Started in Clinton Corners, NY

[MaplePancakeMan]

I put 150 taps in today, gonna put another 100 or so out tomorrow by the end of tapping today the first bucket had 2 gallons of sap in it. It was pouring out of the trees like crazy!

Steve

[mountainvan]

welcome to the 2008 season. Get ready for lots of sap in the middle of the week.

[MaplePancakeMan]

decided to hold off on the last bit of taps as their looks to be a nice cold snap coming. Collected 200 gallons put half of them through the evaporator before i went to bed. will finish probably thursday as the weather isn't looking conducive for me to boil

[mountainvan]

Made much syrup yet? I was close to you today, sure smelled like the sap should have been flowing in the lowlands.

[MaplePancakeMan]

Made 5 gallons of really light (but flavorful) syrup as of now, should have another 300 or so gallons of sap tomorrow morning weather has been up and down, it stopped flowing during the rainstorm. Just started running again this morning.

[troes30]

im in upstate ny near watertown. nice to see another new yorker on here. been running more lines but not goin to tap til presidents day. i thought id be early but you got me a little nervous now. Ah, we're up in the sticks. We'll be ok. Hows the sugar content so far? Last year was weak, was hoping it would improve this year.

[Fred Henderson]

You are not in the sticks until you get to West Potsdam. I will just keep one eye on the weather net.

[MaplePancakeMan]

Sugar Content is right around 2.2-2.5 right now.

Fred is right, i thought i lived in the sticks, until i went up there to look at colleges with a friend a year or so ago. We stayed in Massena and went to potsdam, St. Lawrence etc. It was so Rural lots of good farm stands though!

Still have yet to work out my relationship with my RO she's very needy.

[MaplePancakeMan]

boiling down the last 175 gallons today, boy is it cold out there. Figure with my set up between the weather and temps next couple days i wouldn't have gotten to do it til thurs. On the bright side, the tank froze 2" all around so it was 2.2 when it went in and right at 3% when i started feeding to the tank.

[mountainvan]

That's diehard boiling outside today. If you get the chance again, move the sap and let it freeze another night. Before I got a lot of taps I'd get it up to 6% by moving the sweet to different tanks to freeze.

[MaplePancakeMan]

Thats really intriguing van, i'd bet that would work real nice, i do have a bunch of extra tanks, i'll have to try that. just put the last of it in the evaporator. fire it a few more times then let it die down

[MaplePancakeMan]

So, i was finishing the syrup today and before it all was completely done and cooled i realized i over did some to about 70% sugar, can i save it from crystalizing by adding some hot lighter concentrated sap?

and if i can't whats going to happen?

[Russell Lampron]

You can add some concentrated sap or water either one will do.

Russ

[MaplePancakeMan]

so its not a lost cause ? phew... thought i was going to have a repeat of last years first batch.

[mountainvan]

.9 oz of hot water/lb of maple syrup at 70%. One gallon of syrup weighs 11 lbs. Get a copy of the maple manual, it has the scale of how much water to add depending on the % of the syrup. The 10 gals I just made started at 66%, ended at 70%. My thought is better to be too high than low.

[tony brown]

hey guys ,im tony ,just found this place ,i cant belive you guys are making suryp all ready ,im so bummed,we r just running lines now,wont tap untill after the 18th sometime

[mfchef54]

don't be bummed. with the big freeze in my neck of the woods I may have jumped the gun. but I do have 2 gals of fancy so whose to say what's too early.

[MaplePancakeMan]

I've only collected 320 gallons from 150 taps, its crazy the weather really fluctuated from what they had expected.

Wed they had Thursday for a high of 44. Right now they list the high as 35 which will barely be enough to run.

[Fred Henderson]

What is a gallon going to sell for in your area?

[MaplePancakeMan]

I don't sell gallons but the guy down the road sells them for 50. I sell am only selling pints this year for 9.25... sound around average? I bottle in bigger sizes if someone wants me to, but in my experience pints fly and the others don't.

What do you sell yours for?

[Fred Henderson]

I don't sell gallons but the guy down the road sells them for 50. I sell am only selling pints this year for 9.25... sound around average? I bottle in bigger sizes if someone wants me to, but in my experience pints fly and the others don't.

What do you sell you're for? I am not sure what the going price will be in this area. I just trying to get a handle on it now. But if I were to guess it will be $40 or more.

[MaplePancakeMan]

collected 240 gallons this morning, cleaned the pans and decided that Saturday is the day (instead of today) to put the remainder of the taps in. Sugar on the 240 gallons was 3.5% due to alot of ice that was in the buckets. Will boil it all off tomorrow when i put the sweet back in the pan.

It was still flowing after i collected around noon i figure there will be another 100-150 by the time it ends tonight

[troes30]

I agree with Fred regarding the gallon price. At least I hope its over 40. With the price of bulk syrup, it has to be over 40 if you want your same profit margin. We're a family business and I dont set the price, but I've had this argument already.

[tony brown]

have any of you guys sold any bulk yet ,i talk to our dealer and he said it would depend on the canada forcast ,

[MaplePancakeMan]

No bulk for me, i don't make enough. I just bottled up 7.5 gallons of light amber.

[MaplePancakeMan]

After quite the reprieve from boiling i have boiled down 475 gallons of sap thus far, 200 more are coming from the farm and another 100 from the house, I'll finish those tonight and get to boiling again tomorrow before the rain, i expect to have probably another 375 tomorrow. Sap is really pouring our right now...at this rate i might run out of wood before i run out of sap.

[MaplePancakeMan]

Collected 325 gallons today will boil that tomorrow. I took today for cleaning and moving things around. I installed Rail-Gasket on my arch (under the pans and under the stack i used a 2000 degree cement to adhere it. I ran all the Sweet through the filter press, soaked and cleaned the pans, Poured the sweet back in, cleaned all the sap tanks, swapped half of my buckets with clean ones. I'll do the next half in a day or so. Tonight I'll probably bottle up some more syrup 4 or 5 gallons to stay on top of it. The way this is going i might need to start putting it up in bulk, I'm running out of space around here easily around 30 gallons here so far with another 7-8 gallons worth to process tomorrow.

It was absolutely beautiful today here high of 46 after dipping into the teens tomorrow looks like 50 for sure as well as the next few days. I'm concerned a bit that the sap will start to stop if we get too many consistent days in the 50's It happened last year like that. However the forecast goes cold again the 3rd week of March.

Anyone else only making light syrup, i have only had one batch that went over the fancy/light threshold and that was just marginal depending on how you held it up to the light.

[MaplePancakeMan]

Collected 375 this morning, trees ran through the night almost through the 325 from yesterday. I'm almost overwhelmed... but i guess thats a good thing to be overwhelmed by

[RUSTYBUCKET]

MPM,

We are getting some good daily runs now too. On the subject of pricing syrup. we are getting $7 / pint. A local farmer takes our stuff for sale in NYC.

Russ

[MaplePancakeMan]

Rusty, Yeah the daily runs are getting pretty cosistent which is nice. I kinda need a nice two day break to recoop but doesn't look i will get it anytime soon. however it looks like a pretty decent cold front approaching the temps are steadily dropping. Gonna drop into the single digits/low teens so its gonna take awhile for the trees to thaw out, tomorrows runs should be smaller.

[MaplePancakeMan]

Rusty how many trees do you tap?

[MaplePancakeMan]

Well it seems as if my season has come and gone. With a high of 55 today and a low of only 40 tonight then back up to 59 tomorrow with a low of 39 i really believe tomorrow night to be my last collection and my last boil on Thursday. I counted up the gallons thus far and i have made 51 gallons. I expect to gather 275 gallons which will translate into roughly 5.5 more gallons of syrup plus finish off the remainder in the evaporator which should give me another 4-5 gallons. I will have made right around 60 gallons of syrup. I walked the taps and actually counted today the exact number of taps today. 194 taps which equals out to .3 of a gallon per tap ish.


I could probably ream but it would maybe only prolong the inevitable for a few more days, i see tinges of budding showing, reds are all budded. Plus i only have enough dry wood left for a boil or two anyway and i have more syrup than i can probably sell anyway.


How are the rest of you in the surrounding area doing.


Taps went in first week in feb so i am closing in on 8 weeks on the taps.

[mikeb]

This is our first year... we tapped on Feb 18th and pulled the taps this past weekend. We could have gone 1 more week, as you said, but spring is fast approaching and we have to get on with other stuff. We had only 13 taps and we will finish with about 7 gallons. That's just over 2 quarts of finished syrup per tap. It's higher than we expected, but we are only tapping sugar maples and they are all in the open with large crowns. Thank you to everyone at mapletrader for your advice and support... Already, we are looking forward to next year!

[Brian Ryther]

With the temps in the teens on sunday and monday night, I am hoping the season will be prolinged. I have 2500gal fo sap waiting for me to get out of work today. The forcast for this weekend looks promising, upper thirties days and upper twenties at night. To date we have made 170gal of syrup, all medium from first draw to the most recent. I feel we are still waiting for a big sap day when the buckets overflowing. Maybe today or this weekend.

[MaplePancakeMan]

Mikeb, I need to get me some of those trees. I think why my ratio is lower is that alot of the trees have multiple taps. I didn't decide on doing this rather than just take over making syrup from someone elses land and taps. He insists on putting large amounts of taps on some big trees in the upwards of 6-8. I tried showing him a study about the drop off of Tap production past 3. There are easily 30 extra unproductive taps out in the woods. However, who am i to tell a man what to do with his trees and his woods.


There are two of the same sized trees right next to each other, one i tapped as a test tree with two taps and the one he tapped later with 9 taps. They are 5ft plus diameter trees My test tree produces a full bucket daily and so does the other, so it goes to show you extra taps just stress the tree, and the trees end up shutting down earlier.

[MaplePancakeMan]

Final collection netted me 325 gallons of non colored cloudy/clear sap which should give me around 7 gallons of syrup it tested 2% on the nose. I'm finished with this season all the taps at the farm are pulled, and will pull the remainder tomorrow if its not too rainy.

[mountainvan]

If you still have the urge to sugar come on up and see me. I should be going into April again this year.

[MaplePancakeMan]

I think i might have a little bit of the bug left, i'll see how the schedule goes and see if i can't make another trek out there. Maybe some of the others over here might want to take a trip out too. I read the article today about Maple weekend in the Poughkeepsie Journal and saw your address. How much business do you usually do on Maple weekend.

[mountainvan]

Depends on the weather, snow storm tomorrow up here which will keep the #'s down saturday. When the weathers good I get up to 400 people in a weekend. I've called and emailed quite a few people back, so the interest is there.

[MaplePancakeMan]

Nice, i see the winterstorm warning is up for your area could get a foot of snow. Which i'm sure you're not pleased with. I ended up keeping the 40 taps i put in late feb and to my surprise every bucket was nearly full today so it looks like i'll get another couple of gallons out of this season. Pulled 7 off the evaporator last night I'm gonna let these taps ride out until monday or tuesday... i'll pull them after. Now on to the daunting task of washing 150 ish buckets.

[MaplePancakeMan]

wasn't there a snowstorm last year on maple weekend too?

[mountainvan]

3 ft on st patricks weekend, which was the first maple weekend. This year there's only one.

[danno]

wasn't there a snowstorm last year on maple weekend too?

Must have been ... my daughter and I rode to some other sugarhouses by snowmobile on maple weekend last year.

[MaplePancakeMan]

Well well well! I said i wasn't going to do it... but that darn bug really creeps up on you!

Put 37 taps out on trees that appeared to have no ice damage. Looking to put another 25-30 out tomorrow and then try and scrounge up a few across the street to make it a full 100. i'd like to make 25 gallons and i think thats all i have wood for anyway.


The thing is... i didn't see any broken branches on these trees but i noticed i was getting wet while tapping... almost all of them have sustained stress cracks in the upper crowns... is this going to affect me a lot this season? the trees are pretty wet due to leaking sap

i plotted the trees on a map and checked sugar content on all of them after an hour of dripping. they ranged from 2.2% to a high of 3.5% the 3 test taps i put in over 2 weeks ago still were at about 3%. On average they are running slightly higher then normal not as much as i had hopped based on the high test tap percents.

[MaplePancakeMan]

Well, i checked all the buckets it hit 56 here briefly now declining as it rains. The buckets averaged 1-2 gallons per bucket on 37 taps. I'm going to boil on Sunday what i have... probably not enough to really run the evaporator. Convinced my neighbor to still let me tap his 40 trees (hes trying to sell his house thinks it will detract buyers).

Figure i'll have close to 80 taps in by next week that might be it for the season maybe not.

i'll be happy if i can squeeze 25 gallons out of them.

[mfchef54]

I don't understand why it would be a detraction. just get him to tell the new owners that if they let you tap their trees they might get some syrup. that ought to SWEETEN THE DEAL. Sometimes I just can't help my self.
Good luck

[MaplePancakeMan]

Went out and tapped 60 trees this evening putting me just a hair under 100 taps. I'm pretty stoked. Evaporator should be ready to rock this weekend!

[mfchef54]

looks like it's this weekend or bust. good luck

[MaplePancakeMan]

ugh way too warm for sap trees are shutting down considerably... not good. kinda disappointed.

[MaplePancakeMan]

collected everything from the new taps and the ones here and ended up with about 135-140 gallons of 3% sap. should give me just under 5 gallons of syrup. I counted all the taps today 86 taps total.

[mfchef54]

are you collecting every day? just can't seem to get all my taps to run together.

[MaplePancakeMan]

i collect everyday... all of them ... some days its not much other days its a lot. On the 86 taps i have i actually counted i've collected 500 ish gallons.. today however after dropping to 22 last night they didn't run well at all. Only 35 gallons off of all of them. I'm really bummed i've only boiled 3 times. and to only make around 12 gallons of syrup is really a bummer off of the 75 gallon season i had last year.

All things considered, ice storm, late start, and less taps i guess its not terrible but oh well.

Hows your taps MfChef54. Buckets are just not good for long maple seasons. vacuum is where its at

[3rdgen.maple]

Buckets are just not good for long maple seasons. vacuum is where its at


I wouldn't consider anything else but buckets. It is good family time when all the kids and parents are outside gathering versus inside getting fat. Maybe when the kids are out of the house and I have alot of grey hair or maybe no hair I will put up the vac. lines. Until then Buckets baby buckets. :)

[mfchef54]

sorry it took so long to respond but I have been drowning in sap. 400 gallons in five days. Some trees are starting to shut down. trees right next to each other run well one day and then it's the other. One tree has been shut down by ants in the tap. sugar content is very bad on this side of the river. saturday content was 1% I have given up on checking and I just keep boiling. looks like there is going to be a breakin the run. I think one more weekend and I'm packing it in. have to start working on the farm stand.

[MaplePancakeMan]

Its Official Next year i will be in a sugar house! The shack was put up over the last month and i just boomed the arch into the evaporator (fully bricked) ouch! i didn't want to say or post anything for fear of it not coming to fruition! I'll post pictures later!

[MaplePancakeMan]

I can use all the extra time i can get to get everything really ready. But looking at the long range

from feb 1st to the 6th looks like marginal sap weather with 3 of the nights getting into the lower teens so by the time they wake up i'll get a few hours of running, then 3 pretty good days then a deep freeze from there until the 12th do i bother tapping or leave it so the end of feb i tap and deal with a potentially vol-ital march? Which on every long range weather model looks like good sap weather with march looking really good for sap as it stays cold and snowy for a good portion.


Crystal ball help me now.

Steve

[RUSTYBUCKET]

MPM -

Here in Ulster County, l held off tapping till this past weekend. With only 50 taps out so far, collected 150 gallons of sap between saturday and today. Hope you have a good season.

Russ

[MaplePancakeMan]

Russ i haven't set a single tap yet. still working things out .. i might not sugar this year based on a number of issues. I hope to atleast put 80 in if i can.

3gallons per tap is decent


I've made 38 oz of syrup from my test tree since mid Jan. its really really light syrup.

[BigBucketDan]

Just curious if you put any taps in,and what you are getting for sugar content?

BBD

[MaplePancakeMan]

Where you from? I put 65-70 in and its been a pretty poor run thus far. Sugar content is average about 2-2.3%

[BigBucketDan]

Thanks for the answer....same here.Pretty much on both accounts.

Just a bit north of you in Milan.

Not cold enough at night:(

I just help a friend who has 210+/- on gravity tubing.Been very spotty on flow since tapping on 2/14.Looks like very warm weather the rest of this week;so not expecting too much in the near future.

Curious on numbers since you hear talk of 4%;which we never see.;)

BBD

[MaplePancakeMan]

Well the 4% on some of my stand alone larger trees with huge crowns. this year those came out at 3% backing down now to 2.5

[RUSTYBUCKET]

BBd and MPM -

How are you doing so far? Very little activity on my end, compared to last year this time.

- Russ

[MaplePancakeMan]

Tapped 65 on Saturday, 100 gallons collected since then. I'm firing it up tomorrow not for long since about 40 gallons will fill the evaporator and then an hour of boiling and an hour of nursing down the fire and i'll have the pans sweetened i guess.

Talked to bigger guys around here today, same boat only flow is off vacuum and its still marginal.

[MaplePancakeMan]

i decided not to call my brother today who has the truck i use to collect as well... said eh i can handle carrying all the sap from the spaced out taps on 12 acres... not such a smart idea... 100 gallons of sap by hand was heavy haha... figured i might as well get my exercise in before this quits on us.

[BigBucketDan]

BBd and MPM -

How are you doing so far? Very little activity on my end, compared to last year this time.

- Russ

Very slow to non existant :lol:

Friend collected buckets and boiled 35:1 and dark.

Not to be the bearer of bad news but don't look to good in the future here for temps either.Long range NOAA has a cool down,but that's pretty far out to predict.

Dan

[MaplePancakeMan]

Dan, have you seen the buds on the other trees ... there getting bigger by the day... seems like only a matter of time before the sugars pop.

[BigBucketDan]

Shhhhh!

If you just ignore it....does it take longer?:lol:

BBD

[beechsap]

Dan, have you seen the buds on the other trees ... there getting bigger by the day... seems like only a matter of time before the sugars pop.

What's up MaplePancakeMan. This is Crowe1 from wunderground.
Just so you know, my user name refers to the road I live on and the main species of tree here, not what I tap.:lol:
No buds! (Did I really say that?):D
Barely at 5o-60 gal of sap!

[MaplePancakeMan]

whats up!!!, same here only had enough sap to force 1/2 gallon of syrup out of the evaporator today. No more in sight, winds tossing my buckets like feathers. i'll eventually catch up to all of them.


Cleaned up the shack, tossed the tank outside to get rained on and if no sap for a few more days i'll just chase the sweet in the pan with water.

[RUSTYBUCKET]

Finished the last of everything I had yesterday, pushing this years total to a disappointing 6 gallons. Average by this time of year is around 20 gallons. To look at the bright side, 95 percent of next years wood supply is already split and waiting!

- Russ

[BigBucketDan]

There WAS a forecast for SOME cold;but not anymore :cry:

More 30-32 at night...

Took roughly 800 gallons off 210+/- taps gravity tubing.Boiled at 55:1.Tapped 2/13

Glad I just supply the trees and help out a bit.:D

BBD

[beechsap]

Still warm and windy here. Not a drop of sap yesterday just rain.
Hoping for a little sumthin' tonight/tomorrow.

[MaplePancakeMan]

Well, i've been lurking in and out for awhile BUT, now i'm back for the time being.

I had two bad years in a row prior to this, i tapped too late, way to many things on my plate but i did use everything i made last year as my wedding favors this past october! 7.5 oz corked squares with custom labels. They came out amazing and if i get around to it i'll post a picture. Restored an old coke machine for it as well and it was in an antique barn so it was very fitting.

Now 2013 as a Happily Married man to a woman who loves making syrup as much if not more then me *(thats how i decided!). I tapped 2/12/13 95 taps, boiled 175 gallons that Saturday then it was cold for a week with very little sap Since then i've collected 300 gallons since then and sugar has been 2.5-2.7% its been slow the last few days hopeful it will pick up soon. I've processed and bottled 8.75 gallons of syrup.

My question is whats with all the light syrup? i know the sugar is much higher then previous years but i have never made such light syrup before, its nearly clear! the type that you have to check 5 times with they hydrometer just to make sure. Flavor is good but i'm longing for some dark syrup! i say we have 2 weeks to 2.5 weeks left. Temps aren't forcasted to drop that low in the next few days so i think they will gradually shut down. I figure i have 2.5 gallons of syrup in the evaporator when its all done and if i can squeeze another 10 out of the season i'll be extremely happy! I'm sitting on 80 gallons to boil saturday at the moment with my 12 year old brother inlaw whose been itching to help but broke his ankle before the season and just got his cast off.

Its good to be back and hope you're all doing well!

[sugar ED]

Well, i've been lurking in and out for awhile BUT, now i'm back for the time being.

I had two bad years in a row prior to this, i tapped too late, way to many things on my plate but i did use everything i made last year as my wedding favors this past october! 7.5 oz corked squares with custom labels. They came out amazing and if i get around to it i'll post a picture. Restored an old coke machine for it as well and it was in an antique barn so it was very fitting.

Now 2013 as a Happily Married man to a woman who loves making syrup as much if not more then me *(thats how i decided!). I tapped 2/12/13 95 taps, boiled 175 gallons that Saturday then it was cold for a week with very little sap Since then i've collected 300 gallons since then and sugar has been 2.5-2.7% its been slow the last few days hopeful it will pick up soon. I've processed and bottled 8.75 gallons of syrup.

My question is whats with all the light syrup? i know the sugar is much higher then previous years but i have never made such light syrup before, its nearly clear! the type that you have to check 5 times with they hydrometer just to make sure. Flavor is good but i'm longing for some dark syrup! i say we have 2 weeks to 2.5 weeks left. Temps aren't forcasted to drop that low in the next few days so i think they will gradually shut down. I figure i have 2.5 gallons of syrup in the evaporator when its all done and if i can squeeze another 10 out of the season i'll be extremely happy! I'm sitting on 80 gallons to boil saturday at the moment with my 12 year old brother inlaw whose been itching to help but broke his ankle before the season and just got his cast off.

Its good to be back and hope you're all doing well!

Hi MaplePancakeMan
Hope all is going well ! Must be a lot warmer down/over there !I'm at the bottom edge of the tug hill area and just put in my first taps (125) on 2/27 and still got about 300 more to go....looking to be a later season for us this year, as of today -about 150 gals of sap- if I'd had them all in on 2/27 ,I'd be cooking Saturday/today ,but it's going to be to cold till Tuesday for the next run ...but that's the weather up here !
Ok maybe not the place to try to answer your ? (maple trader likes order around here ) and we are in "tapping in NY" not "It's all about maple syrup!! and just syrup" but here goes lol ...
.. question is whats with all the light syrup? i know the sugar is much higher then previous years but i have never made such light syrup before, its nearly clear! the type that you have to check 5 times with they hydrometer just to make sure. Flavor is good but i'm longing for some dark syrup!
First, I love the light syrup and I'm just going by pass experience ,40 yrs., to try to answer and u can go from there lol
#1)reason, u guess it high sugar content = shorter cooking time.#2)hotter the rig-arch/pans = faster/shorter boiling time(FOR LIGHT SYRUP) #3)don't let sap sit more than a day or 2 (FOR LIGHT SYRUP). #4) well cleaned hoses/taps/tanks ect. and filtered good before and after boiling(FOR LIGHT SYRUP).#5) keep the niter from building up in ur pans ( I flush/ run thru,(with fresh sap) my syrup pan & filter after about 5 to 7 gals syrup, than add it back slowly into syrup pan) to keep light syrup.... SO to get dark- #1) u gotta like ,lol. #2) keep the fire down, slower/longer cooking=darker syrup .#3) no more than a week = but it will be darker!. #4)not even going there = but it would be darker !. #5)just watch out u don't burn ur pans and have a lot of filters /filter changes !!!
OK that's just my take on light and dark and some will say otherwise, but i say bacteria /unsanitary/slow (low heat) & longer boils = dark syrup = good for cooking with & real maple y flavoring.... but that's just me, my dad loves the dark, also. ! Good luck sapping ,Ed

[MaplePancakeMan]

Well after a very slow start, the season picked up very quickly. Pulled out 5 gallons of syrup from the evaporator on Friday after teaching a homeschool class about syrup. On Sunday i pulled off another 4 gallons of syrup. I've bottled 4.5 gallons in the 2 weeks prior to that. A grand total of 13.5 gallons plus whats in the evaporator for the season, which would be somewhere close to normal.

also syrup again seems to be very light again, but i think i just went up to medium this past draw. 90 of my taps on our property are averaging 2.7% sugar while a guy down the road who is eager to learn brings me 10 trees worth of sap from huge driveway side trees and it comes in between 4 and 5% consistently though the volume of sap isn't as high. Going to break out the filter press tonight and catch up with processing this weekends stuff and hope for 1-2 more consistent runs! All in all my outlook this year was pretty bleak but, it turned out to be a very decent season.

[MaplePancakeMan]

Made another 5 gallons of syrup this weekend after boiling off 300gallons of sap. Had lots of visitors which is always great! If only the season would last a bit longer. Looks like i'll have enough sap to boil one more time before it quits. Checked this morning and the sap is still crystal clear, and about 200 gallons out int he woods.

[Jonnie Maple]

Nice operation you got going there. Had a good time checking it out. Thanks for the invite.

[MaplePancakeMan]

Well, thats it for me. Pulling the taps this weekend and washing buckets! I'll head to the shack tomorrow to finish the sweet in the evaporator and close up for the season. I'll have approximately 27 gallons for the year off of 97 taps. All in all not bad, not great but alright. Now its time for gardening!

[MaplePancakeMan]

So whens everyone thinking of tapping? Long range looks like March to me. Got a feeling Feb is going to be awful cold.
Steve

[sugarman3]

Presidents weekend in Feb
Hope we get a feb thaw,don't look like one for Jan.
Tree's will be froze to the core like last year if it stays cold thru feb

[mountainvan]

About 3,000 taps in already and more to go. I'll have everything in for the first run, when ever that may be.

[Russell Lampron]

I'm not planning to tap until around Valentines Day. It has been pretty cold here in NH without a January thaw.

[MaplePancakeMan]

No warmup in sight. Usually i'm tapped by now. 30" of snow this past week will hopefully keep it from warming up too quickly in March for me. Makes me feel very worried about the season. Who knows though, i do know the frost level was very deep before the snow came.

[bowtie]

unless you have so many taps that it will take more than a couple of days to tap I think everyone in northern pa right thru Canada will be sitting on their hands until there is a sign of warming up and I do not see one in at least the next 10 days. I plan on tapping the last weekend of this month unless the weather makes a drastic turn. the forecast coming into winter had the northeast with below average jan-feb and above average march-april, they got the first part right, if they get the second part right we will a short season. with the snowpack and the upcoming frigid temps this weekend and next week it may take 5-7 days in the upper 30's or low 40's to even thaw the trees enough to start running. the way I see it in the lower northeast mid-april and it will done regardless of weather, trees will bud, and sap will go buddy. that leaves at most 6-7 weeks of possible maple making. if the runs are good that can be plenty but if not the season will fall short of average much like last year for most.

[adk1]

Thank god I invested in vac this year!

[Russell Lampron]

Thank god I invested in vac this year!

This will be my 11th season with vacuum and every year it has been what has saved the season. We just don't get the weather for good gravity runs like we used too.

[MaplePancakeMan]

Its been quite awhile since i've posted on here! Such is life! it seems Sugar content is a little lower than previous seasons but all in all i'm already at what i made last year with another two weeks to go. Still on buckets but just bought 40 acres so i'll finally be able to maximize the evaporator production and streamline collection! Sugar Maker 1 is in here third year training and sugar maker two is set to come on the 4th of July! Hopefully by fall this year i'll have 200+ on Tubing. Walking buckets out two by two for almost 3 hours 3x a week in the snow has been rough. Hope all is well with everyone.

I only punched 60 trees this year but i'm at 15 gallons made and 2-3 in the evaporator when the sweets boiled down.

[Jonnie Maple]

What kind of tubing are you gong to do? 3/16? I have 30 buckets this year and am having the same issue's. I haven't been able to get to 10 of them since the first storm. Want to go to 3/16 next year but have no idea how to do it or what I need.
Congrats on the sugar makers:)

[maple flats]

If you can't get to 10 of your buckets, how will you check for leaks daily on tubing? 3/16 works great with good drop in elevation, but just 1 little leak in the line, all vacuum is gone. You need to be able to fix all leaks.

[Jonnie Maple]

If you can't get to 10 of your buckets, how will you check for leaks daily on tubing? 3/16 works great with good drop in elevation, but just 1 little leak in the line, all vacuum is gone. You need to be able to fix all leaks.

Checking and fixing lines I can handle, carrying sap I can't.

[MaplePancakeMan]

How many of you have tapped in the hudson valley? Getting ready just have to finish installing some tubing lines, weather looks good but i just can't bring myself to start before 2/14 which has worked well for me for the last 15 years. Hope everyone is doing well! i think this summer will be the time i upgrade my evaporator, mine has been good to me but sometimes you just want a shiny new one! My daughter now knows more than i do about maple syrup and has been telling me everyday that we should tap and shes only 4.5 years old haha.

[georgelineman]

We are in Cornwall NY mid Hudson Valley. Tapping 200 tomorrow with a friend down the road. Then I will tap my 80 Monday or Tuesday. We tap between the 5th and 12th of Feb most years. Hey by the way, Do you happen to know a Lineman for CHG&E that lives in Clinton Corners? I don't want to put some ones last name on here but his first name is Mike. I worked storms in your area many times over the years. Nice area over there.

[MaplePancakeMan]

Did not end up tapping this year but it seems of all years to skip this one wasn't a bad one. Weird weather, then the trees went to budding quickly. I did get out and fix up all my lines but if next year is anything like this past year I'm sure I'll have to do it all over again. Wind after wind after wind! I'll be back next year for sure the plus side is pans are clean and wood is stacked I'm a year a head of schedule haha on the negative side I am a half gallon away from being out of syrup for the year. Anyone in Dutchess have a good year? Time to fire up the sawmill for summer, that will surely keep me busy until next season.