Tapping in Ontario

Argohauler - Yup, that's me on OHL. We've got a nice tom running around our sugar bush that I hope to put in the oven and all kinds of deer. I even saw a bald eagle on the weekend.

We're done - FINALLY!!!! I boiled out the evaporator last night. Sugar content was down and the sap was so slimy I had a terrible time getting it through the RO. Here's what my "relaxing" long weekend entailed:

Friday - I arrived at the camp at noon to help finish washing the pans. There was 700+ gallons of concentrate and 900 gallons of raw sap waiting for me (leftovers from the 4500 gallon day my brother didn't finish). I boiled until almost 10 p.m. before there was enough room in the twin 800 gallon tanks for the 2000 gallons of sap we gathered. I managed to get the raw sap tank drained and washed and the concentrate tank half empty by 4:00 a.m. but was completely exhausted so I shut down.

Saturday - Fired up by noon. Gathered another 2000 gallons sap. Everything concentrated, boiled and concentrate tank washed by midnight.

Sunday - Easy day. Drained & washed evaporator. Gathered 1100 gallons sap. Done boiling and home by 10:00 p.m. Filled containers for orders and Perth Festival of the Maples until midnight.

Monday - Delivered drums to Springdale Farm (Don & Marion Dodds) for sale to LB Maple Treats. Showed my better half how to check and adjust density of syrup being reheated on stove to fill more orders. Gathered 1800 gallons sap. Concentrate tank empty by just after 7:00 and pushed water behind sap until 8:30 to boil out as much sugar as possible. Home to Toronto by 2:00 a.m.

I think I could sleep for 3 days straight. Coffee will have to keep me propped up for now!!! All that's left to do is wash 20 miles of tubing, the evaporator and 10 storage tanks. I don't plan on seeing the inside of the sugar camp for the entire month of May!!!

Well I am going to wrap it up tomorrow. The past week was the best ,after
the snow. Got my one litre of syrup per tap, and that is just great for my little set-up.

That's book value per tree. Well done. Now you can start to concentrate on cheese balls !

Thanks. If you or anybody here ever visits Upper Canada Village, come visit.

Well 10:15pm last night we had our last boil made 5 gallons total for the season is 51 gallons not bad for no time off from the full time job and a north facing hill. Time to clean up and start cutting wood for next year!

We rounded up as many guys as we could find to help wash tubing on the weekend and went HARD. In 2 days we managed to vacuum wash about 2850 taps and all the mainline for those systems. I figure it was about 20 km of tubing and mainline. I also removed the taps and dropped the lines for about 750 taps where the lines come down every year. One more good weekend should get the cleanup done, except the evaporator - that will be done at the start of June when you can't stand the smell of the fermented sap in the pans anymore!

We'll be at the Perth Festival of the Maples on the weekend. We've got some really good entries for the competitions in light & medium syrup plus maple sugar, granulated sugar and maple butter so hopefully we come home with some ribbons and not much syrup left!

Well another fall clean up has started, we washed the bush yesterday,not leak in the system no bear bits this year and no blow downs, it was one of the quickest wash's we ever done, just need to finish piling the wood and clean out the sugar shack. Another season is just around the corner,can't wait!;)

Well let it snow, let it snow. About a foot down last night and 2.5 more to come Sunday. Just wish I had the time to finish all the prep beforehand.

Hello just getting started, Trying to figure out whether to go buckets or tubing. I am going to start with about 20 taps. Any suggestions would be welcome. Thanks In advance

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Originally Posted by rocnron

Hello just getting started, Trying to figure out whether to go buckets or tubing. I am going to start with about 20 taps. Any suggestions would be welcome. Thanks In advance

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That's like debating Ford vs Chev vs Dodge and you'll get different opinions from everyone. Gravity tubing will generally not produce as much sap as buckets, unless you have some long runs with lots of slope and many taps (say 30+ per line). For the number of taps you have I'd suggest starting with buckets. Thay take more time to gather but the difference won't be that great for a small operation.

Good luck!