North East Ohio 2020

[johnallin]

Thought it was as good a time as any to get a thread started for the NEO group. Been working on some upgrades over here and getting ready for another season.

Early January had Fred and crew install a 500' mainline and 2000' of 5/16" laterals in the woods on the north side of our property. So far we have 18 laterals and I was able to cut in 100 drops with ZapBac spouts in the 65° temps this past Saturday. There are still more trees over there but they're along a pretty steep ravine and I'm not yet sure if it's worth it.

Also had them install a CDL sap lifter down at the creek where my 3/16 lines (and the new 1" line) dump into a booster, and then re-run and re-pitch the 1" main line up to the releaser at the sugar house. The line now slopes down to the sugar house, but the lifter has to raise sap about 19' to get to it.
It looks like it'll work much better than what I had last year.

I'm planning to play around with adding air to my sap tank either with the H2O air blower or bubbling with a pump. Sat in on a seminar at LEME that indicated that adding oxygen to sap can improve maple flavor... enough said...I am in on that one.

Anyone else with new plans or toys?

[Kh7722]

Thanks for getting this thread started this year john. Nothing what I would call major here to report on except this crazy weather we are having. We are pretty much ready to go, got the woods mostly tuned in and ready to tap. Just trying to wait patiently for the season, depending on weather we are planning to tap mid February. Good luck to all this season
Kevin

[DrTimPerkins]

I hope many of you can make it to the Ohio Maple Days. You've got some great speakers coming. Dr. Abby van den Berg (from UVM PMRC) and Steve Childs (Cornell) will both be there this year.

https://www.ohiomaple.org/Ohio%20Maple%20Days%20Flyer%202020%20rev%20final.p df

Hope you don't get snowed out again! :D

[johnallin]

I hope many of you can make it to the Ohio Maple Days. You've got some great speakers coming. Dr. Abby van den Berg (from UVM PMRC) and Steve Childs (Cornell) will both be there this year.

https://www.ohiomaple.org/Ohio%20Maple%20Days%20Flyer%202020%20rev%20final.p df

Hope you don't get snowed out again! :D

Looking at the 10-day forecast we might have some snow by next weekend, but not much. It's just now starting to look like winter around here. It better get cold soon or we may be in for another year like 2012...

[buckeye gold]

I'll be there for the Morrow county day, always a good day.

[johnallin]

....Nothing what I would call major here to report on except this crazy weather we are having. We are pretty much ready to go, got the woods mostly tuned in and ready to tap. Just trying to wait patiently for the season, depending on weather we are planning to tap mid February. Good luck to all this season - Kevin

Hey Kevin...I think your brand new timber-frame sugar house and evaporator are pretty major!! Wish you the best with all that new shiny this spring, that's a helluva an accomplishment...

[fred]

I'll be there for the Morrow county day, always a good day.

please introduce yourself

[johnallin]

Any one thinking about tapping this week?

[Sugarmaker]

John,
From across the line to your East. I am going to try to get some lines up and see what the situation is near the end of the week. Might just go with Feb 1 if the weather looks good. Some sap runs have past. I just don't see the deep freeze weather coming. But usually if I tap it will happen!:)
A large producer near here tapped Jan 6 and has made 1200 gallon on 1% sap.
Regards,
Chris

[Kh7722]

Any one thinking about tapping this week?

John,
I was very close to pulling the trigger on tapping today, but weather man changed the forecast for next week from 40’s to low 30’s. Looks like itll be a few weeks for now. Hoping to set taps first week or two of feb. something tells me the super cold winter just isnt going to come this year. I did tap one tree on a bag to test the waters and get a hole out of my system 😂, it tested at 1.9 percent which is good for me.
Kevin

[johnallin]

John,
From across the line to your East. I am going to try to get some lines up and see what the situation is near the end of the week. Might just go with Feb 1 if the weather looks good. Some sap runs have past. I just don't see the deep freeze weather coming. But usually if I tap it will happen!:) A large producer near here tapped Jan 6 and has made 1200 gallon on 1% sap.
Regards,
Chris

1200 gallons of syrup on 1% sap is a lot a sap! Thinking Feb first week may be the ticket over here.


John,
I was very close to pulling the trigger on tapping today, but weather man changed the forecast for next week from 40’s to low 30’s. Looks like itll be a few weeks for now. Hoping to set taps first week or two of feb. something tells me the super cold winter just isnt going to come this year. I did tap one tree on a bag to test the waters and get a hole out of my system , it tested at 1.9 percent which is good for me.
Kevin

I know this time last year we were in single digits....don't see that coming and the Lake has no ice to speak of. Did your test tap run today?

[heus]

I am going to put out my buckets around Valentines day or so, if the weather cooperates. If still on tubing and vac, I would be getting ready now.

[johnallin]

Jason - bet your fired up to be "back to basics". Spent the afternoon in the woods tinkering with the new 500 ft run of 1" main line, adjusting and checking slope, and this evening in the shop getting "stuff" ready. Will be putting up more wood next weekend and plan to tap right after that.

[heus]

Jason - bet your fired up to be "back to basics". Spent the afternoon in the woods tinkering with the new 500 ft run of 1" main line, adjusting and checking slope, and this evening in the shop getting "stuff" ready. Will be putting up more wood next weekend and plan to tap right after that.
Yes absolutely. Still need to install 3 stacks through the roof and boil with baking soda to clean the new pans.

[WoodButcher]

I am going to put out my buckets around Valentines day or so, if the weather cooperates..


Agreed. If I can't sweeten the pans and have 250+ gallons on top of that, I wait. We haven't had 'winter' yet... Typically when this happens, and I decide to tap early, we end up getting a freeze for 1-3 weeks and you're stuck with frozen tanks and nothing to boil.

[johnallin]

I tapped about 110 of 170 on my 3/16" lines this afternoon, will finish the rest tomorrow and possibly the other 125+ on the new 1" line. None of the trees were dripping and it doesn't look like much will happen this week, although some possible freezing later in the week. Hopefully we get a small run, as I plan to use it to flush the 3/16 lines out.

Next weekend I plan to hook the 3/16 lines up to the new sap lifter, work any bugs out of it and put more wood up with our son and son-in-laws. Sugar house is clean just need to take covers off pans and tanks, do some general set up stuff and we should be good to go....

Pretty excited about this year, got a few new upgrades and will have the trees I used to hang bags on, now on high vacuum.

[johnallin]

Got the rest of the 3/16 tapped today...they're running like crazy. No freeze here in the past 24 hours that I can see, and not a drop yesterday but with today's temps it was Katy Bar The Door...can't figure it out, but it's all good.

[buckeye gold]

Johnallin, I know what your saying about the temps and sap running. I drained my pan and put my sweet in the fridge to break down and wash up. I went out at 1:30 and sap was running like crazy. I took 25 gallons down and build a small fire to sterilize it and reduce it (60 degrees had me nervous about letting it set). I looked at 4:30 and it was running pretty hard. I'll go boil soon as I get breakfast. Down here in the sunny south it had been three days of poor runs then it hits 60 and sap gushes ....go figure.

[Kh7722]

Started tapping today here. Hopefully be all tapped in and leakfree by the weekend.
Kevin

[johnallin]

After letting them run to ground for a day, Monday afternoon I connected all the 3/16" lines to new the sap lifter. Sap was still running strong after running all day Sunday.. so I started up the vacuum pump and it worked great.
Sap was charging out of the lifter vertically, 20' feet straight up in the 3/4" line, and then on down to the sugar house. I was a beautiful thing.

Sugar was pretty light at 1.3% but that woods has not given much better in the past. Will be cutting and putting more wood up tomorrow then move on to getting every thing in the sugar house set up.
If it looks like good temp swings are coming this week, I'll finish tapping the 125+ on the new 1" main line we ran in early January.
Kind of glad I tapped the 170 I did last week as temps were much warmer that we're looking at this weekend. Might even get the Skidoo Tundra snow machine out for a spin - imagine that!

[heus]

I plan on hanging buckets late next week. Just about have my new downsized operation ready to go. Still have to do a test boil though.

[miboss]

It looks like I'll be tapping on the 15th, still putting new drops with zap bac spouts on, hopefully be finished tomorrow

[johnallin]

I finished putting wood up yesterday and Saturday. Had about 25 dead-standing trees dropped in January of 2019 so it's all dry and ready to go.

Pic of the Gator doing what it does best...;) Should be ready to boil by the weekend...
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[woodburner]

Ready to go here in South Madison, plan to start tapping Sat. Test bucket has tested at 2.5 so sugar looks better to start than I expected.

[heus]

I am planning to tap Saturday afternoon. Looks like a good week coming up. It is going to feel strange hanging buckets again. I am using the 2 gallon aluminum buckets, which I have used in the past and liked, even though they are half the capacity of the galvanized Wheeler buckets. Going to May Hill Maple Saturday morning to pick up my new CDL vacuum filter.

[johnallin]

Jason, at 2 gal per bucket...you're gonna be busy collecting!

Got all my wood up and will finish tapping this weekend. Everything is pretty much ready to roll.
I heard that the run from two weekends ago was close to 4 gallons per tap for some of the Geauga Co guys...

[heus]

John when I used them in the past they worked out good. Yes on the 1-2 huge runs during a season they have to be emptied twice. I would love to use sap saks but the one year I put out 200 the red squirrels decimated almost every bag in one day.

[johnallin]

It used to really tick me off when bags got holes in them... other than a few hung for the grand kids; I don't miss that at all.

[forager]

Tapping tomorrow and Monday - all set and ready to roll!

Doubled our taps from last year, built a bottling/RO room over the summer, and added a Memprotec 350h. Will post an update later in the week.

Brad

[heus]

All tapped here. It's a little easier tapping 100 compared to 1000. :lol:

[christopherh]

I’m all in.

[miboss]

Got the rest of my drops in today. Got my releaser set. Tapping my 500 tomorrow.

[johnallin]

I’m all in.

Hey, that's my line ;)

[christopherh]

Boy, it took awhile John! The damage the squirrels did this year was unbelievable! I’m thinking I must have Ohio’s entire squirrel population on my property!

[miboss]

I have a ton of squirrels, it seems some dont care about tubing at all, but others, seem down right angry about it. it's always the same few trees/sections. I may have to put a bounty out for them.

[Kh7722]

Boy, it took awhile John! The damage the squirrels did this year was unbelievable! I’m thinking I must have Ohio’s entire squirrel population on my property!

Chris,
Keep them north of rt6 please!! Or send them to Hart rd 😂

[Sugarmaker]

Heus,
Let me know how the vacuum filter works. Interesting concept. Yea 100 buckets and you looked around and said "i'm done?!:)"

Regards,
Chris (Just across the line)

[heus]

Chris I will let you know how it works out.

[Kh7722]

Think the trees “woke” up today and are expecting a good run the next 48 hours
Should be exciting
Kevin

[johnallin]

Thinking you’re right Kevin. Spent today in the sugar house doing final setup and running a tank full of hot water through the head tank and pans. All systems are now go. With the 170 in back woods online, now just need to tap the 125 or so in our north woods area.
Decided that I’m going to sell the air injection system and will put in classifieds later. It makes great light syrup but is too noisy for me. Besides they don’t give extra points for light contest syrup anymore???

[miboss]

got about 400 of 500 done today. Trees gushing while tapping, they are definitely woke up.

[johnallin]

Just got in...our trees are running like race horses today. With rain coming and 40° temps it's going to be a long day tomorrow.

[miboss]

finished my 500 up today. Chased leaks for the rest of the day. Got my vacuum up to 26, the last 2 - 3 may take a while

[heus]

Just got in from collecting buckets. Most were full. I expect they will be full again after work. (My buckets are 2.5 gal) Nice run going on.

[Kh7722]

Ya its coming in well, about 1600 gallons there this morning, I expect it to be be overflowing when i get home (bummer). Might need more tanks, or a part time job instead lol
Kevin

[johnallin]

500+ gallons since yesterday afternoon.
Still pouring in.

[johnallin]

Boiled off 220 gallons from 3-9:30 today. For the first time in 14 years I made syrup on the first boil. Talked to a friend in Perry who had the same experience today. It’s nuts and not sure what it was but 2 1/2 hours into the boil I had syrup. Draws continued steady after that every 30 minutes or so. Ended up with 4+ gallons of delicate. Total sap since yesterday was 675 gallons. Pulled 290 gallons of water out with the CDL Hobby RO.
Every thing working as it should which is rare for me on a first boil.

[Kh7722]

Boiled off 220 gallons from 3-9:30 today. For the first time in 14 years I made syrup on the first boil. Talked to a friend in Perry who had the same experience today. It’s nuts and not sure what it was but 2 1/2 hours into the boil I had syrup. Draws continued steady after that every 30 minutes or so. Ended up with 4+ gallons of delicate. Total sap since yesterday was 675 gallons. Pulled 290 gallons of water out with the CDL Hobby RO.
Every thing working as it should which is rare me on a first boil.

Great to hear all went well with you!
We had good luck here as well, everything worked as hoped for. Processed 1800-2000 gallons in about a 3 hour boil and made 8 gallons (i think) of golden.
Kevin

[johnallin]

That’s awesome Kevin. Glad the new rig (and sugar house) worked as designed for you.
That’s also a pot load of sap to go through! Holy smokes. The 675 gal I pulled in was almost a third of last year’s total. One heck of a run is all I can say. Sure hope it continues.

[CrossBroMaple]

Sap ran great for me in north Madison. around 1100 gallons. And very happy with my new ladder system to bring the sap into the sugarhouse. Just think I may need to seriously consider a RO

[miboss]

First boil last night, probably had 1800-1900 gallons to process, it may have been more, as I was pumping/ro'ing at the same time. Ended up making 12.5 gallons of golden delicate, plus very sweet pans.

[woodburner]

First run this year for us was great. Boiled the last three days , sap at 2.5deg. Finished off 29gal. very light with a very nice quality on the tongue. Best start in a few years. Enjoy it while we can, as a Canadian friend of mine would say," liven the dream ay"

[Kh7722]

Looks like its going to be a BUSY few days. Lots of syrup will be made this week

[johnallin]

Just bottled up Tuesday’s boil. 4 1/2 gallons all light and real tasty.
Getting ready for round two tomorrow and the nest few days.
Not used to dealing with so much sap and after kids get here tomorrow, we’ll be north of 325 taps over here.
Pics of 70 eight oz bottles and the awesome Leader Clear Press that Fred keeps asking to borrow...grin


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20946

[fred]

you must have been drinking molson golden because those rows ARE NOT anywhere straight. i do want to borrow the press but its not quite clean enough for me. ~bigger grin~

[miboss]

sap ran really well last night, still getting about 2 gal/tap/day. Woke up to an almost overflowing tank this morning. Should be another big boil tonight.

[johnallin]

Overflowing tank here this morning...no idea how long it was full but had 100 gallons of sap RO'd up to 5% in it last night at shutdown. Left it out there cause I thought it'd spoil in the warm sugar house. Now I've got 340 gal at 2½ %..and have RO going since 9 this morning. Not sure that was such a good move???

This is turning out to be one of the better seasons I've ever had...if I can keep the wood pile up I'll be golden.

21003

[CrossBroMaple]

Avg. around the same 2 gallons per tap per day. Sap sugar content dropped to 1.7% making great tasting amber syrup right now

[Kh7722]

Hey guys
Same here made 22 gallons of great amber. Still coming in
Kevin

[miboss]

Made 25 gallons of golden tonight, almost overflowed my draw off tank. That was the biggest boil I've had in my short 3 years of doing this.

21011

[woodburner]

Just finished up this run , sap at 2.2deg and we are up to 60gal, still making light. We need the freeze up to rest. Great season so far.

[miboss]

Made another 22 gal of golden tonight. Not sure what I'm going to do with all this golden, my customers prefer dark then amber. I'll use some to make cream and candy, but I'm at almost 60 gallons of it. I hope I get as much amber and dark later this season.

Sap seems to be slowing way down, the freeze up tomorrow night will give us a nice break...

[miboss]

16.5 gal tonight to finish off my sap before the freeze. Of course golden again. I can see selling at this years farmers markets...would you like light golden, medium golden or dark golden, lol.

I thought this was going to be a bad season, but in 1.5 weeks I've made half of what I made in the entire season 2 years ago.

[fred]

Next week will likely go to medium .mike let your sap sit for a day or ro in the morning from the day before and boil at night. Just keep an eye on it that it doesnt turn.

[johnallin]

Have boiled 5 times so far with 16 gallons bottled up and another 6 from Tuesday's boil ready to go, just need to get some more glass over here. Been a busy start with boils on Tues, Saturday and Sunday last week and both Monday and Tuesday nights this week. Our sugar has been 1½ -1¾ % which is a bit better than last year.

[miboss]

drained pans and flooded with permeate and vinegar, hard to believe how much niter so far with such light syrup, usually I dont see niter this bad till I get to making dark.

[johnallin]

Picked up 40 cases of 8 oz glass at Richards Maple and got Tuesday's boil -just under 6 gallons of really good tasting amber - all bottled up today. That puts us at 22 gallons so far.

So I don't have to filter and bottle right after a 4-6 hour boil; I've been experimenting with holding syrup in my old Leader 10 gallon single cone filter tank. It works great as the sides are plenty tall for mixing in DE and it fits nicely on the cast iron burner I've got in the shop. Only issue is that it takes an hour to re-heat the syrup if I let it get too cold, and my bottler only holds 5¾ gallons to brim. But, all in all it's a better plan than staying up til 2 in the morning twisting caps in hot bottles of syrup.

I'm sure starting to like the CDL hobby RO as we've pulled over 1200 gallons of water out of sap so far this year figure that's 35-40 hours boiling time saved on my 2x6. I'd recommend it to anyone who's looking to save some time and wood without breaking the bank to do so.

It sure looks like sap should start back up later tomorrow and for the next few days.

[Sugarmaker]

Mike,
You may not make much dark syrup this year!:)
Keep boiling!
Regards,
Chris

[Ekrueger]

We are seeing the same as Mike with light amber syrup and a lot of niter in the pans. I am very happy with my homemade RO this year. It has saved a ton of boiling time! I made some of the dumb errors of dumping some sap and concentrate when the valves weren’t in the right positions! I also found it to be a pain ROing in 20 degree weather and having gauges continue to freeze up. I don’t have permanent electric for heat, so I am taking the membrane home each night it freezes. Our sap has been good ranging from 2.4% down to 2.0% today.

[miboss]

Almost 3 gal of sap per tap since yesterday, I'm glad I pumped up to my ro processing tank last night or my collection tank would have lost about 350 gal

[Kh7722]

Hey all,
Moved out of the golden and into a medium amber. Thankfully, because it seems to be all i sell is amber and mostly dark. Once we get to very dark, probably put most of that in bourbon barrels. Not sure how much ive made yet, but staring to run out of storage. What’s everyones prediction for length of season? Next two weeks look great in northeast ohio, should definitely have a full crop by then. I think its going to go long and maybe into april?

[johnallin]

Another 5 gal bottled up this morning.

Two mornings in a row with an overflowing tank.

Sap went down to 1% this morning, been averaging 1½ to 1¾%...

[DrTimPerkins]

Two mornings in a row with an overflowing tank.

You need a bigger tank John. :D

[johnallin]

You’re right about that.

With new added taps and 28” of vacuum.....might need more hours in the day first?

[CrossBroMaple]

Sap has been flowing here on the lakeshore. Sap Still holding at 1.6% Getting closer to dark syrup too, but that’s normal for us. I still have plenty of firewood so hopefully the season will continue to pump sap

[miboss]

Longest day I've had in three years. 2500 gal of sap since yesterday morning. 41.5 gal of (light) amber made today. I had to stop to filter because my draw off tank only holds 25 gal. My operation isn't built for that amount of sap...I'm tired.

[heus]

I have drawn off about 12 gallons of syrup so far. Sugar has been between 2 and 2.4%. I have not filtered yet. I am going to wait until this weekend for that. With the way things are going I hope to make about 25-30 gallons which isn't bad for 100 taps on buckets, and that was with a late start. A far cry from the 300+ gallons I used to make though. The new A&A 2x7 is consistently boiling off about 40 gph, which is what I expected.

[johnallin]

I made another 5 gallons last night with some 1% sap I had RO'd to 6 1/2 % ...which is high for us.

Started pulling syrup within 45 minutes of start-up and every 10-15 after that. This is a bit darker than Monday's boil...

[miboss]

we had a nice easy boil last night. made 10 gal of dark amber. I'm a bit surprised by how much it darkened up. the day before was a hanna reading of 71, and last night was a 57. That seemed like a big jump towards dark...not that I'm complaining.

[Kh7722]

we had a nice easy boil last night. made 10 gal of dark amber. I'm a bit surprised by how much it darkened up. the day before was a hanna reading of 71, and last night was a 57. That seemed like a big jump towards dark...not that I'm complaining.

We had the exact same thing tues night. Im guessing that tonight will go to dark, but the flavor is great.

Good luck

[johnallin]

Just bottled up last nights boil.

It’s darker than earlier syrup, but not much.

Sugar went up today from 1 to 1 1/2%. That’s a good thing.

21129

[miboss]

another small batch last night. my sugar was also up fron 1 to 1.5. slightly darker, but still on the bottom side of amber. sap was very cloudy, finally had a chance to give collection tank a good cleaning after pumping. sap this morning is crystal clear...so keep those tanks clean folks

[heus]

Bottled 18 gallons of some of the nicest syrup I've made earlier today. Just a shade past light because it's a mix of everything I have drawn off this season. Sap becoming slightly cloudy but I haven't checked it today.

[johnallin]

Running over here today. Boil #8 underway right now.

[heus]

My sap has been at 2% or higher pretty much all season, but dropped all the way down to a little over 1% the past 2 days. Almost not worth boiling 80:1 sap without an ro. If we dont get a freeze tonight and/or Wednesday night, I think its all over for me.

[miboss]

Boiled down 800 gallons of sap collected from Sunday afternoon through Monday afternoon. I thought for sure that batch would finally be dark...still a an amber, a dark amber. Sap is really slowing down for me, like others said, this may be over soon.

[Father & Son]

My sap has been at 2% or higher pretty much all season, but dropped all the way down to a little over 1% the past 2 days. Almost not worth boiling 80:1 sap without an ro. If we dont get a freeze tonight and/or Wednesday night, I think its all over for me.

Same thing across the line Jason. Hoping for just a little longer.

[miboss]

Surprisingly, I pulled in a gallon per tap from yesterday to today. Hoping this weekends dips below freezing will keep things up a bit longer

[miboss]

Pumping up getting ready to boil tonight, checked the sugar and it's up from 1.5 to almost 2%. I was not expecting that.

[fred]

Definitely doing some weird things this week.

[Kh7722]

Well we are going to call it a year here. We are out of drums and oil and dont really feel like buying more at this point. The sap has really slowed down and is getting cloudy. We feel that its wiser to call it quits before it gets really bad and im not into producing low grade syrup to sell bulk for a low price. We had an average year making .38 gallons per tap. Hope everyone else thats still going ends up well
Kevin

[woodburner]

Finishing up over here today, pulling taps with very little sap the last few days. Most of the taps are dry and have only been in for 4wks. Finished with 115gal about 3pints per tap, mostly light syrup. Good season , sap was sweet for such a warm winter. Now for the clean up

[heus]

Second night in a row here in Ashtabula County that we were supposed to get a good freeze and it never got much below 32.

[johnallin]

Maybe tonight with a clear sky and forecast 29F will do it. If not, I will probably start cleaning up

[miboss]

I'm also going to see what I get Monday and Tuesday after last nights and tonights freeze, then make the call.

[heus]

Maybe tonight with a clear sky and forecast 29F will do it. If not, I will probably start cleaning up

Same here John.

[johnallin]

Brought more wood in today...just in case!

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[johnallin]

Same here John.

Jason, how’d it go for you with the new reduced tap count? We broke the 40 gallon mark over here. A personal record and all thanks go to the CDL Hobby RO. Pulled over 2800 gallons of water and figured I saved over 90 hours of boil time and - most important- lots of wood. Darn I really like that little RO.

[OneLegJohn]

Broke the 2000 gallon mark. Hopefully, it freezes tonight and we keep going. That sap that came in last run wasn't good. Hopefully, we get a freeze tonight. If not, it is the end for us.

[miboss]

the sap I pumped up today was cloudy, but still smelled and tasted OK, I boiled it (very lightly RO'd it) and pretty much just drew most of the sweet from my pans. I checked the tank about an hour ago and maybe 150 gallons in it. I'll collect what I can tomorrow and Tuesday then it will probably be the last boil.

I'm at 195 gallons so far, so more than last year, I was really trying to achieve 1/2 gal of syrup per tap, but that doesn't seem achievable this season. Overall, a good season, probably should have tapped earlier and took advantage of some late January and early February runs, but still a fun season...I wasn't ready to go in January anyway.

[fred]

Darn I really like that little RO.

even better than that clear press contraption as i understand it

[heus]

Jason, how’d it go for you with the new reduced tap count? We broke the 40 gallon mark over here. A personal record and all thanks go to the CDL Hobby RO. Pulled over 2800 gallons of water and figured I saved over 90 hours of boil time and - most important- lots of wood. Darn I really like that little RO.
John I should hit 26-30 gallons. With 100 buckets that's pretty respectable I think. At least one more boil tomorrow maybe even later in the week who knows. I relearned what I already knew: gathering 100 buckets and boiling raw sap was as time consuming as running 1000 taps on vac and boiling 8-12% sap.

[heus]

Broke the 2000 gallon mark. Hopefully, it freezes tonight and we keep going. That sap that came in last run wasn't good. Hopefully, we get a freeze tonight. If not, it is the end for us.
Nate great job.

[johnallin]

even better than that clear press.... as i understand it

Yup... .

[johnallin]

John I should hit 26-30 gallons. With 100 buckets that's pretty respectable I think. At least one more boil tomorrow maybe even later in the week who knows. I relearned what I already knew: gathering 100 buckets and boiling raw sap was as time consuming as running 1000 taps on vac and boiling 8-12% sap.

Jason, I'm just above 40 gallons, so far on close to 300 taps, those are some nice trees you've got over there!

Did get about 100 gallons in as of 6 tonight...little cloudy but it's sap. Will check in the morning.

[heus]

John after downsizing I now have the luxury of choosing only my very best 150-200 year old trees.

[miboss]

Today is definitely the last boil for me, while I collected 5-600 gallons yesterday and night, it was barely 1%.

[johnallin]

John after downsizing I now have the luxury of choosing only my very best 150-200 year old trees.

That's a nice luxury Jason. I'm lucky to see 1¾ mostly at 1½ and at times, only 1%. Couldn't/Wouldn't do it without the RO.

And just so Fred doesn't get all confused... to that I'll add: "the Leader Clear Press is King..."

[Sugarmaker]

You guys across the line have done real good! We finished gathering today. Sap (250 gal) went to neighbor and will be in the dark robust class. I have our evaporator in clean mode. Will clean lines and bring in the equipment within the next few days too. Last 5 gallons of very dark syrup made Sunday during the 17th annual Taste and Tour. (we just got it in prior to the close down for CV-19.) We had a good crowd on sat.
Jason, I think your right, boiling raw sap is a lot of work! If I doubled my tap count I would have to look at a R.O.! We ended the season at 183.5 gallons of syrup in NWPA.
Always good to see how you guys do to the west of us also.
Regards,
Chris

[heus]

Hoping for a good sap day, today. Looks like it froze up good last night. Something amazing I realized last night. I have not had to add more than 3 drops of antifoam to my back pan total this whole season. Even back when I was boiling raw sap before, I had to regularly add it. On another note, the steam began to smell like late season yesterday when I was boiling. Syrup still tastes great, though. My sap yesterday was 2.1% which is the highest its been in a few weeks.

[forager]

Boiled another 520g yesterday at 1.7%, cloudy and a little sweaty at first but made some great darker syrup with superb taste, best of the season. Have made a little over 100g of syrup on 275 taps. Thankful for my RO purchase this year, what a game changer. Might get one final run through the weekend but it looks to be just about done here. My off season project for 2021 is to try to design a new filtering process - there just has to be a better way.

[heus]

I am waiting on pulling taps until after these next two cold days. I think there is one more sap run. I boiled yesterday and the syrup still tastes great. Most around here have shut down due to off-tastes, but I have 100% sugars.

[Sugarmaker]

Jason,
You should get at least one or two more runs? They may not be big but you should be able to make some more syrup.
Regards,
Chris

[johnallin]

I got about 200 gallons over Tues-Wednesday but sugar was low and it started to turn before I got to it. I ran it through the RO though and have now 160 gallons of permeate for a good wash and rinse.
Tanks are all clean in case we get something after this cold spell. Kind of doubting it will be any good as we're about 60-70% reds up here.

[fred]

good time to pull the reds and tap the rest of your woods john

[johnallin]

good time to pull the reds and tap the rest of your woods john

Thumbs Up...not a bad idea. You guys still going?

[fred]

still trying. nothing today. lots of heat damage last 2 days, but i think there is another week left.

[heus]

Had my last boil of the year this morning from sap collected yesterday. Made great tasting dark. Steam smelled better than the previous couple of boils. Pulled taps yesterday.

[johnallin]

Sunday I forgot to clear out the releaser check valve and it froze up and broke - so no sap here. May replace it tomorrow and see what comes in. Going to be home-bound for the next few weeks.

Heus - nice pictures.

[Hunt4sap]

Off work for next couple weeks at least here in portage county.
Hmmmmmm, could I tap a few still and get all other projects done also( if I did I'd be happy to go back to work to relax a bit🤪)I've had the itch a few times over the last month but just didn't work out this year I think...
Or will I self quarantine in my woods/ sugar shack to limit social contact( I'd be happy just by myself but my wife would not be with 2 little ones)
I'd do it if she wasn't working from home and already have her hands full.( Maybe I can barter self quarantine on my boat a couple days instead)
Wish I had off work sooner to tap atleast some but as I'm driving home the past few days the buds are starting to become more and more apparent.
Maybe next year😜

[Kh7722]

Hey All,

Figured id get this discussion started again since Sugar season is upon us.
We are just about ready for the season here, usually try to be done by Christmas and we are there. A few small RO things to plumb in and we are ready to rip.
We added a few hundred taps which will put us at 1000. Trying to finish up a woods for another farm I was hired to install.
Made the decision that since we missed a huge early run last year that we are going to tap early probably around mid January, a month before usual but i woild rather make good syrup early then low grade bulk late.
Whats everyone else up to?, changes?