It's All Over

[wcproctor]

Hi all here in Uxbridge,Ma it's all over and a bad year. A little over 400 gallons and only made 6 gallons :( . I volunteer at a state park sugar house and we have over 400 taps and made 15 gallons. Very bad sugar levels this. It stinks or i have more choice words but this is a family channel. Thanks for all the info I have be reading and see you all next year(hope for more sugar!)

[KenWP]

If I could get 400 gallons of sap I would jump for joy around here. What was last year like compared to this year.

[mapleman3]

the sugar content is low this year. sorry to hear that it's done there... it hasn't budded there yet has it?

[40to1]

I'm done.
The trees gave up about 10 days ago. I kept the taps in as the forecast looked so promising. But the freezing nights and warm days couldn't coax out more sap. I pulled the taps out yesterday.

Kind of sad to see the season pass.
The best part of sugaring is that I'm in no rush for spring to arrive. Sugaring really makes the end of winter ...exciting.

I'm looking forward to next year. But until then, the peas and spinach are in the garden and the tulips are poking out.

It's been great to read all your posts. You gave me a lot of information and ideas. Many thanks!

[ejmaple]

starting to pull taps too. sap turned at the end of last week. last batch was as dark as crude oil. unfortantly i don't expect to see very good seasons for the next few years due to the 12/11/08 ice storm.

[03weim]

I'm giving it to the middle of the week hopeing for one last run I hope todays temps will help but so far this year with 15 taps compaired to last year with only 5 we have only made an extra 1/2 gallon of syrup! oh well there is always next year I guess, this year we also started using a hydrometer so last years 4 gallons might have been a little thin

[SeanD]

That's such a bummer to hear. I've been jealously watching the ideal conditions (even what I thought was a sugar snow here yesterday) thinking I was missing a season like last year. I thought this cold snap we're getting was going to create a second season.

I'm curious how people did compared to '08 which was such a banner year and '07 which was pretty poor. How does '09 match up?

Thanks,
Sean

[wcproctor]

Plus the last 15 gallons of sap i did on Sunday had a bad smell.Why? It ran on saturday and boiled on Sunday.

[Clan Delaney]

All this talk of having a bad year got me thinking - how did I do compared to last year? I'm all about the numbers, so I compared this year to last. Now, I'm only collecting and selling sap this year, so I can't speak to syrup production or grades, but I can talk about sap output. Last year I collected 260 gallons from 18 taps over 24 days - or .6 gal/tap/day. So far this year I've collected 408 gallons from 66 taps over 24 days - or only .25 gal/tap/day. So based on that, yeah, last year was better by half. I'm looking at the 7 day forecast and it's suggesting that things could be done here by the weekend. Last year the season went till roughly the last week of March. I don't think we'll get that far this year.

The season felt like it started big, but in my first 4 days I only got .38gal/tap/day, which is better than where I am now but still worse than last year.

I didn't keep accurate records of sap sugar content last year, but a rough calculation based on sap collected and syrup produced gives me an overall average of about 3%. So far this year, from measurements made at each pickup, and imperfect math - 2.6% for the season.

Lower sugar, lower volume, and from what I'm hearing, darker grades.... Yuck.

[Old County Road]

Patrick,

Could you please post how your taps ran over the last 3 days? My trees are in southern Vermont, but I am on the Cape, so I'm trying to decide if I should make a run up north this coming Wednesday to collect sap or just wait till the weekend. I'm guessing that since my location is about 30 miles north of you, weather conditions and sap flow rates are probably somewhat similar.

I have 30 taps on buckets, which I last collected on Friday the 20th. If I have 1.5 gallons to 2 gallons or so per tap over the past three days (plus tomorrow's flow) then it is probably worth me running up there - but if the sap flow has been meager - I'll probably hold off for a few more days. Any input you can provide would be appreciated! Also - if any other readers who have taps out in the southern Vermont/New Hampshire area or in western Mass can provide input - that would be great.

[Clan Delaney]

From memory - Thursday and Friday I didn't even bother collecting - nothing much to speak of. Sat. and Sun. were both good days and today was another lame duck.

[wcproctor]

I pulled all taps and had 10 gallons out of 65 tap not bad. no stinks

[NedL]

I've been gone the last 3 days and just checked everything out. Have some good sap from those days and some of the trees havealready started running today.

I'm hoping for a couple of more weeks. Temps for the rest of the week look good here, going into the 20's at night. I've only boiled for the last 3 weekends so I need more!!!!!!!!

[foursapssyrup]

we are pulling the taps here in bellingham either today or tomorrow. had a decent year, made 2 gallons of light, 7 gallons of medium, and 2 gallons of dark (that tastes like maple sugar, but no crystals). we only have about 40 taps, and only boil weekends, so not a bad yeild. (boiled a total of 4 weekends) all on a homemade boiler. man i love this hobbie, great way to spend time, and you get to eat the results!!

[Smith's Maple]

So far in southwestern Pa. I am haveing a slightly better year than last. Last year we pull 21.8 gallons of water per tap 1.9 to 1.1 sugar content. This year we are up to 22.7 per tap and still dropping, 2.3 to 1.0 sugar content so far. These are on vaccum. Buckets last year was 8.4 gpt. compared to 14.25 gpt so far this year. Looks we should be done by the week end.

[gator330]

Sap is running good right now but I figure to be done this weekend. Pulling taps Sunday is the plan. Need to get going on other things that are now behind!!! Green house need new cover... some orchard to trim yet, no spinich or lettuce started, down fence, need to go get pigs and order chickens, Holy crap!!!!! I haven't ordered chicken yet!!!!! Holy crap I need to go fire the evaporator!!!!

[03weim]

just finished my last boil of the season, pulled the taps today all the sap was coming out cloudy so I guess it clean up time, some how clean up time does not get me as excited as setting up for the start of the season. oh well I guess its time to work on the gto and get it ready for summer

[mapleman3]

you would be surprised at cloudy sap sometimes making good syrup... but if you have to hold it for any length of time it goes bad.

This year was a low sugar % year too, all the more reason to pull taps

[MaplePancakeMan]

boiled the 125 gallons of sap i collected on wednesday. i got around 5 gallons of syrup drawn off today, still have to finish up whats in the pan. I checked my taps they are running but its off smelling and really cloudy. Sugars real low now and its time to be done. Saturday/sunday i'll pull all the taps and soak em and wash the buckets on tuesday my day off. Just started building the sugar house so it will be done in 2 months then i'll set it up nice for next year which will hopefully be better.

[SV Sugarer]

We're done here too. We'll have our last boil tomorrow for some visitors, then it is clean up time. Not quite the year I had hoped for, but I'm happy with the way things went. We had lots of visitors and sold more syrup than I expected. Looks like we'll be expanding next year! Time to start the new list..... Mapleman3 - how do you like that new (to you) 3X8? How many gph were you getting this year? I think I'll be upgrading to a similar size next year:)

[mapleman3]

SV, With the preheater and hood and the draft inducer blower, I was crankin it out at 100gph pretty consistent! I was having 1100-1300deg stack temps.

[03weim]

I finished cleaning everything up last night and putting the evap away for the rest of the year I really need to build a shed/sugar house rather than storing everything all over the place this season felt like it went by too fast

[mcsap]

I hadn't been checking in on the board too often, but I'm glad to see I wasn't the only one with such low sugar content. I was really shocked when I was coming up below 2% on so many trees. The only thing that saved me I guess was being able to take the ice out of my storage barrels in the early going.

[mapleman3]

worst year for sugar I have seen in 10 yrs, lots of sap no sugar