Southern Wisconsin
Well.............................March madness has begun. Small conference tournaments underway. That means south facing trees get tapped today. Nice sunny day, with a nip in the air. Cut some wood, run some tube,tweek my block evap. Maybe even set a few beaver traps. I like March.
GO BADGERS! On to the Final Four!
8 flat pans on 4x4 block evaporator
6' stack
sand arch
lots of wood
Yeah...temps look good this coming week by me. We've got our taps in and ready for some sap!
maplematt
2012 - Looking for more maples and less box elders...
2011 - Combining efforts with dad to add 20 new taps.
2010 - First year...9 Boxelder taps with tubes into buckets.
40 gallon tilt braiser...compliments of work!
Should run well Tue.................
8 flat pans on 4x4 block evaporator
6' stack
sand arch
lots of wood
Tapped on Sunday 3/6
I tapped twenty large trees on the northside of our 10 acre woods. Only one tree was dripping. Nothing on Monday, but got 10 gallons Tuesday. Weather looks like it will be hit and miss the next couple days, but I should have enough for at least small boil this weekend. Small piles of snow still around, but today i noticed a lot of water puddles by the trees.
10 acre woods
20 bags, 40 pails
Custom cooker
Juda, WI
(So far south, we can walk to IL)
I was looking for MORE SUN yesterday! Oh well, got snow last night. Too much in back valley STILL.
8 flat pans on 4x4 block evaporator
6' stack
sand arch
lots of wood
I have 28 taps but only about 1/2 doz trees producing so far. Got 5 gal sap yesterday during the snowfall. Have a friend in Lodi who has collected 32 gal this week. His trees always seem to be earlier than mine. He has more southern exposure while I have more northern exposure. He collected 20 gal last week. I think he only has 30 taps.
tapping my north facing trees this weekend. Could hit 50 next week.
8 flat pans on 4x4 block evaporator
6' stack
sand arch
lots of wood
I hope everyone finds time to tap their trees tomorrow if they haven't already. We got 15 gallons from 37 taps yesterday, and another 23 gallons today. The weather is gonna be perfect this week!
They're calling for 40 and sunny tomorrow by us!
maplematt
2012 - Looking for more maples and less box elders...
2011 - Combining efforts with dad to add 20 new taps.
2010 - First year...9 Boxelder taps with tubes into buckets.
40 gallon tilt braiser...compliments of work!
Good news Matt. Are your trees south facing? Or in the sun? I am heading out right now to tap my west and north facing trees. They start a bit later. Should go well into the 40's today. The Beagle and I are going to look for sheds.
Big Runs next week.
8 flat pans on 4x4 block evaporator
6' stack
sand arch
lots of wood
MapleMatt is my son. This year we have a lot of new trees and placed most of our taps on the south side of the trees. Most are in wooded areas and not in the open. Like Matt said we got 15 gallons two days ago and 20+ gallons yesterday. In the past we have boiled on the kitchen stove. This year Matt has access to a propane powered tilt brazier that has about 60,000 BTU capability. That really makes quick work of boiling down the sap. We're boiling to near syrup, then freezing the batches to finish off all at once. So far so good.
Computer Steve
2009 - Never thought about making maple syrup before.
2010 - First attempt: 10 taps, plastic sap sacks, kitchen stove, 2.5 gallons of delicious Maple Syrup.
2011 - 37 taps, plastic bucket collection, and stainless steam table pans over high output propane burner for evap. (Need to find more trees!!)
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