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Hey all,
I thought long and hard about tapping this weekend but next week is cold again so I am waiting. I did get half my tap fittings on my existing drops and am finishing up a few last things in the kitchen.
Notable upgrades this year:
-Increased taps by ~50 (new mainline and shurflo pump on it)
-Upgraded my RO pressure pump and feed pump to achieve twice the flow (3gpm to 6gpm)
Excited for another season to be upon us, whenever it arrives. Let me know how you are doing.
Tapped my 3 trees back on Jan 20. Have boiled twice and have a gallon and 1 quart of syrup made so far. Weather still looks good for the next several weeks, hopefully will get enough sap to do 1 more boil this season.
Third boil started today. Good sap run overnight temp near 60 today. Silver maples buds are swelling, probably not many days left in the 2020 season.
2 1/2 pints from 10 gallons of sap today. Gives me 12 1/2 pints for the season.
Had my first collection of the year yesterday, 250 gallons. I will collect again in a few hours and boil tomorrow. Weather looks to turn cold and snowy for the rest of the week.
Another boil started today. Collected about 15 gallons of sap this week from my 3 trees. Weather forecast looks marginal for the next week or so. This may be the last boil of the 2020 season.
I have only had one decent weekend of runs in northern Il. We are just thawing out again after the latest cold spell. This week looks to be game on for us.
Tapped on Sunday (a day later than I wanted) and as of yesterday am sitting on 36.5 gallons of sap.... Over a third of last year's production. 16 taps, 4 of which don't produce jack. Haven't collected today yet.
Gotta finish the evaporator, looks like I'm cooking tonight!
Ended up with 42 gallons to run for my first boil. Used up nearly all my chopped wood, guess I'll have to break out the splitting maul and deal with the big rounds that I've been avoiding all winter.
Haven't filtered/bottle yet, but looks like I'll end up with 1.25 gallons. That almost matches last year's total, with 1 less tap and 3 less trees. These silvers are running rich so far this year!
My 4 restaurant pans are recessed into my cinder block arch, I'm curious about how much I lost due to scorching along the boil line of the pans.
Well we finally got a good week in the books. Good temps this past week helped us produce almost 30 gallons of syrup bringing our total to 47 on the year. I am concerned about the warmth of next week. No freeze forecast all week long and rather warm temps. I hope this is not the end of the season already.
Putting the screws to 435 gals of sap today. 2x4 arch. Is working its heart out. Good thing I have an ro. Going to be a long day/night.
2020 season recap. We pulled last week and flushed our lines with water.
Totals - 66 gallons syrup produced. That is less than 2019 total with an addition of 60 taps added. We had some difficult hurdles to overcome. First, the weather this season was quite difficult. February was cold with only a few runs. March was warm with only a few freezes. Second, we lost 600 gallons of sap due to a raised tank platform collapsing. Thankfully the tank was not damaged. Rebuilt the platform much sturdier. Lastly, the Covid-19 illness shut down the park district and cut my last few day of the season off. So all in all, I am thankful for what we could produce, but man I am disappointed in a very low total vs what I had hoped for. I hope everyone else battled through the sub-par weather for a decent season. Let me know how you are doing.
I ended up with 3600 gallons of sap from my 140 taps, this was 1200 gal more than last year.Sugar ran from a high of 2.3 at the start to 1.3 when I pulled the taps. I had replaced some of my lines and I could see a real difference in the new vs the old ones. All in all I am pleased with my season. Now I hope the local farmer markets can start at some time so I can sell syrup.