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Aside from that large block of ice in my storage pail, I'm all caught up with my sap. I'm happy to report that I made 3 more litres this weekend and now have 6L of wonderful looking syrup. Finally I feel like I'm officially in the syrup game for 2016. :) This weekend and next week certainly look promising as long as the buds don't break.
I didn't collect a thing yesterday, it was flowing....slowly.... I think, or it was rain I saw dripping in the buckets. How do you know if it is rain water or sap? Other than using my refractometer. 1 of my water jugs on the forest floor had a few liters in it, but it had a yellowish tinge to it, don't think I will keep that, unless I am told otherwise by you wonderful people. My last 2 batches I have boiled down have ended up really really dark, can't even see through it even when held up to the light, but taste's wonderful, I prefer the dark anyhow.
Relax, it's just tree pee, aka good ol' rain or snow getting into your sap. So long as it doesn't smell or taste *off* then it's fine to use, though some dump it out on aesthetic grounds. Sounds like you're getting some gorgeous black syrup, if it's that dark that you can't even see through it...yum!!!Quote:
Originally Posted by BrutemanAl
You beat me to it Galena. :) Al if it just a little bit I'd keep it, but if it's dark yellow I usually dump it as it's not a big loss. The first time I saw the "Tree Pee" I really thought that it was, and somebody was playing a cruel joke!Quote:
Originally Posted by Galena
Accuweather's forecast looks really good for us for the next two weeks starting Friday. Wouldn't that be nice! Some of the soft maples might be too far gone, but most of the sugars should still be hanging in.
Flowing good here south of peterborough today.
So far 9l finished out of 46 taps on buckets. I hope to at least double that before its all done!!
S.
Surprise, surprise. Despite not dipping below freezing last night I collected 27L from 10 sugar maple taps today. :confused: Perhaps that crazy low pressure system that blasted through here yesterday had an unexpected side effect. Below freezing temps are forecast for tonight.
Just washed out my buckets and going to rehang them on the trees. Only 8 trees. I've only boiled down 5.5L of syrup this year (down from 7.5L last year) so hopefully this week will bump me up. The taps have been on the trees since Feb 21st though.
I never fully grasped how much of an impact micro-climates can have. I guess I live in the Banana Belt of South Central Ontario.
Here in the southwest corner of Northumberland County (a couple of km north of Lake Ontario and about 7 km east of Durham Region), I've had no sap running for over a week. Now, I could swear my Silver Maples are in bud.
Syrup so far this year? 0
I tossed the small amount of sap I had in the buckets due to so much warm weather and not enough to bother boiling.
Here's to a better 2017.
Hey Heaven-
Our area is the same sad story.
We setup and had one marginal run; made 2 gallons.
Now its -14 and when the weather finally breaks; the sun may have coaxed the buds too far along just like in 2012.
SW is over and in our honey hole up north we have barely started....
There was nothing to collect today. Despite the forecasted low, I don't think it actually got below freezing last night. Tonight it most certainly will. Let's hope that recharges the trees for tomorrow. I pulled five of my Silver and Freeman maple taps today and moved them to sugar maples down the street. If I have decent luck there, I'll move more.
67Heaven, I would be almost certain that your Silvers are done. Mine are flowering. Are there any nearby Sugars, Manitobas (box elders) or Norways you can tap? Those ones are still really good around here and likely are still good in your area too. If you can find a few, our weather looks fairly decent for more sap this coming week and into next week. Even if you get a little bit, that should soften the blow of what the Ontario Maple Syrup Production Report has labelled as a "tricky" year for us. That's certainly the word for it!
Looks like those of us who didn't tap during those early flows and gambled on a somewhat normal season in March have rolled snake eyes instead of sixes.
*wandering in* hey all...nothin happening in Eastern, though it was cold enough overnight, it was sunny but windy today so not even 8l over last two days...anyways...I haz Tap Me toques for sale, limited edition, only 8 left! See Classifieds for details or PM me.
I had no sap run yesterday, and the forecast doesn't look good for sap until next Saturday...although the forecast is very close to good.
Luckily I have 320 gallons of sap still to boil.
I didn't get anything yesterday either, tree's started to drip around 3:30 pm, the sun didn't come pop out of the clouds till around 1pm, and that darn wind didn't help one bit !!! We took the kids out for a bit yesterday, and I was all excited on our way home, I kept thinking to myself.... this is perfect sap condition's :) , got home went right over to the forest and almost cried when I started to look in the buckets :cry:, I keep asking myself "what have I done wrong this year ?", then I check this site and see everyone else is in the same boat as me. Getting frustrated but I'm still hoping to get more.
Trying to plan for anything this season seems to be wishful thinking, the weather looks good and then it doesn't happen. Looking at two different weather reports for this next weekend Accuweather has temps. 19c-13c-12c, and The Weather Network has it 9c-4c-6c it's totally crazy to have them so far apart.
It's like ordering and getting my new pan, was promised it Monday latest Tuesday-by Thursday it was going to be on the truck for Friday-no pan!:mad:
Today I dumped 16.5L of syrup. 2nd customer today who said they didn't like the flavor of the syrup. I quit smoking 5 weeks ago cold turkey after 49 years of smoking so my taste buds are useless atm. But if 2 people don't want to buy, it must suck, only problem is I don't know why...no buds, so that's not it. People said they thought it tasted burnt. I thought it had a "tang" to it.
Since my sugar shack sap lines are all frozen, I drained all the near-up off the arch. I plan on putting house water into the arch tomorrow (fill it up as much as I can) and boil it for an hour and then drain it all off. Start from scratch. There is no visible burnt sediment anywhere, so I don't know what else I can do.
Suggestions?
Hey Bugtrap, that's tough to hear that your syrup tastes burnt. Are these repeat customers who are familiar with your syrup or newcomers? Also something you could try is to find someone who you know doesn't smoke or is known to have a really good palate. Maybe the person who's the judge for the local fall fair? Personally, I'd take advantage of two sets of people for whom I've worked with in the past and am comfortable asking: the owners of the fine dining restaurant near me and possibly the chef (even if he is a little scary). Other people I would get to try are the owners of the closest sugarbush as they don't smoke either and have tasted a lot of sap in the 30 or 40+ years they've been doing it! Hope this helps!
What grade was the syrup NTBugtraq? That's a lot of work just to dump, it makes wonder why or how it could gone that way. Hasn't old sap got something to do with getting dark syrup with a robust flavour?
My first batch turned out dark and had a robust flavour, or a lot stronger than what I'd being use to from over this last year so the taste took me back a little as I wasn't expecting it to be so heavy.
It's hard to describe a taste in words but I could almost detect a slight burnt taste, and thought it was because of the burnt pan from a week before, but the pan was scraped, cleaned, rinsed so many times that I doubt that it could retain any previous problem. I tasted it a few hours later again and got a different impression again, and I asked the wife what she replied, "yummy". So plainly put if use to light a dark might throw off a person's taste preference, it's just a thought.
Lots of frozen blocks happening in the buckets and containers, as I was out all day and returned tonight and took a short walk around the taps.
It's probley your mind playing games with you. With the burnt tasting syrup. It's like people say about when you have a fire in your house and after its all fixed up nobody else can smell it but you. You have the burnt pan smell in your head. One never forgets that sight or smell.
Thanks everyone, I appreciate the encouraging thoughts.
One of the two couples was a repeat customer, and they said distinctly there was a significant difference...and not in a good way. The syrup was very dark, and some of the sap was 1 week old. I agree that the older the sap the darker the syrup. I did not clean out my arch from last year as I had read many times people talking about "keeping their gradient" from last season. The thought that the syrup in there from last year might be a bad idea and that haunted me and perhaps kept me thinking it wouldn't be good...in any event, its all been dumped now so time to move on.
Now the only question is whether or not to use pan cleaner.
If I understand you correctly you are saying you left your pans full of syrup from last year?! Or do you mean since your last boil? Most people with continuous flow evaporators don't empty their pans out between boils to maintain their gradient but never heard leaving them full all year. I can't see how it would keep. If this is the case then I would think most definitely this is where your off taste is coming from.
Yes, I left syrup in the arch since last year. Of course the arch was covered...but I guess I misunderstood what I thought people were doing.Quote:
Originally Posted by Clinkis
To clean the pans, we leave some syrup in them.
We leave the last bit of syrup to remain in the pans after the season....it rots, smells absolutely nasty.
Wait a month if you can stand it , and then one shot with the power washer and the pans are left nice and shiny and put away for the rest of the year.
Well, I think we have discovered the reason for the off-tasting syrup......
Well, this is the 2nd day the temps were close but no cigar...and now I am sitting looking at beautifully clean SS pans with transparent sap in them...dang, I so want to cook. Here's wishing for just a couple of degrees more.
I've had 1.5L of sap per tap over the past 24 hours, and it continues to flow today. Amazingly everything was thawed at 7:00am this morning so I started boiling then. Check your buckets folks...;-]
I collected 92L this morning. I'm a happy boiler now!
Woot, WTG!!Quote:
Originally Posted by Run Forest Run!
What a day! 137L! The 15 sugar maples that I tap gave up 113L today. From the 15 soft maples, I collected 24L. It's easy to tell that the sugar maples are ready to really kick into high gear now as the soft maples slow down. I started boiling this morning with a full storage pail and after boiling all day long I STILL have a full storage pail. Time to update my signature. :)
I've forgotten how long it takes to turn an arch full of nothing but fresh sap into my first draw-off. I've boiled for 18 hours and I think I am an hour or two away from my first draw (now tomorrow morning). Sound right?? No sap today.
I confess i am surprised at what this week has provided! I did not expect to see much of anything going by the poor performance of last weekend when I was only seeing 2.5gal of sap Sunday and 1.5 gal on Monday.
I did not make the trip to the bush Tuesday as the weather here was no hell and Wed. I was out of town all day.... when I got back I saw the posts here and was very anxious to see what this morning would show.
Well I have 25 taps, 24 of which were full to the brim and overflowing - frozen with icicles hanging off the bottom of the pails as they hung on the trees !! So, after a number of trips up and down the mountain (thanks to the freezing rain and snow overnight) I pulled out over 50 gal of sap - guess i will be boiling again this weekend :{)
I'm glad you got most of it...Quote:
Originally Posted by ridgerunner394
Yes thanks NTBugtraq I hate to see it overflow but somehow that seems better than the alternative - dry pails :{)
Whew! All caught up on my sap and syrup. Took all day, but it's done!! Made 6L of syrup today and now I'm hoping that Good Friday is going to live up to its name. ;) As far as the eye can see from up here on the hill everyone else is in a hydro blackout. Saw transformers exploding in the valley as I finished off my last batch on the stove. Caught a lucky break there.
Good work Ontario.
I'm done here in NY (Hudson Valley) except for the clean up, but following your progress. I guess I don't want the season to end.
Just bottled my first batch after cleaning out my pans and tossing 15L of syrup, and I am pleased to say that I now have a beautiful Medium bright orange grade of delicious syrup. Historically, my syrup has always been what I called a "Medium Amber", half-way between Medium and Amber. Now its definitely Medium, and boy does it look so different. I notice no difference in flavor from my historic syrup, just a difference in color.
I have run into another problem...getting the correct Brix. Last year I bought a temperature compensating digital refractometer, and this year I was having so many problems comparing calibrated thermometers with the refractometer that I decided to buy a handheld refractometer to calibrate the digital...
The problem I am having is that if I check any refractometer within 5 minutes (or so) of taking the sample, I get wonky results. After 5 minutes (inside the house), the results more accurately reflect the thermometer's readings.
So here is my question; What do you do during that waiting time (the 5 minutes I'm referring to)...do you keep boiling, stop boiling, what?? My syrup is in my finishing pan at the point I am trying to determine brix, so I can turn down the propane and more or less maintain a temperature. Today, I took a sample at +10F over boiling point and by the time the sample gave me an accurate reading the pan was at +11F. I ended up bottling at 69.3 Brix...not desirable.
Alternatively, does anyone know how much water (or sap) I could add to how much syrup to lower it by 1 Brix?
My sap started running again today at noon, hasn't run for 2 days.
There is a chart is available for download at the attached link showing how much water/ sap to add to syrup that is too thick. It is in the hydrometer compensation document. http://www.omspa.ca/resources/downloads/#
Thanks for the info! Sadly I can't download it, as I'm running Windows 7 and you need Windows 8 :-/Quote:
Originally Posted by can'twaitforabigrun
Thanks for that, its really appreciated.Quote:
Originally Posted by can'twaitforabigrun