Getting Started

[lharris1]

We learn from our mistakes, don’t we? Last year we tapped at the end of the first week in January and had our first canning on February 22nd. It may be a mistake but we started tapping Monday the 23rd of January. The weather was just too tempting. We put in 146 taps including 55 in two new locations. Sap was running good and we probably have about 170 gallons already. Ran out of “T’s” so no more new one’s until new supplies are received, but we have some more to put in that we tapped last year plus a few bucket taps. It looks like we should go over 200 taps total.

[lharris1]

We collected about 270 gallons and boiled off probably 240 gal. Hope to get another run on Friday.

[Tomahawk]

Brandon?

You here...?

Hello...?

Making any syrup yet?

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Tomahawk,

Wish I were, but it is too early yet and the weather has been terrible for the past 5 weeks. Hope to wait 2 or 3 more weeks before tapping, but will wait and see if the weather allows any tapping. The longer I can hold out the better as it shortens the season and you get higher amount of sap in a shorter period of time.

[lharris1]

I just returned home from Grassy Meadows. We boiled off about 410 gallons Monday and canned Tuesday morning. We may get another run tomorrow, February 1st. It sure is nice operating with the new hood and pre-heater. Our feed sap normaly run between 150 and 170 Deg F. and it looks like our evaporation rate is up by around 5 gpm. We set up to collect the condensate and have a demand pump that feeds faucets on a sink. Having that hot water for washing filters and general cleaning sure is nice, since we do not have a water supply at the evaporator. We have been having to go to the house close by to for any cleanup.

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

post edited

[lharris1]

Kevin: My two partners live near our sugar operation but I live about 100 mi away. Our tapping is spread out some, with tubing feeding six 30 gal drums and one 100 gal tank. The sap sugar has checked out from 1.4 to 2.5 on the tanks using a refractometer. During the boil Monday I checked about five time during the day and the reading varied from 1.9 to 2.2. I have not checked the refractometer against the hydrometer but will the next time I get a chance.

So far so good. I was afraid we tapped too early and the weather man is talking about a change in the jet stream that could bring cold weather in February. Who know what will happen. Not the meteorologists :!:

[lharris1]

Wednesday, Wednesday night and Today we are getting a good run and will probably boil Friday.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Was able to stop by and visit with Richard and Larry Harris and Claude Cadle at their sugarhouse today. They have a really nice setup and have put a lot of thought into it. Larry is an engineer with and has the brain of a scientist, so he is always coming up with new and great ideas. It is always fun to see other operations and look at their setups and bat ideas around.

It is amazing how many more people are making syrup around here now. There are probably at least 10 operations within an hour of my sugarhouse and all are 300 taps or less and 1 is about 1500 compared to 1 or 2 ten years ago.

[lharris1]

We enjoyed Brandon's visit and advice. I get excited about trying out ideas - but they are not always good. I should have been using advice from others on pre-heater design. The one I made is working well for us but we are close to having a vapor lock and we will need to modify it.

We boiled on Friday and Saturday and canned on Saturday. We boiled off about 450 gallons according to our water meter. We probably need to check to make sure we are using the water meter correctly because by syrup produced, assuming a 50/1 ratio, we boiled off about 375.

Looks like we may be down for cold weather for a week or two which is OK with us and good news for most producers that are waiting for normal tap time.