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My brother taps Boxelder trees, seems they are plentiful by him while maple trees are elusive. For him, it's about 60:1 sap-syrup ratio, much higher than I get for tapping my maple trees.

I...

last season my syrup also had a slight metabolism off flavor. I also read the information from the Proctor Center. I just brought my 2 gallons of syrup to sugar and plan to add back water to get it...

My brother taps Box Elders. It's all he has by his place. It reminds me of Molasses in flavor and is a dark color and when held up to the light, you can see a reddish tint to the syrup. I love Box...

I put in 4 taps last Thursday in a couple silver maples. 8 gallons in 2.5 days. haven't checked since sunday, but it's been cold. still have to tap 3 sugar maples, but they start running later...

Looks warmer than heck the next few days, might still tap to get it out of the way, but figure next wed/thur should be the start of a good run.

I'm with Snappyssweets, I have to go to about 223 before my hydrometer says syrup. I always pull off the sweet sap at about 219 from my outside boiler and finish inside.

I put my 9 taps in last week. 19 gallons so far, mostly from last weekend and monday. It looks to be a nice couple of days and then sucky sap weather. I got the feeling of "get the sap while you...

i typically pull my sap off the outdoor boiler at 215 degrees and finish inside. i filter this thru the paper filters to get some stuff out of the sweet sap. then this year this sweet sap had to...

no it's not a bad idea to mix the watery syrup with your next batch. it's a good idea actually.

I don't follow the 7 degree's above the boiling point of water method, it's not accurate for me. 7...

i got 4 gallons from 4 taps on silvers yesterday. my 4 taps on sugars had some but not much (couple cups worth).

i got 1.5 gallons from 4 taps yesterday. the thermometer at my house said 26* this morning, accuweather said the same. so very pleased it dipped below freezing last night. should be a good day on...

I'll be tapping today and tomorrow.

i finished the season with 70 gallons of sap boiled down to 17 pints of syrup. not too bad. the final boil and finish was a bit different. way more nitre. my syrup ended up cloudy. i filtered at...

i pulled my last taps today. i got 70 gallons of sap off 9 taps. last year I boiled 30, so a big jump. i boiled the final 37 gallons yesterday/today down to sweet sap. i'll finish it tomorrow or...

gathered 8 gallons yesterday off 9 taps. best day yet. doing my second boil of season, i have about 17 gallons to reduce.

i got about 4 gallons today. tomorrow and friday look nicer weather wise, so i'll probably boil this weekend. my pan does about 3 gallons/hr so gotta be done in stages.

looks like a couple of my taps are starting to open up. had a small frozen puddle in a bucket last night. i tasted it and it was sap and NOT melted snow. haha. today and tomorrow should be ideal...

In looking at the extended forecast, the temps next week and going forward look to be in the target zone. I tap silver maples at my parents place and they run WAY earlier than my hard maples at my...

a prefilter is just that, a paper type filter that is on top of the orlon/dish towel. the prefilter captures the larger stuff. you don't NEED it, but it helps keep the orlon/other filter from...

orlon filters is an option, but it will suck up a lot of your syrup and for small producers, it can be a significant amount. I use a prefilter and instead of orlon, i have a heavy almost canvas like...

so basically if my sap still tastes fine and the boiled down sample still tastes sweet, it's still good sap right? I searched here for "buddy" sap and people say it smells like socks/dead fish, etc....

how is everyone's silvers looking? are they starting to get buddy? I tasted some silver sap last night and it had a stronger woody/buddy taste to it. I got a bit worried so I grabbed a cup or so...

my sugars FINALLY starting running today. they should go good the next couple days.

Thank you Karen. I used a jelly bag type filter since I read how you do the filtering. worked nice, a bit slow, but nice. could be i poured too much sap in it and the top stuff starting cooling...

i just made my first batch today, so i am not the answer guru, but I looked for 219 and then started testing for sheeting on a metal spoon. once i saw sheeting then i pulled it off. i only used a...