March journal

[Farmboy]

The season slowed down last week and they syrup got dark because it got too warm but this week it got cold agian and we have snow on the ground again. The syrup should lighten up when I boil tomorrow night. The three cords of pine I had cut and split are long gone. Going to have to finish the season on pallets and marginaly dry slab wood. Ive made 48.875 gallons so far off 183 taps so Im over my goal of a quart per tap. Ive got 440 gallons of sap from today I will boil tomorrow. My friend is finaly getting sick of boiling till 2am with his 2X6 so he gave me 275 gallons of sap today. Hopefully I will break 60 gallons of syrup this weekend. All next week looks pretty good temperature wise and Ive only seen 2 moths so far and that was two weeks ago and I havent seen them since. This looks like a banner season! I need to find a few hundred more taps and hopefully and RO for next season. You gotta Want it!

[cpmaple]

Its been 10 days since i have had a run. Hoping to get one saturday but the rest of the week looks great also. Made 21 gallons so far off from three boils. Made a waterjacket canner last weekend works good and hold 30 gallons of syrup at once two 15 gal pots. with the down time i've been getting alot of things done around the house and sugarhouse that needed to be done. Move my head tank so i could see it and stop over filling it no to get vac pump fired back up cant wait. looking to be a great season. cpmaple

[maple flats]

I've only canned 33 gal. so far. Only had 3 days of fair sap flow, several more of very little flows. Looks like Sat-Sun. will turn this around. The Accu Weather forecast for my area looks good from then thru mid April. I'm ready!!!.
I did some work in the sugarhouse while I waited. I got in some high temp. hose I had ordered a long time ago. I now have hose going from my draw off tank to a T between my finisher and the filter press. From the T a hose goes to the mixing tank under my finisher draw and the other end feeds the filter press. I can now pump from the draw tank thru the filter pump and move it to the finisher. When ready I can then dump a mix tank full, add DE and pump thru the filter and either bulk it or pump to the canner. When I empty the front pan I can also pump it back in after cleaning rather than drawing into a SS pot and lifting it all the time. This was all done using just 2 valves, and one T, as well as the connection to each point needed. Now I need some syrup to try it out (and to heat the tubing to get it to lay flat like I want.

[heus]

Very happy with the season so far. Have made 125 gallons off of 517 taps and no end in sight. Syrup has lightened all the way from grade B to light. My original goal was 150 gallons that looks attainable now. I really need an ro next year!

[Jeff E]

It is encouraging to read how the season is actually going well somewhere!
Last post here was March 6 for me, and on 2700 taps I got about 150 gal of sap, then it all froze up, and has remained frozen ever since. The 5 day forecast shows no relief in sight. I am looking at 1 month old tap holes that have produced basically nothing so far. Here's looking to April!

[PACMAN]

Im in the same boat Jeff,I have new gravity system with 400 taps and its been in since feb 23 and I got 170 gal 2 weeks ago and the temp dropped. I havent gotten a drop since, but hang in there. I think this week will give us all the sap we want.

[heus]

This is just an old fashion sugaring season. Many will be making syrup well into April. I am hoping for two more weeks of producing grade B or higher. Considering that I have just produced my first light syrup of the season, I think we have some more time left. April 4th was my last boil two years ago. I need 25 more gallons to get to my goal of 150.

[brookledge]

My season began great in feb and by march 6th I had a qt./tap.(boiling every day or atleast 5 times a week) since then the weather has been to cold(boiling every other day or up to 4 days apart). Hopefully today will put me at 1/2 gal/tap. Yesterday I matched last yr total. But still a long way from where I want to end up. My goal is 2/3 gal per tap this yr
Keith

[heus]

Wow 2/3 gallon per tap. You must have all road/yard trees with giant crowns?

[lakeview maple]

We had our open house yesterday,and it went great.Had alot of people stop and see how maple syrup was made.Had a good run of sap all day ,almost to the point it was flowing as fast as I boiled .It finally slowed a bit towards 5pm and we made good head way into the bulk tank.Going to try and finish it off today with about 200 gallons left ,I still need to collect at our other bush and theres 150 gallons there.The weather looks really good for the whole week,so Im going to try to stay ahead,lol.Definately need to look at either a preheater or RO for next year.We are right at our max taps for our setup maybe even a little overtapped.We did make 4 and half gallons yesterday which puts us at 26 for the year,yippee hoping to keep adding it up.Have a good day all and God bless ,Al