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Probably a silly question, but why the baking soda?

How about boiling taps for 10 minutes like you're purifying water? Will that kill the bacteria? I'm essentially thrifty at heart, but I don't want to sacrifice sap flow just to save $20. I have been...

Hope everyone is having a great, albeit dry, summer so far. I was surprised to see some new posts.

I have had an issue with my rear pan (of three) not getting hot till the fire has been going a...

Aaron: You'll have a great time managing your maples, and it sounds like you'll have plenty to do in the off season. Even though I have quite a bit of acreage and a lot of trees, I find a...

Welcome Aaron! Once bit by the maple bug I'm afraid you're doomed.

I plan on a quart of syrup per tap, which generally is a slight underestimate. I do 40 taps figuring I'll get 40 quarts of syrup...

As of today I've got 55 gallons left to boil which is planned for Saturday. I've tested the sugar and it is all near 2 so that will give another 1 to 1.25 gallons, which will make the yearly total at...

I decided to pull the taps this weekend. I've got 175 gallons in the snowbank to boil (starting tomorrow) which means three more boils over the next week. That's enough to keep me going. I've seen a...

This is my daughter's syrup set up on a 1/4 acre lot in the Portland, Maine area. Using a two steam tray arch she has made 2.5 gallons so far this season. With permission she taps a neighbor's silver...

Finished the 6th boil Wednesday and the sugar is hovering at almost 2.5%.

Heck of a run yesterday and into this morning -I stashed near 45 gallons. A lot of jugs were full and overflowing. I have...

Finally got the fifth boil done after two time delays. The sugar is still in the 2.4+ range so I jarred 1.25 gallons and a pint. The color remains amber as well with little sugar sand. I think that...

Fourth boil today and the sugar is staying steady at 2.5%, another 1.25 gallons from 50. No sap to speak of in the jugs.

It looks like some off and on sap runs till mid next week, but then the...

Third boil today. Thanks to the time change I got a later start so I did 50 gallons. The good news was a 2.5% sugar so we put up 1.25 ga!lons.

And what a sap flow! Collected 39 gallons during the...

Second boil of the season went smoothly today, netting just under 1.5 gallons off 55 for a 2.4% sugar content. I don't know what happened temperature wise last night but I ended up with 30 gallons of...

Holy moly! I woke up to jugs partially full. I guess the faucet turned on last night after a co!d uneventful day. By 5 pm I pulled in 30 gallons, so I've now got 55 waiting to boil. I suspect I'll...

First boil of the season netted just under 1.25 gallons off 50 for a 2.4% sugar. Crazy day with a cold start, sun, clouds, wind, and snow. When your outdoors the whole time you are at the mercy of...

Nice run today! Collected 20 gallons for a total stored in the snowbank of 45. I expect another good run tomorrow. Looks like I'll boil Saturday!

We need to talk about those bees. Mine swarmed twice last summer and left, leaving a super of honey. I'm going to get some more this spring and give them the honey super from my last bees.

I'm...

I'm optimistic about the next week starting Saturday! Looks like 40+ for a good portion of the early week and high 30's till Friday. I've gathered 11 gallons since I tapped last Saturday (mostly on...

Well I got my 40 taps in yesterday and today, so here we go. There were a handful of trees that were damp, but most were still frozen. I might have collected a gallon, but it was still cool and...

That's a lot of silvers! My daughter taps a nice silver in the Portland Maine
area and the syrup is very delicate compared to sugar/red maple. You've got it cold out there. Too cold for my blood!...

I had great plans to tap the last two weekends but my son got the flu, my wife got the flu, you get the idea. I'm just getting over a nasty cough as a parting gift from this flu so tapping has had to...

I like Troytravels by-line about maple being an excuse to be outdoors, it tastes better, and boiling in good weather. I subscribe to the same plan.

I missed the run this past weekend due to...

Well here we are again, on the cusp of another syrup season. I hope everyone has had a fantastic past year. I've enjoyed this Backyard thread over the past few seasons so let's get it going again. ...