Eastern Ontario 2014.

[Run Forest Run!]

Al, those are gorgeous. I managed to collect 20L of sap yesterday and began boiling it down this morning before company arrived.
.
.
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I burned it to a blackened crisp. It's just not my year.

[BrutemanAl]

Now I'm sad for you Karen, dont like to hear you burned it, expecially after the way this year has gone.

[Run Forest Run!]

Al, surprisingly I took it in stride. I couldn't believe how stupid I was to make such a classic mistake. It's not like I didn't know better.

Maybe if the cold spell comes this week I'll get a little bit of sap to work with (not burn). But if I don't, I'll be first in line supporting the maple industry by 'putting my money where my pancakes are' and buying it from those hard working sugarers out there.

[Galena]

Aw dang, Karen, that sucks :-( but glad you took it in stride. Want some Chateau Snaffles syrup?

[cavescott]

Well Karen sorry to hear you burnt your syrup. I may be able to help. Coulpe of days ago I left my arch just for a little bit to bottle a few gallons so my wife could deliver the last of my preorders. When I returned my whole front pan was full of black burnt syrup it was so thick it would hardly come out of the 1" tap at the end of the pan. By the time I had the pan cleaned out I had 6 gallons of of black gunk that I could do nothing with but dump it in the snow bank. that was sad enough but then i had to clean the pans which eventually came down to a wire wheel on my drill it was so baked on. Hope this helps you out i definatly feel your pain haha.
I am also glad to hear that other people are finding the syrup is very dirty and dark this year I thought I had screwed up some how, but I guess it is just the year.
I'm still hoping for more sap this week as I have only filled my preorders and have nothing left for the other clients I have during the summer. I should get some as my season falls behind everyone else because of elevation and such.

[NTBugtraq]

Yeah Karen and Scott, sorry for your snafu...I did it myself last week so I feel your pain.

Scott, you are somewhat north of me, but like you, this week is looking very promising. Despite 2 days of no sap, I still have no buds and lots of snow on the ground...so my fingers are crossed. Anyone know if its been a good or bad year "for the industry"?

Cheers,
Russ

[Kyle Baker]

Season total was around 23 litres from 50 taps. 18 silver maples, 32 sugar maples. I only boiled 4 batches this year.
I boiled over onto my stovetop finishing the first batch, then started finishing batches right on the evaporator in my finishing pan.
I also started using a hydrometer this year, so I know my syrup is properly finished which I know it wasn't always last year.
Could have been better, but all in all it was not such a bad year. Hopefully next year the weather will give us some better runs.

[BrutemanAl]

Wow!! looks good Kyle,by the looks of it you also got allot of dark syrup,I got 3 liters of dark with my last batch being almost black and tasting like liquid brown sugar.

[BrutemanAl]

Very nice Al! Good work :-) I use the same backlit technique to show off the colours, and usually put it in 250 ml jars - larger jars hold more syrup so the colour looks darker in a 2l jar than a 250 or 500ml.

I took the picture that way thinking of you,because last year when I posted a picture of my syrup you sent me a pm about them saying the pictures didnt do my syrup justice. lol, and you told me to use a white back ground or the window sill ( not your exact words I'm sure,but it was somewhere along those lines lol)

So this year I took your advice and used the window sill, my wife asked me why I didn't just leave them on the table and take a picture? She said table not good enough for your syrup and picture's? I said " nope apparently not" lol,Galena said last year this does not do my syrup justice so they are going in the window sill !!! She said who is Galena ? I said a fellow tapper who gave me advice on taking pictures of my finished syrup... she said what ever.... you maple people can be so strange sometimes. I laughed and said yep we are a special breed

[Galena]

I took the picture that way thinking of you,because last year when I posted a picture of my syrup you sent me a pm about them saying the pictures didnt do my syrup justice. lol, and you told me to use a white back ground or the window sill ( not your exact words I'm sure,but it was somewhere along those lines lol)

So this year I took your advice and used the window sill, my wife asked me why I didn't just leave them on the table and take a picture? She said table not good enough for your syrup and picture's? I said " nope apparently not" lol,Galena said last year this does not do my syrup justice so they are going in the window sill !!! She said who is Galena ? I said a fellow tapper who gave me advice on taking pictures of my finished syrup... she said what ever.... you maple people can be so strange sometimes. I laughed and said yep we are a special breed

Thanks Al and yep we are!!! And in food photography of any sort you don't want the surroundings to detract from the colours. After all in your previous chef life you usually plated food onto white dishes, right? Syrup is translucent so it will pick up and reflect back unwanted colours...so a tablecloth or other items will not only be reflected in the syrup but may also lend an unappealing cast to it. Any issue of Food&Drink from the LCBO is a good place to look for food photography and of course food porn.

Oh yeah you can tell wife my real name's Susan. Galena is the name of my space-cadet cat, which is why I'm using it here ;-)

ETA Kyle...good job on the windowsill shot too! Everyone else, take it from someone who knows a little about photography...make use of the nice diffused cloudy/murky light we have now and put those windowsills to work. Soon I'll have shots up too.