Final boil 2008 comes to an end

[sapwelder]

Well folks,

It's been a great season in central ny! We had our final boil today with about 1,150 gallons of sap. It was snow/rain/miserble (great for sugaring) weather. My wife and I had some town business we had to take care of this morning, my brother-in-law has been transfered to 1st shift, and dad was home to get things started. Yesterday was kind of disapointing, as I pulled the lines from about 1/2 of our taps(the trees are starting to bud) There was a good freeze up the night before but we ended up with only about 600 gallons to boil off. I was quite excited to the weather this morning as I was sure there would be a lot of sap. The wife and I hurried through our town business so we could get home to help. Dad was just bringing in the second load and was glad to see me so one of us could start to boil. We finished the season about 4:30pm today with a grand total of 505 gallons of syrup! It was an excellent year and the only thing left is the dreaded clean up of all the equipment!
I am glad to see the season come but, almost as glad to see it go. Mom and dad are hosting a pizza and beer party tonight ans I am sure we will start making plans for next season! Well I better get the family in the truck so the pizza is not cold when I get there! I hope everyone has a very successful year!
The Sapwelder

[brookledge]

When you sit down to discuss next year, talk about vacuum. With 505 gallons of syrup thats about .3gallons of syrup per tap which is good for non vacuum. But with vacuum you would have gotten about .5 gallons per tap. So with vac. that would have been another 340 to 350 gallons of syrup. Take that syrup and if you just wholesale it at $2.00- 2.25 per lb. that would be another $7,500 to $8500 more in income that should pay for a vacuum set up in one year.
I know that all years are not going to be like this year but vacuum will definately increase your yield, providing your tubing system is already set up to give you good vacuum transfer.
Just something to think about
This year for me has beeen outstanding. I'm pretty much out of wood so I started selling sap. So with the 640 gallons of syrup I made plus the sap I sold would have put me over 700 gallons that translates to .6 gallons of syrup per tap from 1165 taps
Keith

[maple flats]

I'm in Oneida, NY and I am boiling again today, and tomorrow. Looks like at best I will get to collect maybe Monday and then that will be it. I have pulled all of my warmer reds but my woods reds still have not budded and none of my sugars are budded yet. This week will change that based on the forecast. I have had a great season with 140 gal syrup and still have 800 gal sap to boil. I am again having an open house today and tomorrow from noon-4. Most likely won't get much more sap today and tomorrow except the woods trees and 1 remote bush that runs cooler. I think tomorrow's small run will be the last except some might run all night tomorrow. I have 500 taps so I will end at over .3 gal/tap gravity. As soon as my largest woods has enough taps on it to pay for vac I will have vac there. That bush I only got permission to tap a small section this season but after mid summer i can add lots more. The landowner wanted to remove some ash before he let me tap the rest. The rest of the woods is about 8 acres almost all sugars, sloping uphill. Very few large sugars but lots of single tap trees, recently logged and fairly well thinned so it will get better. I just have to mark and not tap some trees that look like prime timber potential which is only about less that 3-4% of the tapable trees. When I get close to 400 or 500 taps at this woods I will add vac. I think it will end at near 1000 taps when done.

[sapwelder]

Kieth,

We have discussed that through out the seaseon. I am looking for some syrup barrels but have had little success. That is the primary problem right now but I think we are just going to buy some new ones. The biggest reason we quit is because we had no place to store the syrup. We are in the process of installing permanant tubing wihci I think will make a vaccum system a breeze. I am sure I have much to learn and have been looking for some one close by so I can see one work first hand. there is the other problem, the prime time to go see it I have plenty of sap to tend to. did I mention I also work full time 3rd shift? I have so many Irons in the fire half the time I don't know if I am comming or going! It sounds like you had an excellent season there too. :) I rember when I was 8yrs old we had a 275 gallon fuel tank on its side with flat tin pans. There might have been 15 taps or so in the door yard. Each year we add some more and look where we are today. I dont think I want any more taps as I feel there is more than plenty to provide all the syrup we need. I dfo how ever like the idea of .5-.6 yeild per tap hole. For the comming season we are going to build a new wood shed (attached to the sugar house), Install more permant tubing, Fix some of the log roads (sap trails) and entertain the idea of a vaccum system at least for trial purposes. Thanks for the reply and happy sapping :)

The Sapwelder

[danno]

Sapwelder -

Where in CNY are you? You are more than welcome to check out my basic vacuum system or I can direct you to some larger local producers who I'm sure would be very willing to show you their vacuum set ups as well.

[brookledge]

Sapwelder
You might want to attend the winter conference in Verona and take a vacuum seminar
One of these years I'm going to make it there
Keith

[sapman]

I would also suggest Bascom's open house, usually last weekend in April. They always have good speakers there, and a tubing seminar has always been on the agenda. Completely free, too, though the trip can be expensive. I go every year.

Tim

[TDVT]

I would also suggest Bascom's open house, usually last weekend in April. They always have good speakers there, and a tubing seminar has always been on the agenda. Completely free, too, though the trip can be expensive. I go every year.

Tim

I emailed Bascoms about a used pan a few weeks back & asked about the open house:

Hi Ted,

The open house will be Friday and Saturday, May 2nd and 3rd. Hope you can make it!

Sincerely,

Crystal Bascom

[maple flats]

I also finished off the last. I had 500 taps gravity and got 186 gal, with 32 gal good flavor B and then 7 gal commercial (did not even taste this) to end it all. The rest was all grade A. This figures to be .37 gal/tap. As soon as I get about 500 taps in my best bush I will go Vac, likely for 2010 season. In the meantime I need to get an RO or I will need to boil 24/7 and still won't get all of it before it goes cloudy. As it was this season my last sap I finished was 6 days old as it hit the evap. I was only able to hold it this long by re circulating daily thru the UV while i boiled. It did not cloud until day 5 and the sap temp was slightly over 50, was quite cloudy on day 6.