Best Year and finally dark and rich maple flavor!!

[Johnny Cuervo]

After six years of making syrup I finally made dark strong maple flavored syrup.
We put in 60 taps and made just under 24 gallons!!
Sugar was at 3-4 % and never went below 2.5.
We boiled 12 times starting 3/5 and ending 4/3 all light except the last two boils.
I think the overall low temps allowed me to go longer and get the flavor. Because of my low altitude and sandy soil my trees just need a few days of warm temps to get a metabolized flavor. I never made it past 3/28 the past six years.

Time to clean up

[Fred Henderson]

We still got a foot of snow in our woods. I am at just under half a crop for my number of taps.

[OGDENS SUGAR BUSH]

Somebody Should Check Their Hydrometer

[Johnny Cuervo]

If anything I go a bit heavy, end up with sugar crystals forming more than I like. Just juicy trees. 192 drips a minute.

[Johnny Cuervo]

I should add, sap was read with 2 hydros and 1 refractometer .

[maple flats]

My sugar was low (2-2.25%) this season but my production was up due to the favorable weather. I still have 380 gal to boil down. I need to clean my front pan again before boiling today because I have gotten a hard coat of sugarsand baked on the bottom and the boil rate dropped yesterday. I am going to try my acid for a quicker clean than the vinegar I usually use. Someday I think I might get a second front pan and swap them out every day and then clean the spare. With 500 taps I am at 150 gal and counting. It went to B yesterday but that is still easily sellable. Even with my super season I may need to buy product because I have sold so much this year that I am out of a lot of sizes i carry and was selling so fast that the only bulk I packed is yesterday's B grade. After finishing off what I have I will clean up and then start planning for 09. I need to add taps, a bigger haul tank/truck, maybe vac and RO, it never ends.