Season Underway in Addison County

[GeneralStark]

I tapped last week and have already collected about 65 gallons and expect to get more tonight. Started boiling sunday and expect to have about a gallon + by tonight.

[ACollette]

Pulled in nearly 70 gallons last night after yesterdays run on 35 taps. My little home made rig is going to have a very busy day boiling that down. We have made just over a gallon of syrup so far with Tuesday and Wednesdays run and the Kids are loving it. Looks like a good year to move into my new rig. Don't know if I will be able to keep up if the weather stays this good.

[GeneralStark]

We're up to 265 gallons of sap as of yesterday and we should have two more good days of collecting before things slow down.

I have made 2.75 gallons of syrup thus far, lost about 40 gallons of sap to ice forcing a valve off the pipe coming out of the tank to the evaporator, sold 60 gallons of sap, and there is still 35 gallons in the tank to boil. So I estimate that about 130 +/- gallons has been boiled to syrup thus far.

Having fun and learning lots!. I have definitely been bitten by the maple bug.

[GeneralStark]

I finished boiling the last of my sap last night and am up to almost 5 gallons. The last three quarts were definitely grade b with a very good taste.

The weather the next 5-6 days will be the test to see of the season is over or not. My taps are not dry, but they have not been flowing much since last wednesday.

[GeneralStark]

I thought the season was wrapping up but I had one of the best runs the last 24 hours of the season. I collected over 40 gallons yesterday which means over a gallon per tap. Several buckets were overflowing, and a few have dried up. I'm interested to see what I have today as it was really gushing when I collected last night.

I think it will be done soon though. Must boil tonight.

[GeneralStark]

Still collecting and still boiling. About 80 gallons of sap since monday and I have been boiling every evening. The sap is clear, but down to about 2%, and I think I smell a hint of buddyness in the steam. We'll see how it turns out.

I will be pulling taps and cleaning up this weekend. 80 degrees on saturday!:o

[GeneralStark]

I pulled taps on friday and washed up. Finished the last batch of syrup last night - Grade B. No buddy or off flavor. The last batch of sap from last week's run was only about 1.9%, so boiling was slow.

The stats on the season are as follows:

32 Taps on 30 sugar maples.

Sap -> 475 gallons total 3+ - 1.9%
14.8 gallons/tap

Syrup ->6 Gallons - fancy - grade b
.1875 gallons/tap

Some sap was sold, and some was lost due to a valve issue, so only about 350 gallons were actually boiled.

Considering that this was my first season at this scale, I think this was a pretty good season. Lots of fun and lots was learned.

Now I need to get ready for next season!