Central Ohio

[bowhunter]

I just finished my 2020 season. This year did not go very smoothly but I made plenty of syrup. I tapped my trees on February 16. I was coming down with the flu so I didn't get to run the buckets for another week. I only collected two runs this year but they were both massive. I pulled my taps around March 10th. Sugar content averaged about 2.3% so I had my best yield ever at this location. I made 19.75 gallons of syrup on 740 gallons of sap. I don't sell it anymore so I shoot for 15-20 gallons. My RO worked great again this year and I ran it maxed out on pressure to minimize the amount of wood burned. I routinely ran 9-10% sugar and processed about 25 gallons per hour. I did two soap or lye washes at the end of the season and followed that with a 6 hour citric acid wash. My membrane tested above the rated capacity when I was finished cleaning and it has shown almost no loss in performance since it was new. Filtering was much better this year as I worked to keep my draw from getting plugged with sugar. I also decided to filter at 200 F or less and that worked much better. I believe I was making niter when I was heating to filter. I'm starting to debate how much longer I'm going to make syrup. I'll be 70 this fall and this year was miserable as I didn't feel well and I had to gather sap over 3 long days in the rain and snow. The mud and water in the woods was over the axels of my Kawasaki Mule. I don't have the option of using a vacuum or a gravity vacuum as my trees are scattered and the property is essentially flat. So I'll have to use buckets or bags as long as I continue.

[RC Maple]

Glad your season was a productive one. Too bad about the not very smoothly part. It seems most of the early season, I wasn't feeling great either. Being out in the sugarhouse is usually what I look forward to most. I still had a grin though, just maybe not ear to ear.:cool: I debated when to pull my taps. I was waiting to see what the last couple nights did. Friday and Saturday night did not get below freezing according to the thermometer. This morning, I am showing 29 degrees. We'll see if that is enough to get a run started. I know the forecast shows next weekends overnight lows are even lower, but if they don't run today, I think I am done. It's still been a great year.

[maple marc]

A fairly good season here in Champaign County near Urbana. 39 gallons from 100 buckets. Some of my runs were huge--too huge, close to 400 gallons. I got way behind in boiling and bottling. I'm thinking about RO for next year. I tapped on 2/16 like Bowhunter and had my last boil on 3/10. Didn't pull the taps until today and I found that we've had a run over the past several days. Probably could have boiled another 200 gallons or more, although much was cloudy.

I made more golden than I ever have, 17 gallons.

[maple marc]

143 buckets thisyear. Off to a great start. Collected more than 400 gallons of sap in first week. Perfect freeze-thaw cycles here between Dayton and Columbus. First syrup is delicious gold. More on the way. Hoping for a good season for a change.

Need another freeze and here it is this morning, 20F Sugar has dropped from 2.3 to 1.5. Weird this early.