Thoughts on tapping

[dcast99]

What is everyone's thoughts about tapping this year? Barely had a winter and it seems that spring will be coming soon. The crocus in my front yard are popping up and are usually in bloom during sapping season. Not that you can accurate weather forecasts, but by mid week temps look for for the next two weeks.
When do you plan to tap?

Dave

[mickeydafinn]

I put 6 taps out late Saturday. Collected 20 gallons so far. Started a quick boil tonight and it seems really sweet. I’ll probably go till 1130 tonight then cut it off till tomorrow. So far it seems like a good run!

[sugarwoodacres]

I'm in Blairstown and will tap this weekend.

[dcast99]

I'm thinking of putting in half of my taps this weekend. The other half next weekend depending on weather.

[sugarwoodacres]

I only got to put in about 60, squirrels went crazy this offseason .
Trees were dripping . Good luck.

[jerzeemaple]

My son and I tossed out 10 buckets last Thursday and boiled 5gallons of sap on a small barrel arch this afternoon. I didn’t test the sap, too much Ice to put a hydrometer in it.

[jerzeemaple]

Hydrometer said 2% on the nose today, ran pretty good but I’m off to hockey practice...no boiling tonight

[dcast99]

Only got 180 taps in this weekend. No sap running, everything still frozen. Got the evap and sugar house ready yesterday. The squirrels are always a pain at my place. I have alot of oak and hickory on the place. The hawks and owls must be slacking off.

[Agb]

Tapped today 2/12/20.

Question..... does anyone steam sap off on their home wood stove. No boil but kind of just slow simmer. Just keeping adding to it.

[jerzeemaple]

Sap ran pretty good yesterday and day before, 10 buckets yield approximately 23 gallons. Still widdlin thru it. Not much new sap today 2 gallons or so. Should have it all consolidated and hope to finish on turkey fryer this week.

[FarmerJake]

I tapped yesterday - 4 trees, 7 taps.

[highlandcattle]

When we first started a long time ago..yup boiled on the woodstove. I didn't believe my husband when he told me to watch it. Welll...let's just say a huge mess. It can turn to syrup really fast. So unless you are going to babysit it....the steam will be a real problem in the house..alot!

[sugarwoodacres]

I finished tapping on Saturday. 160 taps in, boiled 90 gallons on Sunday and just collected 150 gallons today to boil on Friday. OK start I'd say. Good luck everyone.

[dcast99]

I finished tapping everything on 2/12. That day I also collected 235 gals of sap to sweeten the pans. The weekend got cold enough to turn my collection tanks into 50 - 100 gal blocks of ice. On wed I collected 470 gals of sap that turned into 10.5 gals of nice golden syrup. I hope the sweetness of the sap stays. The last 2 years the ratio's were 60 - 1 and 55 - 1. That made for long days boiling for little reward.

[Walleyed]

Tapped the 2 yard trees yesterday, 4 taps. Collected 5 gals today, not a bad start.

[dcast99]

This year is a nice change of pace from the last two. The sap is not flowing because it is too cold instead of being too warm.It didn't really flow Thur,fri or saturday. Sunday morning I was wondering if it was going to be worth while bringing any home but by the end of the day I had 235 gals. That plus 30 gals from a friend made a little over 5 gals of nice golden syrup.

[jerzeemaple]

Filtered and bottled up (15) 8oz mason jars Sunday, ran good yesterday and still 2 percent sap. My 8 yr old is diggn it, caught the bug, has the sap collected and barrel arch up and running by the time I get home from work!

[jerzeemaple]

We bottled up another (9) 8oz jars last night. No sap for three days now, need another freeze!

[FarmerJake]

As of last Sunday, I had collected 25 gal of sap, averaged 2.2%. I boiled it down and got just over 1/2 gal of syrup. Sap has stopped running for the last few days.

[dcast99]

Finished boiling the 540 gls of sap that was collected on Wednesday. Made over 8.5 gls of Amber syrup. Was Golden before this run. Seems the warmer temps in the beginning of the week woke up my swamp/valley run. The 55 taps produced 180 gls of sap while 155 taps on top of the mountain only gave me 210 gls. Too cold now to run. Will have to see what Sunday brings.

[dcast99]

On 3/1 I didn't bring any sap back because the tanks had about 20 gals in them and half of it was ice. Today, holly crap :o did the sap run the last 2 days. It wasn't running at 5pm but my tanks where almost full. I have 90 taps going into a 325 gal tank and it had 290 gals of sap in it. My other main run has 160 taps going into a 460 gal tank and it had 430 gals of sap in it. I had to leave about 40 gals in it because I was at capacity to haul it back. I have a trailer with 2 - 275 gal tanks on it. For this haul I also had to put another 275 gal tank in the back of the truck. In all of my years doing this I never had to do that before, maybe a 30 gal drum. Got 2 long days of boiling ahead of me. Will see what it gives me. Looks like the weather will be good for Sunday's load.

[dcast99]

Just finished a 2 day boil of 1000 gals of sap. Made over 16.5 gals of dark syrup. The niter was a pain to filter but it always is this time of year. The temps look good for this weekend but after that who knows what's going to happen.

[dcast99]

Sap was running today. Brought back 440 gals. Will get to it tomorrow. Temps for the next week do not look good. Might be the end of the season.

[sugarwoodacres]

...The End.

[jerzeemaple]

All said an done 2.0gallons on 10 buckets on our barrel arch. One happy 8 year old, I think I created a monster might need to tap everything again next season.