Well that was a wild week. We had 4 days that yielded 1.5-2.0 gallons per tap. I had to sell 1000 gallons on Monday since our processing capacity was overwhelmed. It was pretty strange going from dark syrup in early March to light syrup in late March.
Ian
New sugarhouse fall '06. 3x8 drop flue by Phaneuf. Kubota L2800. 260 buckets for 2012. 504 taps for 2013. 320 buckets, 207 on 5/16" and 200 on 3/16" gravity tubing for 2014. 2017: 280 buckets, 920 on 3/16" tubing, selling sap from 560 of that. Son Gavin is in 3rd successful year of selling maple equipment as MacK Maple Supply.
I concur. It was a long week of boiling and in the very few moments we were not boiling we were cutting more firewood. Got it all burned off though and now we are waiting to see if this upcoming freeze brings another run. Still no buds on our hard maples.
12 x 16 shack with 8 x 16 addition
2 x 6 D&G raised flue with hood
Homebuilt releasers
220 taps on vac
100 plus taps on buckets
Gast 1550 on gas engine
HF vac pump on generator
Did some serious tank cleaning today, hoping to make something a bit lighter with this next (last) run. Boy they want a lot of money for those nice stainless tanks!
I was just out walking the dog at 9:30, and checked some buckets. They kinda ran half-heartedly all day, but apparently got serious about it this evening(4/7). If they continue all night we'll have some serious cooking to do tomorrow.
That would be great, we didn't really thaw here until about 2:00 and we ended up dumping what we had at 6:00 as it was very cloudy but it started running clear after that.
3,100 taps
60 cfm flood
HC2
5 by 14 oil
Brian
Wow it's 4/8/16 and I'm still cooking SAP. The trees ran hard yesterday right through the night almost all my 3 and 5 Gallon pails were over filled. Turned out to be a great year I couldn't be happier. Only downfall was burning the roof off my new sugar shack and losing everything in the shack to the fire extinguisher. Looking back I thought the season was over well over a month ago
The silvers and sugars still have no buds at all. While the reds have buds. I've made four times more than my goal and even surpassed next year's goal. I'm running out of wood and the syrup is getting really dark. Cooking Sunday till I run out of wood then calling it a season. Hope you all had a great year. I got my 2x4 doing almost 25 gph without a blower and until the shack caught fire. Can't complain with the new setup. Hopefully carrying less buckets next year.
Sap quality on 4/7 was poor and smelly so called it quits. Using our new 100 gph RO, I even have wood left over. Anyone looking for a 40 gallon barrel of great flavored dark syrup?
Ian
New sugarhouse fall '06. 3x8 drop flue by Phaneuf. Kubota L2800. 260 buckets for 2012. 504 taps for 2013. 320 buckets, 207 on 5/16" and 200 on 3/16" gravity tubing for 2014. 2017: 280 buckets, 920 on 3/16" tubing, selling sap from 560 of that. Son Gavin is in 3rd successful year of selling maple equipment as MacK Maple Supply.
Still going here in Potsdam. Made another 7.5 gallons yesterday and Monday looks good. I've been very careful to keep the sugarhouse as cold as possible...like 30 degrees. Sap doesn't really freeze until you get a bit colder than that, and those temperatures keep the yeasts at bay until the next firing. Getting the whole rig to cool down when you're finished requires a bit of extra attention. Opening all the doors wide and going back much later to close up are procedures that require a sugarhouse to be close by....I wouldn't get in the truck to do it.
Boiled hard all day today. Came out with almost three gallons. Going to cook the concentrate down this week and get everything cleaned up. Ive ran out of dry wood and motivation im done. If I find a buyer for my SAP I'll leave the Taps out if not I'm pulling them tomorrow night. What a great season. I'm very happy will my new rig.
Brought in 90 gallons today from fewer and fewer taps. Made 2.5 gallons of pretty red syrup, so I'll gather again for the last time tomorrow(4/15), and then finish up what's left in the pans Saturday morning. Despite lots of lousy weather predictions, the season went pretty well. I boiled 19 times so far.....last year was only 9 times.
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