Southeastern WI 2021 Tapping

[littleTapper]

New year, new thread. Hope everyone in this corner of the state is ready or at least getting ready. Hard to clean stuff outside with this weather but glad I got my tubing up in January when it was warmer :)

[gatzow]

110 taps on bags done in Erin, WI. Slow drips so far, maybe a quarter gallon per tap average so far. But the season has started!!

Heads up - I bottle using mason jars. I haven't been paying attention as to how difficult jars are to find in the Covid world. If you use mason jars, pick up cases as you see them as they may not be easy to find when you need them!!

[Pdiamond]

We are planning to look for them at every garage sale and yard sale we go to. Just think what it will be like later during canning season. Don't forget the lids and rings.

[gatzow]

Probably going to do a small boil tomorrow just to get back into the swing of things. I think I have about 70 gallons or so to cook. Good amount just to warm up and get started.

[littleTapper]

About 1.6 gallons/tap here so far; will boil Wednesday (dictated by the schedule of the rest of my life). Nice forecast on the way for the next week; but stupid warm after that. Hope it changes...

[gatzow]

That cold wind yesterday really blocked my trees from warming up and giving up some sap. A little here and there, but not a whole lot. I am heading out to pickup the bags that blew off the trees and hoping that the next few days really start to open them up!

[Irish Ridge]

Thanks for checking in. I was wondering what was happening due east of us because like you we had wind and cold and everything just shut down over here. Looking for a productive string of days and nights right now. I also go by a circle of bare ground around the trees and I am just beginning to get that in the woods. Soon come.

[littleTapper]

That cold wind yesterday really blocked my trees from warming up and giving up some sap. A little here and there, but not a whole lot. I am heading out to pickup the bags that blew off the trees and hoping that the next few days really start to open them up!

Yeah! Same here. Finally started to get going in the evening and ran though much of the night. They're running really well right now. RO is busy doing its thing. Need to go collect at my remote trees this afternoon then fire the evaporator up.

[littleTapper]

Holy sugar sand in this first boil. Ran through about 250 gallons of sap and need to clean my 2x4 divided pan already. Pop city.

[littleTapper]

Ugh. Guess I'll get to scrub everything mid-season...

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[gatzow]

Yes, I was looking at our forecast as well. Going to be a warm week ahead. Ill collect tonight and have a big boil day tomorrow. probably boil on monday and then clean everything up while waiting for the warm spell to end. I am looking forward to the 12+ inches of snow to finally melt as its still pretty hard to get around by me. My Polaris ranger does not like deep snow....

[gatzow]

Weather sure is nice today but for some reason the snow just isn’t melting by me. Open fields are going but snow in the woods is still DEEP!! Been an up and down year so far as I’ve gotten started but sure hoping things come together. Hopefully settling in for another 3+ weeks of season, but we can’t control the weather!! I’m hoping everyone had a couple good boils yesterday/today. It’s time to start actually bottling something soon!!

[littleTapper]

I did bottle up 4 gallons on Saturday. Got more keeping cool pulled off the evaporator yesterday and will boil again this evening to catch up to the decent run with this warmup. Thankfully the north side of our tree lines are deep snow yet, so I've been stealing that and buried the line to the IBC tote and the return/recirculation line for the Shurflo. Seems to help keep sap cooler; but I expect by tomorrow there won't be much flow and I can clean the tote out and flush clean water through the recirculation line. Hopefully laterals and drops stay clean...

[littleTapper]

Made it to a pint of syrup per tap today. Better than nothing! Better get myself back to scrubbing...

[Mboeselager]

Tap north of Milwaukee. This weather has shut my maples down. Got about 15 gallons of sap from my last boil sitting in my chest freezer. Hope the next few days will run. Hope the season isn’t done. How are others doing....or thoughts on the remainder of the season?

[littleTapper]

Yeah, this warmup sucks. Forecast here (Wind Lake, SW of MKE) isn't very good. Good freeze on the way tonight, but then the next two solid freezes are the nights of the 18-19th and 19-20th. At that point, it could be it for my silvers (which is mostly what I tap).

[littleTapper]

Taps on vac are gushing. Buckets, meh. 10-day forecast is garbage. Might get just enough cold Sunday night, but it's not looking good here. Lows only to 29 and for a few hours. :(

[gatzow]

Season is chugging along. No real great days but consistent 1 gallon per day average sap days... bottled yesterday and up to 17 gallons. Goal is 25 so I need a few more days. Boiling today, should need to boil tomorrow and then we will see what happens. I have had to clean out my 2x4 Smokey lake pro pan every 300 gallons or so as the sugar sand buildup is bad. The temp pattern that we have been on almost works great. A couple solid sap day with boil, then a couple days with no sap. Gives time to clean out evaporator, clean evaporator, finish and bottle and then start boiling again! Good luck everyone. For those of you that pull taps tomorrow, congrats on another syrup season!

[gatzow]

Well today sucked.... I was really expecting a great day with temps at 24 degrees last night. Only got 41 gallons from 110 taps. I’ll cook that down tomorrow and clean out the whole pan that has the 150 I boiled today. Will clean the pan good as that might be it for me in Erin/Hartford. Thank goodness that I added a bunch of taps because it wasn’t a very good year sap wise. But there is always next year!!

[Tommoore30]

Hi Gatzow - I'm not in your area - over in Vernon County - but I can relate - yours and my tap output is about equal - I had a friend and two of my kids over to our weekend place to cook what I expected would be a epic run,....about a gallon per tap. Can't quite square with past years and others in the same county, but what the heck. Good to know I'm not alone. Thankful for the 3 +/- gal I'll close with.

[littleTapper]

Basically the end here; one more collection (if it's even good) from my remote sugar bush. Forecast is too warm. No freezes (or just a couple degrees below the freezing point for an hour or two) on the way per the 10-day forecast. Not a good season.

Pulled my 20 bucket taps yesterday. Most of these are large silver maples. Didn't even get 90 gallons of sap from them. Some that habitually overflowed 5 gallon buckets barely gave a drop this season. Pulling my vac taps - mostly silvers, very soon. Just haven't gotten to it yet. Not even 10 gallons of sap/tap off those. My 30 sugars a few miles to the north (and higher elevation) on 3/16 saved me a bit. Nearly 17 gallons of sap/tap on those.

Still, a not very good season. Days it should have ran hard, it didn't. Too many warm nights in a row during the season and perhaps a bit of a late start with the cold preceding it. Oh well, we still made some good syrup. Upside, it wasn't a very difficult season. I don't feel like I worked too hard during it, and that's ok too :)

[Irish Ridge]

March 23rd...Just finished my last boil today so I can start responding to threads. I always enjoy the Southeastern Wisconsin thread as it is often similar weather and result wise to us over in Crawford County and Vernon too for that matter. Was an interesting season if nothing else. The last week gave us close to half of our syrup for the season and let us finish with our third best year. And now to the clean up.

[littleTapper]

March 23rd...Just finished my last boil today so I can start responding to threads. I always enjoy the Southeastern Wisconsin thread as it is often similar weather and result wise to us over in Crawford County and Vernon too for that matter. Was an interesting season if nothing else. The last week gave us close to half of our syrup for the season and let us finish with our third best year. And now to the clean up.

Good to hear you got a nice push at the end! Not a great season here; just wouldn't get cold enough at night. I ended up with only 18.6 gallons of syrup off 93 taps. About 10 gallons less than last year. Still, it's good stuff and that's plenty of syrup. Can't have best seasons every year! Tiny differences in weather between my groups of trees was interesting to observe. My 30 sugars on 3/16 clobbered the production of my 43 silvers on vac and 20 large silvers on buckets since they got just a bit more opportunities to freeze and will run longer when there isn't. When the weather is good, my silvers usually do really well.

Time to clean up and formulate ideas for next year. Thinking I may add another membrane to the RO and get a steam bottler. I'm tired of cone filters. :)

[littleTapper]

Nearly ready for the 2022 season here. Tubing is up, storage is clean. Just need to flush a few things out and get the RO ready whenever we get closer to tapping weather.

[montnut]

Looks like this Sunday will be my start of tapping

[littleTapper]

Some decent sap flow recently. Things woke up really nice yesterday. Some we just gushing - today will be a cold recharge and hopefully rebuild some ice in the tanks. Going to have to concentrate and boil Saturday since the forecasted high is now showing 67 degrees here. Ugh. Will get to boil in a t-shirt on March 5th. Jeez.

[littleTapper]

Pretty crappy season so far. Generally cold with few long runs and now the 10-day forecast shows it'll get above freezing Sunday and stay above (except for one tiny bit below) until at least the following Sunday. Last year wasn't great, this is shaping up to be awful. Going to be really tough to keep everything clean with temps getting into the 50s and 60s for a week or more and hope for a late March recovery. Ugh.

[montnut]

Pretty crappy season so far. Generally cold with few long runs and now the 10-day forecast shows it'll get above freezing Sunday and stay above (except for one tiny bit below) until at least the following Sunday. Last year wasn't great, this is shaping up to be awful. Going to be really tough to keep everything clean with temps getting into the 50s and 60s for a week or more and hope for a late March recovery. Ugh.

I,m in Hales Corners and I have the same thing going on here. Mother Nature doesn't like me!

[littleTapper]

I,m in Hales Corners and I have the same thing going on here. Mother Nature doesn't like me!

Yup. Got a bit over the last day (kept running overnight). May keep going today - thankfully vacuum and 3/16 lines help. It might just get cold enough Friday night to get another bit of sap, but the 10-day is still no freezes except for Friday night and only 29 here for a short time (my trees north of Big Bend will see 26 or so and usually it's a bit colder there).

Will see if the trees keep running today. If so, I'll probably let them go and boil tomorrow. If they slow down a lot I'll fire up the RO and cook tonight to get everything caught up. Still ice in my tanks, so I'm hoping I can ride out today.

Bottled a whopping 7.5 gallons Sunday (LOL). Weakest ever for 94 taps. Nitre is awful this year too and the sap even turned cloudy right after filtering since it was still >190F. Oh well. It'll settle out.

[littleTapper]

Ok, the run that started Sunday was a dandy. Got a good 2 gallons/tap. The trees here at home may run again today; it froze overnight despite the forecast that it wouldn't. My trees to the north did not, so they'll be slowed down. Will go pump that tank out this afternoon and see what I get here for one more boil to keep on top of the warm weather.

What I boiled last night was great. Light color and very little nitre compared to the first boil. Totally different, in a good way.

[littleTapper]

And we're now pretty much caught up; need to finish and bottle what I cooked yesterday. Nice to run 106 gallons of sap into the eval and pull off 4 gallons of syrup! Good sugar levels. Maybe finish and bottle this evening; which should put us close to 16 gallons of syrup for 94 taps. Not great, but could be worse.

[1arch]

Are you seeing higher sc than last year also? Last year I was getting ~1% to 1.5%. Thus year a solid 2% to 2.5%.

[Super Sapper]

It is pretty slow here still. So far I have about 535 gallons of sap off of 360 taps on shurflo systems. Yard trees have not started. It sounds the same for most in our area. No snow this winter let the frost get deep and needs to thaw out. Hopefully the rain this week will help.

[Irish Ridge]

Just caught up with the fire and some cleaning so I thought I would reply to your sugar content question. I had some nice 2% readings early and they have only gotten better. Today I checked 4 different full 5 gallon buckets from sap brought in this morning. One was just over 2.25%, two were around 2.5%, and one was pushing a true 3% reading. These pails were from about 15 trees and a pretty fair representation of my trees. Very happy with the readings since my total sap production is way low this season. I am also enjoying the 70 degree temps as I watch steam rise this afternoon.

[littleTapper]

I'm usually just under 2%; this year about 2.4%. So, that's welcome.

Just haven't gotten good weather, but we get little shots of sap. Got 84 gallons off 94 taps the other day, unexpectedly as it just barely froze. I'm at 7.4 gallons of sap per tap right now; the next run might be Saturday or Sunday. Not sure the silvers and norways will be good at that point. The sugars will. So, holding out for maybe 100 more gallons of sap or thereabouts.

[1arch]

Last year with low SC we averaged 7-11 gallons of syrup per cook. This year with higher SC we are enjoying 13-18 gallons of syrup per cook. Kind of enjoying this freeze up. Enjoying a few days to catch our breath around here and prepping for the next big flow!

[littleTapper]

Forecast says Saturday/Sunday will be it down here. Been a long time without pulling in sap, but now have over 90 gallons in the tank. Tested some yesterday and it makes good syrup - never had my silvers/norways on vac make good syrup this late. With the forecast the way it is, we'll potentially make 4-5 more gallons. If I get to 22 gallons of syrup off 94 taps, it'll be a decent year despite the really poor weather. I'd love to get ideal conditions for once and just see what is possible!

All the syrup I've made so far (18 gallons) has found new homes, so that's good too. Perhaps I'll sink some of that $ into an old working bulk tank...

[montnut]

How was your sap production the last 2 days?

[littleTapper]

How was your sap production the last 2 days?

Insane. 250 gallons off 94 taps. Cooked last night. Steam starting to smell a bit off but the syrup coming out of the evaporator was incredibly tasty. Really smooth and buttery. But, it is really, really foamy. Defoamer does nothing. Nitre buildup is incredible. Plugs a prefilter coming off the evaporator nearly instantly.

Couple more days of sap left off my sugars, then pull the plug. Will test what's coming out of my silvers today, but not expecting good things. The huge yard silvers I tap on buckets right next door have started to go buddy, but the stuff in the woods hadn't yet.

Should run good today as well...

[Irish Ridge]

Glad to hear that I wasn't the only one with a foam issue. Actually was getting a bit concerned yesterday. Today I will relax and simply accept the foam as I also work on the sap that is pouring out of the trees right now. Nice to hear southeast Wisconsin is still going strong also.

[littleTapper]

Looks like we're done. Temps say so. Silvers have been buddy for a bit now so we pulled all those taps Saturday and flushed the lines. Scrubbed the buckets from the bucket silvers. Sugars probably not far behind but we're done. Some trees look like they getting a bit of bud swelling.

This end of the season slam was incredible. I've never seen trees run like they have. My 32 sugars, that I have to drive to for collection, on 3/16 overflowed the 55 gallon barrel four times in a couple days. Next year I'll put two barrels at that location and not run so much on the ground and then can spend less time driving to collect. If I had to guess, probably missed 40 gallons or so.

Bottled up 11.25 gallons yesterday of darker, very robust flavor syrup. Good stuff. Gives me 29.25 gallons for the season; my best ever by about half a gallon. So, that makes .31 gallons of syrup per tap. Sugar averaged 2.4%. Great numbers for me based on how things have gone since 2015. I can't imagine what we could do if the weather were more favorable. Some year we'll really get it and I don't think half a gallon per tap is out of the question.

Hope everyone else's season finishes out as well as ours!

[littleTapper]

Strong start here in Racine county. Put in the taps over the weekend. Took a few days for things to wake up since it wasn't too warm, but they did. North slope sugar maples on 3/16" taking a bit longer to get going, but they were showing promise yesterday afternoon when pumping out the barrel. Up to a gallon per tap now and today into Thursday should be a nice run and the forecast is looking decent after that. Plan to have the first boil over the weekend. We're usually tapping around the 14th, so when the forecast said it'll be good leading up to that, I got going.

[littleTapper]

Up to 2.5 gallons/tap and my 17 bucket taps aren't doing too much yet (but not awful). 32 sugars overflowed their 55 gallon barrel yesterday. I'm at about 25% of my total sap volume compared to last year and it's Feb 10th....

[littleTapper]

sorry, double post...

[montnut]

I just tapped today in Hales Corners. Just a back yard operation. Hoping to make a couple gallons this year.

[littleTapper]

Over 4 gallons/tap now (95 taps) and RO is running again for boiling tonight; second of the season. Looks like it'll be almost too warm for a bit and then a cooldown after that. We'll see :)

[littleTapper]

I realized this thread is still titled 2021, but no sense with a new thread every year when the parent category is updated. :)

5.5 gallons/tap now. Slowing down since it hasn't froze. Boiling tonight in the strong wind to catch up then plan to clean up and finish/bottle over the weekend. Kinda looking forward to the cooldown in the 10 day forecast to get a break. Will give me a chance to get the feed float setup for my pan ready to go. Tired of trying to just run from my head tank in and maintain depth.

[littleTapper]

Got everything boiled last night (3rd of the season) and cleaned up; ready for the next run. Snow today, cold tomorrow, then it looks like we go right back to it; maybe boil again Monday. Should bottle this first bit this weekend. I think I have about 9 gallons of syrup in buckets and whatever's left in the pan to cook down.

[littleTapper]

Bottled 10 1/4 gallons of beautiful syrup on Saturday. Sugar content on these early runs was about 1.6%. Not complaining for it being early and having some long runs. Right now the tank has 150 gallons of sap in it and today should be another good run. Will boil again tomorrow. Currently at 7.3 gallons/tap off our 95 taps.

[littleTapper]

Got a short break with cooler weather recently, but now it's back to running. Now over 10 gallons of sap/tap.

[littleTapper]

Boiled last night after the massive runs the few days prior. Crazy niter and acting like late March sap; definitely going to need to clean the pan after that boil. Darker stuff coming off, but good, I love that stuff. Now over 12 gallons/tap.

Robins and blackbirds are back. The cacophony in the mornings is wonderful as the new arrivals and the locals are getting excited for mating season. Amazing how much you miss those sounds.

[Irish Ridge]

Nice report. I am probably due west of you and finding the same results. My first batch was darker than the second batch that just came off the gas stove. Finding a fair amount of niter as well and have cleaned everything after each go round. I am thinking that my final clean up of the season will be much easier doing it this way as well. Just saw our first robin this morning. Boil on.

[littleTapper]

Boiled again yesterday. Got a slowdown now since it'll be too warm, even at night, for a few days. Then we get cold/cool....which may prolong things a bit if the long-range forecast is right :)

Over 15 gallons sap/tap now. Sugar content climbing. Last bottling ended up with 1.9x% sugar for that batch and what I boiled yesterday is definitely higher based on what was concentrated down and then pulled off the evaporator during boiling.

Starting to worry if I'm going to have enough bottles...

[littleTapper]

Slow lately. No freezes worth a darn. Got everything cleaned up though. Swapped out buckets that have been at the trees for a month with new ones and scrubbed the ones I pulled. Likely bottling tomorrow. Got 5 gallons of syrup in a bucket and whatever's left in the pan.

Crawled over 15.5 gallons of sap per tap. Did run a bit yesterday from the light freeze before sunup...

[gatzow]

Near Holy Hill area. I tapped a few days later than I wanted as I was out of town, but trees ran ok for the past week or so. This cold snap gave time to get everything bottled and I cleaned the pan, reloaded wood and am ready for the next run. Around 100 taps on bags. bottled 12.25 gallons of syrup after boiling right at 500 gallons of sap. Looks like Wed has potential for a sap run if the snow hasn't closed them up a bit.

I also made a run up to Neenah to purchase a freshly dumped bourbon barrel, so we need a solid season so I can fill that 10 gallon barrel!!

[littleTapper]

gatzow, nice to see you're going!

It's been slow during these last several days around the freezing mark. Still, a bit of sap here and there and it gets to stay nice and cold. We dipped below freezing (barely) for a bit, then above a couple times. So, I'll be boiling again tomorrow. I think there's 155 gallons in the tank now. Warmup on the way though. Nice to get everything cleaned up, bottled, etc. 30 gallons of syrup so far off my 95 taps. If the season ended now, I'd be happy with that. Best ever for me.

Big yard silvers aren't showing any buddiness yet. Flower buds are opening, but the leaf buds still look good and tested syrup flavor is great. So, hopefully we'll get a good bit more out of them. Given the overall warm winter, will be watching them closely.

[gatzow]

Yes, I think we still have a couple or few weeks. This cold snap will put them back to where they are supposed to be again.... I have a bunch of sap out there. Should have collected last night while it was all liquid. Went out just now and bags are froze up pretty good. Its really windy out as well, so I decided to let the sap hang so I don't have to pickup bags. I'll be backed up heading into St. Patty's day, but I should be able to get caught up over the weekend. Sap won't go bad when its frozen!!

I did see that a neighbor had their sap drop from 2.5% down to 1.6% so I am hoping that did not happen in my trees. Its a lot of work to be boiling at 60:1!!

I know people around me that are just tapping now, so for their sake, I hope we still have 3 or 4 weeks to go!!

[littleTapper]

RO running. Boiling again this afternoon/evening and it'll be one of those days that make me wish for a sugar shack. 32 degrees and 20+ mph winds. Oof. Solid run with this bit of warmer weather after the last freeze. Now over 19 gallons of sap per tap. 10-day forecast shows Sunday night as the last freeze all the way until Sunday the 26th (and still no freeze then). That might be it for the silver maples. A week above freezing like that will be tough to keep everything clean too. Given how good it's been since I tapped early, if that's it for me, I sure won't be sad!

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[littleTapper]

Long-range forecast still sucks, but trees are waking up today and we should get another light freeze tonight; then I'd expect a two-day run and that may be it for the silvers. Some of the leaf buds on our young yard red and silver maples are looking a little puffy (no, they're not the flower buds). Bottled up what I cooked down last week. Up to 37 gallons of syrup this season. That makes .39 gallons/tap. Current best by nearly 8 gallons.

[littleTapper]

Boiled last night, and will again tonight to be caught up. The way it was coming off the evap last night, I'll be beyond 40 gallons of syrup. Pushing close to that 2000 gallons of sap mark; currently at 20.4 gallons/tap. Forecast still miserable for more production, but some of the lows forecasted are getting lower. I'm pooped.

Definitely have made room in the woodpile for the three trees I need to take down in a couple months.

[littleTapper]

Forecast has changed quite a bit. We'll see how much more we can get. Silver maple buds are still surprisingly tight. Got my eye on a filter press and larger bottler for next year, so the more of that I can fund from this crazy year, the better. All cleaned up after today's boil and gonna "relax" for a couple days here (which means split more firewood).

[Pdiamond]

I got so lucky this year. My darling, lovely, wife, said yes that we could afford for me to buy a firewood processor. What with the military discounts and free delivery it didn't cost me as much as I had set aside. Used it yesterday for the first time and did 4 face cord in about an hour and 15 minutes. Why didn't I buy one of these sooner.

[gatzow]

Thought today was going to be a good sap day, but nothing…. Oh well. Up to 1070 gallons of sap. 21.5 gallons of syrup bottled and more sitting in concentrate in the pan. I’m still shooting for 50 gallons of syrup as I need enough to fill the 10 gallon bourbon barrel! Need the next 5-6 days to be big! Hope everyone else is doing well

[littleTapper]

gatzow, I suspect the next week will be pretty crazy, especially for you and where you are and having sugar maples. Have fun!

I'm crossing my fingers for at least another run or two out of my silvers. They don't usually make good sap this late....but who knows, been such a crazy year that I'm not writing anything off! In any case, the 32 sugars I have on 3/16 will likely give me plenty more.

Finishing what's in the pan and bottling this afternoon. Should take me beyond 40 gallons this year. I may do some infused syrup from these upcoming runs. May try coffee beans in some...

[gatzow]

Collected 140 gallons this morning in the snow. That was fun…. Now cooking it down so I can have a morning off tomorrow for the last coyote hunt of the year! Might clean out the pan as this Smokey lake hybrid pan is getting filled with sand and it makes the first 2 compartments foam up a lot. I doubt we have any sap today so I’ll be waiting on tomorrows run anyway. Empty out concentrate, do a quick clean of the pan to at least get the bottom sand cleaned up and get ready to run this week. At least that’s what I’m hoping for! Right at 400 gallons will be cooked through this cycle. Gotta fill the bourbon barrel and then I can fill the 5 gallons of cinnamon infused. Whatever is left just goes to regular syrup.

I’d say it’s the heart of the season. People all around me at least in Facebook land are talking about shutting down but my trees near holy hill don’t even look close. All of mine are in the woods so I would think they are behind the yard trees.

[MarquisVII]

Keep us updated, gatzow. My brother is in Madison and he said the trees are starting to bud out there. I am in Grafton, 2 miles West of the lakeshore and this week looks like we'll get a good run but I'm thinking that (sadly) Saturday will be my last boil. I will stretch as long as I can though!

[littleTapper]

Silvers are/have been popping flower buds. Leaf buds here are still ok SW of MKE. Keeping close watch on the silver maple sap though.

Sap is flowing in nicely; been slow lately with not great freezes and not that warm. RO is through the bulk of it and will be boiling in a few hours. Over 22 gallons/tap now. Definitely looks like this weekend is the end.

[littleTapper]

Got a hint of budiness in my big yard silvers' sap yesterday. Didn't boil it. Woods silvers seem ok yet so I got everything boiled last night. Will test woods silvers again today, but they won't be far behind. Seems we're back to darker syrup, but not bad on niter (yay). Not much season left here. Should run nice today and will boil Wednesday. Then, see what we get Thursday->Friday with a big warm up. Hopefully can keep the sap cool until Saturday. Hard to boil outside when they're predicting thunderstorms.

Definitely looking at building a sugar shack. Not looking forward to dealing with insurance and permits, etc.

[gatzow]

Temperature should be perfect but my sap runs have sucked this week. Only getting about 3/4 a gallon per tree the last 2 days. Was really expecting and prepared to get hammered. Oh well, can’t control that. Took advantage of the half day boil yesterday and finished my concentrate to syrup. Used that syrup to fill the bourbon barrel, so that project is done. It’s stored away in the basement for the next 5 months. My trees still look great. Sugar maples in the woods don’t even look close. Sap is still perfectly clear, that’s not the problem. I have a sap volume problem!! Will be clearing the whole line of bags tonight before the freeze come as my bags don’t like it when they turn to solid blocks of ice. Let that happen last week and I had to replace half my bags as the corners split and I had leaks form. So now I know, if bags will totally freeze, I have to clear them or face replacement of bags. At .50 a bag, I don’t want to keep doing that…. I think we have a few more days, but then it looks warm. I need 3 big days of runs to reach my 50 gallon goal. Don’t know that I’ll get there. Keep going as the season will be over before we know it!

[littleTapper]

gatzow, the sap flow you experienced is what I've had as well; much less than what was expected. Should have been better than it was. Here's hoping you hit your goal!

[MarquisVII]

Same slow sap flow here the last couple weeks, even in ideal weather. The lines look like they are running great on vac, but I check my tank at the end of the day and I've only been getting 25-60 gallons from 51 taps - I was getting about 175gal/day a few weeks ago! I also have a 50gal goal this year and I think I will come up a bit short since I'm no longer expecting a good run even after the freeze and then big warmup later this week.

My sugar buds are still tight so I'm not worried about buddy sap before I pull my taps on Saturday. HOWEVER, I do have some snotty yellow sediment in a couple spots on the bottom of my 275gal collection tote, and the strainer on my Shurflow gets coated in gooey stuff pretty quickly. The sap itself is only a touch cloudy - I've made great syrup from MUCH cloudier sap. The snotty sediment started today - do you guys think it's anything to be concerned about given my description?

In any event, the season is over this week:(

[littleTapper]

Same slow sap flow here the last couple weeks, even in ideal weather. The lines look like they are running great on vac, but I check my tank at the end of the day and I've only been getting 25-60 gallons from 51 taps - I was getting about 175gal/day a few weeks ago! I also have a 50gal goal this year and I think I will come up a bit short since I'm no longer expecting a good run even after the freeze and then big warmup later this week.

My sugar buds are still tight so I'm not worried about buddy sap before I pull my taps on Saturday. HOWEVER, I do have some snotty yellow sediment in a couple spots on the bottom of my 275gal collection tote, and the strainer on my Shurflow gets coated in gooey stuff pretty quickly. The sap itself is only a touch cloudy - I've made great syrup from MUCH cloudier sap. The snotty sediment started today - do you guys think it's anything to be concerned about given my description?

In any event, the season is over this week:(

Try to clean it out after the next boil....at least a good blast with a hose. When I'm cleaning up for the evening, I usually hose mine out, then spray with star-san and let it sit for 10 minutes or so, then hose out with permeate again. It's stayed pretty decent this year, but the stuff does keep coming back.

[littleTapper]

Got a tiny hint of buddy flavor in my woods silvers sap yesterday...but I'll probably retest it again today to be sure. I really don't want to mess up all the sweet in my pan with it...for ~20 gallons of sap. Pulled the buckets off the trees at the neighbor's and rinsed them. Will try to get them scrubbed this weekend.

Yesterday was oddly slow again despite conditions that should have been a good run. The end is very near. Will cook what I got tonight and see if the Thursday/Friday warmup gives enough for me to fire up again.

[littleTapper]

Sharing this since it's interesting. The sap flow rates for my vac taps at home and it's very clear that we had way better weather patterns in Feb than March here. Had I waited, it would have been a dismal season. The temp charts for March show why it was slow. The lows didn't drop; there was no good freeze/thaw pattern.

23111

[DrTimPerkins]

Probably not quite that simple -- it never is (thankfully, otherwise us scientists would be out of business really quickly).

Your sap flow rates could (probably are) also be lower during the mid-late season due to the "taphole drying" process. Sap flow rate potential is highest immediately after a taphole is drilled. As the season progresses, microbes in the taphole environment induce the wound response process, and vessels start to get clogged up as a result. Thus flow rates slow as time passes. The speed at which flow rate potential drops is a function of spout/taphole sanitation level (also dependent upon collection method, gravity collection tends to show faster flow rate dropoff) and temperature.

Another way to say this is that if you did drill a new taphole (I'm not recommending that or any other taphole rejuvenation methods) in the same tree, the sap flow rate from that fresh taphole would almost certainly be higher than from the old taphole.

[littleTapper]

Probably not quite that simple -- it never is (thankfully, otherwise us scientists would be out of business really quickly).

Your sap flow rates could (probably are) also be lower during the mid-late season due to the "taphole drying" process. Sap flow rate potential is highest immediately after a taphole is drilled. As the season progresses, microbes in the taphole environment induce the wound response process, and vessels start to get clogged up as a result. Thus flow rates slow as time passes. The speed at which flow rate potential drops is a function of spout/taphole sanitation level (also dependent upon collection method, gravity collection tends to show faster flow rate dropoff) and temperature.

Another way to say this is that if you did drill a new taphole (I'm not recommending that or any other taphole rejuvenation methods) in the same tree, the sap flow rate from that fresh taphole would almost certainly be higher than from the old taphole.

Could be. They're on vac with new CV spiles. My remote sugar maples on 3/16 to the north a bit (and at higher elevation) have gotten a bit more favorable weather and have better flow rates in March, more close to Feb rates, than the ones illustrated. Tapped the same day. So, could be a combo of things. Others have noted not as good of flow lately too.

[gatzow]

All these people around me pulling taps is making me nervous. I get it for those that are tired but I still need 10+ gallons!! Hoping the freeze tonight with storms tomorrow bring that 36 hour sap run that I need. I’m cleaning out the pan in anticipation and hope that we still have another week! Congrats to all those that pulled taps and set records. I am not there yet but I’m hopeful!

[littleTapper]

gatzow, you should get a good run here :) At least I hope you do. If you're taking a tally, I'm definitely in the "tired" column. Somehow I gotta whip myself back into mountain bike racing shape in a month....I need a month off after this maple season :)

[MarquisVII]

Uh oh, one of my sugars is raining sap on my patio this morning.... 100gal in my collection tank from earlier this week - I am diverting today's run into a 55gal barrel... :-|

[MarquisVII]

I boiled about a quart of today's sap down to maybe 4oz for a taste test - still sweet. Sap is exactly 2% coming out of the Shurflo, which is generally where it's at all season for me so I put it back into the main tank. Since overnight, the buds are looking ready to pop and I'm really trying to max out this last run with this heat wave today/tomorrow (lots of quart-sized sap ice cubes in my tank!). Do you guys know if a drop in sugar content is going to be my fist sign I should stop collecting, or do I really need to keep watching the buds? I'm on a wooded lot so some are yard trees, most are more wooded so the budding is not all/none. I'm thinking I'll keep measuring SC every few hours through tomorrow and shut the pump as soon as it drops.

[littleTapper]

I boiled about a quart of today's sap down to maybe 4oz for a taste test - still sweet. Sap is exactly 2% coming out of the Shurflo, which is generally where it's at all season for me so I put it back into the main tank. Since overnight, the buds are looking ready to pop and I'm really trying to max out this last run with this heat wave today/tomorrow (lots of quart-sized sap ice cubes in my tank!). Do you guys know if a drop in sugar content is going to be my fist sign I should stop collecting, or do I really need to keep watching the buds? I'm on a wooded lot so some are yard trees, most are more wooded so the budding is not all/none. I'm thinking I'll keep measuring SC every few hours through tomorrow and shut the pump as soon as it drops.

Sugars? My first sign is the flavor since my silvers bud first. They will run like mad with high sugar 3-4% for the big yard trees, perfectly clear sap, that makes disgusting syrup. :)

Sugars I've tapped still seem to be just fine. Definitely swelling buds on my silvers, but I tasted it a few days ago so those are done.

[littleTapper]

Could be. They're on vac with new CV spiles. My remote sugar maples on 3/16 to the north a bit (and at higher elevation) have gotten a bit more favorable weather and have better flow rates in March, more close to Feb rates, than the ones illustrated. Tapped the same day. So, could be a combo of things. Others have noted not as good of flow lately too.

Update with some data. Dr Tim is probably on the money. My home vac trees were using stubby with CV adapters this year. When I started pulling them yesterday, they were not pretty. Conversely the silvers on buckets at the neighbor's used regular CVs and none of those were snotty and those did keep running great the whole time. Sugars on 3/16 have regular CVs and still seem to be running well and none of the spiles look gross from the outside. Another theory could be the stubbies; they're black, absorb more solar energy. South and west side of the tree taps were worse than north or east side taps. Wanted to try them since we usually get a week+ of a nasty warmup mid season (that didn't happen this season) and it would make it easier to flush out the lines and get the crud out when that happens. I think I'll just go back to regular CVs; less hassle too.

[MarquisVII]

Sugars?

Yes. Still 2% and taste test this morn is still sweet.

[littleTapper]

Yes. Still 2% and taste test this morn is still sweet.

Nice! I've pulled silvers' taps on March 23rd and in the same year had great syrup off sugars on April 4th-5th. Tomorrow will be my last collection from my sugars. Will pull taps even though they may run Sunday into Monday. Want to finish boiling tomorrow, then bottle the last Sunday.

[MarquisVII]

Same here. Collecting this big run through tonight and last boil tomorrow.

[gatzow]

I’m gonna keep going! Sugar rate is dropping though. Just been a grind of a season. Lower sap flows, lower sugar contents but you can have the best every year I guess! Sap on my sugars still looks perfectly clear and no buds in sight. See what happens with a few days in the 50’s. I’m not looking forward to picking up all the bags that will be flying off the trees after tonight’s storms….

[littleTapper]

All done here. Last boil Saturday, finished and bottled Sunday. Off 95 taps (34 Sugar, 10 Norway, and 51 Silvers) we pulled in 2197 gallons of sap and that made 45.7 gallons of syrup. Definitely lower sugar this year than last; which was our previous best year making 29.2 gallons of syrup. Spent Sunday afternoon working on cleaning up; still got more of that to do and to take all the tubing down. Hope everyone has had an enjoyable and rewarding season. Got some ideas baking for next year to help make things a bit more efficient and enjoyable.

Last bottle of the year.

https://isaacolson.com/web/maple/IMG_20230402_100727252_HDR.jpg

[MarquisVII]

Also finished boiling Saturday and bottling Sunday. 51 taps on sugars yielded 48.125 gallons of bottled product (plus a few pints into mason jars from my "overflow" when bottling). I estimate about 2,100 gallons of sap, so you had to work a little harder than me with all those silvers, littleTapper!

Considering this year was a complete overhaul for me, I am pleased that everything went off without a hitch (thanks to hours of reading this forum and surfing youtube)! My low hanging fruit for increasing efficiency next year is a better RO setup. My homemade three post 150GPD is like watching paint dry and I can only get my 2% sap up to 5% concentrate.

Still lots and lots of cleanup and I'm still brainstorming how I'm going to clean/store/reuse some of my lines next year.

I will probably be adding another one or two dozen taps next year thanks to my gracious neighbors!

Cheers!

[gatzow]

Probably the last hope for sap is today. For whatever the reason the trees didn’t give up much yesterday. No buds in sight in the woods but sap is tough to come by. See what happens today and then be thankful for what we got! At 42 gallons finished. Not gonna reach the 50 gallon goal….

[littleTapper]

Going to wake this thread up. Hope everyone is getting ready during this messed up winter. Basically ready here. Just need to get my 3/16" lines up and put new membranes in the RO. Going from 4x400gpd to 5x500gpd. Should basically keep up with the 2x4 evap at 6%. Also added some flow meters to it. Also picked up a steam bottler; should streamline the last bit of the process a bit.

Time to watch the forecast like a hawk :) Tapped on 2/4 last year for a dandy season; who knows what this will look like. Long range on Accuweather (LOL) shows a big drop to below normal after 2/6. Would much rather wait until March and have a bit shorter season.

Anyone have any fun new doo-dads or improvements for this year?

[MarquisVII]

Yeah, the weather is making me nervous but I can't help but think that temps will take another dip into sub-z as we head into Feb. Late Jan/early Feb is usually ripe for a deep freeze. THAT will be my cue to put lines up and get ready to tap. I tapped 2/12 last year.

I am moving up to a single post 4040 RO this year. I saw 4am too many times last year. I try to keep investment in this hobby as close to $0 as possible (LOL), so I spent a couple weeks scrounging ebay/craigslist/amazon and luckily I'm parting it together for around $1,000 which tickles me pink. The parts have been slowly accumulating in my family room over the past couple weeks as I prepare to start assembling it.

I still don't know how many taps I'll run. A neighbor's big sugar that I had 2 taps in last year decided to fall over with the heavy snow we had 2 weeks ago, but I will still be adding to what I had last year. I need to get out there and start figuring out how I will run my new line patterns!

[WI Sugarpop]

We are starting to get things ready. We sold our 2x6 set of pans and had Smoky Lake make us a 2x8 set of drop flue pans with hood. We also had to have my nephew extend our homemade arch. I'm getting our 3/16 tubing ready for one woods and bags ready for the other woods. I hope everyone has a good year. i think it will be hard to duplicate last year's production.

[littleTapper]

Good stuff guys! I wish I needed a Smoky Lake 2x8 :)

Did some tree surveying up at the farm a couple months ago (between Eau Claire and LaCrosse) and my retirement syrup woods is looking like a 2x8 and decent RO are the ticket. Now, to just wait it all out and stockpile the funds to make it happen.

I need to stop watching the weather forecasts; just stress-inducing. We're not even going to have a decent freeze here until the first week of February. As I kinda expected, the long-range forecasts are warming up. In any case, gotta go get my 3/16 up soon and flush the lines. Warm weather will make that easy.

[WI Sugarpop]

My son and I purchased a 2 by 6 set with V flues in 2011, one of Jim's first set of pans made. We really wanted to cut boiling time in half so that's why we went to a 2 by 8. I like the idea of boiling for 5 hours a day rather than 10. Hopefully we will use a lot less wood since the arch is the same one. I just did a tap count and we are at 274. Sap per tap last year was 26 gal on the 3/16 tubing and 17 gal on the bags. What a great year!

[littleTapper]

Well, this forecast isn't great for early tapping either. Warm, but too warm. That sure isn't cold enough at night.

http://isaacolson.com/web/maple/Screenshot_20240129-064517.png

[MarquisVII]

Yeah, I thought temps looked good for next week until a couple days ago when the whole forecast rose a few degrees. I had been thinking of POSSIBLY tapping this weekend, but not anymore. Probably mid-late Feb at this point. Like a normal year...:)

[littleTapper]

Yeah, I thought temps looked good for next week until a couple days ago when the whole forecast rose a few degrees. I had been thinking of POSSIBLY tapping this weekend, but not anymore. Probably mid-late Feb at this point. Like a normal year...:)

I'm holding off for sure. Maybe 10th-11th if temps drop back down like some forecasts show. But, until then, I'll use the warm weather to get ready and make firewood :)

[littleTapper]

Got my 3/16" tubing up at the remote trees yesterday. Nice working in warm weather; usually I'm putting that up in the bitter cold. The people that let me tap their trees at that location have a neighbor that is interested in letting me tap theirs as well; so I'll need to stop by and check it out. It appears they're on top of a hill so 3/16 may not be doable, but there is a lot of trees (at least in my scale). Probably could add 30-40 more; plus the woods there is shared between a lot of properties so if one person lets me start, it may be easy to expand there. I won't be able to tap those this year. Will need to get a larger transport tank and equipment first. So, next year it'll have to be. Excited for the opportunity though. The net impact in effort should be low. Have to drive over there anyways so adding another stop won't be too bad. The expanded RO will make that easier too.

Otherwise, siting here watching a big warmup in the forecast to even higher above freezing. Looks like the second half of the month may cool off significantly to where we start closer to March. I'm ok with that :)

[littleTapper]

Spent yesterday getting more ready. Ran the new RO membranes to flush things out and checked for leaks. Filled it back up with preservative to ride out whatever waiting is left. Made some firewood too; odd splitting wood in a t-shirt on Feb 4th. Watching people collect sap is tough, but I think riding out this warm spell and waiting will be ok.

[gatzow]

I waited too. ~125 taps on bags. I was stressed watching some people tap too, but after some early results have been posted, I think it was the right thing to do. This week should be too warm for trees to move. Like you, I am making firewood while its warm. I should have what I need for this year already done, so working towards 2025 season already! Ill probably start to put bags on holders so I am ready to go at the end of the month. We might have missed 5 or 6 days of trees running, but we will have wet taps for all of march and into april if the season extends. Thats my thought process at least to make myself feel better....

*


Spent yesterday getting more ready. Ran the new RO membranes to flush things out and checked for leaks. Filled it back up with preservative to ride out whatever waiting is left. Made some firewood too; odd splitting wood in a t-shirt on Feb 4th. Watching people collect sap is tough, but I think riding out this warm spell and waiting will be ok.

[littleTapper]

I waited too. ~125 taps on bags. I was stressed watching some people tap too, but after some early results have been posted, I think it was the right thing to do. This week should be too warm for trees to move. Like you, I am making firewood while its warm. I should have what I need for this year already done, so working towards 2025 season already! Ill probably start to put bags on holders so I am ready to go at the end of the month. We might have missed 5 or 6 days of trees running, but we will have wet taps for all of march and into april if the season extends. Thats my thought process at least to make myself feel better....


Making ourselves justify decisions is an important part of the process :)

[MarquisVII]

Extended forecast out to 2/15 looks darn-near perfect starting this Sunday.... I assume you guys are are tapping this weekend? All of a sudden I'm feeling a little crunched for time!!!

[littleTapper]

Yeah, think I'll drill this weekend. There's a cool-off forecasted further out, but that has been inching upward over the past few days. But, going now will mean good tap health for the duration of the season. I honestly am expecting the leaf buds on my silvers to be a bit early this year. So, seems like go time is nearly here.

I have one IBC tote to clean out and I can collect sap. Everything's ready to go.

[1arch]

Ya we are all in the maple season spirit here, it's go time for us.
Enjoy the journey!

[WI Sugarpop]

We're waiting to tap until Feb 24 or after the cold snap. Then we'll have all clean equipment for the March season. We are putting up tubing today but no taps. Then we'll be ready for the real season to start. I hate the thought of getting a couple hundred gallons of sap and sweeten your pans and then it shuts down for two weeks.

[littleTapper]

We're waiting to tap until Feb 24 or after the cold snap. Then we'll have all clean equipment for the March season. We are putting up tubing today but no taps. Then we'll be ready for the real season to start. I hate the thought of getting a couple hundred gallons of sap and sweeten your pans and then it shuts down for two weeks.

That's a reasonable call. We got all our taps in now. Most of my trees are silvers are rarely make it past March 23rd before getting buddy, so I'll try to get an extra week of production here while I can.

[WI Sugarpop]

You're right about the silvers. They won't last too long. We do all sugars so we don't want to tap to early and miss out on the end of the season!

[MarquisVII]

Got all my lines up today. Tomorrow is drops and tapping. Not worried about the 5 days below freezing that I'm currently seeing next weekend - hopefully it will be less, but I have the benefit of trying out CV spouts this year which should help my cause.

Final count tomorrow, but I'm guesstimating I'll be pushing 90 taps, up from 51 last year!

[littleTapper]

You're right about the silvers. They won't last too long. We do all sugars so we don't want to tap to early and miss out on the end of the season!

I wish I had your problem in having all sugars �� Silvers make darn fine syrup though and I'm glad to have them.
Should be adding on more sugars next year if all goes well.

[littleTapper]

Got all my lines up today. Tomorrow is drops and tapping. Not worried about the 5 days below freezing that I'm currently seeing next weekend - hopefully it will be less, but I have the benefit of trying out CV spouts this year which should help my cause.

Final count tomorrow, but I'm guesstimating I'll be pushing 90 taps, up from 51 last year!

I think you'll like the CVs. Been using them for several years now and not sure I would do anything else.

[littleTapper]

Been running pretty dang good. Yesterday was impressive. Hope I can hold off on boiling until Thursday for convenience, but may need to boil tomorrow; depends on how they run today. Forecast has a cooldown Fri/Sat, but then goes right back to perfect.

[littleTapper]

Boiling this evening. RO running now. Yesterday was really good despite only being about 37 and cloudy. Pulled in just over a gallon/tap. Today should be a dandy too.

[WI Sugarpop]

That sounds like fun. Do your kids help? My son, who is about your age, and I are partners and his four kids have helped since they were little. They even spent time out in the woods in the stroller. Lots of good memories. Now some are sap haulers with the pickup truck. Now I'm getting antsy to boil, so I guess we better get taps in this Saturday.

[littleTapper]

That sounds like fun. Do your kids help? My son, who is about your age, and I are partners and his four kids have helped since they were little. They even spent time out in the woods in the stroller. Lots of good memories. Now some are sap haulers with the pickup truck. Now I'm getting antsy to boil, so I guess we better get taps in this Saturday.

Just one kid, and he helps when he wants to :) Teenager... He has homework a lot of nights and really is laser focused on doing well in school so I don't get in the way of that. He's going to help tonight though.

Definitely looking forward to him having his drivers license and being able to go haul sap. Will make my life a lot easier :)

[gatzow]

Well, I think I’ve waited long enough. Was really expecting the cold snap to be longer than 3 days…. I think I’m gonna go on Sunday. That should still get me darn close to April if the season makes it that long. Around 125 taps on trees. I have a lot of work ahead the next 2 days to get bags on holder, boil taps, etc.

[WI Sugarpop]

I put 2 test taps in my 2 front yard Norways today and they ran pretty good today. Hopefully we will get our 275 in on Saturday.

[MarquisVII]

I ended up with 95 taps. Was planning my first boil yesterday but all my equipment is breaking, the lynchpin being my new 4040 RO build that is passing sugar. My permeate was 1 brix so I quit immediately. I'm quite sure it's the cheap-o internal o-rings on the housing caps so I'm waiting for new ones to arrive. Thank goodness for this deep freeze - I almost ran out of storage! I'm now sitting on 475gal of raw sap that will need to wait till Sunday's thaw.

[littleTapper]

I ended up with 95 taps. Was planning my first boil yesterday but all my equipment is breaking, the lynchpin being my new 4040 RO build that is passing sugar. My permeate was 1 brix so I quit immediately. I'm quite sure it's the cheap-o internal o-rings on the housing caps so I'm waiting for new ones to arrive. Thank goodness for this deep freeze - I almost ran out of storage! I'm now sitting on 475gal of raw sap that will need to wait till Sunday's thaw.

Hope the fix is that simple!

Will probably boil again this afternoon; don't have a huge amount (80g) that came in after Wednesday's boil and then bottle up this first batch Sunday.

[littleTapper]

7.7 gallons bottled up yesterday. Nice light stuff.

Lots of very warm days in the forecast. Going to be fun keeping crap clean.

[MarquisVII]

9 gallons bottled Sunday/Monday and 1" of sweet in the pan after shutdown.

Trees really took a while to wake up on Sunday after the deep freeze. I think I only got maybe 30-40 gallons of sap all day from 95 taps on vac.

This year I moved my collection point to North side of garage under a lean-to (no sun). The 20 feet of tubing leading to the pump is the last to thaw with this arrangement, and it can take quite a while - not ideal. However, my totes are still loaded with ice after last week's low temps. I was spraying one out with hot water planning to melt all the ice and completely clean it out. Well, after quite a bit of of hot water there are still HUGE walls of ice in there! I changed course and decided the ice will be a better friend to me than a clean/sanitized tote for the rest of this warm week. I bet there's still 25 gallons of solid ice in there. No need to start making sap-cubes yet!

[gatzow]

I got my taps in on Sunday. Not much on Monday but sap looks to have run deep into the night last night. Today is the day to wash everything out and likely prep for first boil tomorrow. I’d say at least a gallon per tap yesterday on bags based on what I can see from my house.

[littleTapper]

Nice!

Been a good run yesterday into today here too. Going to boil tonight as I should have over 200 gallons to get through.

Hoping I can leave some sap in the tank tomorrow and get it to freeze solid Friday night to keep sap colder next week when it warms up again.

[littleTapper]

Boiling now. Amazing run finishing up. Way over 2 gallons per tap and at 2.1% sugar avg across all my trees....mostly silvers.

[gatzow]

I started my first boil of the season at 4:30 this morning. Had a good run. Should catch up by end of day today. Ground was hard this morning early but I don’t know if it was cold enough to trigger the trees. I guess we will know in a couple hours. Gotta go add wood! Happy sapping everyone!




Boiling now. Amazing run finishing up. Way over 2 gallons per tap and at 2.1% sugar avg across all my trees....mostly silvers.

[WI Sugarpop]

We boiled Thursday and Friday and made almost 20 gals of syrup. That was a nice run.

[1arch]

2 day freeze break and looks like we are back at it today! 60 gallons bottled up and labeled and its still February... Looks like it going to be a fruitful week too.

[littleTapper]

Nice reports!

Hope we can all easily ride out the impending heat wave(s). Hoping March gets more normal, but the way things are going....just going to do what I can (which will be lots of cleaning) :)

[gatzow]

Yes. Nothing we can do about weather. I’m not ready for season to be over if that’s what it chooses to do…. I was hoping for more yesterday only got about a 1/2-3/4 gallon per tree average. Will see if it got cold enough to run a bit today. Planning on collecting tonight and I’ll boil everything that I have tomorrow. Should just about be ready for a full clean out after that boil. That will allow me to do a good cleaning and see what happens over the next 10 days.

Welcome to farming everyone!




Nice reports!

Hope we can all easily ride out the impending heat wave(s). Hoping March gets more normal, but the way things are going....just going to do what I can (which will be lots of cleaning) :)

[littleTapper]

Realized some of my first bottling is crystalizing in the bottles. If I had to guess, the refractometer is out of whack a bit. Was delaying getting a hydrometer, but not anymore. Ordered up one from Smoky Lake.

Also incorporated the cone filter optimizer this year after deciding not to plunge into a filter press (yet). Works great. Moves syrup through much faster and it's coming out nice and clear.

[gatzow]

I use Smokey lakes flat filter and I love it. Filter press would probably be an upgrade but the flat filter works well for our size.




Realized some of my first bottling is crystalizing in the bottles. If I had to guess, the refractometer is out of whack a bit. Was delaying getting a hydrometer, but not anymore. Ordered up one from Smoky Lake.

Also incorporated the cone filter optimizer this year after deciding not to plunge into a filter press (yet). Works great. Moves syrup through much faster and it's coming out nice and clear.

[sbingham]

Reading the last two posts, a filter press is definitely a game changer - even for a hobby operation.
I felt we had our filtering down pretty well - ended up adding a Smoky Lake 3 bank with hand pump, finished syrup is crystal clear.
The filter press is spendy but takes your product to a whole different level.
We also use the Smoky Lake Murphy Cup prior to running through the press and a steam bottling unit.
We gift most of our syrup but will also sell some to cover the costs of next year's supplies.
You can take a bottle and tip it upside down and there is absolutely no niter on the bottom of the bottle.

[littleTapper]

Thanks for press feedback. Someday! If I add more taps next year, the funding for one should increase. Unless it's a really good year, I'm not clearing that much :)

Got all caught up yesterday in the heat. Tanks and storage all cleaned up and ready for the next run and heatwave.

The stuff that came off the evaporator yesterday was amazing. Nice amber color but oh so good. Foamy stuff though.

edit; just looked at the 10-day and after tonight no freezing worth a darn in it :(

[WI Sugarpop]

Realized some of my first bottling is crystalizing in the bottles. If I had to guess, the refractometer is out of whack a bit. Was delaying getting a hydrometer, but not anymore. Ordered up one from Smoky Lake.

Also incorporated the cone filter optimizer this year after deciding not to plunge into a filter press (yet). Works great. Moves syrup through much faster and it's coming out nice and clear.
How do you like the cone filter optimizer?

[littleTapper]

How do you like the cone filter optimizer?

It is way, way, way better than a straight cone filter. Syrup goes through considerably faster. It also results in less prefilter usage from clogging; and pulling a prefilter is a better experience as well; as the bottom/point of it is still unused and when you pull it the syrup goes to that and right through. It's a bit more challenging to get a stack of prefilters in it; but less are needed than when using them in their normal shape. Pulled only two prefilters in 6-8 gallon filterings.

Such a simple device, but it really does help. Makes cone filters much less of a hassle to where I do not dread that step any longer.

I put mine in a 4-gallon square bucket with the bottom cut out that sits on a stainless rack over a 5-gallon bucket when filtering. I then dump the bucket in the steam bottler; warm up, then have at it. Sped up my filtering and bottling operation a lot.

[WI Sugarpop]

It is way, way, way better than a straight cone filter. Syrup goes through considerably faster. It also results in less prefilter usage from clogging; and pulling a prefilter is a better experience as well; as the bottom/point of it is still unused and when you pull it the syrup goes to that and right through. It's a bit more challenging to get a stack of prefilters in it; but less are needed than when using them in their normal shape. Pulled only two prefilters in 6-8 gallon filterings.

Such a simple device, but it really does help. Makes cone filters much less of a hassle to where I do not dread that step any longer.

I put mine in a 4-gallon square bucket with the bottom cut out that sits on a stainless rack over a 5-gallon bucket when filtering. I then dump the bucket in the steam bottler; warm up, then have at it. Sped up my filtering and bottling operation a lot.
Thanks for your input. We've used cone filters for over 20 years. My son has always done the filtering and he does a great job. We do between 75 and 115 gals of syrup. We also sell sap but probably not this year. We're at about 37 gals of syrup so far.

[1arch]

Reading the last two posts, a filter press is definitely a game changer - even for a hobby operation.
I felt we had our filtering down pretty well - ended up adding a Smoky Lake 3 bank with hand pump, finished syrup is crystal clear.
The filter press is spendy but takes your product to a whole different level.
We also use the Smoky Lake Murphy Cup prior to running through the press and a steam bottling unit.
We gift most of our syrup but will also sell some to cover the costs of next year's supplies.
You can take a bottle and tip it upside down and there is absolutely no niter on the bottom of the bottle.

The investment is a tough pill to swallow but I agree it is a game changer. I picked up a smokey lake filter press when he first offered them and have had excellent success. It is also helpful to pump syrup, sap or even water with the built in valve configurations.

[littleTapper]

Well, the forecast here really blows. Should get a decent run here today into tomorrow, but yeesh. With the amount of heat in the system, I'm not sure how my silvers don't try to grow leaves in the next 10 days. Fingers crossed middle of the month cools down, but I don't trust that long-range forecast - been teasing colder all along and keeps shifting up.

Hopefully you folks a bit north of me see some freezes starting the 5th.

Scary/interesting looking at growing degree days here. Last year was kind of wild; this is a different level.
https://data.usanpn.org/vis-tool/#/

[MarquisVII]

First day below freezing for me is 3/10, and that's a whopping 31F for about an hour overnight...

I make quart sized ice cubes for my totes. I only have about 15 containers for them though. Toss them into tanks, then make more as fast as they'll freeze, which lets me rotate about twice a day. I actually just started using permeate instead of sap since it will stay frozen a little longer. I won't mind the extra 2 minutes to RO it out. In any event, I'm already tired of it so this next week is going to suck.

[littleTapper]

Yeah, this next week is going to be not too fun.

Boiled this morning and finished things up and bottled again. Right at 20 gallons for my 96 taps.

Oddly enough, the trees have started to run a bit this afternoon. Got 10 gallons off the 32 sugars right now after emptying the tank this morning. No freeze in a while and they were stopped dead this morning.

We'll keep going as long as we can. Got people knocking down the door for syrup :)

[MarquisVII]

Cloudy sap, and barely enough to warrant firing up the evap so I'm going to keep holding till the weekend. I don't feel great about it though.

All my tubing which is mostly new this year, even the stuff fully shaded near my pump, is totally gunked up. Can barely see through it. Already decided I won't be spending time cleaning it this year. It's all going in the trash. I figure it only costs me about 12 hours of a heavy flow next year to break even. This is a rough season.

[littleTapper]

Yup, all I've been doing is cleaning things, over and over and waiting for freezes.

Will see what this weekend brings and if it's worth keeping the sugars hooked up for later March. Two freezing nights then another week of above with 60s for highs. This pattern has been awful.

[littleTapper]

Sap flowing again. Tested the silver maple sap off my vac lines yesterday and it still is making great syrup. Boil tomorrow and then clean up until the next chance of sap; forecast is showing promise...next Monday...

[gatzow]

I was thinking same thing. If trees can hold out a couple more days, the weather looks pretty sappy this weekend and next week. I’m boiling down now the last 2 days run and I’ll be ready if the trees give us a little more season. Lots of people have closed up shop already. I think I’ll be fighting til the end. Plenty of wood left!




Sap flowing again. Tested the silver maple sap off my vac lines yesterday and it still is making great syrup. Boil tomorrow and then clean up until the next chance of sap; forecast is showing promise...next Monday...

[WI Sugarpop]

Still going here. 60 gals made. Making the good dark stuff now.

[littleTapper]

I need to make some dark stuff :) Have some folks waiting for it.

Sitting at about 10.5 gallons of sap per tap right now. Not atrocious, but not great. But, still going to keep chugging along!

[Super Sapper]

I did not get tapped until 3-3-24 due to vacation. I am presently at 37 gallons finished and packaged. I started out making pretty light syrup at 76 light transmittance and last night was at 57. I did not tap any of the reds or silvers. Next week looks good for weather and some years I can make 75% of my syrup after most have quit for the year. I have NE sloping woods so they usually run later.

[WI Sugarpop]

Good to hear you're still kicking!

[littleTapper]

I think my big yard silvers have turned. Noticed something just a tiny bit off on the initial taste of what I boiled last night. But, it lasts for barely an instant and then the flavor is awesome. May have to keep that batch for myself...it's only going to be about 2 gallons. Should last me a week or two :)

Could also hear the peepers over the evaporator yesterday.

[Super Sapper]

I collected 500 gallons yesterday after work and boiled it. I am back up to 69% transmittance.

[WI Sugarpop]

No peepers here yet. Hope next week will be good!

[Super Sapper]

The next 2 weeks look good. Hopefully the freezes will help the sugar content also.

[littleTapper]

The next 2 weeks look good. Hopefully the freezes will help the sugar content also.

Yeah, sure does. Hopefully you get some great production!

I just hope all my silvers aren't done. Having 34 sugars hooked up with that forecast could be pretty darn good on its own. Next year's opportunity to add even more sugars sure makes a lot of sense....

[MarquisVII]

Driving through town today I noticed all the Norway maples on the boulevards are flowering. Yes, they are street trees out in the open and next to relatively hot pavement, but yikes. Next week is back to ideal temps. Are we gonna make it?!

[1arch]

Well it has been a nice break but should see some flow today

[littleTapper]

Hope it's crazy!

Fingers crossed for any decent sap here...

[littleTapper]

Trees aren't doing much. :(

[WI Sugarpop]

Too windy today but may run until midnight!

[littleTapper]

Epic brainfart on my part. Sunday I replaced the screen on my Shurflo with a clean and sanitized one. I close off all the lines from the trees, and after replacement, let the vac build before I reopen the valves. Well, forgot to reopen those valves and didn't realize it until last night.

Given what my sugars on 3/16 gravity were doing and what was in the tank this morning, I didn't miss much, but sure feel stupid.

[Super Sapper]

I picked up 220 gallons yester afternoon on 400 taps. It was still running good when I left, must have been a later start with as cold as it got.

[littleTapper]

I picked up 220 gallons yester afternoon on 400 taps. It was still running good when I left, must have been a later start with as cold as it got.

That's great!

I see about 15 gallons off 32 taps via my camera at my remote sugar maples. Photo evidence confirms that your theory may be correct. Didn't do much until later in the day.

[WI Sugarpop]

We waited till this morning to pull our sap. Got 155 gals off of 280 sugars. All into syrup now! Now wait some more!

[Super Sapper]

I picked up another 300 last night and 75 from some farmers that I boil on shares for. I will boil the last 2 collections after work tonight.

Smoky Lake asked me to set up and sell my value added maple products at their open house on April 6th.

[littleTapper]

Jealous of you all with so many sugars.

Super Sapper - that sounds like a great opportunity!

Something was clearly buddy on my vac at home (tested some sap yesterday); so I pulled the Norways and will re-evaluate today. A big yard silver's syrup still tasted ok and based on the buds, Norways seem like the most likely culprit.

[gatzow]

Sap isn’t crystal clear anymore but still tastes fine and trees in woods don’t even look close yet. I pulled 120 gallons from 140 taps and am cooking down now. Still struggling to fight off the squirrels. They have been real rodents this year chewing holes in my bags. I’d guess I’m over 250 bags now with only 140 taps. I’ve been doing a “bag within a bag” now to try to keep them away but even with that they are biting through. I guess I have some summer hunting ahead of me to thin the population a bit. Can’t keep replacing bags and losing out on all the sap. And I don’t want to go back to buckets. Man did I hate cleaning those at end of season. I’m gonna keep going until the trees chase me out. Only at 40% of goal so I don’t have much choice!

[MarquisVII]

I boiled on Tuesday night after the big run. No sweet smell comping off the evap as I boiled. Made a bunch of flavorless syrup. Tastes like cardboard soaked in sugar water. To be sure, yesterday I pulled a gallon directly off the pump and boiled it down and had 4 people taste test. They all said the same thing - it's simple syrup at best. No maple flavor whatsoever. I have all sugars and buds are still tight. Sap coming in is still 2%. WTH.

I have 4 gallons of this stuff and 200 gallons of sap in the tank with more on the way. Not sure what do.

[littleTapper]

I boiled on Tuesday night after the big run. No sweet smell comping off the evap as I boiled. Made a bunch of flavorless syrup. Tastes like cardboard soaked in sugar water. To be sure, yesterday I pulled a gallon directly off the pump and boiled it down and had 4 people taste test. They all said the same thing - it's simple syrup at best. No maple flavor whatsoever. I have all sugars and buds are still tight. Sap coming in is still 2%. WTH.

I have 4 gallons of this stuff and 200 gallons of sap in the tank with more on the way. Not sure what do.

Maybe take it to maple sugar and some flavor will show up? Or let the sap sit longer before boiling? Kind of a bummer!

[Andy VT]

That is a bummer! The only thing I'd say is have some people taste it. I've disliked almost all of my syrup (I'm talking in comparison of course... syrup tastes pretty good even when its bad, let's face it!). Everyone else loves it. So, my only suggestion is have a few people try it before declaring it no good. That's all I've got though! (Part of my problem is that I've discovered... I think... that my sense of taste is mostly gone after a lifetime of seasonal allergies and a few bouts of covid could be a contributer too). Heck, maybe you have covid right now and don't realize it! That could make the syrup pretty flavorless!

[MarquisVII]

Maybe take it to maple sugar and some flavor will show up? Or let the sap sit longer before boiling? Kind of a bummer!

The finished stuff was from sap collected Sat-Tues and Sat's sap was still a bit of the yeasty/super hazy stuff from the tail end of the warm spell. I wouldn't have been surprised if that batch was off, BUT that's why I pulled straight off the pump during yesterday's run. Tree were ripping (surprised me at only 35F) and it took 2 minutes fill a pot with a gallon of fresh sap. That's the stuff 4 different people said tastes like nothing, aside from it being a SLIGHTLY sweet liquid.

I'm not entirely shocked since the weather has been so awful this year, but I would expect you would all be experiencing the same thing. That you are not really has me scratching my head.

I've read a few other threads highlighting similar issues but not quite the same as this. The fact that sap is still 2% is quite puzzling. Maybe the flavor will come back in the next run after things stay frozen most of this week.

[littleTapper]

Just hauled sugar maple sap home and tested it.

Sweet, very delicate flavor.

After pulling my Norway maple taps yesterday, the silvers remaining seem to have given some good sap today. Interesting flavor though, almost fruity, but delicious. Not sure what to make of it. My son gave some a shot and said he really likes it. Will keep it separate from the sugar maple sap for now

[MarquisVII]

It's official - I'm done. Here is the thread that essentially discusses what's happening to me this year: http://mapletrader.com/community/showthread.php?23524-Off-flavored-syrup Interesting post #8 from Dr Tim.

I pulled another sample of fresh sap directly off the pump. It's not the bitter gross-ness that typically defines buddy sap, but rest assured - it's gross. As of today a few of my sugars are swelling, but no buds yet.

I am still collecting sap... I need permeate for a final cleaning of the RO for the season. I'm thinking I am better off flushing out sugars from the sap than whatever garbage is in my 590 TDS well water.

I just bummed about this season, and really bummed that I seem to be the only one of us in a 50mi radius having "early" buddy sap.

I wish you all well!

[littleTapper]

It's official - I'm done. Here is the thread that essentially discusses what's happening to me this year: http://mapletrader.com/community/showthread.php?23524-Off-flavored-syrup Interesting post #8 from Dr Tim.

I pulled another sample of fresh sap directly off the pump. It's not the bitter gross-ness that typically defines buddy sap, but rest assured - it's gross. As of today a few of my sugars are swelling, but no buds yet.

I am still collecting sap... I need permeate for a final cleaning of the RO for the season. I'm thinking I am better off flushing out sugars from the sap than whatever garbage is in my 590 TDS well water.

I just bummed about this season, and really bummed that I seem to be the only one of us in a 50mi radius having "early" buddy sap.

I wish you all well!

That seems to be what I got off my silvers on vac today....

Hope next year is a dandy for you! Gotta make up for this season.

[Super Sapper]

It has been a slow week, too cold to thaw enough. I boiled on 17th and 21st and no sap since. Looks like the next 2 days will get warm enough to get some flow if the wind does not hurt it.

[littleTapper]

We're done. Sap doesn't make good syrup off any of our trees Will get taps pulled and most things cleaned up later this week. 21.8 gallons off 96 taps. Not great, but still a decent pile of syrup.

Scoped out the additional trees for next year. I like what I see. Should help production numbers significantly and they'll be on 3/16" tubing. If I can get some of the neighboring properties to let me tie in theirs, oof, may need something more than a flat 2x4 pan and my RO.

[gatzow]

Sap ran like crazy for me last night. Bags are full all over. This will be the end though. I selectively dumped a few bags as buds are starting. Sap is still sweet but I’ll take this big run and end a disaster of a season on a high note. 3+ gallons in many bags when I woke up this morning.

[WI Sugarpop]

We collected 175 gals tonight. Bag taps ran good but 3/16 didn't do much which was very unusual. Sap is not buddy and it tasted just fine. We are at about half the sap of last year. Hopefully we'll get a couple more runs before we call it quits. Super supper, are you still going. Maybe we'll see you at the Smoky Lake open house.

[Super Sapper]

Hopefully, I have a couple weeks yet. I am at 1/3 of last years sap. I picked up 315 on 400 taps yesterday, yard trees gave real well but 3/16 on shurflo's were under a gallon per tap. I had a few drops that pulled off the taps from the freezing but I think that the woods are just taking longer than the yard trees to fully thaw. Hopefully I will see you at Smoky Lake on the 6th. They advertised that I would be there with my value added products, but I do not do the normal cream and candy. I will have different fruit flavored jams (maple syrup is the main ingredient) and some maple mustard blends along with a few other items.

[WI Sugarpop]

We collected bag taps at 7:00 last night and they are 3/4 full this morning. Gotta keep boiling now. Good sap, good boiling!

[littleTapper]

So glad to see you guys still going!

Out of curiosity, I looked up some weather history for Plymouth. Not a huge distance north of here, but enough to matter, for sure. Avg high temp up there was 10 degrees colder than here. Average temp was 4 degrees colder than here. That makes a heck of a difference.

[WI Sugarpop]

Plus this time of year we get cold breeze off the lake. Sometimes good and sometimes not.

[1arch]

Want some more sap? Im tired!

[gatzow]

Collected another gallon per tap today to keep the boil going from yesterday. A couple trees look like they are getting there but most of my Forrest trees look really good yet. Sap is still clear and tastes great. Sand looks to be bad but I’m gonna keep chugging away. I have plenty of wood since the year sucked so bad so I might as well try to use some of it up! Next 3 or 4 days look “right” but who knows at this point. Should be at 60% of last year after todays boil.

[WI Sugarpop]

We did our last boil today. Will finish everything in the evaporator tomorrow and clean up and be done. Should have 75+ gals of syrup.

[1arch]

Perhaps the spring peepers theory has been debunked this year 🤔

[WI Sugarpop]

I think you're right, we haven't heard them yet.

[WI Sugarpop]

Is anyone going to the open house at Smoky
Lake next Saturday and also Plymouth's Maple Festival?

[1arch]

We are going to be at the Plymouth maple fest. We have an Arch Solar booth there. Stop in and say hi.

[Super Sapper]

Is anyone going to the open house at Smoky
Lake next Saturday and also Plymouth's Maple Festival?

I will be at Smoky Lake.

[Super Sapper]

Smoky Lake will have a filtering demonstration this Saturday. They asked me to bring my products again, so I will be there.