Tapping in the Golden Horseshoe 2014

[Clinkis]

I made the drive to the "cooler" bush and put in eight taps. Within a half an hour there was an inch of sap in the 2 gallon pails. The sap was really pulling for me. I don't want to hear any frogs for a few weeks or else!

Looks like if you can convince your trees not to start budding this weekend that there should be at least a couple good days next week! If the forecast is correct there is supposed to be a cool down mid next week with 2 or 3 cold nights in a row, which is what I think you've been lacking.

[Run Forest Run!]

The buds on all of my trees are tighter than a drum. No chance of budding really soon, thank goodness. The ground is still quite frozen.

[argohauler]

Syrup graded dark today and it's really tasty as the dark orders come piling in. Slightly froze last night and some of the trees wanted to run. An inch or 2 in most buckets, so we'll start gathering tomorrow morning. If it would just freeze hard, I know the sap would pour. So much for my theory of Lake Erie being frozen over it would make us colder at night. If we got clouds, it didn't freeze or not hard enough. I should have kept track, but I bet we had 7 or 8 nights that barely froze. I'm hoping this heat wave doesn't hurt me and then the cold snap that's supposedly coming will actually freeze hard and produce. I need more dark syrup. My drinking bucket kept up to me in the heat today and is still really sweet. We still have ice in the swamps and frost in the ground, we can't be done yet.

[Pkalmykow]

Hi All this is my first post.

Agreed, this year has been substandard. We've done three boils so far and produced about 30 litres from our 75 taps, all darker grades. Been fun trying to get through the snow and haul the sap buckets by hand to our collection vats, but we do love the product!

Paul

[Run Forest Run!]

Welcome Paul! The buckets haven't started to drip yet today, but there was ice on the puddles. Fingers crossed.

[Pkalmykow]

Hi Karen, thanks for the welcome.

Alas, I check the weather forecasts and spent yesterday:

pulling spiles
cleaning buckets and 3 times rinse
cleaning vats (ok bunch of roughneck garbage cans) and airdry
air drying said buckets, staking and putting away
disinfecting spiles
pan cleaner, channel brush, creosote brush, steel wool and power washer to sap,syrup pans, float box
clean out collected ash in firebox/arch, wirebrush grates, re-assemble, powerwash and wipe down arch frame.
powerwash collection tank and feed line and "summerize"
Wash and put away sap collection buckets, filter tank, stem thermometer, etc etc etc.
Collect and put away pumps, electrical cords and garden hoses (used to pump sap into my tank)

Whew, I was beat when I finished, slept well . Can't imagine the closing for those big operations with steam hoods, bubblers, RO, vacuum pumps, main lines and biggy evaporators!

Glad our family loves syrup. My 8 year old especially likes the dark stuff, and he was pleased the last boil turned amber at the take off spout.

Lets hope for a better season next year and no polar vortex! Paul

[argohauler]

Gathered Friday and got a lot of exercise, but only 170 gallons of sap. Boiled it that afternoon and pushed out another 7 gallons. That got me my pre-orders of dark and got most of it sent out Saturday.

The trees continued to run Saturday despite it not freezing when I went back to wash tanks if the afternoon. Gathered Sunday afternoon and got 300 gals. Some trees are running better than when it was freezing. I guess they're thawed out now. Noticed some of the silvers have popped. Boiled it out today and it got a little darker and the flavour is still good.

Hoping the sap will still be good when the freeze up is over. Sugar buds look all right. Probably going to get 2, possibly 3 runs out of this, but not sure if my wood is going to hold out.

[Run Forest Run!]

Had quite a bit of snow overnight and it is still snowing off and on. Temperatures have not risen above freezing yet so the sap is not dripping. Maybe we'll get a nice surprise tomorrow and be boiling down some sap.

[drpud]

Well the bucket list (washing, rinsing, drying, stacking/storing) is done Finished up with 57 litres off 75 taps this year. Last 5 L very dark but tasty (thats staying here). Bit of a disappointment compared to last year's production but still a good year. Good luck to those still draining trees.
Cheers
Paul

[Run Forest Run!]

A couple of my taps just started to drip within the past ten minutes. Does anyone in this area have good news to report?