Checking what VT sugar makers are doing

[GeneralStark]

Running well here too. Better than Thursday in fact which is surprising given the lack of sun and cold temps. I fired up the ro yesterday to make space and am doing the same again now. Going to boil tomorrow and suspect by then will be processing close to 2000gal. Hoping to make over 40 gal. Sugar at about 1.9%.

[Tucker08]

Nearing the end in far Southern VT. My sap run today was poor. Hope these next two nights with a freeze make things happen. After that, it looks like a poor forecast. Am just about at last year's total how. Added 100 taps though.


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[Flat Lander Sugaring]

Headed over to N.Y. yesterday to help out boiling. Lakeview has a awesome set up for being small.
Think I was there 4 hour's stoking his 3x10.
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[Flat Lander Sugaring]

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Headed over to N.Y. yesterday to help out boiling. Lakeview has a awesome set up for being small.
Think I was there 4 hour's stoking his 3x10.
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Another picture

[spud]

Nearing the end in far Southern VT. My sap run today was poor. Hope these next two nights with a freeze make things happen. After that, it looks like a poor forecast. Am just about at last year's total how. Added 100 taps though.


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Are you seeing buds on the sugar maples? I am hoping we will go to the 20th up here at the border. Sap should run well today and I am still at 2%.

Spud

[Flat Lander Sugaring]

Had a good night last night made another 12/15 gallons, sap ran all night ok. Going to start boiling around 1 today. Making a oil reclaimer for vac pump and washing Ro.
Had huge group in sugar house last night 11 adults 5 kids. A lot of dead boiling sodas all over in sugar house and driveway. One seasoned boiling soda drinker lost his balance for some unknown reason good thing I put the bench up otherwise he would have landed on kegs of syrup, no blood no foul he had help getting back up onto his sea legs.

[DrTimPerkins]

Yes, there are plenty of buds on sugar maples all the time unless the trees are dead. I assume you mean are people seeing swelling buds. Nothing here up on the hill...buds are still very tight. We've still got time. Southern VT had a lot warmer weather in February/March than we did in the north.

Very good run yesterday. We will be boiling today starting at around noon. Sap just started coming in this morning about 8:30am....should be a couple of very nice days until about mid-week based on the forecast. After that no freezes for a while, but we still have plenty of snow on the ground and no really hot weather in the forecast, so things should hold in there for a while yet. Tapholes still seem quite productive.

We are right at about 0.34 gal/tap or ~3.8 lbs per tap right now, not counting what we have from yesterday or today. I expect it'll be a 200 gal syrup production day once we get rolling. That'll put us well up over 4 lbs per tap by the end of the day, with a couple of good days coming. It's going to be a busy couple of weeks coming up.

[madmapler]

Are you seeing buds on the sugar maples? I am hoping we will go to the 20th up here at the border. Sap should run well today and I am still at 2%.

Spud

I'm just north of the border and the buds are looking pretty tight still. No more freezes in the forecast after tonight so the end may be getting near. Aside from that, the sap is running very strong and clear and I'm still making AR as of last night but it's getting darker. I was in St. Albans a few days ago and we have more snow than they do up there.

[spud]

Sap was running until 11:00 last night. Woke up at 5:00 and the temp is 25 degrees. Full sun today and sap should run great all day and all tonight. I am at .36GPT right now. As of last night I am still testing at 2%. The 10 day forecast is showing a lot of nighttime temps at 33-34. I hope they are off a few degrees and we get freezing temps instead. Today I plan to prune the rest of my apple trees. Good luck everyone it should be a great week.

Spud

[GeneralStark]

Solid freeze here overnight as well. Sap ran well yesterday afternoon while the sun was out and pulled in almost 400 gal. between 2 pm and when it froze last night. Had the longest boil of the season at 4 hours yesterday and made over 40 gal. AR from the sap that came in Thursday thru 2 pm yesterday. Once again, grade went from dark side of AR to right on the line with GD. Still not seeing much niter...

Trees tapped in January are still producing well. Going to be an interesting week or two. Still have some snow in the woods and frost in the ground....