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It's been a hell of a season so far. About to break my 3,000 sap gallon goal i had set out for the start of the season. at the rate it's going I think i'll hit 4,000. An unexpected problem is running out of bulk storage for finished syrup. I need to get to glass-bottling ASAP. A huge thank you to Brett H who lent me his spare RO. what a game changer! cannot wait to build or buy one next season.
I am only running 8 taps on all reds. Seems like a few of them have been running. The rest literally almost turned off already. Anyone else having this issue?
Most of my red maples have buds on them but I don't have them tapped.
All my new taps are running strong. Yesterday I boiled 36 gallons of crystal clear sap. Not a high sugar content, and a bit of sugar sand, but I didn't mind. Had fun all day!
This weekend I collected about 2 gallons per tap from last week. Things slowed down over the weekend with the cold weather, including dealing with a lot of ice and frozen feed lines to the evaporator with temps down the single digits but the late March sun certainly helps.
This week looks like another ideal week and it looks to continue into next week but by then we are approaching early April. That's when I normally finish things off but I may stop after next week with Easter coming early.
My lines have been frozen since Saturday. I have only made syrup twice in April but there is a chance this year. We host Easter and since I boil outside in the driveway the family is hoping for a little time next to the fire on Easter Sunday.
I think you might be able to boil on Easter. Next week looks like a repeat of this week. I've boiled a couple of times in April - once it was awful as I was trying to finish off that week's sap but it got really warm and the sap spoiled. The sugarhouse smelled awful! The next time was fine.
BTW, the RO I built from your design is working great. It's saving me at least 3-4 hours of boiling a week. Now that I have the design down, I think I'm going to build a larger one as I think I need a larger capacity but I just wanted to say thanks for the design ideas.
You are very welcome and if you go ahead and build a larger one I am sure someone in CT would be willing to buy the one you built I get asked all the time to put ones together for people. I have also had similar experience in April made some good stuff and some that looked like a swamp and didn't smell much better - that is when I realized why people call it ropey syrup:)
While the sap was still flowing decently over the weekend and I'm sure early this week as well, I decided to make this past weekend my last. I've been boiling for 7 weeks which is a decent season and with Easter coming on Sunday I felt it was time. I'll take the sweet off the evaporator and finish that up but I think I'll wind up with one of my best seasons ever. The sap just flowed really nicely every week with the exception of a time in February.
i boiled a few gallons today and packed some more away. I'm hanging on for one more boil mid-late week. trees have pretty much quit running despite the proper temperature cycles. It was a great season here. learned a few lessons along the way, made some new friends, and make a ton of syrup. can't wait to get started on next years upgrades over the summer.
After 7 weeks I called it quits for Easter weekend and this past weekend I've been doing more clean-up but I just couldn't help notice with all the cold and even snow that temps continue to be almost ideal. My lows continue to be in the teens and 20s. I didn't make it into the woods but is the sap still flowing as well? If so, this would have to be one of the latest seasons. I know one guy in town still has his taps in and boiled this weekend but I haven't been able to talk to him.
Edit: I just spoke with one of the guys I collect from in Woodstock and he said that he collected about 150 gallons and that the sap was still flowing well. I don't think I've ever seen it that late in Connecticut!
I'm still boiling clear sap in Orange County NY at an elevation of about 450'. Most of my taps dried up but several that I drilled later are putting out about a gal per day. Suppose to be 72 degrees on Fri. that will be it!! although I've been telling that to my wife for weeks:lol: