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I live in iowa, and since we don't have a space yet for tapping updates I was wondering if anyone on here is from Iowa and has tapped their trees yet? I tapped about 2 weeks ago and have only gotten about 15 gallons of sap so far. It turned off cold and snowy. I hope this won't hurt things later when it starts to flow. My taps are just gravity flow. Anyone else out there from iowa?
upmep We too are in Iowa around Ames area- We tapped 3 weeks ago when we had several nice days in the 40's. We gathered around 50 gallons of sap on 90 taps. We cooked 2 different times and just got it down to about 3 gallon total. We will finish when we have more to add to it. We are shooting to put in another 30 taps on hard maples to be at 120 total. We do have the ability to tapped a lot of silvers but will see how our new arch works this year. Where are you located and how many taps do you have out? Great to know someone else is making syrup in Iowa!! Bill
I live in southeast iowa. I tap silvers and box elders mainly. I don't have any sugar or black maples to tap. I've only gotten about 15 or 20 gallons of sap so far so I don't really have enough to start the evaporator. My trees have mainly stopped since this last cold snap. It looks like it should warm up toward the end of next week. How much sap have you gotten lately? This will be my 4th year. Last year I made a few gallons of syrup. I hope it doesn't go straight to being too warm this year. I put in about 50 taps usually.
We had a little run yesterday. It looks like that later in the week it is really going to start running. we have 30 taps on silvers and they have been really sporadic. keep us informed with how it is going? Will post as things get going here. What are you boiling on? We have a flat pan that is 28" x 76" we built a new arch for it this year. We have been cooking woth it on a block arch. We are hoping for 20gph. Good Luck Bill
Henry County checking in! I haven't tapped yet this year but I'll probably start next Friday(3/8). I usually tap in mid-February but I've decided that may be a little early for me. It seems as though the sap here doesn't really get going till the first week or so in March. It's nice to hear from other Iowans! Have fun!
Hey there getting ready to put 100 in around the Eldora area, this weekend. Looks like the forcast is good. Of course we know how acurate those guys have been!:lol: Hey TBear good to see your back at it again! Im trying to get another arch made up in time for this season. I seem to put the pro in crastination! Tap on Iowans!!
Right on IowaSap! I understand about that "waiting till the last minute" phenomenon. Ive been running around like I'm on fire! I'm still looking at the ten day forecast. I'll probably start tapping this weekend however I'd like to see more sun in the forcast. What can I say? I'm a farmer; I have to complain about the weather! Good luck everyone and have fun!
We put out 14 more taps last night. We are up to 104 with a few more to get out. We collected around 30 gallon and plan to start boiling saturday. Looks like the weather is going to give us some warm days going forward. This last 10 inches of snow was tough to do the side hills!!!
It would be nice to have an iowa page. Its nice to see their are more people making maple syrup here in iowa. I think I got my taps in a little early. I have maybe 23 gallons of sap with about 48 taps out. I might put out a few more. I hope to start the evaporator this weekend, but I do it outside and don't have a cover for it. They are talking rain on Saturday. My evaporator is a 55 gallon barrel I had lengthened, with a 2' x 4' pan with a preheater. I probably only get about 15 gallons per hour boiled off. Keep in touch everyone.
Just put in 85 yesterday then the batteries died! Gonna put in another 15 to 20 on some homemade sap sack holders in stead of buckets and see how they hold up. All my relatives up in Mn. seem to like them but I'm a lil worried about the coons and squirels chewing holes in them. Most taps were wet yesterday nothing rocking yet though. Upmep I wouldn't be to worried about 15 gph that's awful good!! Do you run a blower on that? My old 2x3 would maybe do 8gph on the best of days. My new evap is being built locally and the pan is coming from out of state, hopefully it gets here in time.
we boiled down another 50 gallons this morning. We then added that to the other 2 boilings and ended up with 10 quarts and 2 12oz jars. It is a very light amber not sure what the grade would be. We are getting rain today and the taps are dripping slowly. Good to hear other updates from around the state.
Just got back from checking our taps and we got maybe six or seven gallons. 3 were kind of yellow, I hope its not getting close to the trees budding. I am hoping next week it will really run. I would like to try making some of those pvc sap sack holders. Keep me updated on the sap sack holders and the new evaporator. Bnb you've got a good start up there. I hope my sap lasts okay till next week, alot of it is full of ice from the cold weather up till now.
The weather just will not cooperate!! We are cold again today with 4-8 inches of more snow on the way. They are saying to be in the 40's again by Wednesday. Upmep our trees are not even fully thawed yet. I would think we are just getting started. We have had some yellow but think it is from the rain running in from the tree and staining the sap? Good luck Bill
Boiled my first 50 gals. today! Took awhile for everything to get running smoothly so my hourly rate was a little off but everything is up and running now. I think this will be our weekend! Emptied buckets this morning and they're already running over now. My grandson will be here tomorrow night and my son has volunteered to pull the first overnight boiling shift (if necessary). I'm pretty excited! Ted
We are starting to get some good runs here. We gathered 40 gallons last night and about 10% of the trees on the bottom of north facing hills have not started yet. We are looking at ideal conditions for the next 7 days at least. We will start boiling in the morning. Ted what are you using for an evaporator? Are you on the Iowa river basin? We fish up by Union occasionaly and there appears to be alot of nice silvers along there. Upmep any sap down your way? Good luck to all!! Bill
Mine are finally starting to run also. I got maybe 17 gallons of sap yesterday. I started boiling last night. I overestimated my boil rate. I am probably lucky to get 5 gallons an hour boiled down. I made some of the sap sack holders also. I went to kum and go and offered to buy some ice bags and they just gave me 10. They seem to be working well. They have the drawstring on top to keep the rain and bugs out. How deep does everyone keep the sap in the boiling pan to get the best boil rate? Bnb glad to hear its running up there. Glad to hear how its going everywhere. I need to go check the evaporator so I better get going.
Well I put out my last 17 taps for a grand total of 101. I'm trying 3 different sap sack holders. Two homemade and the regular one you can buy. I made some out of wood and some out of 4 in. pvc. The run was pretty light today so I hope we don't get any wind. That's one of my big concerns with sacks. Big wind and little sap!! Also just got my new pan and preheater in today from stainlessstealcreations out of Wisconsin. Now if I can get my new hotrod evap. done in the next couple of days I'll be in business! Going to pull sap tomorrow, buckets seem to have about a gallon average. Not heavy but a start. Hoping for 1200 gal. this year! Need to build back supply after last year. God speed!
We boiled down 100 hundred gallons yesterday and has another 50 that we boiled today. We had our first use of the emergency sap bucket yesterdqay. We had it down to about 1/2 inch in the pan and was losing boil fast. We added wood and put to much in.We had a hard boil and it all foamed in about 30 seconds. Lucky we had a 5 gallon bucket of sap sitting for this type of problem. We added the sap and pulled it off the fire. We did end up finishing and botting 2-1/2 gallon. We are up to 5 gallon so far. Upmep we run the pan at 2 inches. We try to feed the fire every 10 minutes. We have the wood split to the size of your wrist. Iowa Sap what did you get for a pan? Are you running a divider pan? Would like to see 1 operate as our is a flat pan. We are to get cold again this week. Looks like Thursday for the next big runs.
Well, we boiled off 75 gal. on Friday, 70 on Saturday and ended up with 2.5 gals of the finest syrup I've made so far. Wonderful stuff! We still have about 4 gals. of sweet in the pan. I'm not sure if I should finish it off or wait a bit to see if I can squeeze out one more good day of boiling. I think bnb is right and we won't get much sap till later in the week so I'll probably empty the pan and finish off the sweet tomorow or the next day. It looks like we've boiled off about 190 gals. so far. It sure was fun having my grandson with me this weekend. He's fourteen or fifteen. It was him and my son (35) who boiled outside yesterday. Before they got started I told them that since Hunter (grandson) had the most experiance he would be the lead man and Josh (my son) would be his assistant! Hunter absolutely beamed! I went out after they had been running awhile and there was Hunter saying "Uncle Josh you should probably fire the evap, skim the pan good and bring out some more firewood". It was kinda comical. He (Hunter) is on fire. He wants to set up his own evap. Even now there are differant drawings of how he will build it sitting on my desk. A good "clean" hobby. Anyway...bnb, I use a block evap with a 2x4 flat pan. And no we're not in the river basin. We're in Henry county. But you are right. There's a lot of nice looking trees down there. IowaSap, 1200? Really? Man! I'd like to see that! Upmep, The sap depth kinda depends on how dilligent you are! My evap is rather jee-whampus (AKA not level) so I try to keep 2 inches in the lowside. But I do tend to daydream about a REAL evaporater, long and heavy sap runs and other very important things. Best to all, Ted
I was surprised this morning when I checked a couple of buckets in my yard. They were completely full and sap was running on the ground. I emptied all 60 and ended up with 75-80 gals. I thought the run was done for a few days.
we went out tonight and the sap is flowing. It was 30 degress but the sun was shining bright. We ended up with about 50 gallons of sap. We are planning to try and cook down tomorrow after work.
I boiled down about 104 gallons of sap down to a little less than 2 gallons of syrup. I tap some box elder which don't have the sugar content. Tbear it sounds like you have gotten you're grandson addicted to the maple syruping. It looks like the sap is going to get really slow or not at all according to the weather. Hopefully its not done. Thanks for the advice on pan depth.
Man it's chilly! All my buckets and bags are sitting there frozen! We mighnt be pulling sap well into April if this keeps up. I guess it's a good thing, my new evap. is suppose to be done this week. Bnb, i just got a flat 2x4 with a preheater made up my old one was 2x3 with no preheater. I thought about the dividers but I've never really understood the things to be honest. I'm hoping with the preheater, lil bigger pan and forced air that I can bump up my boil rate quite abit. If all else fails I'll just fire up both of them. My forcast is looking pretty cold until next week sometime. Got a feeling when the weather does break were gonna have trouble keeping up! God speed Iowa tappers!
Boy are we slow and cold. We are getting some good snow again today. Boiled down 65 gallons that we collected since Wednesday. Just left the sweet in the pan as it is to be cold until Wednesday. They are calling for nice temps starting again on Wed. Hope it does not warm up too fast as we still need to make a lot of syrup to cover all the preorders!!!
The sap tap got turned on yesterday. Collected 80 gallons on 112 taps. They are calling for lows in the mid 40's by end of the week. Hope they are wrong on that. We need another couple of weeks if possible.
Well this should be the day! Pulled about 80 gal. of ice in my buckets yesterday. By noon it was starting to slow drip a few taps. Forcast looks good here. Time to turn on the sap!
We clooected 70 gallons yesterday on 112 taps. We also cooked down the 80 gallons from Monday and added it the 65 gallons from the weekend. Ended up witha 4 gallons of syrup which equals 36 galloon of sap for a gallon of syrup. that is the best we have ever done. Granted we have a lot more hards tapped this year but the sugar content seems to be running high. Good luck all- Bill
Awesome- 36:1 is outstanding!! :)
Well my high hopes are starting to dwindle. Pulled 90 gal. yesterday for a grand total of 160 so far. Most years I pull more then that on one good day. Really thought the last two days would have been great. Many trees were but probably half were dry. Worried that maybe they started to heal up but even cleaning up the hole again with the bit did nothing. The forcast is looking like another 4to5 days of good weather then summer will be here. On a good note I did think my suger level was way up also. I'm starting to wonder if I'm feeling the effect of last years drought now!
As Phill Robertson would say "nobody happy happy happy" Hope everyone else is doing better.
Frank
We are having the same problem in our area. We only collected 50 gallon on friday and 20 gallon saturday. They are calling for a couple of cold nights Monday and Tuesday and I hope that gets them flowing again. The silvers that we have just have not done anything all year and we were also thinking it was from the drought. We are at 715 gallon of sap with 18.5 gallon of syrup. Our goal was to do 30 gallon so I think we are going to come up short. What is happening down in the S.E. corner of the state? Frank where are you located? Good Luck to all I hope we have another week left!!! Bill
I'm going to pull the plug Monday (southeast Iowa). I'm having an ongoing problem with an off taste that's very frustrating. Hoping to find some answers or suggestions before next season. The sap has continued to run here but the trees (silver's) are getting too far along and are almost ready to flower. I feel that I have enough problems without adding possibly buddy sap to the list. On an up note: I am very pleased with the 2.5 gals. of what I consider good syrup. And people seem to like/prefer the syrup (3.25 gal.) that I don't care for. They say it has more flavor and I say yes but the flavor is bad! Maybe I'm too picky? Anyway, it's been a strange and wonderful season. At long last I feel confident with my equipment and process. Maybe that'll change but I' beginning to think it's now a matter of timing, when to tap. Good luck to all! Best regards, Ted
Bnb I dont think were to far apart. I'm in the Eldora area. I've been tapped since the 8th of march. Cooked down only bout 180 total now. And I thought last year was the worst I'd ever see! Maybe this week will give me a good hard run. My soft maple out back is looking pretty buddy. Luckily I'm tapped on hard maples. We'll see.
T-bear you didn't by chance get a new filter this year did you? I got a new wool filter one year and must not of gotten it rinsed out enough. Gave my whole batch a weird taste. Had to do alot of refiltering and it never did get totally gone. Just a thought.
Frank
We tapped the 2nd week of Feb- As of Saturday we are at 715 gallon of sap 18.5 gallon finished syrup- We were really warm over the weekend and did not get much of anything- We were down to 24 last night so hoping for some big runs this week- I think our silvers will be done after Wednesday this week - Will update again after we collect tonight- Frank good luck this week- Ted sorry to hear your taste issue has not went away - Upmep are you done also?
Okay, so I've got some "closure" to my off taste problem. Come to find out that I like the light amber but not the dark amber syrup. There wasn't an actual "off" taste involved merely the differance in taste between the two (light and dark). All I can say in my own defence is that Mrs. Butterworth ruined my taste buds! I think this is a perfect case of getting into something (that I know NOTHING about) because it sounds like fun. I know so very little that I couldn't even tell when I got it right! I guess I shouldn't have dumped that 2.25 gals. down the drain as others that I have given samples to (around here) prefer it. Wow! What a year. Oh, and Frank? I guess it wasn't the filter:). And Bill? 715! Good on ya! I don't remember who started this thread but Thank You! It's been a nice way for us Iowans to keep in touch. Though my seasons done I'll be checking in on the forum for awhile yet so you folks have fun and good luck. Ted
What a great week for sap - collected 140 gallon yesterday - finished another 3 gallon that went back to a lighter color- we had another freeze last night so should run good today - our weekend is looking warm so may be over after that- Ted glad you got your "taste issue" figured out. It has been a fun and frustrating season.
Well I pulled a whopping 50 gal. yesterday.:rolleyes: It was running pretty good yesterday evening when I checked so I have big hopes for today. It does look like its coming to an end I need these next couple of days to salvage my season. T-bear good to hear you figured it out. You must just have more refined taste!! ;) Bnb your really doing well on what I would call a very strange year. Good on ya. Gotta go pull sap hears hoping its a tub buster!
Later on Frank
"Thanks guys", he mumbled, with downcast eyes and a sheepish grin. My brother stood right in front of me, pointing at me, laughing his ### off! I never did like him much :). Bill: it sounds like you're knocking them dead! Frank: I've got my fingers crossed for you. Go get 'em! It reminds me of the first year I had my new pan, I think I collected 20 gals. of sap. Not even enough to bother boiling. It was kinda depressing. Good luck everyone! And have fun! Ted
Writing from the sugar shack. We have collected just under 300 gallon the last 2 days. We got down to 30 last night so hoping for 1 last good run today. We finished another 3 gallon last night to bring out total up to 25.2 gallon. Still have over 100 gallon in the tank to get cooked here this morning. Will let you know how we finish up
Well I've collected 350 total. cooked down the first 180 made some of the lightest amber I've ever seen. Looks like honey! the other 190 is down close, ready to filter and bottle. I'm looking at 11 gal of finish!! I'm hesitant to even type those numbers. I cant believe the sugar content! So that is the bright spot on what has other wise been the worst sap year ever for us. Would have pulled them today but didnt' have time. Probably 50 gal. hanging still. Frogs are begining to sing, which usually means I'm done, but fence posts are still fozen in the ground and cant be pulled by a tractor yet!! Strange, Strange year here!!
later on Frank
Well we finished our bottling last night. We ended the season right at 31 gallons. We had a yeild rate of 37.7 gallon of sap to 1 gallon of syrup. that is by far the best we have ever done. We did try and boil some sap from Saturday that we put in the freezer. Had our first dirty sock smell no question that it was bad. We dumped about 40 gallons and called it a year. Now we need to get everything cleaned up and ready for Morrell season. Will continue to monitor the site and will have a few questions about things we are going to try and do differently next year. It has been great to connect with the Iowa people!!! Bill