Northern Ontario 2024

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Originally Posted by 4Walls

That's awesome. Don't jinx us northerners.

For reference and because I don't know how to have the fancy stats at the bottom of the post. I have 565 taps on gravity vacuum. 4x40 RO with a SS procon pump head. 2x8 70's vintage D&G arch with 2007 D&G SS flat bottom continuous flow pans. The whole beast is fired with pure filtered used veggie oil and runs really really hot. Saves me a cord of wood a day. Filtered through my open source SS 8 gallon vacuum filter rig. It is a 1 man operation.

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Well I guess I got lucky and didn't jinx us. Even though the weather was not as expected this week I've had a good run on the days I thought were going to be dry days. I will have a good boil for Easter after all

If you want the fancy stats at the bottom of your post here's how. Go to settings in the upper right corner of the page beside the log out tab click the settings tab there will be an edit signature tab on the left side column of the page. There is were you can add fancy stats to your posts.

Just got back from the bush and collected 400L, what a surprise. Haven't been there in 4 days . It's full flow today +3* and snow flurries, go figure.

Good flow today.
500 gallons but the sugar content is 1.2 %
2024 is officially over for us.

I pulled my taps on the lines today, as yesterday was my last boil and I had met all of my goals. It pained me to do it as the sap was running well as I was doing it. These are the lines that I tapped mid December.

Still some more cleanup to do.

My Buddy a little south of me has been overwhelmed with sap. This has been a good season.

Not sure what is happening. My syrup is getting lighter as the season goes on. Might be because we had a really cold spell down to the minus teens for a few days and it tricked the trees to thinking its the start of the season again. Might be from the UV light killing off any bacteria and yeast. Either way. Still very vanilla and marshmallow flavours coming out the end.
Yesterday I only collected 140 gallons which surprised me. Was expecting more from a -5 night to a +4 day. It was quite windy here and I know the trees dont like that too much for sap production. Currently -5 this morning and shaping up to be a bluebird day at +5 with no wind. Fingers crossed. The spring songbirds are out in full force and greeted me with my coffee to a lovely soundscape.

My syrup last week was lighter than the previous 2 batches. Today's batch was dark like my first two. Sugar content is down on the last 2 at 50:1.

The last three days would have been flow days and it looks like there might be five more before one would call the season over.

I am still cleaning stuff and putting stuff away. I should be all done today. I am glad I stopped when I did, because I was done. I think to do sugaring for many years, it is much easier to keep doing it when you have family and friends helping and being part of the process. I started the hobby too late in life to make it a family tradition, and I had zero tradition myself, before starting.

I made 4.5L of syrup on Friday. Back in the shack today boiling down what I collected so I have storage space. I will probably take Wednesday off and do a final boil.

Boiled my 400L from my collection on the 28th + another 50L from my yard trees from the past couple days. Family had a great time helping, loved the syrup and were able to take some home. Will bottle the remainder tomorrow and back to the bush for another big collection on tuesday. Then it will be day by day after that.

Collected another 400 litres today from the past 4 days, still flowing good and still clear. Sugar content must be decent as I got 14 litres bottled from my last 450 litres I boiled on Sunday.