Franklin County Chapter 2

[Pete33Vt]

Didn't want anyone to get upset so started this years thread. As of right now I have 485 on vaccum at sugarhouse,134 on gravity, 365 on vaccum at another location, and another 300-350 waiting to be set-up. So far its been ok. Got around 300-400 galls of sap, at beginng of the week, is all been boiled in and made about a gallon of what looks to be really light medium A. So now its just a matter of waiting for the weather. And getting those 300-350 tapped. But still plenty of time.

Good luck to all.

Oh yeah made almost a barrel of emptys. Should finish that up today!!!

[fyrdog]

Started tapping yesterday near the Mass. line. Sap ran pretty well all day. I did notice that the snow was melting away from the trees in some areas so we decided to go ahead and tap........I don't think we jumped the gun, I guess we'll find out. Hope for a run again today before we get our 2 inces of rain!.......good luck to all!

[Pete33Vt]

Well got all sap all cleaned up yesterday, before the frezze up. Made around 1/2 barrel total so far very nice A dark. Color coming up fast in the afternoon. Go done just before the big sleet mess showed up. Was very worried. All the maples in my sugarbush we bent right over at the branches. Figuered they would be flatten this morning. Might still be haven't gone to check yet. But looks like it warmed up some before the wind and snow. Still probably have some lines down. Gonna take the day to rest up before the next run.

[Pete33Vt]

Well we should finish tapping today. At least everything with tubing to it. Tap count so far is 855 on vaccum,297 gravity, have 57 more to tap then a few buckets to put out. Should end up right around 1210. Then its wait for sap. Got luck with the ice last weekend and no major damage just some small branches here and there. Hopefully mother nature will be kind this year.

[PFHII]

Hey Pete!! Must be nice we still have about 200 more to put up. Kind of messy on Sunday. ( I was in Florida for 6 days ) but now I'm back to help with the rest. I guess they got 700 gallons on Sunday but buckets started to
freeze. Hope to get it all together this weekend. Hope all goes well talk to ya later

P.S We are looking for some more buckets if you know anyone

[Mike]

Check with the Maynard Rogers on rt 7 north of St Albans.....He had 9,000 +/- buckets for sale.....

[PFHII]

thanks mike but they are all gone!:(

[Pete33Vt]

Weii boiled last night, and finished up first barrel of syrup. Very nice ADark, very border line on A Medium. Started second barrel. Knock on Wood No problems so far. Tap count at 1201 right now. Might have time to put a few more in, seems good to have all taps in and not have to run all over getting things setup. Now its sit back check for leaks, and split a little wood. Oh yeah and boil.Hopefully weather will come through.

Hey Renee, hows it going? Any ideas on when your going to boil? Would like to check out how your rig boils sometime?
Good luck to all!!!

[PFHII]

Hi all we endes up with around 1350 buckets in all. We boiledlast night (sat)
ended up with 12+ gallons. nice A med. We have to finish picking up today and the buckets we got early yesterday ahad about 3 inches in them last night at 800 so we might be boiling tonight.

[Pete33Vt]

Finished up second barrel last night, still sitting on A Dark but colors coming up every boil. Have around 600 gals of sap to boil in today. Hopefully can run the vaccum and get a few more gallons. Have to wait and start after I get back form St. Albans, have a meeting this morning hope it doesn't take all day. Everythings running smooth and no big problems. Looks like its going to be a good year for me.
Good Luck to all.

[Daren]

sounds like things are going pretty well up your way Pete. I have heard from a couple of people this year and most are making fancy or very near to it. Sounds like with yours lightening up the light syrup trend is continuing. Mine has been light also, but I have to say I prefer it a little darker. I was suprised to get fancy from mostly red maples...there is a fair amount of sugar sand in the evaporator already though.

[Pete33Vt]

Well finally fired up again after our freeze up. Made my 9.5-10 gals. And yes sugar sand is pretty bad. I've been switching pans out every boil and seems to work ok. Had a major problem though. Somehow my scoop got broke !!
Not sure but I think it was used to try and break the ice in my second pan. So now my syrup scoop is in three parts. Had to dig through the cupboards and found and old homemade scoop thats was made for a very small rig. Its stainless so I'm using it for now. Looks really funny using a small scoop on my big rig. But it beats 55-70 buck for a new scoop. That little scoop seems happy to be outta retirement. Looks like we will boil today, hopefully its coming around.

[Pete33Vt]

Been quite here last couple days boiled on Friday and made my 6-7 gals. Shut down and went to check out a different operation. Had a great time and learned a few tricks. Was going to boil on Sat but everything was froze up bad. From the tank all the way to the preheater. Still not sure how the sap got past the closed valve at the tank so I had an ice chunk about 1 1/2 round x 3 ft. Took the pipes all apart and brought them into the shop to thaw for the night. Going to get them back in today and then wait and see. So far I'm at two thrids of a crop and still going good.

[Pete33Vt]

Still plugging away here. I am at a full crop from last year with time still left. Very nice MEDIUM. Rig is acting very weird this year. Just doesn't seem to want to boil that great. Going to try and switch over to boiling night. Have been starting up around 11-11:30 and boiling for about 4-5 hours. Hoping to start up around 4-5pm and going with that. We have trees that have been plugged in for a little over a month so we should get a few more runs. Hoping for a good one today. I'll let you know how night boiling goes for me.

[Pete33Vt]

Well boiling at night was no use losing sleep over. Not a big differance in boil, so I am going back to day time boiling. Guess my rigs just being difficult this year. Still made my 5-7 gals last night. Colors going dark but still full of flavor. When I shut vaccum down at 9:30 last night trees were still runnning. Should have a tank full this moring as I have 40 out right now. So early start up today.

[jason waterhouse]

Glad to hear your at full crop pete.I stopped bye a couple of sugar house's on sunday 1 in bakersfeild and 1 in richford they both said they are at 1/2 a crop so far.Kinda dissapointed they were

[Pete33Vt]

Well finally have time to write up this years report. Had a great year, made 5, 33 gall barrels this year. My color was not as good as I though. Had 3 dark , one B and one C. Its all been sold and clean up is done. All my numbers were right on the money as far as weight, and flavor was outstanding. All and all it was a great year. We are starting on the new sugarhouse, shoud be concrete in a week or so. Between building a sugarhouse and cutting wood hoping to add around 700-1000 more taps, but we will see. Now its time to sit back a little and wait for next season.

[maplecrest]

pete, i noticed your april 3rd about having boiling problems. on 4/1, and that week. i had major niter problems as every one else. i do not have cross flow pans, so changing pans is a major job. 6x4 pan. i changed and cleaned front pans twice that week. and changed boiling sides often. that week was a challenge

[Pete33Vt]

Yeah Jeff, I had talked to alot of different producers after that day and they all had the same problem. Changing pans was one thing I had a real problem with this year. I could only get about four to five hours of boiling on a pan before they nitered up so bad I had to shut down. Thats why I am almost thinking of going back to the reverse flow pans for my new rig. I know I will still have to clean them up to get them free of all the niter but I won't have to plan shut down if they niter up during they day. It was just rough boiling alot this year. And was a little comforting finding out I wasn't the only one having problems.

[Daren]

Glad to hear that you had a good year Pete. I wish I could say the same. I got only 19 gallons from 230 taps! Pretty bummed. The rig boiled well though. Not sure why such a drop in sap volume this year...it seems the start of the year was just a touch too cool to run well, then when it did get warm during the days, the nights only got to about the freezing level. No big temp swings to get the blood pumping in the trees. I am not sure if I am going to stick with tubing on gravity as I think that dropped the sap volume substancially. I never had a run more than 125 gallons on 230 taps. I never had a boil with 150 gallons or more. One boil was about 140 gallons, but nothing more than that. I am already hungry for next year and hope I can boil for real next year.

[Sugarmaker]

Daren,
How did the buckets compare?
I get a little less sap on the tubing but the labor savings seems to help so I am going to try it again next year.
Chris

[Pete33Vt]

Daren, I would deffinatly hook up a vaccum system. I know the cost is up there at first, but you would have had alot more sap. Its the coming thing. We don't have the "normal" sugaring weather anymore and vaccum helps overcome that. If you deside to go vaccum pm me and I'll come and give you a hand setting it up.

[adk1]

Anyone know the Howrigans up in Fairfield VT?

[GGervais]

Yeh, i know some of the Howrigans.