tapped in westminster

[ejmaple]

still a little early but forecast looked good, a 5 day strech of 40's. so i tapped 2/18/10 put in 150 on gravity, and have 50 more, plus 50 buckets. still not totally sure if i'll do the buckets this year, a lot of time and work that i just don't have this year, not to mention my rigs too small for 250 taps. hopefully i'll have some sap on tuesday, because the worcester telegram is coming up to do a little story on me and my neighbor.

[ejmaple]

well finished tapping yesterday my grand total for the year will be 225 taps on gravity. could do more but time and evaporator size just isn't there for this year. hopefully i can upgrade to a 2 x 6 or 2 x 8 next year. sweatened the pans today, collected 180 gal of 3.5% sap over the past few days. great to see a higher sugar content then last year. the forcast doesn't look good, the 10 day shows only tomarrow as a good flow day. hope everyone is doing well.
ed

[ejmaple]

just got in from collecting todays run, not bad 120 gal of 3.3%. my older roadside and wall lined trees are at 3.5%+ and my bush trees are at 3%. boiled this morning and produced 2.5 gal of some nice light amber. will boil todays run tomarrow.

[ejmaple]

boiled yesterday made 2.5 gal of some on the lighter side of medium amber. earlier before feb. 25 when it stayed above freezing, i was getting really light amber and after when it started to run again it turned to medium amber. wondering if every "new run" after a day or two with not freezing brings a slightly daker shade?

[SV Sugarer]

EJ - nice photos in the Telegram today....

Good luck this season.

Dave

[ejmaple]

sv thanks, already got a few visitors today because of the article. sold 1.5 gal.:D seasons be pretty good so far. as of today i've made 15 gal. good luck to you.

[ejmaple]

hardly no sap today:cry: forcast doesn't look good either. only plus is i had time to clean the pans today, had to use pan cleaner in the syrup pan but just a good scrub on the flue pan. lot of niter this year. anyone else seeing lots of sand in this area?

[SV Sugarer]

Hi EJ. Sugar sand does seem worse than last year. I cleaned the evap. last week because of all the sand. Will probably do it again after another boil or 2. Hopefully we get some cold nights to get things flowing again. Forecast sure does look warm for this time of year. Hope they're wrong.....

[ejmaple]

SV what Leader pans do you have? i'll be looking to upgrade to a 2 x 6 or 8 for next year. wondering how you like yours? would like to find a newer used rig. but must sell mine first. pray for some colder weather, one of my bushes that was really beat up by the ice storm, the sap started to turn cloudy yesterday.

[SV Sugarer]

ej - the 2X6 I have is about 7 years old now. It is a reverse flow with a 3 foot, 4 section front pan and a 3 foot drop flue rear pan. You can see some photos of it on our web site - in the signature below. I really like the rig and have grown attached to it over the past 3 years. It is to the point now where I know the exact depth to run the pans, good time to fire the rig, and how often and how much I expect to draw off when things are rolling. I get about 30 gallons/hour without forced draft, and with the home-rigged forced draft I added, I end up with 33-35 gallons/hour when things are cooking good. It looks like I'll be upgrading for next season too. I'm looking at a 3X8 or similar so I can get to 500 taps or so next year without having too many sleepless nights. If I can't find one, I'll probably build a hood and pre-heater to gain some more gph.

Boy I wish we would get some good cold nights around here - we need some sap!

[ejmaple]

holy sh.t it's 30 degrees 8:45pm

[SV Sugarer]

Same here - it's 30 degrees. But I'm affraid it won't get much colder than that with cloud cover coming. I'll keep my hopes up and check that thermometer at sunrise tomorrow.

[ejmaple]

taps pulled made 27 gallons:cry: , well theres always next year, time to expand:D

[ejmaple]

been real busy the past few day, cleaned all tanks and evaporator yesterday and put in 240 taps today. saw a few drips out of some of the south facing taps, the sun is getting stronger. got about 100 taps to go on a section i'am replacing laterals and drops, about half done, hopefully finish tomarow to get the big run thuresday and friday. the season is begining:D good luck to all.

eddie

[ejmaple]

gots some more taps in today, tap count so far is 285. ran pretty good today (and still is) the big old sugars were at 3.5% and one of my mixed bushes were at 2.7%. hopefully sweetning the pans tomarrow afternoon :D

[Fishgill]

I'm glad to hear that. I'll be collecting in the morning and with a little luck and a a good Fri & Sat run I may be able to do the same on Sunday.

[ejmaple]

just finnished the first boil of the season, was able to sweeten pans and draw off 1 gal. of some nice light goodness. evaporator rolled along at 38 gph. very happy with that.

[SV Sugarer]

Hi EJ,

Glad to hear you had your first boil. Collected 160+ gallons yesterday, but had to clean the sugarhouse, so couldn't boil last night. It was strange to see the lightning and hear the thunder last night when I was in the sugarhouse. We just finished our first boil today and made about a gallon. Haven't bottled yet, but I would say it is a very light medium. It was nice to make steam again - it has been a long time.

Good luck this season.

Dave

[ejmaple]

hay sv, ya sure was nice to boil again and definitly great to boil on a rig that match the # of taps i have. crazy wind today, good thing i went out and checked all my lines because there were quite a few large branches that were on some lat lines. looks like it won't start flowing again untill mabey wendsday.

[SV Sugarer]

The wind was brutal today. I'll be walking my lines tomorrow to make sure every thing is OK. You're right - if the forecast holds we could be at it again at the end of next week.

[ejmaple]

boiled thuresday's run yesteday and ended up with 2.5 gal of medium, great tasting stuff! looks like we'll only end up with 1 gal of light, thats ok i still have some from last year, light doesn't sell as good as all other. looks like we finially have a faverable week long forcast for this area so lets hope it stays that way and we can make lots o syrup.

[Fishgill]

looks like we finially have a faverable week long forcast for this area so lets hope it stays that way and we can make lots o syrup.[/QUOTE]

I hope you correct. I'm ready for some big runs. I'm glad to hear your making some syrup :D.

[ejmaple]

well i'am done looking at the weather forecasts. it's unreal how they change the forecast, yesterday the next few days looked great and this morning there totaly diferent :confused: i guess i'll have to take it as it comes and not try to have any schedual.

[ejmaple]

went out today to clear off nearly half inch of ice on the lines, alot had some serious sags, and they were all full of sap. the trees were slowly driping as the temp as of now is 34 not the 40's that were forecasted so anouther day goes by with no sap:cry:

[ejmaple]

things are looking up around here, had the biggest run yet for the year ( 200 gal. ) yesterday and the sugar % was up to an avarage of 2 %. should get alittle run today, high for today is 36 with limited sun. i'll boil yesterdays and todays run tonight.

[SV Sugarer]

Hi EJ,

Did you notice a difference between your gravity vs. vaccuum and buckets yesterday? Just wondering if the vaccuum did really well to give you the .5 gal/tap average. I'm on all gravity lines and only collected .2 gallons per tap yesterday. Been disappointing so far.....

Dave

[ejmaple]

ya sv, the bush with vac ( 200 taps ) gave me about .75 gpt. today was a bust, only reached 33 for an hour, no sun, windy. boiled today and made 4 gallons, first batch of dark for the season, seems like everyone of my customers wants dark so more the better.

[ejmaple]

The flood gates have opened in north central ma. !!!!!

[hunter1]

yes they have running great in central ma

[ejmaple]

just got in from collecting again today, 600 gal so far. its been running pretty hard since 3 pm yesterday and hasn't slowed yet. boiled for 5 hours today and drew off 4 gal. of dark. :D

[ejmaple]

ran slow today, not much of a freeze last night. the forcast looks grimm, looks like two mabey three more runs before we get a long streach of warm nights and than who knows what will happen.

[wcproctor]

I think we may be done down here. Lots of mouths in the sap.

[SV Sugarer]

Hi EJ,

Finally coming up for air. Sap ran straight through from Thursday night until yesterday (although it finally slowed down by yesterday). With last night's freeze, we should be back at it before long. All very light medium so far. We'll see how much more we can squeeze out of this season. Hope we see some cooler weather than what the forecast calls for....

Hope all is OK out your way.

Dave

[ejmaple]

ya sv things are good, i did a cleaning on the evaporator and bulk tank hopeing to lighten up a grade. its running hard right now should be a banner day.

[SV Sugarer]

What a good run we had yesterday. I haven't seen it run like that in quite a while. I checked the tanks just before noon, and it was still only 31 degrees and no action. After work I cleaned the evap before heading out to collect. By the time I was done collecting at 6PM, I had 2/3 of a gallon per tap. You must have been swamped with the vac. Trees froze up here last night. With this rain and 40 degrees coming, we should get swamped again today. I've been boiling every day since Friday last week to keep up. With last night's boil we surpassed last year's crop by a couple gallons, and still have some season to go. Who needs sleep?

[ejmaple]

finnialy caught up on boiling last night, last boil i was pulling off some grade b, sap was a bit cloudy. i think my syrup total so far is nearing 50 gal so it will the most i've ever made. the temp this morning @ 7am was 19 so we should have anouther good run, hoping the sap is clear. the sugar content has stayed steady through out the past week and half @ 2 %. my goal for the year was 50 gal so we've reached that, now anything else is a bonus.
i'll be looking for a filter press for next season, i'am done with cone filters!!

[ejmaple]

ran yesterday about .5 gal per tap, still @ 2%, alittle cloudy but better than the last 2 runs. i'am going to pull all my reds this morning, buds are opening. made 4.5 gal yesteray of some wicked dark syrup, still tasted good though. i'll save it for the familly and freinds for cooking. i think i'll pull all taps sunday, work is starting up soon.

[ejmaple]

what a season! they just keep running. unfortunatly i can't boil any more and have about 400 gal of sap thats 2% and pretty clear. if anyone in the area wants it it's there's. i can delever for $50.00. with in 20 miles.

ed

[Fishgill]

If I wasn't overwhelmed here I would take you up on it.
I should've bought a bigger rig :D. I'm gonna finish up this Friday.

[nitsujlobos]

i would be interested in some of the sap if you still have it. i cant handle 400 gallons but i'd be willing to take some off your hands. i drive through westminister daily and could pick it up

[ejmaple]

stop by take as much as you want. 258 west princeton rd

[nitsujlobos]

thanks i will stop by then. will you be around later on today?

[ejmaple]

ya call me before, give me a heads up. i sent you a pm with my phone #

[ejmaple]

started tapping today, got 300 in. started the vac for the first time with sap and holy sh.... sap was rippin. i'll get last 100 taps in tomarrow. wish i could get anouther two vac setups for the rest. i have two bushes that are on leased land with 100 taps each. what a diferance with vac. plan on dumping todays sap tomarrow (rinse lines). sap on my vac bush was at 2.4 % , half sugars half reds. going to be selling most of my sap this year, not enough time to collect and boil this year.

[ejmaple]

great 24 hr run today. hit 1500 gal of sap. 25 gal syrup.

[roastbeef]

ejmaple-, Wondering if you still have any sap for sale? I live in Hubbardston and would like to buy some. I have 9 taps, but I'm really not getting production with my trees. Let me know. Thanks

[ejmaple]

wow holy sap!!! 1000gal collected over the past two days and still running ( slowly though ).

[ejmaple]

pulled taps yesterday, still have about 400 gal of cloudy .8% sap that i'll boil up today. boiled 350 gal yesterday and made some B. my syrup total for the year should be around 43 gal. not a bad year but wish i tapped a little earlier. need a crystal ball!!!

[ejmaple]

I finnished up tapping today, 385 taps this year, 205 on vac 25% sugars 75% reds, 180 on gravity 80% sugars. after fixing a few vac leaks the alamo 40 was pulling 22'' and my new home made electric releaser dumped flawlessly, very good feeling seeing it all work. not enough sap yet to boil but the sugar % looks good. 2.8% on the gravity bush and 1.9% on the vac bush. good luck to all hope to here from ya, Ed

[ejmaple]

well no real run to speak of yet, i thought yesterday would have been better. hooked up the new lapiere hobby releaser yesterday, got to see it dump afew times, pretty cool. still pulling 22'' can't seem to get it any higher, but 22'' is better than none. hopefully things warm up alittle more we need sap.

[ejmaple]

sap's running pretty good today, 37* right now and raining sideways, wicked wind. got the pump up to 23.5'' i think thats all i'll get out of her without running too hot. yesterday we had a good run, collected 250 gal of 2.6% and boiled for a few hours last night.

[ejmaple]

running hard today collected 300 gal @ 3pm still holding @ 2.6%. first draw today, about 3 gal of light. i'll get back boiling tonight.

[ejmaple]

just got in from shutting down the vac pump, temp down to 29. i couldn't beleive the amount of sap. another 100 gal from 4 hours of run time, 200 taps

[wcproctor]

Hey Ed do you have any pictures of you home made electric releaser?

[ejmaple]

wcproctor, how's it going? i can take some pic's. for you, but the releaser ended up imploding under 25'' of vac. it held 18'' when i was testing it. anyways pretty easy set up i used an old stainless pool filter tank mounted upside down used hayward 1023's to seal and connect up the pipes. I used a oilless all plastic sumppump with float inside tank.

[ejmaple]

past few days have been pretty busey. collected about 1000 gal since the 1 st of march. and botteled 15 gal of med. been running 23'' with the vac, alot of sap from that bush, about double from the same number of taps that are on gravity.

[ejmaple]

great run yesterday!! pulled in 400 gal of 2.3% in 8 hr. boiled all day and into the night till 12am. botteled up 8 gal of ga dark and have about 2.5 gal in the canner. blew threw 1.5 cord of pine slabs, with the current weather focast i hope my wood pile lasts. today will be cleaning up the syrup pan to try and get back to ga medium. hope all is well in maple land.

[ejmaple]

just got in from plowing, 16'' and still comming down. were at 27* now and havent had a run in 3 days too cold and windy. that said i think i'am going to have to sell or trade some of my sap again this year. call me or post here if you want some 978 833 7331, my saps been running @ 2.3% ,dilivery available with in reason.

[Randle]

We boil in Lunenburg and would be interested in buying/bartering for your excess sap.

Let me know how much you are targeting to have available.

Steve Randle 978-729-1529

[ejmaple]

no sap since tuesday last week, too cold. so i was able to give all my tanks and evaporator a good cleaning. i've made about 40 gal so far, about half of my goal for the year.

[ejmaple]

still no sap!! it's been a week now!!! hopefully we go well into april.

[sams64]

I emptied buckets tonight and got about 35 gallons out of 30 taps. Things are probably a little bit warmer out East here.

Sam

[PapaSmiff]

EJ,
I'm really surprised you haven't been getting any sap! Perhaps your location is much cooler than it is out here (slightly West of Springfield). I've been getting about 6 to 10 gallons a day from 6 remaining taps (two dried up) for the past four days. Unfortunately, I ran out of propane (for the turkey fryer) and the boss's budget doesn't have any funding for propane until Friday. Hopefully, I can get through most of it this weekend. But I may need to give it away to someone nearby.