. Sugar was 3.5% the first day and 3% since. We tap all sugars. We’re shut down now due to cold weather. If the forecast is correct it’ll be a week or more before we start again. We’re in North Central Ohio, the bush is about 8 miles from Lake Erie. 87 taps this year, 2x4 flat pan with 3 channels.

[DLong]

I am outside of Bowling Green, I had 25 taps in on the 20th as well....up to about 4 3/4 gallons mostly golden so far. Looked like it began to drip today, hoping to get more tomorrow. My sugar is always high, and not sure why...most are 3 or 4%...several buckets were 5% and one 6%...with no ice...go figure. I really would like to know why. The trees i used to tap at my home were in the woods...always around 2%. I quit tapping those for the higher sugar at my new location which is our golf course. I wonder if it is because those trees are out in the wide open on the course, and get alot of sun??? Just curious, but i sure can't complain about that! I have been steadily testing the sugar content each time i collect this year...just to see how it changes throughout the season. I do this strictly for fun to give to friends and family.

[Greensprings sugar]

We are in seneca county, south of green springs. Tapped Feb 2nd, 350 taps on vacuum. Sugar has been around 2- 3%. So far 64 gal syrup, still fixing the tubing after the last wind storm came thru. GOTTA love those ash trees:mad:

[RC Maple]

I took my buckets down again today. I took them down last Sunday as well - then I was dumping 1-2 gallons out of each one. I put them back up on Tuesday hoping 2 or 3 days around 40 would help some sap to run. Today, I gathered a whole 8.5 gallons. Even though accuweather shows we got to 40 on Wednesday and Friday and we were upper 30's today, almost nothing ran. The forecast on accuweather now calls for 45 on Saturday and then 40's the next week - there's something to look forward to!

[ash10383]

Don't know whether to be a little disappointed in the weekend:120 gal on 92 taps all weekend or hopeful that it means the season will continue for a couple more weeks.. Didn't get anything last weekend either...

[Greensprings sugar]

Wasnt the best of runs with all the wind AGAIN! Ran better yesterday afternoon before the cool down. If it doesn't run this wed and thurs, pack it in.

[clw]

Sunday we collected 1.5 gals per tap. We’re not complaining, that’s two days of boiling for us and I expect to collect more today. Looks like a good week, cold nights warm days. We’d-Thur-Fri looks good. The season is not over.

[RC Maple]

My run aver the weekend was about 1 gal /tap. Yesterday was about .5 gal+ and today looks good too. But it looks like a big run is on its way this week. So far..so good. The sugar has been doing good too..holding over 2%.

[RC Maple]

I didn't expect much sap over the weekend. I checked and emptied all the buckets Saturday night - mostly just to make sure they were all still on the trees after Fridays wind. I only gathered about a quart per tap Saturday night. They did drip a little Saturday but it was only 31 in the morning and it didn't warm up much either. I expected the same for yesterday except that we would have a low in the mid 20's going into Sunday. It never seemed like it would warm up yesterday and only got to 38 but we had a little snow most of the afternoon. We gathered last night and they had ran well yesterday - almost a gallon/tap. I guess I am boiling tonight! The newspaper says most every night this week will be in the 20's but Accuweather and the weather channel don't go quite that far. I guess we'll see as the week goes along...

[clw]

We collected a gallon per tap today (Monday) and expect another gallon tomorrow. Total for the year about 11 gals per tap.

[clw]

We pulled our taps on Mar 28. Had a great season. Sap total for year about 18 gals per tap.

[RC Maple]

I'm sticking it out for this last run. It should freeze tonight and tomorrow night. It has been a good year...just wanted to go around one last time!

[RC Maple]

I'm sticking it out for this last run. It should freeze tonight and tomorrow night. It has been a good year...just wanted to go around one last time!

Well, I thought I had one more run. There must have been a memo go out that most of my trees got that said it was April now and time to hang it up. I only had about 3 trees that were running yesterday. So now all my buckets are back home and the cleanup process begins. A good season though. I still have to finish up boiling the sweet I was going to start my next boil with to see how much syrup I made this year.

[RC Maple]

Most all of the cleanup is done now and things are put away. There's still a few things to do in the sugarhouse but here are the final numbers for 2019:

Gallons of sap per tap 13.4
Sugar content 2.16%
Gallons of syrup per tap 0.34
Gallons of sap per gallon of syrup was 39.79

It sounded like everyone had better sugar content this year. The last three years the sugar content had been 1.84%, 1.82%, and 1.98%. It was good to be back over 2%!