Season Ending Syrup Totals

[michelle32]

Hey lets all report our totals in one place - much more easier to locate don't you think? I will start. 20 gallons and almost 1 quart.

Michelle (a/k/a sap hauler)

[sugar man]

15 gallons all in pints season ended march 16.not as good as last year but ok

[Uncle Tucker]

33 Gallons some MA most DA a little B.
I ran out of wood with 75 Gallons of sap to go.

[maplekid]

4 gallons on 100 taps. pretty petiful if you ask me

[mfchef54]

final total 16 gallons 1/2 med 1/2 dark

[MaplePancakeMan]

Final total 15.5 gallons of syrup from 86 taps not so good. All light amber except the last 2 gallons which were dark

[Jerome]

I'm still going but so far I have 7 gallons.
I am doing up an excel spread sheet that I post at the end showing syrup produce and syrup per tap.

[JohnM]

13 gallons for 2009.

About 72 percent of last years crop.

Flavor excellent!!!

[Sugarmaker]

Approx 105 gallons, all grades on 500 + taps, .20-.21 gallons per tap.
Not a great season, but all good tasting syrup, even the B grade.

Chris

[firetech]

103 gals 20 med, 60 dark, 23 B all exellent flavor. 320 taps down a bit on the per tap count but still a good year. The new sugar house is underway. And the sorghum seed has arrived. The challenge is to get the sugar house liscenced before sorghum gets cooked and I will be the only liscesnced producer in Michigan. That's niche marketing.

[tom jr.]

35 gal. on 600 taps, most dark and b grade pitiful season.:mad: alwase next season less than a year away!!:)

[mapleman3]

120 gals on 600 taps... .20gal/tap mostly dark, some medium and B

appx 7200 gals sap and terrible sugar content

[Fred Henderson]

100 gallons from 475 taps med,dark and B. We may get just a bit more with another run.

[skillet]

Season total 11.5 gallon on 80 taps. Half of what i expected:cry:

skillet

[bobsklarz]

Five gallons on a "Half Pint" Started Feb 25th; ended March 25th. Now gonna sell the half pint for somethin bigger! Boiled one night for ten hours, got two and half qts!

[maple flats]

I'm still going, might only be 1 more day. The 10 day looks like no freeze for 8 more days. If sap flows after that I might do some buddy syrup. Will add up totals at end, right now just over 100 gal.

[MainelyMaple]

15.25 gallons so far on 80 taps 665 gallons of sap. hoping for at least a little more before i pull 'em.

[tyrod2]

45 gal. on 200 taps mostly dark but veary tasty.

[Gary R]

12.75 gal. from 895 gal. of sap. 77 taps. All dark syrup this year. Did OK.

[WebbyMaple]

A little over 12 on 65 taps now but we stile got some to do this week. Sap's still flowing a little.

[mapleack]

Season total of 102 gal of mostly dark amber and B from 886 taps. I can live with it, but if it'd been a good year I would've seen 130 gal with all the new taps I added. That's what you get with agriculture!

[maple marc]

30 Gallons on 68 taps--a personal record for us small-timers! A lot was light to medium. What a season. I attribute our success to cherry picking the best trees. This is our sixth season, and I know which trees put out. Our trees are in yards and a fence row. It makes a huge difference. Sap averaged 2.5%, and the trees put out a lot of it.

Got an earlier start (February 13 tap) than last year. We test our syrup for invert sugar, thanks to the excellent candy seminar put on by Cornell's Steve Childs. Surprisingly, our syrup had insignificant invert until near the end of the season. We kept hoping for some--can't make candy without invert. I guess this is an indication of how light most of our syrup was this year.

[markct]

for me its looking like about 20 gallons from 300 taps roughly, not a great year but not terrible i guess, seemed to be kinda down around here from alot of producers i talked to. next year im gona add more taps too.

[Z/MAN]

Made 5 gallons from 40 taps. Last year I made 8 gallons on 36 taps. Not the best year here.:(

[gator330]

18.5 gallons. Worked hard to get that. Really maxed out the little evaporator with 80 taps on a poor year. Good year it will never keep up!!!

[KenWP]

Basically looking a 4 1/2 Imperial gallons from over a 100 taps here. I had to really work hard to get that much sap with changeing taps from tree to tree untill I found trees that would run. I would love to see a good year in my life time but this was my first year so have nothing to compare it too.

[Father & Son]

31 gallons off of 130 taps. Just alittle over 1/2 of last year. All medium and dark. Biggest problem this year was getting it to filter.

Jim

[jason grossman]

well its not over yet!! snow and cold returned to northeast ohio and the vacuum is still running! 200+ gallons so far still hoping for more in the next two weeks,757 taps on the vacuum, already have next years expansion, plotted and started!!:D

[BIGMAPLEFARM]

6 and 1/2 gallons on 21 taps, mostly large yard trees 2-4 ft diameter and large crowns feb 28 through march 25th. 1 1/2 gallon light, 5 gallons medium done on propane burners. I threw out 40 gallons sap (looked cloudy) too long between boils. 39$ per gallon fuel cost (expensive hobby) gotta get my head examined. Next year on a lapierre 18 x 60 junior in my new sugar shack , and 75 taps, can't wait.

[foursapssyrup]

glad to hear someone is still at it!!

[foursapssyrup]

made 11 gallons on 40 taps. 2 light, 7 med, 2 dark. not bad for weekend boilering! pulled all the taps last weekend, sadly.

[jtthibodeau]

16 1/2 Gallons. Mostly Med. to Dark Amber with the last gallon at B. Not bad for the trees I tap. I expect it's over. It was a hectic 3 weeks but, at least the firewood held out.

[danno]

75 gallons of medium and dark. Boiled down 4600 gallons of sap off of 400 taps. That's 61 gallons of sap for each gallon of syrup. That's about right as my trees never showed sugar above 1.5% - except for my two field maples that never showed sugar under 3%. Oh joy!

[Dan W]

Total this year was 16 gallons from 110 taps and a Half Pint. It was all dark or B. My goal was 20 gallons however Mother Nature ended things a good 2 weeks early here. Next year will be different!!!

[Smith's Maple]

248 gallons on1200 taps. About average for me. Mostley med and some dark.

[Lyle]

A partial season and low sugar left me with 12 gals for 180 taps. Oh well!

[SV Sugarer]

26 gallons from 150 taps (plus 2 gallons or so from the sweet we're saving for the 2nd annual hot dog boil this Saturday!). Just shy of .20 gallons/tap. Tough year with the weather and low sugar, but a fun one. Already looking forward to expanding next year.....

[PATheron]

Still boiling. Theeeron:mrgreen:

[ennismaple]

Still boiling. Theeeron:mrgreen:

Us too... hoping for a change in the weather to get to Theronesque numbers!

[Tweegs]

12 gallons from 100 taps, expected around 30.

3 light
3 medium
6 dark

No B grade, thought that rather odd.

[PATheron]

Ennis- Everyone in my immediate area has quit and I almost did till my neighbor showed me how to get it through the evap. Im going to try to do like my idol Parker and go till we have LEAVES!!!!! Theron

[Bill'sSugarShack]

Looking like i'm done for '09.
Can't complain...made a pint shy of 5 gal from my 10 taps...**** good trees :-)

[briduhunt]

29 1/2 gallons on 175 taps on (my new to me) 2 x6 Leader drop flue. I made some mistakes along the season but I think I did ok this year with the low sap flow I had. My trees budded earlier than I expected but thats Mother Nature. All in all I had a good season now I have to sell it all. My first year selling so it will take some time building my base but with time it will come.

[michigansugarman]

15 gallons on 52 taps on our (new this year) 2 x 4 Leader WSE. Boiled 5 times. First run light, middle runs medium and last run very dark. More nitre this year then ever. Tapped March 7; pulled taps on March 28.

[Revi]

25 gallons so far, and maybe 5 more when all is said and done.

Best year ever!

[michiganfarmer]

Ennis- Everyone in my immediate area has quit and I almost did till my neighbor showed me how to get it through the evap. Im going to try to do like my idol Parker and go till we have LEAVES!!!!! Theron

Thats what Im gonna do! If I cant find a buyer for the buddy syrup, I'll sell it to hunters for bear bait.

[michiganfarmer]

150 gallons so far on about 700 taps. Ive pulled my 300 buckets. I just dont have time to dump them. Ive still got 370 taps on tubing and vacuum. Im hoping to make 200 gallons this year.

[mcsap]

Looks like 10 gallons even this year, from 50-60 taps depending on leaks. Boiling out in the open, last week was a rollercoaster-Monday everything frozen, 24 degrees and windy to the weekend with temps near 60 on Saturday then a cold rain on Sunday.

[Amber Gold]

My records aren’t the greatest but here it goes through last Sunday.

Tap count is questionable, but will know this weekend when I pull them. Best guess is around 450.

5400 gallons of sap collected of which 300 gal was dumped, 450 gallons was sold, and x gallons on the ground due to overflowing collection tank.

52.75 gal of syrup produced out of the 4650 gallons of sap processed yields an average sugar content of 0.98&#37;. This doesn’t sound right because I don’t think I measured sugar content <1.2%, maybe it was artificially elevated due to bacteria buildup in the sap or maybe I dropped a number someplace either total gallons produced or total gallons of sap processed…or maybe it really was that bad. Ouch.

Gal syrup/tap ratio is 0.12, which is horrible.

Gal sap/tap ration is approximately 12 gal/tap not sure if this is good overall or not. What’s an average tap produce?

Best estimate is 7.5 chord of wood yields a sap/chord ratio of 620 gal sap/chord of wood or 7 gal syrup/chord of wood, but if the sugar content averaged 2% it would’ve been over 14 gal/chord which isn’t great, but not as bad as I thought.

This does not include the 200 gallons of sap I’ve sold since Sunday so to date of the 950 gallons I’ve not processed I’ve left about 11 gallons of syrup on the table.

Based on the number of gallons collected and not knowing how much was lost due to overflow and with an average sugar content of 2% I would’ve produced over 126 gallons of syrup which would give a syrup/tap ratio of approximately 0.28 gal/tap, which would’ve been an average year.

Where's the sugar???

[7810hunting]

We made 93 gals. of syrup from 3700 gals. of sap. 400 taps with an average sugar content of 2.2

[PATheron]

Still boiling. Theron:)

[Amber Gold]

Theron, you realize you started well before I did, and still going after I stopped, and are 10 hours south of me. It's just not right.

[PATheron]

I think its got to stop pretty soon now. Doesnt look like a freeze for a week. It is pretty darn amazing. Theron

[Jerome]

Here are the totals for the year for everyone all in one chart.

[TomBaumberger]

I ended up with 175 gallon of syrup off of 700 taps.

[Mac]

Still have 70 gallons buried in the snow to boil off today... but as of last night 15 gallons... all dark... sap content was an average of 2%... of all my taps I had 50 - 60 that didn't run much at all.... all higher elevation..
Gave away 150 gallons of sap that I couln't get boiled due to rain and no sugar house.... I gave the ole Mason 2 x 3 a work out thats for sure.
Mac

[partsrus1974]

terrible season here,I been done boiling for a week.I usally boil till the second week of april.I only made 86 gallons from 600 taps:o The first week the sap was over 2% but since then its been wright at 1% the whole season!I'm buying an RO for next year.

[johnallin]

I finished up Sunday, after it is all said and done this is the way it breaks down for me and the Half Pint.

Our 35 taps produced 388 gal sap, 6½ gallons of syrup or .186 gal syrup per tap.

Avg sugar content was somewhere around 1½%., pretty low compared to last year, but that's what is was.

Boiled 12 times with a total boiling time of 57 hours..looks like the half pint was averaging about 6½ gal/hour.

This is too much fun - now I'm looking for a 2X6, anyone interested in a 2 year old half pint?

[nas]

About 11 gallons from 50 taps. Hoping to do a lot more next year.

Nick

[Specklefield Farm]

10 gallons on 180 taps. Only got to boil 4 times! Frustrating!! Oh well, we're already setting up another bush for next year..........keep on keepin' on!

[Peteyp426]

120 tapes on buckets put out 50 taps on 3-6 the rest on the 3-9 got 1900 give or take 50 gal. sap 2.0 - 2.3% 145 gal sap was 1.8% made around 45gal. Col. county ohio

[Mac_Muz]

Just miserable.... last year I made 12 qts with 15 taps.
This year with 35 taps i made 9 qts, for lack of sap.
I had hoped for 5 gallons.

Next year i will put out 100 taps and hope for sap to make 5 gallons.

[Johnny Cuervo]

Made 19 Gallons from 60 buckets on tree saver taps. More dark than past years.
Flavor is OK; I think it was better last year.

[arcticcatmatt]

Season just ended here.

Here is my total take for the season. Not pictured is the 2/3rds pint I made and gave to a friend and the 1/2 a pint I used trying to make maple butter. I will make more next year after I get a better system. Man that was a lot of work doing it the way I did it. Boil in a pot outside over a fire and alot of it on my stove in the kitchen
1.68 gallons
I have 5 taps

[chrisnjake9]

41 1/2 gallons on 240 health taps, oil fired converted from wood this year, old milk pump 22in of vac new hobbie releaser new used 500 gallon ss tank, all grades all taste good looking next year to build my own ro like the hero

[KenWP]

The fat lady sat down again so I am still in the game. Up to 5 1/2 gallons now and still have 55 gallons of sap to boil off plus a bunch of frozen stuff.

[DaveB]

We made 68 gallons on around 400 taps.

We tapped around our usual time frame (2/21) but the sap did not flow enough until our first boil on 3/8. The season ended a week early too, but the last week we did boil was a little short of where we should have been for the week. Interestingly, we had some bushes that did not flow well at all, including a new bush with all new tubing. Others over performed. I'm glad that we different pickup points spread over a wide area!

Dave

[Kevin]

1100+ taps on vacuum, 206 gallons made...All Dark

[3% Solution]

150 taps
1393 gallons of sap
9.2 gallons of sap per tap
50.5 hours boiling
FOR THE GRAND TOTAL OF >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 35.5 gallons of syrup
.24 gallons of syrup per tap (gravity and buckets)
Not to bad in my eyes!!!
This was our second best year, last year was the best at 37.5 gallons of syrup.

[maple flats]

update. I got my actual production calculated. I now made 101.7 gal on 600 taps. My guestimate was real close. I still have to finish off what is in the canner (about 8-10 gal), boil what is in the pans (maybe 6 or 8 gal) and filter about 6-7 ga ready to filter. These will all add to my count. I will finish this weekend and give an actual final count. after that. Might hit 120-125 when done. I still have not pulled my taps. I will try to make some buddy syrup if it flows again, but will be starting with a clean empty evaporator. I will pull the taps after the first freeze warm cycle that nothing flows. Never tried buddy, this will be my first attempt.

[brookledge]

1165 taps
536 gallons of syrup
.46 gallons of syrup per tap
No where near last years total but all in all not a bad year considering the drop in sugar content
While I still made Lt. A over all I made more dark and commercial than normal
Keith

[Hop Kiln Road]

225 gravity 1/2" lines and 30 buckets
12.5 gal sap per tap
.255 syrup per tap
Dark amber from the start
Ran from 3/8 to 3/28
Short and dark but other than that an average season.

[wally]

a shade over 20 gallons. pulling taps tomorrow.

[PATheron]

Still boiling. Keith, you nut, you did a half gallon again! Theeeron:lol:

[RyanFarms]

I had a less producing year than last year - 17.4 gallons for 2009. 287 HALF-Pints 1/2 medium amber 1/2 dark.

I need more sap next year!

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

94.5 gallons of off 510 gravity taps and 15 buckets. 69.5 gallon of light, 20 gallon of dark and 4 gallon of extra dark and all with tremendous flavor, probably the best overall flavor for a season that I ever had. Weather was not in our favor this year with a lot of days in the 50's and 60's but the thing that swung it in our favor it that we had a deep freeze after every warm period and most deep freezes it got down in teens and single digits. Managed to go 47 days from the day I tapped until the last day I boiled and the only reason the season was extended this long is that I tapped 175 of my north side taps aprox 2.5 weeks after I tapped the 350 on the south side. I was very happy with the season especially considering that we never had hardly any syrup weather which I mean freezing nights and thawing days. It went about every time from single digits or teens to 50's and 60's. Sugar content was 48.41 per gallon and last year was 48.42 per gallon which is great sugar content for my woods and would love to have either of those numbers every year. Even had one run of aprox 500+ gallons that sugar content was aprox 40 to 1 or 2.5&#37; which is unheard of down here.

Interesting note in all this is that over the last 3 years, gallons produced was 92.5, 97.5 and 94.5. None of these years have been banner crops, just average years and I would take this kind of average of syrup to tap every year. This year I boiled aprox 380 gallon less sap and made 2 more gallon syrup that I did two years ago.

[Homestead Maple]

1165 taps
536 gallons of syrup
.46 gallons of syrup per tap
No where near last years total but all in all not a bad year considering the drop in sugar content
While I still made Lt. A over all I made more dark and commercial than normal
Keith
Fantastic!

[jrthe3]

ok started out season with 972 taps then could not keep up with all sap so i sub leased big bush around 500 to another guy then ran the other 475 or so till i lost about 100 feet of mainline to flood waters from elk creek so finised season with about 300 taps made 85 gallons worst season ever had

[PATheron]

Done boiling finally today. Still getting sap but cant keep it in the evaperator. Time to call it a year. All numbers near as I can figure. 3600 on the pump. 150-175 buckets. 1350 gallons in the drum to sell. Had pretty poor sugar compared to last year. Last year I had 2.5 for much of the season, this year struggled to hit 2. Im guessing I averaged maybe 1.7 Id say. Probley processed somewhere near 75,000 gallons of sap. Made syrup for 3 months, never retapped or reamed. Happy as heck. Cleared off the drums in front to the shed and hung a basketball hoop. See you next year maple trees! Theee(Had enough of the BIGSAP)roon.

[Haynes Forest Products]

Record year over 300 gallons on 1125 taps sold 221 at 3.00 a pound gave 50 away to all the helping hands and spilled more sap and syrup this season than I collected or made in my first 3 years. I kept the rest

[UNDRBLLY]

13 gallons on 26 taps. first batch was light, all the rest was DA.sugar content was around 48.25 to 1. about the same as last year. not complaining!

[3rdgen.maple]

undrblly 13 gallons on 26 taps. Wow wanna sell those trees. To date I have put up about 40 gallons on close to 400 taps. Not quite sure on the tap count will count them when I pull them for the season. Still got decent weather in the forcast here but trees are just not cooperating. Worst year on record for the last 3 generations of maple producers here. Glad I increased taps by 100 or so. But now wish I would have added atleast 300 more. Just did not have the time for it this year. I am looking into vac next year for sure.

[Dill]

17 gallons of good dark Amber and tasty B. 2.5 gallons of nasty buddy stuff.
Off of 115 taps. Not as good as last year where I had 8 gallons from 30 taps.

[buxtonboiler]

2 gallons of syrup from 38 taps (mostly small trees). 103 gallons of sap boiled outside in steam pans. Not bad for me.

[sawyer40]

Made just shy of 54 gal with 350 taps on line and 25 buckets. Sugar content stinks it took 68gal of sap per 1 gal syrup. I probably wouldn't done that good if I had not hung the buckets and added another 50 taps on line 2 weeks after I first tapped. Just cleaned the sugar shack out this last weekend after my wife called me at work to tell me about the bears hanging around near by.

[emericksmaple]

Totals for the year: Syrup made 1493 gal off of 3200 taps. One bush w/all new stuff avg 35.5 gal per tap (25" of vac all season) Other bush avg 23.6 gal per tap(20" of vac). 400 on gravity avg 11.6 gal per tap. Total sap for the year around 78,000. Sugar content at beginning of the year was great about 2.5 ended around 1.5. Overall season avg 53.3 to a gallon of syrup. Made a lot of darker syrup this year. Only 660 gallons of fancy. All the spiles are already out of the trees, and the only thing left to do is clean up!!

[chipa]

104 gallons on 316 taps ; 50/50 medium amber and dark amber.

[Snow Hill Farm]

265 gallons on 825 taps, 0.32 gal. per tap. 30% better than last year after installing dry lines, well worth the cost. Installed 2000' of 1" and 8 homemade pvc boosters and I'll make double the material cost from the extra maple syrup.

[Deere4020]

44 gals of syrup an 315 taps. Not great but not bad either. I can always be better, all thats left to do now is clean up :o

[sticky mess]

Five gallons
58 tapps
All on buckets, lots of snow lots of fun

[ennismaple]

Done boiling finally today. Still getting sap but cant keep it in the evaperator. Time to call it a year. All numbers near as I can figure. 3600 on the pump. 150-175 buckets. 1350 gallons in the drum to sell. Had pretty poor sugar compared to last year. Last year I had 2.5 for much of the season, this year struggled to hit 2. Im guessing I averaged maybe 1.7 Id say. Probley processed somewhere near 75,000 gallons of sap. Made syrup for 3 months, never retapped or reamed. Happy as heck. Cleared off the drums in front to the shed and hung a basketball hoop. See you next year maple trees! Theee(Had enough of the BIGSAP)roon.

Great season Theron! I'm exhausted and I only tapped a month ago!

[cncaboose]

Wrapped it up here in Northern NY, finishing the last in the kitchen on Tuesday. Made 85 gallons from 230 buckets with 5/16" taps. Boiling 14 nights til 11 or 12 in 3 weeks to finish March was tiring, especially with going to work the next day. Color ranged from light to dark, and finished with C at the bitter end. Sap ranged from a low of 2.5% to one day of 4%.

[tuckermtn]

we are close enough to the end where I think I can put some numbers down. 155 gals on 475 taps. .323 per tap- up slightly from last years .31...passed an additional 400 gals of sap to Parker...no light A, 1/3 medium, 1/3 dark, 1/3 b and c. Good season- top 24hr sap run was 875 gals- never seemed to get above 2% sap....felt like we were contstantly behind, having to sit on 500-600 gals of sap for the next day. Time for an RO...

good luck to all still at it...

[RileySugarbush]

We finished up last night. A shade under 40 gallons on 115 taps.

This was a great year for us, with a new record production and .34 gallons of syrup per tap.

[Brian Ryther]

With 1901 taps I ended today with 635Gal.
Brian

[7810hunting]

We made 93 gallons of syrup on 340 taps on gravity fed lines and 60 buckets.
Not to much light stuff maybe 20 gallons. rest dark amber and grade B. in western pa. Sugar content of sap averaged out at 2.3%. All in all a good year for us.

[Mud Island Maple]

Still going strong - had best run this season yesterday. Weather is supposed to be in the teens Sunday night and 20's Monday then a series of freezing nights and warm days so could be more sap yet. Have made 49 gallons so far on 180 taps (buckets) and all nice syrup-fancy and nice medium amber. We are in the Northeast Kingdom of VT and at 1800 ft elevation so always later than most-April is usually the biggest sap month.
________________
i80 buckets
2 x 6 Patrick Phanuef
B2400 Kubota
very capable partner (my wife)

[KenWP]

I should hit 10 gallons plus tomorrow. Haveing a really good run of sap which I hope ends tomorrow so I can catch up for a couple of days. Below freezeing here right now and supposed to be cold all day tomorrow.

[captaincpfd]

My first year and i boiled down and finished off 17 1/2 gallons put into pint glass jars. Had a great time and looking to tap more next year and upgrade to a bigger evaporator. Looking for 2010 to be tapping 350 to 400 total. Thanks to all again for all the great advise you've given me my first year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[ctjim]

not that great of a season here in ct but i ended up w/ just under 4gal off 72 taps. mostly med - dark and a bit of grade c at the end. i don't have very many sugars around my woods so we have to tap the silvers, norways and reds. hoping to ugrade to some more tubing next yr and also a few more taps going to shoot for 100.

[inthewoods]

pulled taps on 4-7-09, ended up with 2260 gal of sap and 62 gal of med amber sryup on 200 taps,surgar content averaged 2.4%. best and longest year to date for me.

[maple maniac65]

11265 gallons of sap bought 2450 gallons and made 282 gallons of syrup. I spent Easter weekend boiling 2025 gallons of sap for a 14 hour boil.

98ma
82da
87b
15c

[orange county maple]

115 and still going in corinth vt couple more good runs ahead 20 degrees tonight and mid 50's tommorrow:D

[PerryW]

made 5 gallons today for 108 GALLONS and still going. Just dropped into grade B. I expect a pretty good run tomorrow.

[Russell Lampron]

Had the best year ever. 162 gallons from 600 taps. Most of those on Reds. 9785 gallons of sap collected probably around 1000 that didn't get boiled. Gave up after scorching both of my front pans. 10 Dark Amber 142 grade B and 10 mersh. Not counting what I have canned up only have 45 gallons left in 5 gallon containers.

[Dave Y]

The season ended up being a little better than I origainly thought. 26000 gals of sap. and 560 gal of finished syrup. burned 40 cord of wood. Have to do something about that!

[ennismaple]

48,900 gallons of sap
1,234 gallons syrup (1168 x 4L - we measure funny up here)

Sorry Theron but I just couldn't match that number you put up... this year!

[PATheron]

Marty- You probly pretty much matched me becouse I dont think you really can call the last two hundred gallons syrup anyway. It DID come from a maple tree and it IS to density but I gotta say thats about all you can say about it. I dont think Mr. Bascom wants to fill his turkey baster and do a shot of that stuff! Theee(dont put any of that stuff on your pancake)roooon. :lol: :lol:

[Big John]

We are still going, 1250 off 2250 almost done

[KenWP]

I am at 12 and still going. Who knows what I will do with that much syrup. Pancakes every day of my life maybe.

[PerryW]

Made another 6 gallons for a total of 114 so far. Had ten people in the sugarhouse and they all said it tastes great. Grades out at low Dark Amber, but tastes like good B.

Looks like a few more good days, although my lower elevation bush is getting tired. My 50 buckets at 1200' elevation ran the best ever this season today.

[nhmaple48]

3000 on vacuum,400 on gravity that did'nt do s*&t,1000 gal. syrup.2 bbls.lt.,6 med.,2 b,rest dark.1000 gal.oil,gotta love the r.o.

[Russell Lampron]

Pulled my taps today and found out that I only have 461 taps on vacuum. Add that to the 83 buckets and I have 544 taps not 600. I didn't get .5 gallons of syrup per tap but .3 gallons per tap is pretty good for mostly red maples. I ended up with 19.2 gallons of sap per tap on the tubing and 11.3 gallons per tap with the buckets.

With the repairs that I am going to make in my old section of woods I should be able to get those numbers even higher next year if we have another good season.

[maplecrest]

just finished my last boil. made 4000 gallons. .57 gallon per tap. r/o washing for last time will have membranes in tubes in the am to take to maple pro on the 24th. start washing tubing in the afternoon.hope to wash all tubing before i leave for st albans for the open house weekend.

[Homestead Maple]

just finished my last boil. made 4000 gallons. .57 gallon per tap. r/o washing for last time will have membranes in tubes in the am to take to maple pro on the 24th. start washing tubing in the afternoon.hope to wash all tubing before i leave for st albans for the open house weekend.
Fantastic ratio.

[Jerome]

I am just finishing the last batch which will be a dark. 17 taps 12 gallons for .71 per tap they are all roadside trees averaging about 5%. Now I just have to wait for the 30 more trees i planted along the road to get to tapping size in 30 or so years.

[Homestead Maple]

Just 1,065 taps this year, all on vacuum. 374 gals. made. 228 Med. 146 gals. dark.

[PerryW]

The fat lady has finally sung.

Boiled up the last sap today for some nice tasting Grade B for a total of 119 gallons and burned 8.5 cords of pine slabs from my sawmill.

It was a good season for me. Based on a 20 year history, I expected 100 gallon from the trees I had tapped this year. Made about 45 gallons of light Amber, about 40 gallons of medium, 20 gallons of dark and 10 gallons of grade B.

I was happy with the way things went. I was able to walk my lines at least twice per week and had virtually no sap lost due to leakage. Almost all my sap was boiled up within 24 hours and for every boil I was always able to boil ALL the sap. No major problems with equipment and I expect to be completely cleaned up and the woodshed refilled within 2 months after I first opened the sugarhouse door.

[maple flats]

Final report for 09 season. I finally ended with a sorry grand total of 125 gal on 600 taps gravity. A lot below last years 186 gal on 500 taps. The season was too short here. It warmed up for 10 days no freeze and then had 5 day in a row freeze thaw but the holes had dried up. Plans now are underway to add an addition on the sugarhouse with a kitchen and an RO room. Then I can add vacuum and add more taps too. The vac likely won't happen til 2011 season.

[Parker]

THE MAPLE GODS HAVE BROKEN MY STICK OFF!!! They treated me well this year,,,2250 taps total,,,,,200 buckets (I kinda like-alot of SWEET sap when they run-problem is they run when vacuum is REALLY running) 270 taps on gravity (I DONT LIKE-cause they do next to nothing,,,I am going to build a dirt cheap vacuum pump for small bushes) and 1780 on low tech (22" STEADY) vacuum (I LOVE VACUUM)...... .2844/per tap.....that sucks, BUT I am very happy with it,,,,Stevo kept track of the gallons from each bush,,I am going to add them up and edit this post with the #'s later..think it will be interesting to really see what ran where........
Useing the gallons hauled info that Stevo kept I have determined the following:I WILL NOT TAP GRAVITY AT ALL NEXT YEAR TOTAL WASTE OF TIME AND POTENTIAL!!!!
-Vacuum taps ran 29670 gallons on 1518 taps produceing 570 gallons of syrup,19.3 gallons of sap a tap,.37gal syrup per tap,,,
-270 on Gravity tubing ran 2430 gallons on 270 taps producing 46.7 gallons of syrup and 9 gallons of sap per tap,or .17gal/tap,,,
-200 buckets produced 1235 gallons of sap,,making 23.7 gallons of syrup and 6.17 gallons a tap, giving me.118gal/tap
Now, this does not take into account individual sugar content of the bushes wich varried quit a bit,,I took the gallons of syrup produced and the sap hauled to get 52.5 gallons of sap for a gallon of syrup avg...the buckets ran ALOT sweeter than anything ealse AND the buckets were only up for a short period od time

[dano2840]

101 gals off 600 taps, short year here and a bad short year at that no snow and the weather sucked the whole season never got a good run, pretty good for a bad year

[petersp22]

15 gallons from 75 or so taps. I could have made another 5 or so gallons from sap on hand but had enough. It was a great season.

[Mud Island Maple]

Turned down the buckets today and gathered enough sap to fire up for the last time. Just finished an hour ago and made about 3 1/2 gallons of dark amber. Season total is 71 1/2 gallons, 1/3 fancy and the rest (before today) medium amber. A great season and glad it's finally over.

______________
182 taps - all buckets
Patrick Phaneuf 2 x 6
B2400 Kubota
a great boiling partner (my wife)

[Maple Restoration]

Well time to wash up end the season with 51 imp. Gallons on 500 taps with north facing hill, not the record for 500 taps but it's our best total yet on a 2 by 6 flat pan setup, I think we will be looking at a new 2 1/2 by 8' rig for next season who knows maybe my wife will get me one for my birthday in July! "one can only wish!"

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

Looks like I made 1080 gallons on 2800 vacuum taps here at home and purchased sap from about 1000 buckets. Buckets quit a week before the tubing. About 1/3 of tubed trees were soft maples. Amazed at what they do under vacuum! Not the greatest yield per tap but with the number of buckets, and the soft maples (not to mention a couple of "accidents" that cost over 1000 gallons of sap) I think I did ok...Got no choice, I take what I get and smile:)

[PATheron]

Doug- Heck of a job. Nice to see that all your work before season payed off. Now its clean up a start figuring what to make better for next year? Theron

[Homestead Maple]

Looks like I made 1080 gallons on 2800 vacuum taps here at home and purchased sap from about 1000 buckets. Buckets quit a week before the tubing. About 1/3 of tubed trees were soft maples. Amazed at what they do under vacuum! Not the greatest yield per tap but with the number of buckets, and the soft maples (not to mention a couple of "accidents" that cost over 1000 gallons of sap) I think I did ok...Got no choice, I take what I get and smile:)

1080 gallons on 2,800 taps and you think you did, OK?
Fantastic! A lot of people would like to have done your, OK.

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

Homestead,
If it was only from my taps, that would be great, but it also includes the sap I purchased from those 1000 buckets. I still think it was a good year.
Doug

[blackstrapking]

95 gallons mostly dark, a little bit short from last year, but a fun time had by all none the less

[markcasper]

Doug, Know what you mean about 'accidents''. Have you ever had days where you put pots under bulk tank valves to save a gallon or two, and then run your RO with concentrate hose inside and valve not closed? I did that, for 4 hours too!

[Jeff E]

Are not those surprise splashing sounds good at getting our attention!?

My worst moment this year was filling the wood hauler up and coming back into the sugar house to find the auto draw off in dump mode. The first draw of the night, which for me might mean anywhere from 4 to 8 gallons. That night it was about 8 gallons, and I had a 5 gallon pail in place.

I hate mopping up syrup.

[Homestead Maple]

1080 gallons on 2,800 taps and you think you did, OK?
Fantastic! A lot of people would like to have done your, OK.

Oops, I didn't catch that part. A year like this though, I wouldn't have thought the buckets would'nt have contributed that much more.

[michiganfarmer]

Are not those surprise splashing sounds good at getting our attention!?

My worst moment this year was filling the wood hauler up and coming back into the sugar house to find the auto draw off in dump mode. The first draw of the night, which for me might mean anywhere from 4 to 8 gallons. That night it was about 8 gallons, and I had a 5 gallon pail in place.

I hate mopping up syrup.

DOH! LOL I hate it when that happens

[Daren]

From the looks at a lot of the posts, Fletcher, VT was not the only area with low sap concentrations. Blew me completely out of sugaring wood, split hardwood for the house and several pieces of scrap lumber I had lying around. Sap was still running strong for two weeks after I had to stop due to lack of wood! Depressing to say the least. This was still the best year to date for me as I had added 230 vacuum line taps. Final tally was just a smidge over 43 gallons. Mostly dark amber with a few gallons of great tasting B. The sickness continues as I am now starting to save for RO. Gonna start with more vacuum lines to get the tap count up to make it alittle more productive....then.....who knows! I'm gonna miss the smell for the next 11 months.

[Jeff E]

Pulling taps now.

Ended the year 615 gallons of grade A, 30 of commercial (good color, bad taste)

[Bradenfish]

70 gallons on 600 taps on gravity flow tubing. Kinda disappointed:( Wasn't a very good year. Most of my runs were 1.7%-1.8%sugar. more taps next year!

[Alty78]

We got about 350 gallons off of 1000 buckets

[GregMVT]

I ended up with 94 gallons, 5 of it C, never made any of that before but I had buckets out a lot longer than I should have. Most of the rest was dark A and B. The sap was down compared to last year. We collected about the same amount of sap but made 30 gallons less. We had 480 taps, 335 on tubing and 145 with buckets.

Greg

[orange county maple]

585 on vacum and 51 buckets for 155gal 50% more than last year must of been that new to us vacum pump and releaser:D

[KenWP]

20 gallons of dark some really really dark. The birch maple mixture came out like ink but the boss likes it. I was pleased with the season once I changed trees from the soft maples to the hard maples. I learned a lot in one season that's for sure.

[Mac]

17 and 1/2 gallons mostly dark amber, mostly 2% sap. Had to give away 140 gallons of sap, couldnt keep up.....

[Hurdhaven Farm]

125 buckets gave me 20 gallons, which consists of 5 gallons of fancy, then mostly medium Amber, with a gallon of dark amber the last day. Had a great time and looking forward to more taps, hopefully on pipeline, next year.

[Chad802]

I ended up with 350 gallons.It`s the most I`ve ever made and I pretty happy with the total hope next year will be as good.:)

[benchmark]

Finished cleaning up everything last weekend and counted taps. Ended up with 54 1/2 gallons of syrup from 151 taps. Couldnt keep up with the sap, had to dump a bunch. Sugar content started out at 3.75% and held steady at 3% towards the end.
Best season ive had in my 5 yrs. of sugarin'

[220 maple]

PATHERON
Post Number 79 of this thread, Your ability to get 3 months of production without retapping or reaming caught my eye, any suggestions on how I could do the same would be deeply appreciated. Six weeks is about my max. you did 12 weeks.

Mark 220 Maple

[sapman]

I ended up with 450 gallons- about 100 dark A, 60 com. and the rest medium amber. Got 23.6 gal./tap on vac., 14gal./tap with buckets/gravity tubing. Averaged about 57:1 sap:syrup, thanks to the hill which varied from 1.2&#37;-1.9% sugar. Burned about .73 gal. oil/gal. syrup. Altogether collected 25-26,000 gal. sap, concentrating it to about 6100 gal. concentrate, from about 1250 taps, giving me .36 gal./tap. Boiled 16 times.

Took me awhile, but I finally sat down tonight and figured it all out.

[PATheron]

220- I read that report from proctor research center about 20 times before I dared do it but I tapped real early, second week of January and it seemed to work good for me. I just use new plastic every year in the tree and I try to make sure the pump is always running if the lines arent froze and thats it. I would have done a half gallon like last year buy my sugar was really bad this year compared to last year. Last year my sugar was 2.5 for much of the season and this year I struggled to ever see 2% and that was even on the new bush with all big trees that had never been tapped. So Ive found that the lack of sugar can bring me down but thats fine. Thats not something Im doing wrong and thats all I care. I think next year I can get stuff so perfect that I may come close to a half even if the sugar is sad on just insane amounts of sap. Theron

[NYScott]

We ended our first year with no casulties and 50 gallons of great looking stuff. I do think we pulled our taps a little early and could have made another 15 gallons of commercial. We had 260 taps out all buckets and learned a ton. We really enjoyed ourselves, we had a lot of fun and willl be back next year with about the same number of taps and possibly a filter press.

[wally]

although i posted in this thread way back in april, estimating just over 20 gallons, i confirmed today that our seaon total is 22 gallons, 1 quart, and a 1/2 pint. canned the last 8 or so gallons today :mrgreen:

we procrastinate a shade. had those last eight gallons in the garage in 5 gallon pails. only a little mold on top.

still, exceeds our 30 year average by nearly 5 gallons. looking forward to next season.

wally

[Revi]

We ended up with 32 gallons which is the best we've ever done.

We tapped a bunch of new trees.

We were saying that we had more taps and less sap, but this year they paid off.

[Saw Filer]

We made just under 20 gallons from about 110 taps, only a gallon or so fancy, but a lot of very nice medium. Our best volume so far, but we doubled our taps this year. I did'nt think our sap was as sweet as past years the kids still drank it though(thats how we test it), pretty subjective.We generally tap some of our trees in mid January, about one quarter of our total,did'nt work as well this year as it has before as it was too cold. This has worked well in the past to extend the season and production without having to use the bathtub for a holding tank. However sometimes that happens and depending on the season those trees don't dry up that much earlier.
We will see what next year brings.

george