how much longer till we can tap?

[markct]

just was curious what some of the more experienced connecticut folks think we are looking at for a tapping time this year? this is my first year of realy doing it on a production scale, last year was just about 25 taps and a small flat pan, this year is 325 taps and a 2 by 8 evap. still gettin the last of the little things tied up in the sugarhouse, and a few stainless kegs ready to go for syrup storage. just gettin curious if i likely have 3 weeks or if i should get off here and be out in the sugarhouse working thru the night to get her ready to go! not in bad shape realy, gota finish the float arm for the evap, my packing just came from bascoms today, and i have the cup for it to go in and swivel on all machined out. just gota form the little arm and tig the two little pins on the end for the float to hook into. got the sight glass all done with its bracket and all a few days ago. only other must do thing is to form up a stainless mesh filter paper holder rack to sit into my canner unit. other than that its just hanging a heat shield behind the evap stack, and putting the tanks in place at the end of the mainlines. i even have my 4 ft tall cutout of a sugarhill jug made with the words pure maple syrup for sale to put at the end of the driveway! i gota get off here and go get to work in the sugarhouse!

[mapleman3]

Still a month away, I'm in Ma. and typically always tap the last weekend of feb, you may be just a week ahead of me .

You can tap early but don't have them in too early and have to wait for nothing and risk tap closure halfway thru the season.

[wkies]

I'm down here in extreme SW Connecticut (Stamford). I usually have ready by 2/1. After staring at the long range forecast and looking at my available time I'm thinking I will be tapping next Friday 2/6.

Let the fun begin!

[markct]

yea i was thinking next weekend but wanted the expert opinions, usualy by end of march the cold nights are over

[softmaple]

i tap 6 weeks back from the 1st of april as that is the last dribbles i get in agawam, ma. so that puts me at presidents day weekend. thats my tapping weekend.

[swierczt]

I usually wait until the 14th or so of Feb...weather permitting. I may miss a run or two, but most of my trees are on a north slope and I usually seem a little behind everyone else.

[WF MASON]

I have a set of pans leaving Saturday for Middlefield ,Ct, the guy claims the taps are going in Sunday, I don't travel down that way at all , but it seems like if the fruit is frozen on the trees in Fla. the weather might be cold in Ct., I'm just gessing though.

[ctjim]

looking to start around the 2nd week of feb out here in the lebanon area. thats all dependent on the weather, we will see what happens. i don't think i would start just yet though, we've only had a few days above freezing. gathering may be also difficult w/ the snow/ ice we had the other day, esp if your gathering by hand. i know my little jd790 was having trouble driving around the other day when cutting brush.

[swierczt]

I think the fella in Middlefield is starting a little early...he'll have fun slip-sliding in the woods tapping trees!

[Dick]

I think if you wait untill the w/e after Valentines Day you will be fine.
That what I do every year and it seems to work out fine.

[RyanFarms]

I plan not to tap until the 28th. Here's my logic, based on the linked article...

http://www.uvm.edu/~pmrc/tapping.pdf

I am only able to dedicate about 3 weeks to the season, and based on the article I think you get better flow from a fresh tap than an old one. The article alludes to bacteria as the reason for a tap "slowing down" and being on gravity with old timey metal taps, I think I will get the most, best syrup if I wait for the stronger consistent sap runs.

Thoughts?

Dan

[swierczt]

Interesting article. I've always tapped about mid Feb....and always seems to work for me. I think you can tap too early. You may miss a run or two with weather like we are having today (50 deg. on Feb. 8), but I like the tapholes as fresh as can be during late feb. and march when the big runs come.

[ctjim]

i held off for another week or so, i did however see another local guy tapping this morning, on my way to do some work for my dad.

[markct]

well saturday i saw a guy tapping the maples on the church lawn downtown so i guess some folks around here just cant wait! i put out two buckets today just to see what would happen, the south facing one gave maybe 2 quarts of sap and the north one gave nothing at all so i think it may still be a little early. but i got all my tanks in place and hooked up, just gota wash my kegs for syrup storage and finish cleaning the sugarhouse, and run some water thru the evaporator to make sure all works well, and clean out any last bits of off flavor possibilities etc

[sugar man]

boiled tuesday afternoon made about a gal of light syrup. the adjustments i made to my little barrol evap work great.boiled 75 gal of sap in 6 hours had lots of fun cant wait till i can boil again...

[sugar man]

collected 75 gal of sap this morning,boiled from 12 to 9:30 made about 1.5 gal of nice clear light amber.new sugar house works great.i will boil most of the day tomarrow.

[dhbiker1]

Just tapped a test tree in Salem (southeastern CT) and it was running good. Made me get very antsy but i'm still holding off until next weekend if it looks good.

[ebourassa]

i put out 4 bucket yesterday and they arent really running that well, holding off till next week. still have some loose ends to tie up, i spent last week end fixing a whole bunch of lines, some kids thought it would be fun to take a lighter and burn through my lines and main line, what a mess, took about 8 hours to fix and find everything, i am glad that is done now. hopefully i can run a test boil this week on the evap.

erik

[JasonS]

I tapped last weekend, the 14th, 15th, and 16th. This was a couple of days earlier than some other years but I had the time, which has been hard to come by lately.

The trees were running very slowly, I still haven't needed to dump any buckets, maybe this weekend

[sugar man]

out of my 75 buckets about half the trees are giving me 3/4 full buckets.I have boiled every other day.I have made 25 16 oz sugarhill containers. Its great to be boiling again,everything works great.

[smitty76]

We tapped last weekend (about 150 taps). Just finished some forced draft mods on the arch last nite. Should have sap house ready to boil tonight. hopfully put in 100 more taps this weekend. can't wait to start boiling.

[ebourassa]

looks like i will put my taps in this weekend, weather forcast is ok but, everyone one around me has theirs in, i dont think i missed much yet, i have been monitoring someone else tank and they dont seem to be running good here yet but i know they will open up soon.
erik

[ctjim]

well i think i'm going to tap this sun. everyone around me seems to have theirs going but i keep an eye on the barrels they have on some gravity lines and they seem to only be 1/4 full each day i drive by and i have only seen them gathering 2-3 times. i think weather wise the next few days are going to be too cold but next week looks to be in the upper 30's days and teens at night. we'll see what happens.