Checking what VT sugar makers are doing

[VTfarmboy]

.30 gpt still right at 2%, didnt freeze last night, 3/16 is powerhouse this year with super long runs, next week forcast now looking good

[GeneralStark]

Power went out here this morning for 1.5 hours and changed my plans for boiling. For whatever reason the vacuum pump seized when it shut off so I had to disassemble the pump head and reassemble to get it back on line. Fortunately the sap essentially stopped flowing so I did not have to break out the bucket brigade between the electric releaser and sap tank....

Had to deal with some other weather related issues including a bunch of stuff blowing around in the heavy winds we had. Most of this stuff, including every cover on any wood pile as well as the top of a propane tank has never been moved by a wind storm previously... go figure. Fortunately nothing was damaged.

I did finally get to boiling and made 30 gal of the darkest syrup so far this season. 45% light transmittance. That was from over 2000 gal of syrup which means the SSC is seriously low. Every year I seem to say: "what a weird season" and this year it looks like it will be due to the lowest SSC I've seen from these woods. I think it will be a tough year to hit the .5gpt mark but who knows what the rest of the season will bring.

I'm sure everyone is up to their ears with Caronavirus news and despite the fact that this has already been brought up and lead to some "moderator intervention" I thought I might just put this here: https://vermontmaple.org/mohw

As a participating producer I have mixed feelings about this, but I suspect it is a good choice for many reasons.

[spud]

I emptied my tank last night at 8:30 thinking the sap would stop running anytime. I woke up to 1800 gallons in the tank and it’s still running just a little now. Hoping next week is a great sap week. Weather looks great for sugaring in my area. General I’m sorry to hear about your pump issues. I’m glad your back up and going. Good luck everyone.

Spud

[spud]

I was not expecting sap yesterday but it ran very good. It froze up at about 8 last night. I got 1 gpt and it tested 1.6%. Most of next week should be great. I’m at about 50% of my season target. If we could go a week or two into April then it would be a great season. Good luck everyone.

Spud

[PARKER MAPLE]

Same here spud, after the bad wind we had and the weather I didn’t expect to see much.
We had 2 full tanks one was over full. Must of missed it by a little bit. Our southern lot has dropped way off 1.0-1.1 but still running 1.5gpt our northern lot now is coming on. Running almost 2.0gpt and sugar is 2.0.
I think we are at over half way on syrup totals. But not quite 3/4. I’m not sure we will hit our goals this year unless it hold out for a few more weeks. April is getting closer as we speak
Big freeze coming this afternoon into the night. Forecast showed low teens for us. This should set the tree up again, as we have very little snow in one bush and none in our southern bush.

[Ultimatetreehugger]

Over the last two days I trucked 6000 gallons sugar content around 2 depending on the woods. I'm at 25 percent crop.

[blissville maples]

I'm starting to see why everyone was posting about low sugar!! It's dropped off here, down to 1.2- 1.4 not impressive. Thank God added a recirc loop for osmosis!!

Just topped 850 gals last night which is .54 of last year's crop, mostly Amber but stared hitting dark couple days ago. Having some major runs this year, 10-15k gallons per 24-48 hrs. Although I feel it's just extra water for whatever reason, no frost just sucking water from ground?

[spud]

One section of my woods ran a bit today. I got about 800 gallons in the tank. I have added 250 taps the last few days. I still have a few hundred more that I will do before next season. Now that the kids are home from school I have put them to work.

Spud

[GeneralStark]

General I’m sorry to hear about your pump issues. I’m glad your back up and going.

Spud

Thanks Spud! Just a quick blip in the scheme of things. Fortunately I can disassemble and assemble the pump real quick. Pretty simple piece of equipment that is practically bombproof unless the power goes out...

Solid freeze-ups the last two nights here. Sap ran a bit yesterday and got going pretty good this afternoon. I boiled yesterday and made 10 gallons of nice dark robust.... from 1000 gal. of sap....

Niter is getting pretty bad so going to drain and filter the flue pan and rinse it with permeate.

Hopefully we have another two weeks here... weird times.

[Thegreg20]

I started at 2% and the last week its dropped to 1%. Wouldn't be an issue if I had more trees but I'm only working with 16 taps on my vacuum system. I get about 17gals a day. Would of called it the season if I didn't have RO but still it's limping away to get enough syrup for the year. I need more trees