Tapping in Ontario

Wow, looking at the forecast here.. .if it just gets a couple degrees warmer during the day we are going to have a heck of a week... most nights -7, most days about zero with sun...

Didn't freeze last night. Boiled 450 gals. today and got caught up again. Took off 42 litres putting me up to 410 now.

Weather is cold and snow coming tonight. Some lows are going to be minus double digits. Wonder what it will look like when we emerge from it. Will it be normal syrup weather or will it spike. It's late in March for us in the sunny south.

ennismaple, You are correct in regards to sugar sand. Last year I was able to filter practically a 55 without a paper change on the press. This year I can't get a 40 gallon SS barrel full and I have to put in some new papers. What really torks me off is why the syrup went from light amber to dark amber on the second day of boiling and the sap on the second time was clear and not nearly as old as the first boil. It has me stumped!

Finished and bottled 2 batches today. The first batch was boiled down on March 19th and was 80:1. I could not believe it! Second batch was Boiled down on March 22nd. and came out at 43:1, getting better. Anyone ever seen that before? This is gravity tube system so no water was introduced to the sap in case you are wondering. I should probably charge about $40.00/L on that first batch eh?

Well we've got 5 - 6 inches of snow and it's still coming. I wish it had froze first instead of the cold minus double digit lows after. It's gonna make getting around the bush difficult now all the ice and frost are gone. Likely going to get hung up some.

I would like to know how you guys in Elgin and anywhere to the southwest are finding this year?

My year is better than last, but poor.

After yesterday's boil we're at 0.5L/tap, which is probably standard for our area. Our sugar content did suck the first few days (50:1 or worse) but it's improved and has been at 40:1 or slightly better since late last week.

Brian , I guesstimated in a post last week that the first runs was about 70-1. Was almost normal later in the week. One strange thing, NO sugar sand when filtering????? The last two days have been too cold, below freezing all day, everything is all froze up here.

We have made 42gallons to date off 650 taps. About 50% of our taps are reds and although our totals are low for our tap count its much better than last year. Mostly dark and amber grades.
Ian

Timbers do you know the Chamber's from Villa Nova or the Watt's around Townsend?

If you do, do you know how they are making out this year?

What a difference a year makes! Things are frozen up real good now and will stay that way for a while but should bode well for another run in a week or so.
My totals are abut 1/2 l. per tap so far which is better than I got all last year, which was one of the poorest. I used my new sap hydrometer and floated it in the head tank and showed 2.6% this week - not sure if this is good or not since I haven't done it before?

I agree with the filter clogging comments - my prefilters are clogged in no time.