Tapping in Ontario 2010

[BryanEx]

5 pm and tapes are still running full out. Lots of dark syrup coming out but that's what sells for me so that part is cool. No more freezes in the foreseeable future so I figure this season is done once the taps stop pouring sap. At least it's a long weekend coming up to allow for washing everything and still having a good ham dinner. :D

[Brent]

Sunday 6:00
The wife has brought in 700 gallons now and its still coming.

And I stand corrected on yesterdays total
She says she made 15 trips at 70 gallons per trip.
1050 gallons yesterday.

This is a classic day. She's bringing it in about as fast as the RO can process it, including about 45 minutes for a rinse.
And I had about 160 gallons of concentrate when I lit the fire about one. Took nearly 2 hours for the first draw after a complete cleanout of the evap, and sweeting. Now got 4 gallons of "light". Finally stopped getting "Extra Light"

Jeees it hard to type with bandages all over the fingers.

[ennismaple]

Nothing at all for us the last 2 days, other than some slush in the releasers. Hopefully it loosens up and we get a few more good days before summer hits at the end of the week!

[mtbguy]

How depressing. I just finished all my bottling and ended up with 10 litres total. I've got enough concentrate in the pan for about 3 more litres. less than half of what I made last year and I pulled taps at least 1 week too early last year. Should get 40+ litres out of 44 taps, shouldn't I? On a good note my syrup looks beautiful (imo).

[KenWP]

Guys have a hard time getting a liter a tree with vacuum so with gravity your doing good. I get maybe a 1/10 of a liter per tree which isn't to bad actually. I made 20 gallons last year with a total of 150 taps and this year I am at 15 with 200.

[Maple Restoration]

Hey Ken be thankful with that amount I have 410 taps on gravity and 50 buckets and we just hit 35 gallons, right now we are we are sitting at 1/4 liter per tap at this rate I will never have to upgrade my 2X6 evaporator.

[argohauler]

Our trees are pooched. Warm spell killed them big time. Gathered 180 US gal yesterday. Brought in 250 today in the rain and there's at least that much in the barrels out in the bush. Around a hundred buckets yet to gather, from around 2000 taps including the lines.

For the most part the bucket sap ran clear, the line sap is cloudy.

One huge soft maple I tap is a great running tree. I hang 2 - 5 IMP gal. pails and drop lines for 4 taps. Both pails were full and the sap crystal clear. Had a drink from it and SWEEET!

Will get er boiled down tomorrow. Haven't taken syrup off since the 17th. Boiled twice since then, but had little sap.

Brent: You can wholesale the ropy stuff. If it's light you'd better tell them it's ropy or you might get in trouble. If it were dark, you'd have no probs. Been there, done that.

KenWP: 20 IMP gals? That would give you 90 litres and .6 litres per tap from last year. Not bad. Best I've ever done is .75. How do the guys from the states get a half gal/tap or more, or 1.89 litres/tap +. Do they have super trees or what?

[KenWP]

Of course thats Imp gallons I am still Canadain.

[Yellzee]

Big run here over the weekend, brought in about 90 gallons yesterday late in the day, storage at the pipeline was overflowing....and it was still running like crazy. it rained most of the night so wouldn't be surprised if it ran most of the night. A bit cloudy in the barrels but after filtering to put in the storage tanks looked pretty good.

No signs of buds on the trees, but agree looking at the forecast after tomorrow I'm done as well.

My running total... I'm at 53 litres present with about 6 in the finishing pan and depending on how the 90 gallons boils down . and any sap out back.... should total around 70 litres I'd say... about the same as last year. .7 litres per tap.

[Brent]

We finished Sunday at 2:00 am today.,

It was still running when we quit and in fear that it might overflow the tanks we emptied them.

Totalled 1405 USG. Would have been higher but one releaser got stuck.

Still no buds, Still making nothing but light and extra light.
We're my dark stuff ??? I want dark stuff.,

[Yellzee]

I think the light syrup is the price you pay for good equipment... If you boil 80 gallons of sap for about 16 hours like I do,,, it's usually always got some colour at the end.

Must admit it takes alot of beverages when you are this slow, certainly we're well above a litre per tap if it's beer we're measuring instead of syrup!:D But then, for me it's just an excuse to socialize in the spring.

When my boys get bigger and I can build a shack right back at the bush I might be tempted to get serious as I could probably get up to around 500 taps.

[Yellzee]

Just checked out your website and realize you had about the same size set up as I do now. Did you get darker syrup when you used the smaller set up?

[Brent]

Nope
Last year we got a little medium.
5 years of light.

Of course we used to think light was good.

[Yellzee]

interesting, I don't pull any of mine off while boiling,,,, I just keep feeding fresh sap into the pan until I get about 80 gallons boiled down then I put this into a turkey pot to finish the batch.

I think this year only my first batch would really qualify as light or fancy.

I'm curious to see how the batch of sap I got yesterday finishes... I usually feed the last real dark run to the father in law for doing all the work boiling all season.

[mtbguy]

What the heck is going on. I've gotta go out and dump buckets, I thought I was done. nice clear sap no off smell or taste, I guess I'm boiling tommorrow night again.

[can'twaitforabigrun]

Yesterday was an OK day, it was the first time it ran since last Thursday, gathered 80 gallons. Barely froze last night at the most -1C, with about 3/4 of an inch of snow last night and this morning. Good day today, as we just finished gathering 120 gallons. 1 five gallon(US) pail with two spiles on dropline going into it from one tree was overflowing at 4:30 this afternoon, gathered at 5:00 yesterday. Probably will be a good run tomorrow, may run Wednesday and that looks like that'll be it as it's supposed to be 26C on Friday.

[rob1640]

Sap run all night Sunday here. I left the vacuum on for what I figured would be my last run of the season and collected more sap overnight then all day Sunday. Nothing was running today but it is down to -5 here, maybe one more run Tuseday!

[Yellzee]

I had a fair bit yesterday, but might have been from Sunday evening, about 45 gallons.

Sap is now crystal clear.

-4.5 this morning and the sun is out so should be another run today.

[argohauler]

Boiled the rest of the sap from the weekends run. Was around 700 IMP gals. Got just over 15 IMP gals. of amber syrup.

Barely froze here last night. The lines started to trickle in the afternoon. Hamilton says -2 tonight, but I don't believe it will do me any good.

Going to gather the dribbles tomorrow and then boil. I'm close to another run of syrup. Then I'll clean the feeder tank and my gathering tank and haul water back to finish what's in the pans. I'll finish on Thursday, before the big heat wave hits.

Hopefully I'll get all the buckets in and some of the lids/spiles before Easter.

[Brent]

We got a decent freeze last night. Wife brought in over 1000 USG so far and its still running. She says there's at least 200 to come already in totes out there. She's dead on her feet. Tests at 1.9 to 2% crystal clear.

Our trees are charmed. Wish I could say the same about the evaporator operator. Chinese fire drill 513 this year. Put a big bucket under the draw off to empty it and clean it.
Went outside. Came back in to find the floor covered. Forget to turn off the valv from the flu pan.

[BryanEx]

Wow! Record run today for my season at a little over a gallon per tape. Sap is clear with average sugar of 2.4%. Expecting another run tomorrow although much less and maybe a little bit Thursday. At that point I'm convinced I'm done for this season and will be cleaning and packing everything up in the summer weather this long weekend.

Just beat last year's totals, burned the same number of pots (although this time not brand new), but my brew your own business was way down. I either didn't have enough sap on the weekends or the weather was crappy and people canceled. As many on Maple Trader have already said... there's always next year!

[mtbguy]

filled the feed barrel and have 1/2 a 25 litre pail too. 230 litres in 2 days makes me pretty happy cause I thought it was done. Good thing dad's retired, he's coming out to boil for me tommorrow. Should be ready to draw off and finish by the time I get home from work. I should hit 20 litres of syrup for the year, a little shy of last year but way better than it looked a couple of weeks ago.

[Brent]

way to go

looks like the year is going to finish with a bang

[jobooie]

I emptied my buckets at about 5pm and all 10 were overflowing. The sap it running strong and clear this afternoon. I pulled 19 gallons from 10 two gallon buckets.

It might get down below freezing tonight. Going to check the buckets before I head out the door tomorrow morning. Need to pickup a used 2x4 or 2x6 evaporator. Upgrading next year? Let me know.

[Brent]

It's the peepers. They're coming. I can hear them.

NNNNOooooooooooo





but the water is frozen in the garden hose ----- one more day !

we ended up well over 1500 USG today. Still some in the bush. The wife quit at 11:00PM
I've tried collecting and running the evap. Bin der dun dat nevu agin.

[argohauler]

That's where you need to have your wife trained. I had mine trained for a few years till we had kids. Now that's her job. She'd boil, take syrup off and can syrup, while I was gathering and bringing sap in. She wants to get back into it after the kids get old enough to be by themselves. Oldest is 7, 5, and 9 months.

Right now I boil and bring sap in at the same time. A load will take 20 mins. at the most. I stoke every 20. I'll go get a load (100 USG/ 83 IMP gals. / 1 and 2/3 barrels), stoke the fire when I get back, pump out the load (2mins. with my 3/4 HP submersible) wait till it's time to stoke again, and then get another load. I have 21 collection barrels for the buckets and 3 collection tanks for the lines.

Froze a bit harder last night, but still not optimistic.

[ennismaple]

Almost 3400 gallons of sap yesterday. Some parts of our bush are shutting down but the bush with CV's and the 2 with mostly new tubing are running well. Today will likely be our last for the season. Friday we start washing ines - in shorts!

[can'twaitforabigrun]

145 gallons yesterday; our third best day yet! Today should be around 100 gallons maybe a bit less as it warmed up quickly- +12C by 1:00 and forecast to go above 16C. Supposed to be just below freezing tonight and around 18 or 20 above. It'll probably be the last day tomorrow but we haven't heard the peepers yet.

[ennismaple]

Update from the sugar camp - Another 2500 gallons of sap today. How it's still running with this weather I don't know!

[cheesegenie]

Why is it running in this weather? An old sugar maker once told me, the sap has to come up sooner or later.

[CastorMaple]

Well, that's it for me. Pulled the plug tonight, spiles are out now and the last boil will be tomorrow night. In all, I produced 15 litres from 22 taps/buckets. I added 8 more taps this year and tripled my output. Not bad for one of the little guys. So I'll take that and start dreaming of next year...

[BryanEx]

We had a pretty deep freeze a few days ago. I suspect it takes a few days for the frost to work out of the trees. I'm expecting another flow tomorrow but a light, slightly cloudy sap day and then that will be it for this year.

[Brent]

We got a smaller run today, but still about a gallon / tap on vac. The buckets only coughed up about 20 gallons from about 100 taps.

[can'twaitforabigrun]

Half decent day today considering how it barely froze last night and warmed up so quickly, 70 gallons. We'll probably leave the taps in over the weekend and hore the trees don't start to grow and amybe get some sap mid to late next week.

[KenWP]

Mine poured today also but a few are starting to slow down a lot. I will not be able to look at them until late afternoon tomorrow so if they pour over they pout over . I can't believe they have ran for three days after a frost saturday night.

[mtbguy]

this week's total is 300 litres out of 44 taps (3days). Scared to boil any more incase it's buddy. does buddy sap always have an off smell or cloudy appearance? All my sap is still clear but I'd hate to spend more time/wood for nothing. Drained the evaporator with the concentrate from today's boil and will finish it on propane tomorrow night. Including start up and cool down 11 hours for the 300 litres looks like 10-12 litres of syrup in the finishing pot will know for sure tomorrow. 6 gals per hour, no forced air in the fire box this year and only a plastic tube preheater.

[lpakiz]

MTB Guy,
Take a couple quarts and boil them down on the stove--takes a couple hours. WATCH it towards the end. I had some really cloudy sap but made great tasting syrup--about 4 tablespoons. I will boil the tank tomorrow...

[Brent]

I was just out in the bush (11:00PM) to check on the check valves for a separate thread and our bush is still running. Going to leave the vac on all night. Theres close to 300 gallons out there now and we brought in 400-500 already.
Another gallon a tap day.

Edit the season may end tonight. Had a customer here this afternoon ordered 5 litres of amber. And we're still making light. I'm even laddleing done syrup back into the syrup pan to try to darken it up. Not much luck so far.

[Brent]

well the fat lady is making her way north but she was not here last night.

We got about 450 more gallons overnight and when the the woods last it was still running beautiful clear sap.

I just pulled the plug on the vac. I'm done.

Still making Ontario Grade A Light.

[KenWP]

Fat lady seems to be standing and clearing her throat here to. Heard the peepers in the ditch in the yard today as it was like 70 degrees. Then the trees are finally slowing down.

[SCFD_Bill]

looks like were done here also frogs for two nignts and no sign of frost in the 14 day forcast, 31 days since we tapped and missed the first couple of days so not a bad year will finish sat and see how we end up. thinking about 150 L of syrup on 120 taps.

[can'twaitforabigrun]

Anyone going to leave their taps in 'till next weekend? Accuweather is forecasting 2-3 nights below freezing late this week and the weather network has -5 and +7 for Friday. Heard first peepers on the 31st. Very strange today as it was running at almost a drip/ second from some of the larger trees and it was between 25 and 30 celsius.

[KenWP]

Still getting sap here today. I went out about 10 and collected what was there and figured that was it for the day. Went back at 5 and some were running over again and most were half full. Weird. So I have to boil untill I get caught up again. At least with big pails of frozen sap in the garage freezer I can keep it cool until I get it boiled.

[Brent]

I'm toast. Even if we get a flow when it gets colder, I think it will be buddy. I might get excited later, but I'm finally conceeding that at 64 you can't keep going the same as you could at 25.

[mtbguy]

sap in the buckets is cloudy, pulled taps today, last year I missed at least a week cause I pulled too early but the peepers are out tonight and I don't see any minus temps in the 14 day.

[BryanEx]

I'm done. Everything has been pulled, cleaned, stacked, and processed. Just need to pack it all away until next year. Very odd season this year. Started a couple of weeks early, had a week of busy, two weeks of not much to do, then another week of busy. Ended up producing almost exactly the same as last year at just over 1 litre per tap but my boil your own business was down by half. Lost one pot and maybe a burner but I think I can clean up the burner. Time to visit my local supplier to see if he's got any clearance stuff for end of season.

[can'twaitforabigrun]

The fat lady has finally sang! We were getting cloudy and buddy sap with the warm weather on Friday and yesterday. We started pulling yesterday and finished today. Tapped on the 15th, first run was on the 16th and last run was on the first. Out of those 17 days it ran 12 days. Just have to finish bottling tomorrow and clean out pails and lines this week. Sap and syrup totals coming soon.

[Buckshot]

I'm all pulled out. Started washing up. There are some cold nights in the long range for next weekend but some of the trees have huge buds so the other trees wont be that far behind. Time for spring to start.

winter/ maple season/ spring/ summer / fall .

[ennismaple]

I can't see making more syrup with the weather we've had. We washed half our lines on the weekend and the buds are out on many trees. I ran one pump on Saturday to top up the sap in the evaporator that will stew for a few months. From that 700+ taps I got 125 gallons of the nastiest sap I've ever seen. Good for cleaning pans but no way I'd boil and eat it!

[Yellzee]

I pulled most on Sunday, found mold already starting up in some of the T's when flushing the lines.
2 pots of almost syrup to finish off and I'm done. Collection drums washed out.
Last finished batch a nice great tasting Amber...

[can'twaitforabigrun]

I know a friend of mine who has a sugarbush up near Dacre Ontario, way up high. They haven't pulled yet, as it's supposed to be some cooler wether there, into the beginning of next week. They'll probably pull sometime around the middle of next week or next weekend.

[Yellzee]

Finally found time to bottle the last 2 batches of syrup.

2 great tasting amber batches, very creamy and tasty.

final total of 81.5 litres from approx. 100 taps.

up from 70 litres last year same set up.

Now to plan the pipeline move to a new section for next year.

[can'twaitforabigrun]

Have finally got some totals from this year. 26 canadian gallons from approx. 120 taps, works out to approximatly 0.975 litres/ tap. It was a just below average year as we usually make approximentaly just over 30 gallons. Last year we made close to 40.