Got Sap in MN?

[Peepers]

Had sap running in 2 of our 12 residential maple taps today before it clouded up and cooled off late this afternoon. Nothing from the field-edge box elders tho.

Anyone else in MN starting to see some action?

[benchmark]

I threw a few test taps out a couple of days ago in some of my yard trees. Nothing yet, not that I expected to see anything yet. That's alright, I'm not ready yet, although when am I........ To many things to do, never enough time:)

[muddyfootprints]

I thought it might be a little to early, but the temps look good for the next few days and the wife made family plans for the next few days so I tapped 205 trees yesterday, I would say that 90% of them had sap coming out within seconds of the bit coming out of the tree. Most of them were dripping faster than 1 per second, and about 20 that you couldn't count the drips, to fast.

will see what the temps do this week and what happens next week and maybe tap another 200.....

we were tapping around Moose lake.

[Davydd]

I tapped 7 sugar maples this year. All but one is producing sap right now to varying degrees. I'm in the Lake Minnetonka area of the Twin Cities.

The Minnesota Landscape Arboretum tapped and tubed several trees last week.

The 10 day weather forecast seems optimum.

[tomslusher]

I tapped 20 trees today with at least 75% of them dripping right away. I'll try to get out there tomorrow after work to see the progress. Hopefully I can boil this weekend.

I'm about 20 miles NE of Mankato.


tomslusher

[Riley/MN]

1/2 a doz. test taps out today... Wood was dry!

I'm about 25 mi. NE of Rochester

Cleaned about 600 gals worth of barrels, still have 2-275 gal totes to go. We should be ready when the sap starts running...

[muddyfootprints]

I had a buddy check my buckets last night and we had about 1 1/2" average per tap in a 5 gal bucket. guessing a little more than a quart per tree average.

temps aren't getting as low as I would like to see but its getting colder than southern MN. last night got down to 28, Hope it cools down some more at night..

[SilverLeaf]

Put out a south-facing test tap last night. Dry as a bone. Not surprising though, since we didn't really start the thaw until Tues of last week. Still have well over a foot of snow on the ground.

Wierd though to hear that this spring even Moose Lake is flowing before we are down in the SW!

[RileySugarbush]

We have 90 in and some are running a bit. 25 to 50 more go in tonight.

Night temps aren't forecast to get to freezing for this week though, so we will probably end up waiting until next week for BigSap.

[tomslusher]

After 24 hours on the tree, I dumped my 20 taps and got a grand total of about 1 1/2 gallons of sap. Most buckets were still dry (or virtually dry). It is supposed to be above freezing for the rest of the week with rain every day. Should make a nice, muddy mess.

tomslusher

[Minnesota Acer]

I've got two silvers that are running and I use the word, "running" loosely. Taps in those trees have been in for a week and combined there's maybe a quart of sap. All trees I have tapped are urban (eastern metro/western wisconsin), which includes two boxelder and four silver. Still on the hunt for more trees.

[lpakiz]

Minnesota Acer,
Were you at the Winter institute in Neillsville several weeks ago (January?)

[Minnesota Acer]

I wasn't, Ipakiz.

Sap is a flowing today. Have two gallons in the bucket on one silver which was only about a quart on Thursday night. Constant dripping now. Woo hoo!

[SilverLeaf]

We put in all our taps this weekend. I would say a good 60% are dripping. Very surprising, given that it hasn't frozen in a week!

[lpakiz]

Yes, I heard reports from others that we had gravity runs here today (Sunday) even tho there hasn't been a feeze in a couple weeks. My vacuum system is delivering sap nicely, tho.

[Peepers]

Sap was running here (gravity) in the SE corner of the metro yesterday as well. Looks like some freezing nights in our future finally!

It is cool to hear that your vac sys is doing the trick when gravity isn't Ipakiz. Another benefit of vac that I wasn't aware of.

Happy boiling everyone!

[muddyfootprints]

Got back from the family activities last thursday and checked the buckets on Friday, 205 taps for 5 days 185 gallons of sap, sweatened the pans on Sat.

Sunday we tapped another 165 and then checked the original 205 and had another 100+ gallons there and check about 100 of the ones we tapped on sunday and had another 30 gallons there so we stayed late on Sunday and boiled down that 130+ gallons. Drew off about 3.5 gallons of syrup. Sap was flowing pretty good for us on Sunday.

Monday we are guessing that there was another 100 gallons or so, we didn't collect but checked a bunch of buckets and averaged.

Tomorrow afternoon I will head north and gather, and spend Thursday cooking.

Then hopefully cook again Sunday or sooner

Looking forward to some colder nights.......

[Peepers]

Edited: I was told that sap was running good today here but the report was only from our most productive tree. Overall it ran a bit yesterday and a bit again today. No sap tsunami yet...

[Leinie]

I got my first gallon bottled Tuesday evening. 15 gallons more sap in the tank from Wednesday & Thursday. I'm gonna fire up friday ( hopefully with 25 gallons of sap to boil . This is with 13 taps on 7 trees.
Looks like 4-6 days of great weather coming toward the Twin Cities area.
I hope I can keep up.

[Riley/MN]

Put in another 20 taps or so tonight... Standing by, it has to come, right....?

[RileySugarbush]

We finally have enough to fire up on Saturday. 40 gallons partially cooked down in the evaporator and 140 in the tanks. Here we go!

[SilverLeaf]

Standing by, it has to come, right....?

If this weekend's weather forecast holds true, I think come Monday we'll all have big smiles on our faces. ;)

Hopefully this won't be our only big run though. The extended forecast isn't looking stellar. :cry:

We've got 100 gallons stored up already, and will collect what's in the buckets today. Tomorrow, we fire up!

[Peepers]

Still nothing in Wabasha County Riley? We are getting a gallon here and a gallon there but the sap from some of our silvers is starting to smell buddy too. I hope this cold snap gives us some sap good enough for syrup we can share with family/friends. So far the quart of syrup that we made won't last too long!

I guess I better get my cone filter contraption finished...

I'm hoping we are all boiling like crazy this weekend - good luck everyone!

[Riley/MN]

27 in Millville on the way to 40 and sunny....fingers are crossed!

[muddyfootprints]

We had another 240 gal of sap out of 350 taps for Monday thru Wednesday, pretty slow but hopefully these next few days will pay off, I also had one tree that was budding out and the sap didn't smell very good. maybe this cold will slow that down.

Good luck everyone

[Peepers]

Our silver maples are about half flowered but the sap doesn't smell too funky so I'm gonna boil it. As suggested in the sap forum if the smell while boiling it makes me want to puke then I'll have to dump it otherwise it'll be syrup.

All of our trees are running like crazy today now that if finally froze last night. Crossing fingers for good sap and lots of it!

Hey Syrupdreamer - how much did you end up bottling up last night? It was good meeting you and seeing your operation running like a well oiled machine!

[RileySugarbush]

Finished sweetening and pulled over two gallons off today. After yesterdays hard freeze the trees are finally running and I bet we already have 100 in the sacks.

[Minnesota Acer]

[QUOTE=Peepers;106670]Our silver maples are about half flowered but the sap doesn't smell too funky so I'm gonna boil it. As suggested in the sap forum if the smell while boiling it makes me want to puke then I'll have to dump it otherwise it'll be syrup.



I'm in the same conundrum as Peepers. I have silvers tapped and they're flowering. The one is about half and others are 10 - 25%. So, I'm wondering at what point do you pull the taps?

This is my second year tapping and last year I had them pulled before the flowering began. So, I'm unfamiliar with "buddy" sap. I'd like to get more sap from the silvers I have tapped, b/c thus far I have about 4-4.5 gallons from 10 taps. Now, Last year I had four taps on two tree and got 15 gallons. So, I'd like to believe I could get more than 4-4.5 gallons from 10 taps, but maybe this is the reality of things and I have to own up to it.

Pulled in 5 gallons of Boxelder sap on Friday. Looking to boil it tomorrow. I'm excited to taste it when finished.

[Peepers]

The sap from our silvers didn't smell bad but it did smell a little more like a tree than previously. All was clear and I just got done boiling about 20 gallons of sap to sweeten my pan. Its well below freezing now (my beer was getting slushy) so hopefully another good run tomorrow! I'm glad I added 4 big maples in my neighbor's yard this year as even today I didn't see the sap running like last year. maybe tomorrow...

not sure if you're boiling separately but I mix the boxelder and maple sap together. My big box elder is usually my best sap producer. Last year I got some amazing light gold syrup with em all mixed together. So far the quart we made on Tuesday was pretty dark amber.

I did eye up another huge maple and about 20 box elders on an empty lot near me so next year I might have to expand again :D

[Davydd]

Sap is flowing well with a steady drip today in the Twin Cities. I'll start boiling tomorrow morning and just may make my goal of a gallon of syrup off a half dozen Sugar Maple trees. None of my trees are big. Some just make the minimum recommended diameter.

[Riley/MN]

Well it's finally running.... I think we are going to have a 3-day season here!


I did eye up another huge maple and about 20 box elders on an empty lot near me so next year I might have to expand again :D

I noticed all the red tree tops as I was driving around today. Lots of places to check out for next year....

[RileySugarbush]

Davydd,

We can hardly keep up in EP. Collected 200 gallons this afternooon and the sacks were half full as the sun went down. We will be boilsng tomorrow evening since we are running out of storage.

[Davydd]

I emptied my sacks at around 11 AM today and by 7 PM tonight they were half full again. In that short time I collected about 10 gallons off 6 trees. I'm going to start boiling in the morning (Monday).

[Peepers]

running good indeed - we boiled again for a few hours tonight and drew off almost a gallon. Second batch of fairly red syrup. Are any of you guys with silvers seeing more red syrup this year? Our silvers have lots of huge crazy buds/flowers on them so I'm hoping we can get a few more runs before it gets buddy.

[SilverLeaf]

Are any of you guys with silvers seeing more red syrup this year?
Yep! Kinda pretty, actually.

[muddyfootprints]

We had a little tour on sunday and invited friends and family over to check out the new shack and operation of the new 2 x 6 and to have some pancakes and fresh syrup.

it was a crazy but very fun day we had 36 people including me in and out all day. started out the day with 170 gallons to boil down and half way thru the day some friends wanted to see what gathering was about so we went out and gathered up another 130 gallons for a nice 300 gallon day.

Today the report was that there is about a 2 to 2 1/2 " average in the buckets (300 with 350 taps) could be another big boil in the future. I have to work for the next couple days and the weather looks good.

[Peepers]

A word of caution as the end of the season for silvers comes near - be careful mixing one boil with the next. Yesterday's draw was yummy - about a half gallon of tasty amber. We drew off a few times today and with the wind outside didn't notice anything funny. Brought another half gallon inside, mixed with yesterday's syrup and started finishing it on the stove. 15 minutes later came in the house and something didn't smell quite right. I guess this is what buddy syrup is. Now I have a gallon that I think is fairly gross. My wife was boiling today and after sampling several times doesn't mind it. Hopefully the kids won't mind it either because we only have a quart of good stuff before this fiasco. The more I try it the more I dislike it tho. Maybe I'll have to find some grade B and try some syrup mixology. Maybe grade B will cover it up. I think I feel a post in the finishing/filtering thread coming on.

I hope you guys are having better luck. I'm pulling my silver taps tomorrow and finding some more box elders to tap. They don't seem to have any bud action at all.

[Leinie]

Last 4 days have been very good but this afternoon they really slowed down. I'm seeing lots of buds starting so I think I'll pull the taps tomorrow night. I won't be mixing tomorows with what I started cooking today. I'm gonna keep it separate and find out if it tastes different.

I'll probably end up around 4 gallons of finished syrup. 1 less than last year

Really disappointing because I almost doubled my taps.

[muddyfootprints]

pulled in another 330 gallons of sap today, dumped sap out of about 15 buckets that smelled and looked not so good, pulled those taps. Ran out of daylight to check another 40 buckets so, maybe more sap there. Will boil tomorrow afternoon and see what happens with the rest of the trees and there buds.

weather looks pretty good but that warm spell with no frost took its toll, budding trees in March

[Peepers]

There is a guy in a diff thread who is from Rockford, IL just south of WI who has sugar maples that haven't budded yet so those of you with sugars probably have time left in the season. Silvers around here are done tho I think.
That buddy smell/taste is weird - it didn't show up until late stages when almost syrup, before that I didn't notice any weird smell/taste in the almost-syrup-water. Boiled and drew off the rest of my silver maple syrup today, gonna finish another probably gallon of buddy stuff tomorrow. Maybe a wholesaler around here will trade me a quart or two of good stuff for a gallon of buddy stuff that he can sell as grade C? who knows. I'm gonna try carbon filtering it too and see what happens.

I too almost doubled my taps this year and came out with less syrup than last year - early warm up really screwed up silver maple syrup production this year.

Anyhow I moved all my taps to some local box elders I found that don't seem to be budding at all yet. Never made all box elder syrup before so we'll see how that goes.

[Highislandmapler]

My taps came to a screeching hault yesterday as well. Hopefully I can get something in the next couple days . Weather looks more promising ,but been disappointing year so far.

[Riley/MN]

We have collected about 600 gals so far...about half of what we normally do. The buds around my place are opening up, but the taps aren't running either. I think it is time to pull taps here...

[SilverLeaf]

After a good freeze Saturday night, Sunday and Monday were absolute gushers for us. Those two days alone guaranteed that our season at least won't be a complete bust.

And then Tuesday night froze ok too so yesterday was a "mini"-gusher.

I work every Mon-Tues in St. Paul and the rest of the time from my home out here in Marshall, and I was absolutely amazed this week to see the difference in the buds between the two locales. Every silver maple in the Cities that I saw was big-time budded out with the little flowers. Out here, a few buds are swelling a bit but nothing's open yet. I think we're probably safe until early next week...

[Peepers]

It froze last night hard but didn't get warm enough today for a good run - or maybe its the dry weather killing it as we have really sandy soil here. I left one bucket on my best producing silver that only has buds on the top half. If it produces good tomorrow I'll boil some down on the stove and see if it tastes buddy.

I also have some buddy syrup sitting in a pot with a bunch of carbon in it to see if it will reduce the buddy taste some but that's a post for the filtering thread...

yeah, bummer year here but I'm glad my neighbor offered up his trees because if I wouldn't have doubled them we wouldn't have gotten much of anything.

[syrupdreamer]

Peepers, if you want some extra sap give me a call or stop by. I have 600 gallons for this weekend and could spare some. We have 31 gallons of syrup so far. I am starting to get run down with all the late nights. Plan to pull my taps on monday.

[Peepers]

Thanks for the sap dreamer! We boiled it down last night and its in a pot in the kitchen waiting to be finished. It tastes great and filtered off the evap nicely.

I made a batch of box elder syrup the other day that turned out an awesome light color and very delicious but filtering it was a PAIN. I don't know if box elders always have more sugar sand or what but I ended up with one bottle filtered after a lot of cussing and then dumped the rest into a quart jar to settle out. 30+ gallons of sap = around a quart of syrup. Sap I tested was 1%, looks like I need to pick up one of those eb4y refractometers for next year!

The evap cement blocks are falling apart so its time for the year to end for me. Next year I'm thinking of more mods - fire brick and an actual door instead of moving a cement block to fire every time (although that is good exercise!).

We ended up with around 2 gallons off of twice as many trees as last year. I figure we would have made a gallon off just our trees which would have been a third of last year. Hoping for better runs next year!

[Minnesota Acer]

I made a batch of box elder syrup the other day that turned out an awesome light color and very delicious but filtering it was a PAIN. I don't know if box elders always have more sugar sand or what but I ended up with one bottle filtered after a lot of cussing and then dumped the rest into a quart jar to settle out. 30+ gallons of sap = around a quart of syrup. Sap I tested was 1%, looks like I need to pick up one of those eb4y refractometers for next year!

We ended up with around 2 gallons off of twice as many trees as last year. I figure we would have made a gallon off just our trees which would have been a third of last year. Hoping for better runs next year!


I must sympathize with Peepers on the boxelder and the sap run this year. I too made a batch of boxelder from 20 gallons of sap and got a quart which was light colored and beautiful, but I couldn't believe the sugar sand in the bottom of the evap and how much was left in the filter with each filtering and how much made it into the final product. Fortunately, my uncle and aunt (owners of the boxelders) didn't seem to mind from what my dad reported when he delivered it. My dad suggested he pour off the syrup and discard what was left with sugar sand. My uncle told him, he'd just shake it up and that it wouldn't harm anything. :lol:

I too had a bad run, the silvers were bad compared to last year. Granted I got some taps in late, but half the silvers either didn't even give me a drop or a gallon at best. The boxelders did the best by far. Last year I had four taps (which I pulled early b/c I panicked) in two trees and pulled in 15 gallons of sap for 2 quarts of syrup. This year I had 19 taps in 14 trees and pulled in around 60 gallons sap for 1 gallon of syrup. So, I'm hoping next year is better.

[SDdave]

Hello Minnesotans!!

Since I seem to be the only one from South Dakota...well...could I post on here when I tap. Maybe this will help, I am originally from Russell, a little little town by Marshall. (I feel like the kid with a broken leg sitting on the sidelines of a kickball game:lol:)

[RileySugarbush]

Dave,

You are more than welcome to include yourself as an honorary Minnesotan. Welcome home!

[SilverLeaf]

Hello Minnesotans!!

Since I seem to be the only one from South Dakota...well...could I post on here when I tap. Maybe this will help, I am originally from Russell, a little little town by Marshall. (I feel like the kid with a broken leg sitting on the sidelines of a kickball game:lol:)

Welcome! I know Russell well. I live by Marshall, and when I was a kid we sold all our hogs to Randy Gravely in Russell.

Have to admit I'm happy to see another "prairie sugarer" here. In this part of the country most people find out about the syrup and get this quizzical look that says, "I didn't know syrup came from actual trees..." :lol:

[SilverLeaf]

SDDave - where exactly in SD are you, by the way? I saw on another thread you were thinking this spring was colder and a little behind schedule. Where I am, things so far (except of course for the gargantuan snowpack) seem more or less "normal" to me. As a general rule I tap on or about the 15th of March.

[SDdave]

I live south of Sioux Falls a bit. The temps for SF are below normal 10 to 15 degrees for daytime highs and night lows are way off. We are still getting down in the singles at night. Typically at night we should be at around 28 or so. I have noticed since I've lived down here how much the Buffalo Ridge plays in weather and temps. Last year alone my season was less than 2 weeks. I can remember back home it lasting a little longer. But my memory may be wrong. I do know that I am tapping next thursday.

[SilverLeaf]

OK, that makes sense. You do warm up first. The few times I've driven your way in the spring I've been very surprised at how noticeably different it is the closer one gets to Vermillion.

Last year was a fluke year all over the place, so I don't think your 2-week season will turn out to have been "normal". 3-4 weeks of sap should, I think, be a more average span, like you remember as a kid. Us prairie tappers can't expect the 6-week runs of our eastern counterparts. Partly because we're tapping soft maples that bud out sooner. And partly because, being closer to the great plains, our spring temps tend to fluctuate a bit more. When those warm chinook winds blow out west, we get affected a little bit by them too.

[SDdave]

So who's got sap?

I see I got a few more days of 50 degree days then a good refreeze. Hopefully enough to entice my trees to give up a little more.

Not getting swamped with sap,
SDdave

[curtis buck]

Hey, what part of SD are you in? Im north of Fergus Falls MN about 15 miles. I have 50 tapped for the past 2 weeks and only about 20 gallons of sap I hope it picks up soon! Happy tapping

[Scott O]

Curtis - Where are you north of Fergus? Over by Dent and do not have much for sap yet.

[SDdave]

Curtis- I live just south of Sioux Falls. Snow is long gone. Only got about 25 gallons of sap so far from my 25 taps. Of those 25, only 8 are producing.

Tuesday night supposed to get to a refreeze, and then freezing nightly temps thru Sat. Perhaps a "restart"? I am trying to be an optimist for my season.

SDdave

[SilverLeaf]

My trees are (finally) waking up. As of yesterday only about 1/15 had given any sort of a trickle. As of noon today about half were dripping, and some quite fast. Without a doubt I'll have enough to collect tomorrow.

:D

[elm creek guy]

Silverleaf I feel ur pain all my trees finally started yesterday but I live in a low area where its always alittle cooler. The weird thing is yesterday it was only 35 and they started the day before it was 50 and very little goin on. My dad always said when u hear the frogs croaking its time to pull your taps. With 2 ft of snow yet to go that might be awhile! Go get em!

[mntapper]

I tapped half of my trees last weekend about 175 taps, very little action this week went out today to tap the other half it was flowing like crazy by the time i was done there was about 100 gallons in the bags, then i went and checked my taps from last week and they were dripping like crazy,should be able to collect tomorrow. The snow is still over the knees so it will make collecting fun.

[Got Trees?]

We're way down in the balmy SE Corner of MN and have been tapping since 3/10. We're happy with what we think is good production (abt 170 gallons of sap total). Last year was our first year with 5 taps, this year we have 17 on maples and 3 on boxelders to try those out. Can't believe how good boxelder is... I've been eradicating them for years. My dad used to pay us kids to go into the woods and spray them.

[woody1117]

In Winona county, with 113 taps, we have made over 6 gallons so far. Hoping the weather straightens out a little. The wind keeps taking the bag holders off the trees. About a third of our trees just woke up over the weekend and I'm itching for 25 at night and 45 during the day with sun and no wind. I would also love to win the lottery and I doubt either of my wishes will happen in the immediate future.

[Minnesota Acer]

I'm in the southeast metro and the flow has been good for me this year. I have 18 taps and brought in 73 gallons thus far. Started flowing around the 15th and results have been much better than last year. Although this latest round of weather is putting a crimp in the action.

[Peepers]

I just got the taps in on the evening of 3/19 but the sap ran good all Sat night and filled all the buckets - oh yeah! Took the family out to CA for spring break and was fearing an early ending silver maple season like last year. lucked out there. Now it just needs to get above freezing again...

The lack of sap is giving me time to experiment with maple syrup and Canadian Whiskey tho - mmmmm :D

[tomslusher]

I just got the taps in on the evening of 3/19 but the sap ran good all Sat night and filled all the buckets - oh yeah! Took the family out to CA for spring break and was fearing an early ending silver maple season like last year. lucked out there. Now it just needs to get above freezing again...

The lack of sap is giving me time to experiment with maple syrup and Canadian Whiskey tho - mmmmm :D

I would be interested in hearing how that turned out and what your recipe is. It would be a good starting point. I have no problem with experimenting, I would just hate to waste good whiskey and good syrup on a bad mixture.

Also, if you like whiskey/water you might try whiskey/sap. Not too bad. Maybe I should give up on the cooking business and just collect a mix for my whiskey!!!

tomslusher

[supersapper]

Had the same thing happen, started running then crap weather. I noticed yesterday that it was running again. Slow run but then again it only got to 33-34 today.

[warners point]

Collected about 20 gallons of sap this evening. Even though it only got to 32 today the trees that had good southerly sun were giving up a very steady drip of sap. Some had a gallon of sap approaching 3%. This week looks to be really good up here.

[RileySugarbush]

We topped out at about 31 but had some reasonable flow on the south facing taps as well. The short term is iffy down here in the cities. I'm hoping to hae enough to boil on Sunday but only have about 90gal in the sacks right now so will need to have a bit warmer weather than forecast.

[lastwoodsman]

I am heading up in the morning for the week. 1 foot of snow up there so I need to open everything up again. The week looks good. Should be the peak week.
Woodsman

[StewieSugar]

Got my first so-so run last Saturday. It then got too warn for a few days, then too cold for a few days. Weather this coming week is looking good, so I'm taking off the entire week to cook. (near Chatfield MN)

[Peepers]

Yes, weather looks good for us this week! :D
The last few days have just barely gotten at or over freezing here in Hastings so the sap was just barely running. I split some more wood on Sat so I should have enough fuel for this year..

Tomslusher - the sortilege (maple liquer) recipes I found were 2 parts Canadian Whiskey to 1 part maple syrup. Put in a sealed container and shake it for a couple minutes to blend it good. One recipe I saw said to shake it daily for a week or something and let it steep for a few weeks but IMO its great fresh with no aging required. If you and your friends like whiskey and maple syrup mix some of this up and keep it in a snow bank near your evap to welcome friends/helpers.

good luck this week everyone!!!