Took 8 hours yesterday with startup and shutdown to boil down 690 gallons so getting good evaporation rate with a 2x8. Got to 27 last night, so hopefully get a small run today and tonight from it and boil again tomorrow PM.
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Took 8 hours yesterday with startup and shutdown to boil down 690 gallons so getting good evaporation rate with a 2x8. Got to 27 last night, so hopefully get a small run today and tonight from it and boil again tomorrow PM.
Boiled off 535 today that collected yesterday. Evaporator running good took 5 hours and 45 minutes with startup and shutdown. Hope to collect about 250 more tomorrow and boil that down and wait for the four day freeze we are supposed to get next week. Don't think we will get any off the south sides next week which will be in 11 weeks but the north sides should still run decently as they have only been in for 8 weeks by the time it warms up again next week. In low 60's today and supposed to be 59 tomorrow before cool off. Sugar content is low. Only about 7.5 gallons of syrup today and grade dark med or dark.
Sounds like you guys down south are having a good year this year.
Been an average year this year. Last year was a great year and this year and been struggle through the season but a good season regardless. Boiled 275 gallons yesterday and supposed to be cold today until thursday and hopefully at least one more run before we call it quits. Anything past March 21st is a bonus as that is normal end of the season. South sides are probably done after 10.5 weeks but north sides only have 7.5 weeks on them and about 300 taps, so hoping for one more good run from those. 6705 gallons of sap so far and aprox 128 gallons of syrup.
Thursday started week # 12 and the Lord keeps blessing. We had our annual open house yesterday with a good turnout which was by far the latest we have ever had it and well after normal end of the season. Collected 455 gallon of sap that ran from thurs to Sat morning and boiled during the open house while wife and mother-in-law were serving free pancakes and maple syrup for the visitors. We are about 90% sold out of syrup already and should be around 135 gallons for the year. Bitter cold again and getting more snow as I speak. Looks like one more small run tomorrow until Tues morning and we are done for the year. That will put us 2 days short of 12 full weeks since starting tapping just before sap started running. Syrup is dark but not strong at all and very good syrup. We are at aproximately 60 gallons light, 50 medium and the rest is dark. We never got a big extended run all season but a lot of small runs and smaller boils but in the end we are going to be about 10 gallons of syrup per tap. So far, 7160 gallons of sap. If you guys up north can have same type of season I had it will turn out to be fairly good. We are ending season with around 750 taps.
Boiled off 330 gallons Tues night after waiting for electric to come back on for 6.5 hours. Ended season with 7490 gallons sap and 141.5 gallons of syrup. Sugar very low this year but rather have lot of sap and lower sugar vs good sugar and little bit of sap. March was a record month. We made 101.5 gallons of syrup in March which was after all of the taps being in 5 to 8 weeks starting March other than a few buckets and taps I added in the middle of the month.
Brandon,
That's a lot of boiling. Thanks for the update. Your sugar content was pretty good to make that much syrup!
Regards,
Chris
Not very good sugar, 53 to 1 ratio.
Brandon,
I boiled again in April, basically batching the flue pan sap with the front pan, two years in a row! This global warming thing is killing us? Lol.
My cousin and I visited the rookies camp in the sinks, he had is best day ever on 4-1-14. Over 18000 gallons of sap. We stayed all afternoon on 4-2-14 to celebrate his 100th barrel.
Not bad for a rookie season! He told us his releaser from the 12000 plus mountain was dumping every 30 sec. Syrup grade was near fancy, he is hoping to make it to the 15th. He caught a good freeze Saturday night. And if the weather forecast is correct for his elevation and location should catch to more good freezes this week.
My cousin had another good season, over 1000 gallon from his 2900 taps, again not bad production for a non-maple producing state!
I'll keep you posted as I hear more from the high mountains.
Mark 220 Maple
Been an odd year, Too cold for many runs and too late of a thaw when it did run. Higher then normal sugar content made up of it a little. Time to get the taps all cleaned up and get the camp ready for summertime.