2019 Tapping in Western Pennsylvania

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Originally Posted by sbedilion

hahahaha. :lol:

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I have a little different issue than some. On March 16 and 17 is our Northwest PA Maple Syrup Taste and Tour, we will have 150 to 200 visitors per day standing outside the door of the sugarhouse expecting maple products to be ready for their tasting and maybe even take home some for their pancakes.
So we must get the electric blankets out and the real long extension cords for all road side trees. Sure is great all the folks let me plug those in to there outside electric! Humm, wonder what there bill looks like in the spring around April fools day? We also have little roadside chats with the sugar maples, kind of like a fire side chat only colder. Then we also take requests and deliver them what ever they need to PRODUCE SAP NOW!!! Ok you get the idea.!:)
We are in crazed syrup making mode.
Hope my evaporator is ok after the 6 degrees F last night? I did put a electric heater in the arch. Yea ran the cord over to the neighbors too! He he he:).
Regards,
Chris

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Originally Posted by HowardR

Thank you Chris. You can find three of my latest inventions (my homemade RO, my stovetop evaporator and my Star San tube pump) under my signature. I've described them all in threads here at mapletrader.com.

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That is crazy mad scientist stuff, I love it! I've got to find a smaller table for our RO but it's working fine for us now, just a tight squeeze to get into the cars.

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deacm, I'd tap before this weekend. The rule of thump for buckets is the tap holes last 6 weeks if it's not too warm. Tapping now puts you to the beginning of April. You are in a relative cold area but, not a lot of great syrup is made around here in April. Good luck!

Chris, hope you made out ok. I drained my evaporator for this cold spell. I don't have a cord long enough to reach the neighbors!

If things work out I should be done for the season Monday?

Tapped today for upcoming weekend,last two years have been rough for sap,hopefully this year will be better. Good Luck to all!

slammer,

You haven't missed much by tapping this late. The first run at the beginning of February got cut off after a few days by warm weather. Last week's run got cut off after two days by cold weather. If the forecast is correct, this run will last a week or two.

10day forecast looks goooood. Im sitting on 50gallons of consentrated sap (6%). Luckily we got snow and I packed it really well. Boiling Friday on the new evaporator that I built this week. Also have close to 200gal of sap to collect and process on Friday. Its going to be a busy weekend/week.

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Originally Posted by sbedilion

10day forecast looks goooood. Im sitting on 50gallons of consentrated sap (6%). Luckily we got snow and I packed it really well. Boiling Friday on the new evaporator that I built this week. Also have close to 200gal of sap to collect and process on Friday. Its going to be a busy weekend/week.

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We're headed out of town for a week on the 1st, I'm hoping that I can keep up with everything until Wednesday night, then I'll rinse & store my buckets until we get back.

Sun came out and the trees woke up after last week's cold spell. Nice run today.

HowardR: Sounds like your season is progressing well! Right now it seems steady. Cool down for about 4 days, and a
good run for 3 days or so. It makes it easy to keep up. I started a part time job a couple of weeks ago
and will certainly need to make adjustments whenever we get dumped on!

Paddymountain,

Yes, we are getting the same weather pattern here. But I won't complain so long as the days off are due to cold weather!

Based upon the forecast a few days ago, I thought that this week would be one long continuous run -- but the latest forecasts (weather.com and accuweather.com) call for below freezing temperatures all day on Monday and Tuesday.