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Hopkinton should have an analysis of your water (and/or MWRA water). As Urban Sugarmaker said, have your 100 gallons sit in a barrel for a few days. The chlorine will dissipate.

I'm going to have to pull taps on Monday. :(
It's been a two week season. This is crazy. I got drowned in the Sap Tsunami, but when it's so warm the sap can go putrid fast. How the trees haven't...

While still waiting (procrastinating) on getting a blower system or an RO, I am spending this season running the sap levels in the pan really low. I know there are too many variables to account for...

The first step in recovery is recognizing that you have a problem.
But why would you want to return to your former non-sugarmaker self?

Embrace the madness!

Tapped this afternoon and the trees were juicy.
Neighbors were happy to see it the sight, but were a bit confused: how do you celebrate a harbinger of spring when winter never really came? :lol:

Wow! Looks great! The maple leaf cut-out is a nice touch....

I throw away the ice. Like everyone here, I have tested it though by melting the ice and floating the hydrometer. It was all water.
However, if there was a hard freeze and the bucket is all ice I...

That's great! Well done...

I feel your pain....

2015 will be the year I did not do any sugaring.

In the strange microclimate around Boston, I usually tap around Valentine's Day and pull taps around St. Patrick's Day (when nighttime temps stay...

The point (and the problem) of sugaring is that it's a concentrating process.
The 2% sugar becomes 66% and anything else (off-tastes, chemicals, soaps (never use them), and (and in the old days,...

Thanks for all the snow, Sean.
Kind of wondering if I'll be able to tap this year. Below freezing until March 1 and the snow banks are crazy high. If the weather switches to normal, my season will...

I agree with John....
The best tasting syrup I made was the year I made it all with Red Maples.
I know it sounds "Robert Parkeresque", but the syrup was curiously complex and the maple flavor...

I loved the NYT article and the whole idea of a "mast year" as it validates my procrastination in not doing anything on the RO department. :)

On Saturday I planted 25 super sweet sugar maples saplings (bare-root).
The row of trees (plantation style) is my first step into the big new world of modern sugaring.

I was enormously satisfying...

The sugaring season in the Boston area is over for 2014.
What a strange year; Mother Nature can be... entertaining.

Taps went in on Feb. 18 and I pulled them on Sunday, 3/23: the latest I've ever...

Not that Dr. Perkins can't fight his own fights (see above), but when you consider how often - and in how many ways - he and UVM have saved the sugaring industry, and given information, research, and...

(sigh)... burned my pan the first year and it buckled!
What was crazy is that I was shutting it down for the night. The fire was dying and the sap depth seemed OK, but the firebricks must have been...

I've wondered the same thing...
It's a lot of micromanaging sap, but if the evaporator isn't running and the freezer is, then every bit helps.

If you try it, let me know how it works...

Over the years I have made a few batches with a butterscotch taste. I don't care for it.
My sense is that they were late-in-the-season batches. The sap wasn't buddy sap, but it may have been heading...

8993
This guy?
He provides security around my evaporator.
Doesn't help split wood or collect sap though....

Actually, the helmet and armour were made by Andrew Ainsworth - the guy would made...

When the recent cold snap descended upon Massachusetts, I had about 65 gallons of sap in storage. It was about 2-2.5%
For ease of freezing I poured much of it off into food-grade buckets. Over the...

I'd go with a 2x4.
My 2x3 gets about 8-9 gph if I baby it right, but I'd rather do more, shorter boils.
Marathon boils are not without their charms, but they can burn you out. It's more gratifying...

This site is great!
Tipped off about it from Sugarbush.info forums. Personalize it for your location.

http://weatherspark.com/#!dashboard;q=Needham%2C%20Massachusetts%2C%20United%20States

Tapped on the 19th. Had a great run over the weekend.
Hopefully the current cold snap won't be as long as advertised...