Backyard Syrup Enthusiasts 2022

I emptied some buckets yesterday, then woke up to very full ones today! Will RO and boil tomorrow. Probably the last big run here in Southern Maine, maybe some trickles over the weekend. I just successfully made maple sugar this week for the first time (after my "fluff fail" which is not so much of a fail as my wife is really enjoying the product!), and I think I may turn everything I make from this run into sugar for storage purposes as I'm nearly out of bottles.

But to the title of my post: Looking for ideas and reactions on hosting a small maple event. We're hosting a maple Sunday on our street and having neighbors over from the other 11 houses on the street to enjoy maple goods and pancakes. Here's what I have so far:
- I'm planning of having pump bottles for 3 grades of syrup for tasting: Golden delicate, light amber, dark amber.
- I also plan on having bottles of sap and concentrate from the RO for tasting comparisons.
- I'm going to try to make maple taffy on some blocks of ice (or does it have to be snow/shaved ice. Inexperienced doing anything but snow).
- I'll have the maple syrup and maple sugar bottles out for giving away as well.
- I thought about having a donation basket and giving the proceeds to a cause (Ukraine relief, food pantries, etc.).
- Have the evaporator going if I have sap to boil
- Have a fire pit going (forecast is for 45 and cloudy with light winds)

Thanks all! Hope everyone has a great week of boiling!

Sounds like you have quite the event planned. I think the raw sap and RO concentrate tasting is a great idea for comparison. I saw someone who set up a decent size maple log outside the sugarhouse upright and let people drill holes and put a tap in(A great use for old used taps)Sounds like a good addition for all ages.
Where about in southern Maine are you located?

I hope your event goes well! Great way to introduce the neighbors to maple, though you might loose access to trees if the neighbors take up maple!

I'm stashing clear sap from this current run, and quite the last hoorah it is. Twenty more gallons will give me two more boils of 80 gallons each, which should put me at 20 for the season. Looks like Sunday and Tuesday. Happy boiling!

Sap was running hard last night at 9 PM. The big run near the end is upon us. Expecting full totes today.

Glad to hear it was running good. Hopefully the same in nearby Sumner. Hopefully our game cam sends us some pictures of our tank. Ran decent in Lewiston yesterday. 125 gallons or so. About a gallon per tap. Its still pulling in this morning but slowing down.

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Originally Posted by NhShaun

Sounds like you have quite the event planned. I think the raw sap and RO concentrate tasting is a great idea for comparison. I saw someone who set up a decent size maple log outside the sugarhouse upright and let people drill holes and put a tap in(A great use for old used taps)Sounds like a good addition for all ages.
Where about in southern Maine are you located?

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I'm in Gorham. Great idea about the maple log and having tapping opportunities!

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Originally Posted by West Sumner Sugar

Glad to hear it was running good. Hopefully the same in nearby Sumner. Hopefully our game cam sends us some pictures of our tank. Ran decent in Lewiston yesterday. 125 gallons or so. About a gallon per tap. Its still pulling in this morning but slowing down.

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I imagine it did, we emptied the tanks Wednesday night and we had 485g this morning at 6 AM when I went to work so it ran hard all night and was still running pretty good.

Update: 655g collected and still running. Sap still at 2%, been 2% all year for us. Boiling!

This looks to be the end. Cleaned up in Lewiston today, taps pulled, lines washed, tanks, vacuum pump cleaned. It was a good day for it. Tanks in Sumner have been filling all week but this will probably be it for us. Either way it's been a great year. Sugar content has been kinda low but sap gallons has been up. We have already surpassed our best year by quite a bit. Hoping to pull another 10 gallons this weekend, finish up bottling...and fill 2 barrels for barrel aged syrup.

It's a wrap here as well. I finished boiling yesterday with 80 gallons of average 2.7% sap to give me over 2 gallons of syrup and 20.7 gallons for the year! Very excited! If I use that up before next season I'll look into counseling. My ssc was up because I cut out several trees that were <2, and there were a couple of big sugars running like crazy (albeit late) that were near 3%. I passed up low 2% sap I had saved to add in the higher ssc sap upping my return. In end I left 50 gallons in what's left of the snowbank.

Great year, lots of sap. I hauled over 850 gallons one 5 gallon bucket at a time. This is a week point looking ahead. I'm not as limber as I used to be. I did use the van to go up and down the road, but a lot of lugging off road. Something to consider for next year.

Big success was the second arch---a real efficiency boost. I also experimented with a small run of tube hooking three trees_into one bucket. This also proved efficient and I'll consider where I can expand on this. I think next year I'll also keep a closer tab on what trees are producing what ssc level to remove those under producers earlier in the game. If sap is abubdant, why mix in low ssc stuff which waters down the total and increases boiling time. I also need to expand the sap and carp woodshed to hold 2 cords (it's 1 now) which will put more wood where it needs to be--less tractor hauling mid season.

Time to move onto a new hen flock, a couple of porkys, meat birds, and bees again, and the venerable garden. I hope everyone has a great maple off season! See you in 2023.

We also called it today. Been boiling every night this week to keep the fresh sap coming. Some of the sap today tasted a little funky so we dumped 75 gallons and left the valves open. Also our best year yet. Around 60 gallons. A lot to bottle to get final numbers and we bought a 15 gallon barrel for some bulk storage. Haven’t graded the last run but it’s a light dark, I’m guessing low 40’s LT and that’s as low as it got. Great year for sure, nice to have a 5 week season for a change!