Northern Ontario 2023

Mid march is normal. A week on either side is expected. I remember an early flow one year and it just stopped for about 3 weeks. Saw -28C on the 28th of March. Popped all my taps out of the trees. My sap here has run consistently until about the end of April. Latest I was still making good syrup was Mother's Day. Had to quit then because I was sick of the marathon syrup season and it went from sap weather to +26 within a day.
This is my 22nd year making syrup in Corbeil. I haven't tapped any trees yet.

A positive change in the long range forecast in the last eleven hours. I am sure it will change many, many times, but a glimmer of hope for the season to finally truly start.

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Swingpure.
Just shy of 30gal last year on a 5 pan block arch set up sounds like you had a busy year boiling. Wondering how your new 2x4 divide will compare in boil rate? At
My first couple years I would watch the weather like a hawk and anticipate the runs. I found it just led to being disappointed if we didn’t hit the temps predicted. Once I tap my bush and have the shack ready the long term forecast is irrelevant to me. I play it day by day. I’ll still look periodically every few days but I do that year round. I’m originally from muskoka Gravenhurst to be exact and have a couple friends in the area. Well kinda close to Perry Sound. They tap match break no matter what the weather says. They always seem to have the same year as other. Good when it’s good bad when it’s bad. They will be tapped and ready this weekend for the season.
Hope you enjoy the new divided pan and get slammed with sap over there. TV

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Originally Posted by Hkb82

Swingpure.
Just shy of 30gal last year on a 5 pan block arch set up sounds like you had a busy year boiling. Wondering how your new 2x4 divide will compare in boil rate? At
My first couple years I would watch the weather like a hawk and anticipate the runs. I found it just led to being disappointed if we didn’t hit the temps predicted. Once I tap my bush and have the shack ready the long term forecast is irrelevant to me. I play it day by day. I’ll still look periodically every few days but I do that year round. I’m originally from muskoka Gravenhurst to be exact and have a couple friends in the area. Well kinda close to Perry Sound. They tap match break no matter what the weather says. They always seem to have the same year as other. Good when it’s good bad when it’s bad. They will be tapped and ready this weekend for the season.
Hope you enjoy the new divided pan and get slammed with sap over there. TV

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Thanks.

I think the new pan, assisted by the float box allowing me to have lower sap levels in the pan, along with the base stack and 8” stack has boosted my gallons per hour by 5 gallons per hour more than last year. (8 gph last year vs 13 gph this year) It might be more, because this year’s boil rate seems to be consistent, where last year the boil rate would really fluctuate.

I know I should look out the window and go by that, but it is in my nature to look ahead. I think I was trained to do that, as we had a very reliable weather provider when I worked on the railway and we did adjust how we operated, by the 7 day forecast.

I think my time on the railway also trained me to make on the spot decisions and act. Although in my role on the railway, I did long term planning, there was always lots of day to day, hour to hour, major decisions to make and you had to make your best decision and act. My friends here now laugh at me when I come up with a project and then have to get on it right away.

Next year I will find the restraint to wait for the season to truly start, I understand now that the trees simply do not flow anywhere near as well as they do by mid March and later.

Ya a float box will definitely help ya run at a consistent depth and boil rate.

Another big thing I don’t hear mentioned very much about early February tapping compared to early/mid march tapping is the added hours of daylight. From the beginning of February to the end of March is a 2 hour gain of daylight. I figure it’s better to have fresher tap holes at those peak times during max daylight then catching the first or second run in February and having older tap holes during peak times. This year with the winter we had I was more tempted then I’ve been since my year one and two to tap in February. At the end of the day we all chose to tap when we do and for all kinds of reasons.

Hey. Putting it out there. I have an small RO system that is now surplus. I upgraded last year, mid season, to a 4x40 with a high pressure pump. My spare is a 3 chamber, 100 GPD in series with a small HP pump. Basically an RO Bucket system mounted on a plank. It pulls about 75-100 gallons of water out of the sap overnight. Let me know via private message if anyone is interested in it. Membranes have 1/4 season on them. Have been flushed and stored in citric acid.

An article in the North Bay Nugget about making Maple Syrup: https://www.nugget.ca/news/mother-na...yrup-producers

The forecast for the end of this week and especially next week is becoming more promising. I will do my third sap boil hopefully Thursday, for sure on Friday and Saturday.

I am tapping Saturday or Sunday. I will need to snowshoe my trails again after the 8" of predicted snow on Friday. Looks like it's go time around here.

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Originally Posted by aamyotte

I am tapping Saturday or Sunday. I will need to snowshoe my trails again after the 8" of predicted snow on Friday. Looks like it's go time around here.

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Good luck!

An article from the Sootoday on maple syrup: https://www.sootoday.com/local-news/...season-6691042