tapping in the catskills.

[mountainvan]

I think it may be too late,, but who knows. Guess we find out next week. I'm all cleaned up at the saphouse, but it could get dirty again for enough sap. If it does flow the first saps on the ground.

[DrTimPerkins]

I think it may be too late,, but who knows. Guess we find out next week. I'm all cleaned up at the saphouse, but it could get dirty again for enough sap. If it does flow the first saps on the ground.

Good idea to let the first bit run on the ground (if it does run much again). It would likely prove to be very difficult to filter due to the heavy microbial load in the first flush of sap.

[mountainvan]

reds are budded but sugars are still tight. 32 tonight, 14 monday night then I'm very curious if the sap will flow after over a week of nothing but summer. everything in the saphouse is cleaned up, but vacs and tanks are still out. I'm keeping my schedule open, just in case.

[MaplePancakeMan]

I got down to 18 on monday night and the one tree i left tapped for fun has been running a little bit, but my sugars are basically popped so it wouldn't have made good syrup anyway so maybe you'll get some. I had about a quart over a 2 day period.

[mountainvan]

saps still kinda going. antimicrobial adaptors are still going, but sugars have budded and sapflow was not enough to get everything dirty again. plus my hearts not into it. house and property are still a mess from the flood and it does get depressing after awhile. I've got volunteers coming in a couple weeks to help with the remaining cleanup.

[maple flats]

I also checked my taps at higher elevations yesterday, after upper teens overnight, some sap flow, on check valve adapters, but far too many trees have opened bud to be worth pulling the budded and restarting again. All in all my best year ever, but I added 400 taps to get there and bought 1400 gal of sap. Total= 233 gal, up from 206 last year. Still going to add about 4-600 more this year again, wet/dry is up, all I need to add more is the mains and laterals, and likely another tank or 2. Short season for sure, all tapped 2/6, collected very little until the last 10 days before big warm up.

[MillbrookMaple]

We aren't setting any records up here but we are getting some flow. I took a half gallon of sap last night comming out of the releaser and boiled it down. It isn't horrible but not good syrup. It has a sour taste that is about even with the sweet. It is really light in color. I'm not sure if it is still some of the old sap still comming out of the lines or trees that I might have missed pulling that have just began to bud. I will test again this afternoon and see if it improves. I'm going to boil it down either way and in worse case I can experiment with it; Make granulated sugar out of it if it will crystalize or cream and see if the flavor dissapears with the high heat, or make a maple glaze for chicken, or see if they want it in April when they are buying at Tom's.

[MaplePancakeMan]

PM me about your clean up i'll be back on Easter maybe when you're volunteers are up i can come by and lend a hand for a day or so. I've been out that way after the flood, and its very depressing we just finished cleaning up my fiances parents property.

[mountainvan]

property is finally cleaned up, no more pavement in the yard. best thing is I now have a maple syrup evaporator in my living room! turned the whole place into my sugaring facility. adding more taps this fall and am excited for next year.

[Maplewalnut]

Hey van good to here from you. What did you do, move into the sugarhouse and move your sugarhouse into your home? Need some specifics. How many taps you adding?