Still going

[maple flats]

My taps are still going strong. I have 500 taps all gravity, and I have 131 gal now with over 600 gal of 2% sap in my tanks to boil tomorrow. I sill do not have any packed in bulk because I keep selling out. My maple weekend was huge thanks to the TV ads by the NYSMPA and 3 newspaper articles featuring my picture in my sugarhouse. I do need more taps and an RO (and vac)and a bigger hauling rig. The cycle never ends. It is good having a season above average for gravity again after 2 below average years.

[maple flats]

I finally finished my last boil on 4/15. I ended up with 186 gal from 500 taps gravity. I got a couple of interuptions to boiling near the end and had 6 day old sap into the evap at the end. 39 gal of that total was B or C. I made a mistake at the end too when I finished off the last of my boiling I took my last bulk from last year and was going to bottle it. That was A dark, but I forgot to clean the filter press after filtering the C I finished with, and ran 5 gal of dark thru after bringing it up to 200 degrees. I now had 5 more gal of C because the press added considerable darkness to the dark. That likely cost me about 20 cents a pound.

[Sugarmaker]

Maple Flats,
Wow great year on the number of taps and on gravity. I think I could have came close to that also, but the wood ran out before the sap stopped.

Chris

[maple flats]

If you don't want to run out of wood just get a sawmill like I did. In addition to my thinning and timberstand improvement cutting in the bush I use all of my slab wood generated with the sawmill, both soft and hardwood. This makes for lots of extra firewood.