Eastern Ontario 2015

[jnexus]

Has anyone in the east end of the province get a decent run yet? One small one here only Monday, maybe today, but still seems cold.

I'm about 100km NE of you, and I haven't gotten much more than 4l per tap. Nothing is running right now.




275 taps spread out over 125 acres
2.5 x 10 Drop Flue on masonry arch ( takes 10 ft logs )
Ski doo Expedition when there is snow
500cc Foreman and Kubota l5740 when there isn't

[Galena]

Welcome jnexus, and hey, at least you're in the Land of Beaus...can't be all that bad! :-)

[TurkeyJohn]

Hey folks,

Boiled down our first batch, and though not as thick as I would have liked, took too long as it was, quite happy with the colour and taste.

Took 18 hours to get my 40 gallons down to 5 1/2 375 ml bottles. Used my barrel boiler and then finished on the Bar B Q and the electric element I picked up this year just for syrup.

Trees took the weekend off with the cold, but expecting big runs later this week with milder temps..

Good Luck to all,

Turkey John

[Galena]

*Crickets chirping*

All is very quiet in my neck of the woods during yet another mini coldsnap. They are getting pretty tiresome! So when I visit the trees I pet them and tell them I'm not worried, this cold will finally end, and none of them are going to be firewood next year.

[Big_Eddy]

Well - it's back to work for me after a good March Break off. We boiled Saturday through Wednesday, then had Thursday through Saturday off so cut firewood instead. Had enough sap again by Sunday to boil, even though it was -19C in the morning. I still have about 80 gallons of sap (ice?) in the tank to boil later today. I think we've boiled about 300 gallons of sap so far. The first 120 sweeten the evaporator, after which about 25 liters of syrup has come out.

Our first runs were low on sugar (determined by the tried and true tongue taste test method) but mid-week made up for it with 2 nights that froze just enough to discard the ice when collecting. Syrup has been light to date. We have some goods days in the near term forecast, so we're expecting to have lots of sap by the end of the week and with cold nights forecasted, we should be seeing light syrup for another week at least.

Here's wishing for cold nights and warm days for another few weeks at least.

[Galena]

Sitting here twiddling my thumbs and as sap not running - this year so far has been as stop and go as a teenager learning how to drive standard - so I have to boil something...and so I am making stock from lamb bones, veggies, herbs and h20. Almost accidentally threw in a batch of nearup from the virgin bush too, but didn't :-0

Big_Eddy...you got those pics ok?

[cheesegenie]

Galena, you mean a teenage girl learning to drive standard? Useless.

[Galena]

Galena, you mean a teenage girl learning to drive standard? Useless.

Heh, this former teenage girl drives nothin but standard and I'm **** good at it! And I've known teenage drivers of both sexes to mash up the gears pretty badly :-p

[cheesegenie]

When I was dating my wife, she was 16, she just couldn't get it. I kept trying but never did she learn. That was only 40 years ago, should I give up? Hey guess what? -11 last night, sun is coming out, sap might run!

[Big_Eddy]

Big_Eddy...you got those pics ok?

I did - thank you.