Lets call it weather not favorable for sap runs:lol:
Printable View
Lets call it weather not favorable for sap runs:lol:
Doing my last boil tomorrow. Taps were already pulled and we are finishing up our sap in The Thumb. Checked on the sap yesterday and it's still cool, tastes good and does not smell. Four our first full year of making maple syrup, it's been great.
We pulled our taps on the 22nd. The sap is still flowing but some of the yard trees were starting to bud. We dumped some sap that smelled "yeasty" whether it was from the yard trees or woods trees. Bottled total for the season is 33.5 gallons. That's above what we were estimating for this year (and 10 gallons more than last year's total).
33.5Gal from 100 buckets?Quote:
Originally Posted by ebliese
Don't underestimate the bucket. Some years they produce great. One year we made 700+ gallon from 1300 ish taps on buckets. Tree+weather+ sugar conc.
When we still did buckets, 5gal plastic, some nice 30" trees in the grove by sugar shack. some days had to empty twice.
Yeah, it surprised us, too. Technically it was 106 taps (we have drops going into buckets). We ran out of firewood and bottles. As Ed R said, the weather can play a factor. This season was longer for us, even though we tapped about a week later than others in the SW MI area. We had a lot of freeze/thaw cycles as well as precipitation (whether rain or snow). Definitely a muddy season and also seemed to be a cooler March. There were multiple collections where we had full buckets, even right up to the end. That also shows our sanitation methods were good. We are very happy with the results but realize it won't be like this every year.Quote:
Originally Posted by iamtreavis
My trees are not showing any signs of budding yet. Looking at extended forecast may be able to make it into April.