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Finished off the near syrup from the first boil. Ended up with two gallons of "A" AMBER RICH. From 70 gallons of sap I'm pleased. Is my understanding correct that if my syrup is darker than the "A" GOLDEN DELICATE but lighter in color than the "A" RICH AMBER it still falls into the "A" RICH AMBER category? Also, are the categories DELICATE, RICH, and ROBUST? Or perhaps GOLDEN, AMBER, and DARK? It just seems kind of wordy to say "A" AMBER RICH. Good luck all! Ted
Ted you must had some high sugar content to get 2 gallon out of 70 gallon- that is great- We have yet to finish off our near syrup - It has not run for us since Friday we are hoping for a good run today - the 10 day forecast is looking better as far as the lows go - only 2 nights above freezing for sat and sun- Bill
I was very pleased indeed with the sugar content of the first boil. I have a sap refractometer but the sap has to be within certain temperature parameters. It's kind of a pain to use. Maybe I'll mess around with it tomorrow and see if I can find out the brix on this weeks sap. I collected 70 gallons today! Maybe that's not that great on 65 buckets but compared to the 5, 10, and 15 gallons a day I've been getting today was GREAT! My grandson is coming tomorrow evening to help boil this weekend. I'm really looking forward to that! I still find it hard to believe that a 15 year old boy would rather hang out with his old grampa instead of running around with his friends on the weekend, but I'm grateful. How's the other Iowans doing so far? Good luck, and have fun. Ted
T-bear good for you! Glad someone's making syrup. What was the weather like down there today? Sun? Been raining off and on all day here. Didn't even checkem today. Hoping the next couple days will letter rip! Maybe we'll all be swimming in it by Sunday!!!!!!! I'm wondering if I'm gonna need to freshen up my tap holes. They have been dry along time. Hope there not healing up yet. Anyone else have to do this?? Well tommorrow's always the day! Good luck and God speed!!
Been rainy and gloomy here today with a high of 54°. The sap seems to run good for me when it rains. Low barometric pressure? Anyway, good luck! Ted
Looks like the rain will stop tonight, then a little light snow here in northern Iowa, next few days look great for flow. It has been slow so far, lots of frost in the ground as much as 6 - 7 feet deep. A lot of sap can flow in a short time. Have made about ten gallons so far of good quality syrup. We are going to be busy real soon.
Wow what a difference a little rain and the right temps make - Collected 150 gallons on the 170 taps- had several of the 2-1/2 gallon buckets running over - Iowa Sap you might want to check this morning as it would be a shame to loses any sap!!!! We only got to 34 last night but the house tree was still dripping - We are to be 27 tonight so that should recharge them for a great run tomorrow again - will be boiling all weekend now what a great problem to have!!!! Bill
The sap is finally starting to run here. My big yard tree is running all night and day finally. We should have plenty to start boiling today. Supposed to get warm this weekend. I made 2 quarts and a pint last weekend. Glad everyones getting started. upmep.
What a great run we have had since Thursday - We are at 12 gallons made with about 3 gallon to finish and bottle tonight and about 100 gallon of sap from yesterday run which is a bonus as we did not fall below freezing Saturday night. Will probably not run today but it is to be 26 tonight so should recharge the trees for good runs the rest of the week. Good Luck all - Let us know how it is going - Bill
Finished off just under 5 gallons this weekend. Grandson Hunter was a boiling machine yesterday. I'm holding to get one more boil in but will have to see what the weather does. As of now we've got just under 7gallons of syrup. Ted