Checking what VT sugar makers are doing

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Originally Posted by wiam

How much we make in VT has little bearing on the bulk price.

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Up here in Canada, we have been having a pretty lack-luster year. We caught the flows in late February, but we haven't boiled since March 1st. The season typically ends around April 20, so the runway is getting shorter and shorter. I know in Quebec, most places haven't even started yet.

IMO The bulk price staying stable more or less depends on Quebec having a less than average year. With 100 million pounds in the reserve before the season starts, more taps than last year, anything more than average yields will be too much for the markets to absorb in a reasonable amount of time for the federation to start moving inventory (its a lot of product for Quebec producers to have cash tied up in). The last 2 years have both seen record sales and record - FYI last year they sold 115 million pounds and produced 140 million pounds (both records or close to it).

We are at about 0.1 gpt, although producers south of us with a little warmer climate are at about 0.25 gpt.

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Originally Posted by drewlamb

Wondering what folks are doing, if anything, for open house this weekend. Working on the 10th day straight of no sap here and doesn't look to loosen up until early next week. I had registered with VMSA but pulled the plug yesterday as I don't foresee a very rich sugarhouse experience with a frozen evaporator. I have always been reluctant to do the more public VMSA open house weekend for just this reason. Plan to advertise something more locally and last minute in April, when I have a sap forecast. Have folks done open house without boiling? Or boiled... water? Not sure I could do that.

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It's always a crap shoot. Last year we didn't boil because we were frozen up and the year before we didn't boil because we were done sugaring as the trees had budded. To be honest, we haven't seen a major difference in sales between boiling and non-boiling weekends. Our best sales were last year actually...

In some ways I prefer not boiling because there is less to worry about. I don't really like having a bunch of people around watching me try to thaw out a valve or deal with all the myriad issues that sometimes pop up. When we don't boil we have other activities and generally make some food with maple syrup and do lots of syrup tastings.

Hard saying if we will boil this year as things are pretty frozen up. Prior to this cold snap we were getting sap whenever it went above freezing, but with over 3 ft. of snow on the ground and several nights at 0F, I'm not sure what will happen later this week when it does go above freezing. That March sun is pretty powerful though...

We do not boil water and will not do that. I have boiled raw sap instead of concentrate when we had just enough to be able to light the evap. and boil for a couple hours.

Sap running for people? I feel that at 30 degrees and with this kind of sun at this time of year, sap is running and pumps should be on. Sitting at my apartment in Burlington and the sun is beating through the window, lots of melting snow dripping off the roof.

I'm pretty certain it is running on the south facing taps. The question is whether I can get enough fresh sap to float the frozen solid blocks in my tanks.

In Georgia, VT, from the 6th through the 15th, I collected better than 1 gallon per tap per day, much of it in that 34-degree range. I see a couple taps that are getting blasted by direct sunlight dripping slowly right now -- one drop every 3-5 seconds -- with the stick reading 30 degrees.

Air temperature is not important -- tree temperature is.

I checked both areas tonight. Both are still sitting with frozen sap in the spouts. Boo. Need more sun!!


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Originally Posted by WestfordSugarworks

Sap running for people? I feel that at 30 degrees and with this kind of sun at this time of year, sap is running and pumps should be on. Sitting at my apartment in Burlington and the sun is beating through the window, lots of melting snow dripping off the roof.

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I turned my vac. pump back on this morning as the lines started to thaw and was able to pull in about 150 gal. this afternoon. Nothing too impressive but that was over a short period of time before things froze up again. That did enable me to get through the woods and find every last disconnected drop and get the vac. back to 27"...for now. Fortunately a friend helped me pack out snowshoe trails this weekend throughout the woods so I can move quickly and get around to fix leaks. I do have one area that is shaded by hemlocks that is completely frozen and may not thaw until some warmer weather.

With the cold nights I have no idea how much sap I will actually be able to process this weekend for the open house. I have about a 700 gal. ice cube in my raw sap tank and about 150 gal of fresh sap which is likely to become part of that ice cube. I'm likely to get sap the next several days, but how much will actually be liquid by saturday is the question.

What a weird season...

With it only 28 degrees at the house but that nice warm sun I put the pump on yesterday when I got home from work. First 5min it was coming in hard, then to nothing. So basically sucked my lines out. I'm fine with that. I gathered my daughters 13 buckets too. Mainly to snowshoe a path from bucket to bucket so she can get to them (she basically swims in the woods right now). I figured I picked up 2-3gal of frozen pucks. Nothing dripping. Hopefully that changes in the next couple days. Next week is starting to look better

I was able to get 600 gallons today. Sap started running at about 1:00 and ended at 6:30.

Spud