How would everyone say the season was?

[PATheron]

Im just curious How everyone in the different areas would say there season was overall. Ive kind of heard similar complaints generally speaking all over. It seems like everyone for the most part had low sugar, made dark syrup, and didnt get much on gravity. Is that accurate for the entire sugaring area everywhere other than the exception here and there? I know for me I had the low sugar, made dark and darker, and had a good season on volume only becouse of doing it for so long and the high vac. Theron

[Russell Lampron]

I feel the same way here. I set new records for sap collected, gallons of syrup produced and fewest problems this year. If I didn't have the vacuum and my reds in the woods ran like the ones that I had buckets on, it would have been a very bad season. The syrup was dark, darker and NH Fancy here this year.

Vermont Fancy is the lightest colored mildest flavored stuff. New Hampshire Fancy is at the other end of the spectrum for color and has the best Maple flavor. If I was selling it bulk it would be mersh though.

[PATheron]

Russ- I never really made any light colored syrup here this year. I probly did get into some medium but nothing really light. I wonder if the weather patterns made it that way throughout all of the syruping areas everywhere? If so fancy syrup ought to be worth a ton to somebody. Theron

[Russell Lampron]

It seems like everyone was making dark syrup this year. There is the occasional person that made some light but not here.

[few trees]

We had low flow in central Illinois and only short periods of flow. Mostly made medium, no dark but the sugar was good. Season ended about three weeks ago here weather was too warm for too long.

[tapper]

This is my 14th year for making syrup and the 1st that I made no light syrup. It was all dark A with a few days of medium here and there.
The road trees started out at 2 3/4% and are running 2 1/4% now. Woods trees were at 2% now 1 1/2%.
Sap quantities have been low all season had only 1 good run the rest only about 1/2 what you might expect. I am not to a quart per tap yet but real close. I usually end up a good deal over 1 quart per tap.
This was my 1st year with gravity tubing. It averaged 7.5 gallons of sap per tap so far compared to 14 gallons per tap on the buckets. All buckets are on road trees and tubing in woods trees so that is much of the difference.

[3rdgen.maple]

Not a good year here at all. Very little sap with only 2 tsunami runs. Sugar content lower than the norm. Had way way to much snow to start the season with. I think it just kept the trees too cold to run good in the begining then way to much warm weather. Syrup was normal grades though started out light ended thus far with grade B. Final tap count was increased by 135 from last year and just met last years syrup numbers which were low here also. Started same time last year but looks like Im ending 15 days earlier this year. Gonna put some serious thought into running vac. next year as I am on all buckets right now. I just don't like the cost of vac pumps. But might have to make the plunge. Maybe put in an additional 200 taps on vac in a new bush next year. Every year it seems like the sap runs get worse. Ratio per tap well Im too embarrased to tell you. All in all it is still fun.

[PerryW]

This is my 20th year in my current location.

I'm at 80% of a full crop now (with 80 gallons), and my grade has been excellent; making probably 60% fancy syrup so far.

It dropped into dark yesterday and today, but just took of a few gallons of Medium an hour or so ago.

Supposed to be 60 deg tomorrow, so that's not good, but I'm guessing there's a few runs left here in northern NH if we can get a couple more freezes. We usually end around April 15 here.

[KenWP]

Well this was my first season and it wasn't what I expected. Plans were to have 33 taps total but took me a afternoon to do those and then I decided that that would never give me enough sap to do much so I tapped on the neighbours place. There is thousands of trees to choose from but the place is about a 100 yards wide and 2 miles long so the more I tapped the futher I had to carry sap. I expected to get more sap then I did and the lack of it was mostly either to cold of days or to warm of nights.
Made all dark syrup but it sure tastes good and have about 2 gallons of syrup left to make. Learned a lot and understand now why maple syrup is so expensive in the stores.

[sapman]

I made mostly medium, with almost light the first couple runs. Made dark two or three times, plus tonight, which might be B or mersh, because of flavor. Still haven't finished and filtered it. I was definitely disappointed, though not surprised, to have low sugar on the new woods. Hopefully next year will be better. So far I think I'm only at about 15~ gallons sap/tap on the vacuum. But will tap considerably earlier next year, since I will be ready.

So far, I'd say I'm getting close to 1/3 gal/tap. Not good, since I'm used to better with my buckets.

Tim

[NedL]

Didn't get as much as I thought I would. I put in 20 taps this year, and didn't get nearly as much sap as I thought I would. I will check the taps and see if i got any of the problem ones. I did tubing into 20 gallon containers for the first time this year. Didn't know if using the 5/16 was part of the problem. I will probably try them again next year, but I did seem to get more from the 7/16th taps with buckets on them.

On a happy note, I made 2 batches of light syrup. I don't have a grading set to determine how light, but I have it in quart mason jars and can see right through them. Last boil was motor oil, but tastes great.

[Jeff E]

We have just really started into our prime time here. I have made dark in the early season (mid March) and Medium ever since. See Pic. Note the busted valve to remind me to drain lines when it is really going to freeze.:lol:

Also, see pic of one of the releasers taken today. Like I said, the jury is still out on how the season will turn out. I am about 1/3 of the way to what I expected for production.

[Clan Delaney]

I would say that last year was better measured against sugar percentage and volume per tap, and I have the numbers to prove it. But if this is as bad as it gets, then I've got many good years ahead.

[Revi]

It was a pretty good season for us. Last year was too cold. We had the perfect weather this year. It's about over now, but we had regular runs all through March this year.

I am suffering withdrawal already.

I think I really like maple sugaring again.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I had the second best year of production behind last year(97.5) and ended up with 94.5 gallons of syrup on all gravity. Sugar content was good for me 48.41 to 1 ratio and last year was 48.42, so to me down this far south, this is great sugar content two years in a row. Syrup was mostly light with 20 gallons of dark and about 4 gallons of extra dark/B and syrup quality and flavor was the best ever that I can remember. Even the dark stuff has a nice flavor without a stronger flavor. Most of it is already sold, so looks like I will be out well before next season.

[Stickey]

Good for my first year. Had a lot of fun, made about 4-5 gallons of syrup, a lot of which I've already given away. Eating some with our waffles right now. Thanks everyone.

[brookledge]

My season was good. Not what I'd hpoed for but still made .46 gal per tap
Keith

[mapleman3]

I agree with Brookledge, not a good year, worse for me, had double the taps of last year and made 20 gallons more. A ton of sap but may as well be boiling water