Northern Wisconsin 2019

[18mile]

First taps are in. Hope to be done next week. Most mainlines are under snow.

[G263]

Put 40 taps in on Saturday with tubing to pails. Snowshoes a must.

[GramaCindy]

I hung my sapline through the woods last fall. Trails are waist deep, more of the white crap on the way this weekend. This winter has really sucked, except for snowmobiling. I'm making a quick trip on March 14-17th and may be able to tap after that. Looks like a decent warming trend after then next crappas comes. Hoping the powder will go quickly.

[jbelany]

My property is on the Ashland/Bayfield county line. I could snowshoe in to the trees, but not sure how I'd lug the sap back to the cabin. Hoping this warming trend is slow and settles this snow quickly! Ready for some nights at the cabin.

Joe

[sbingham]

Joe - a young, physically fit guy like you should be able to do everything on snowshoes!
However, I am going to wait until the snow drops a bit (quite a bit).
I made some trails last year with the snowmobile, worked ok but it was still a lot of work.

[18mile]

Taps are in. Snow depth 3ft. Better snow for snowshoes than last year.

[goose52]

I plan on tapping this friday and will probly have to use snowshoes to do it. i don't mind that so much as having to use a stepladder to collect when the snow melts! ;)

[jbelany]

:-) I am not so sure about the young, or physically fit part! I packed trails with the snowmobile yesterday, easily 2 1/2 - 3 foot deep currently. Hoping to tap next week after this brief warm up and predicted rain. Sure hope to get down and see your operation this year!

Joe

[18mile]

Very slow run started this afternoon

[TwoSaps2]

put in 50 taps this weekend in Vilas county. No sap flow, but temperatures this coming week look good.

[lostrock4]

Lots of snow still and frost. I'll tap my southern exposure trees in the next few days and let y'all know if we have any flow.

[GramaCindy]

I plan on doing the same lostrock4

[lostrock4]

Sorry 4 the delay, always so busy this time of year. Tapped on Thursday morning. 22 trees 19 of them had some sap flow. A few of them were running a drip every 2 seconds. 6 taps had a half gallon from some flow on Friday. Low of 29 degrees Friday morning and high temp of 40. Low of 16 this morning and a high of 50. The trees were all flowing this afternoon good run. Good luck and enjoy yourselves :)

[lostrock4]

Here's the best news, the temp is 30 degrees at 1030pm and clear as a bell. We might get a good run Sunday also. I hope it drops down to 25 or 26

[cedar syrups]

So far so good 520 taps on tubbing and shurflo pumps collected 1500 gal so far on 3 runs the system is working awesome after fighting with the 3 ft of snow on snowshoes the weather forecast looks good for the next couple of weeks. A lot better than the couple of years

[TwoSaps]

Nice run this weekend. We have about 50 taps on buckets. Collected about 1/2 gallon per tap just on Saturday afternoon alone. Collected 64 gallons overall, to make 1.5 gallons of nice, deep caramel color syrup. So 40:1 sap to syrup is considerably lower sugar than last year (usually <30:1). Still almost 2 feet of snow by us, so still a good workout (therefore can consume more syrup). Looks like a great week ahead. Will have to hide my beat up, soot-stained black fingertips from the co-workers today.

[18mile]

There is still snow in the woods. Sugar content has been high. Syrup a little dark.

[G263]

I agree sugar content higher. First batch last week dark. The batch yesterday was considerably lighter though on the dark side. Good thing we packed down the snow by all the trees with snowmobile earlier. Still had to snowshoe off of the hard pack. Looks like good weather week ahead and then it looks to over.

[cedar syrups]

The season has been really good so far like the rest of the posts my 1st couple of batches was dark but made some awesome syrup the last couple of batches, sugar content around 2.4 and lots of sap. Our tubing system is running awesome on shurflo pumps. We already have made more syrup than the last couple of years and the weather looks really good for a couple of weeks, with still a lot of snow on the ground and the cold snap is welcome to get a little break. Like to hear how everyone else is doing

[GramaCindy]

My season up here in Bayfield County is going really well. I have aprox. 27 taps on 3/16 gravity. It's coming out in a steady stream. Really cool to see. I also have 47 taps on sap sack. Some were overflowing yesterday. One wound up filling my boot really well. :lol: I don't have a sap hydrometer, but I can tell the sap is really sweet this year. My first batch of syrup came out fairly light, but beautiful. After not collecting last year due to deep snow and every type of vehicle getting stuck, I am finding that I needed to relearn some things while cooking and finishing. I got one of Smoky Lake's Murphy Compensation cups this year and really love it.

[Zucker Lager]

Hey Grandma:
Seems like every year you are running way before I even get started. I'm just a little South and East of you and we're getting days that go just ever so slightly above freezing then into the twenties or teens at night freezing everything solid. Been really slow (maybe a gallon per tree of sap a week? or should I say ice.) and now it looks like the weekend will bring really warm weather hope it doesn't shut down the run???? Jay

[TwoSaps2]

Question for you "hobby cookers". I've been doing this 4 years now. I'm small time, 50-60 taps, gravity into buckets. I typically get 3-6 gallons of finished syrup. This year I'm doing most of my tapping on a friends property. What would be a good amount of syrup to give them, to keep the prospect open, but not give away everything I make?

[GramaCindy]

I don't think that's possible Jay. Everything is still so frozen. I think we'll be good for a while, unless we don't get below freezing at night. That looks to be the case this weekend anyway. If you are located in Sugar Camp WI, you are quite aways away from me.

[G263]

How many trees to you have tapped at that location TwoSaps 2 ? I would say at least a Quart . As far as the season goes, last week i thought it would be over this week. The forecast after this warm spell looks to go back into the freeze thaw cycle, so i am hoping for another run next week and another boil.

[Zucker Lager]

If you are located in Sugar Camp WI, you are quite aways away from me.

Hey Grandma Guess I was thinking more about latitude. Its a guessing game every year for when things start and stop. I collected about 25 gallons of solid ice yesterday 5 of 17 trees are still dry. At least if it does warm up I'll have ice to keep things cold. happy sapping Jay

[lostrock4]

I tap the in-laws property and they love the fact that we are using the land. They have 120 acres with hard maples spread randomly from one end to the other. I burn about 15 gallons of gas thru my snowmobile to pick up the sap. I think 10% - 15% of your haul should be sufficient for sharing with the land owner. My father in-law cuts down and stacks white pine all over the property and I haul the wood in to boil the sap when I'm out checking the trees. It works out nice. That way we get rid of some excess lumber that might lay out there and rot. Some popple also I use.
This years production 1st batch 8 days worth 150 sap 5 gallons syrup light ruby color
2nd batch unknown sap amount. 3.5 gallons of syrup 3 days worth of sap. Light amber. Noticeable flavor and color difference in both batches. I pulled my taps on Friday because I am happy with my production.
Two lessons learned this year. Cause I dumped about a quart of concentrate on the ground. I now scoop 80% of the concentrate from the pan before pouring it out by hand. I used a glass handled mug.
Lesson two I picked up a digital temperature sensor with a cord to check the temperature of the sap. So much easier to know where the sap is at. It has a four foot cord that watches to a base and the wireless display has temperature settings so it will alarm when your temp is met. Walmart 20$ grilling section make sure you get the one that goes from -20f to 300f or 500f
Made life much easier I used to use a cheap 7$ hand held.
Good luck it looks like you'll be getting a bunch of sap this week also. Some trees had a few buds showing on Friday but most of the trees were hiding their buds still.

[lostrock4]

19972
I have some pics to look at.19973

[lostrock4]

19974 I use the black plastic taps a short piece of tubing and cleaned milk jugs. Poor man setup. I hang the jugs with a long torque screw or a screw in metal hanger hook. When you have a tree or trees that start flowing heavy you can swap the milk jug for a five gallon bucket. The milk jug keeps the bugs and precipitation out very well. And you can see how much sap you have from a distance. I tote everything in and out with the old artic jag and an otter sled

[lostrock4]

19975 my boiling pan. I have an old stove top that I set the warming pots on. My friend and his son and I built the rock burning area about 8 years ago and I haven't upgraded since. Still work great. The pan sits about 16" above grade seems to be ideal.

[G263]

Make sure you compare/check the accuracy of the temp probe you have with another temp probe you view as accurate. I found that the cheap ones for the grill are not accurate. We had a good run last week and have nested in barrels in the snow for a boil this weekend.

[TwoSaps2]

I've used both a cheap thermometer, and a high quality temperature probe. Key is, check temp when sap starts to boil. finish point is 7-7.5 degrees higher. I still compare to a syrup hydrometer.

Trees cranking right now. This will be my last week though.

[18mile]

Finished his weekend. Good season. 4lbs/tap. No off flavored syrup