Brooke County

This is my first year doing this with my toddler for fun. We have 1 gallon jugs on 6 sugar maples and we tapped our first tree at the beginning of February. This past weekend I finally got around to trying my hand at boiling a batch and I was like :o 8 hours and we boiled how much sap?!? Those 6 trees produce more sap than we can handle at this point. The batch that we did manage to make was very light in color and absolutely delicious.

6 Sugar maples with drop lines and jugs
An old wood burner with pots and pans

Welcome to the club you may get addicted. Now you can think about getting more efficient. Read and ask questions.

Thank you. I will be reading and asking all kinds of questions. This forum and all of the people using it are an absolute treasure trove of information.

You ever visit Family Roots Farm? located very near Wellsburg, they will be open on the 16th for WV Maple Days

Mark 220 Maple

I have been to Family Roots Farm several times and will definitely be going to their Maple Days event. I will also be going to the pancake breakfast at Brooke Hills Park right before that. They sell Family Roots Farm syrup at the Marks Carryout just south of Krogers on RT2.

Our first three taps that we made in the beginning of February have dried up and we pulled them out today. We tapped three other trees a couple weeks after that and those are still producing.

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Originally Posted by Buffalo Creek Farms

Our first three taps that we made in the beginning of February have dried up and we pulled them out today. We tapped three other trees a couple weeks after that and those are still producing.

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how is the syrup? I'm getting loads of clear sap still with these ideal temps, but sugar content has dropped to 1.5 and syrup has a slight chocolatey after taste, so time to pack it in here. :(

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Originally Posted by canaanmaple

how is the syrup? I'm getting loads of clear sap still with these ideal temps, but sugar content has dropped to 1.5 and syrup has a slight chocolatey after taste, so time to pack it in here. :(

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We are new at this and don't have the tools to check for sugar content just yet. I did notice that just before the three taps dried up, they did produce sap that was darker than before. The three taps that are newer still produce clear sap. alot of our sap gets wasted because we only boil a little bit on the weekends and I will use our clearest, freshest sap. The last batch we boiled was on 3/17/19 and the finished product tasted good to us. It had a stronger maple flavor and it was darker than our first batch. But delicious none the less.

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Originally Posted by canaanmaple

how is the syrup? I'm getting loads of clear sap still with these ideal temps, but sugar content has dropped to 1.5 and syrup has a slight chocolatey after taste, so time to pack it in here. :(

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I sat down and tried our last batch again and thought to myself, "is there any odd flavors in this syrup?". I suppose it's possible that there is and I just can't detect such subtle flavors. My brain just says to me "stronger maple flavor." It's amateur hour over here :lol:

The last batch we boiled [ 3/24/19] was very dark and required much more sap to make the same amount of syrup as before. I'm pulling the plug on the 2019 season.