Checking what VT sugar makers are doing

[billyinvt]

Got through whatever sap I had last night. Weather is going to give us a little break to clean and bottle. What's the sap flow/sugar content/syrup grade going to look like after this next solid freeze?

[DrTimPerkins]

I'm real curious to see if the sugar content comes up after this next cold snap.

I expect that it will come back up. Freezing stimulates the conversion of starch to sugar as well as promoting development of stem pressure.

We made 91 gal of dark/robust yesterday...very good flavor a tad on the mild side. That puts us just about exactly at half a crop (of a minimum 0.5 gal/tap).

Sugar content still around 2% here. Perhaps another 2,500 gal overnight. Very little niter so far....foaming not bad.

If you haven't yet seen it, check out the Vermont Maple Bulletin, a weekly Vermont maple crop report by Mark Isselhardt, the new UVM Maple Extension Educator https://vermontmaplebulletin.wordpress.com/ Send comments and crop reports to Mark.Isselhardt@uvm.edu

[DrTimPerkins]

What's the sap flow/sugar content/syrup grade going to look like after this next solid freeze?

All are likely to improve.

[Sugarmaker's dad]

Made another 3 barrels tonight plus bottled 100 pints and 55 quarts. Total of 31 barrels for the season. We are keeping our fingers crossed for 60 barrels total.

[DoubleBrookMaple]

Sap is still running some. I made 10 gallons of Amber/Rich today (got very close to Dark at the end), and left 350 gallons to process and boil off tomorrow with whatever comes in overnight. That will be it until next Wednesday as it looks now.

[spud]

I was able to get 7000 gallons yesterday and last night. Sap is running this morning and I hope to have it pick up as the day goes on. Only went to 39 last night for an hour. Sugar is 1.5% right now. Starting tomorrow we have over 10 days with very cold nights. Trying to hit 50% for the season before the cold spell. After the 10 day cold spell I plan to get the other 50%. The 20th of April still looks very good for a end of season date. Nice to hear Dr. Tim say the sugar should come up again. That's great news. Good luck everyone.

Spud

[GiddingsHill]

We've had a real decent stretch here in bakersfield. we're at about 3lbs/tap
Had an unexpected light freeze early this morning in the lower woods, just enough to ice the puddles. Sap isn't beautiful today but it's running better than I'd expected. Wind has kept me busy in the woods last few days. Looking forward to the big freeze coming.

[tcross]

we had a slight quick freeze this a.m as well. certainly not much, but the sap is coming in steadily! This freeze up will help me catch up. been boiling yesterdays sap each day... hoping to catch up tonight and tomorrow evening!

[ryebrye]

Today is the third full day without any freeze here (we had a small freeze Sunday night) - things are still running well for me in Hinesburg.

I've got 107 taps and have had over a gallon of sap since the last time it thawed out for us (Monday morning) - it's been running non-stop since it thawed out - slowing down at night and picking back up in the day.

I'm using check valve spouts and 3/16 tubing running down a steep drop to a mainline under vacuum with a little releaser that I built myself that, among other things, tracks whenever it dumps sap out (and posts messages on twitter that I follow from work to keep an idea of the progress.... https://twitter.com/ryebryesreleasr )

The graph of when the sap runs are kind of interesting (at least to me) - for instance, right after it thaws the hardest it runs - by far - is in the first hour. After that, the rate gradually tapers off to a consistent pace when it's basically just getting the vacuum sucking it out.

N2FwMAR.png

I posted graphs that show the sap flow / hour for the past few days here if anyone is interested:

http://imgur.com/a/wLVzL

I trade / sell all my sap so I've been tracking sugar content as well all season. It has dropped off a bit the past few days (running 2.1% last two days, was at 2.7% earlier in the season), and the sap is mildly cloudly (nowhere near "end-of-season" cloudy. It cleared up nicely on Monday after the freeze so I anticipate it clearing up again with the upcoming cold snap. I'm a little over halfway to my last year lbs / tap total (I'm sitting at 3.89 lbs / tap right now)

[spud]

Has anyone heard from JoeJ in Essex? I was looking forward to seeing his production numbers. I hope he is ok.

Spud