Northern Ontario 2020

[Fort Wisers]

Anyone tapping in the North Bay / Mattawa area yet?

[Silver Water]

Tapping on manitoulin island

[Someclown]

Funny you ask
30 taps in West Nippissing yesterday in the rain +8*C. 10-12" trees in full sun were slow flow but that's it. Still a lot of snow and ice on the ground.
Tapped in French River area last Monday, 20 taps, and had 20 litres the next day then it all froze and shut down again, nothing since. Just boiled my 20 litres today before that went bad. Had enough for the wife and I to have national pancake Tuesday on Monday as we missed national pancake Tuesday
Still early up here but I can wait, according to the predictors the forecast looks good coming up but that will change in an hour when I look at it again 🤣

[Maplesapper]

Finished Tapping Parry Sound- somewhat close to you folks
Great run Sunday and Monday to clear the lines

[Fort Wisers]

Awesome, thanks folks.....
Our season down here (south of Ottawa) looks like it might be coming to an early end (like mentioned though the forecast changes every hour so who knows).
As a result we may bring our taps and buckets north (we have a cabin and land north of Mattawa) and tap next weekend to see what we can gather there.

Appreciate the feedback, good luck to everyone this season!

[4Walls]

All tapped. in Corbeil. Just outside North bay City limits. Only a couple of drops so far.
240 on lines and 40 buckets. -9 this morning out my window. not expecting any flow today but tomorrow looks like a good run coming. early next week should be the start of it.

[Silver Water]

21238

First boil 9 litres !

[Fort Wisers]

Fist boil 9 litres !

Nice job Silver Water!

[4Walls]

Update from the North Bay/Mattawa area. Had a small run yesterday. First significant run this year. I wasn't expecting much if any. Friday night got down to -2 and Saturday was a high forecast of +1. It got to +2.
90 Gallons total yesterday. Into the pan to sweeten things up. Normally get about 3-400 gallons on a really good day. Anyway, forecast to be too cold for the next little while up here. Really late start to the season. Hope its not like last year where it went from winter to summer in about a day.

[Fort Wisers]

Thanks 4walls, good to know.....
Our forecast down here (south of Ottawa) took a turn for the better with a number of cooler nights ahead (previous forecast showed many above zero nights in a row) so we'll likely just continue down here for at least another week.

[4Walls]

No Worries. Hope you get a good run down south. I have a buddy who taps about 80 trees along the Mattawa river. Basically right on the flood plane. His trees always produce earlier than mine.
Im getting a bit bored waiting for the sap so I think I will set up another line today and add another 75 or so taps. Got the kids home from school and put them to work. :)

[northwood]

Started tapping this week end (Mar. 14-15) most trees were dripping slowly. Almost 3 week sooner than last year but I typically start 3rd week in March.

[TonyMo]

Newbie here...first year for me and the family at our cottge near South River/Sundridge. Tapped 50 on buckets on Sunday Mar 15. First collection today and got almost 60 litres. 8 trees had

[4Walls]

Today is the day that it starts up North. -6 last night. +7 forecast today with beautiful sun and no wind. I can only expect a very good run today.
Have fun everyone. My kids are miserable with this social isolation but there is no safer place than in the woods and in the sugar shack. Its like a national Maple holiday!!!

[Someclown]

Things are pretty typical around here. Smaller trees (less than 20" D) shut down this afternoon because it was 11degrees C and sunny while the bigger trees aren't even running yet

[Someclown]

What's happening in the north??
I'm not having a whole lot of luck again this year.
Too cold, too hot ):

[TonyMo]

So, my first boil ever this past Wed on my self built oil tank evaporator went great!
271 liters boiled down in 8 hours to 20 liters.
Finished on the stove and ended up with our first batch of 8 liters syrup.
We shall see what this week will bring.

[Someclown]

21330
This was worth the wait, 51 taps between 3 and 4.1
263 +/- litres to date boiled down to 8 Litres at 67 brix and another 100 +/- Litres to boil in the morning

[Maple in Mattawa]

Collected 500 liters of sap from about 300 taps last Friday, boiled ok, very dark amber and LOTS of foaming in the finishing pan.

[Someclown]

Yesterday I had a half day of flow then it just gets to sunny and warm and shuts down mid day, and today looks the same. I will collect at the end of today and put it in the snow bank, still 3 ft deep, and see what tomorrow brings before I do another boil.
The next five days look pretty warm and above 0 at night so not expecting much.
Mid next week looks like we should finally start getting some good full runs if the forecast stays the way it is, haha
I now have 51 taps on drop tubes into 20L pails.

[Someclown]

Now it's just fun
21362

[Silver Water]

Wondering if anyone in northern ontario is still boiling ?

[northwood]

Still boiling, in the north end (North Bay) I taped 55 trees this year, all buckets. Had 3 boils so far. Made about 18 litres of syrup. Forecast for next week looks like we might get a few good days. Still snow in the thick parts of the bush.

[Someclown]

Still going here as well, some decent sap flows lately. Sugar content is still up around 3%
Approximately 610 litres sap to 19 L syrup between 66 and 69 brix

[Someclown]

Collected another 230 + - liters in the last 4 days, and the upcoming week should be productive as well. Down to 43 taps from 51
Things are still worth boiling up north from the bush trees, anything in the sun is dried up

[Someclown]

21423
Burning up 15 Litres/hr 3.96 us gal./3.3 imp.gal.
Need to improve these rates for next year, guess I have some new projects this summer

[Silver Water]

Collected 400 litres over the last 2 days

6 boils so far this season, can see the syrup getting darker, just completed boil number 7, just need to bottle it !

21425

Will be pulling taps this week

[Someclown]

Looks good silver water
Yes the heat wave is coming so this weekend I will also pull taps and do cleanup.
Cant go to work might as well start my projects.

[Silver Water]

All done boiling for the season. Last batch is dark !

[ATTACH=CONFIG]21426

Good season though. 2600 litres of sap 74 litres syrup. So about 35:1

[Someclown]

Final boil today, 140 L at 2.2 brix collected in the past couple days. Pulled all taps except the ones beside the house which are at thìs moment still running clear at 2.2 brix so will give them till the last minute before I pull them.

[northwood]

The trees has a great final push on the 23-24, nice clear sap although low sugar. Ended up with about 45L of syrup from 55 taps. All in all a good year. The weather has very quickly changed to almost summer in my neck of the woods. Now I need to get those pans cleaned.:-|

[4Walls]

Well, looks like I get the first post of the 2021 season. Kinda sad that we are soooooo far away from any sap flowing according to the forecast. Ive been planning my season and thinking about getting some gear out and ready to tap. Was just about to order some bottles. On the phone with CDL and they have had an issue with the 500ml Kent bottles. Too many complaints about them cracking with the hot syrup. I know Ive had my share crack. Even with preheating on the steam for an hour. That said, there is a shortage of Kent style bottles. The plastic 1L and 500ml jugs are sold out almost everywhere. The other bottles I use are the 1L Grand style bottles. I bough them at 1.26 a piece last year. This year they are 2.08!!!! That is quite the price jump.

Wishing for warm sunny days and chilly nights.