Eastern Ontario 2015

[Lespetras]

Sometimes you still get a surprise, but they become few and far between at this time of year. You will start to notice the sap becoming a little more opaque, but still not cloudy. Then one day you look in the bucket and the stuff looks gross and smells a little funky. I think we are only a few days away from gross and funky.

So sap is still flowing from the trees today.. It looks a tiny bit cloudy... Smells and tastes fine.. I'm gonna boil it and see, I'm trying to redeem myself from last nights mishap! 20 litres so far, will do another run at 8 tonight and report, having fun in the sun
Lesley

[butler]

Don't get much time to post... But if anyone in the Ottawa valley is interested... Upgrading my evap next year so I am selling my 2 year old cdl 2x6 .. Fully loaded.. $5400 for valley folks.. Thanks

[Galena]

Just absolutely exhausted here, but trees at both bushes still producing. Got 6.5l from homebush tonight, boiling it up to make nearup tonight along with the gathering from the last two days...so that's...36l finishing up now. And yep still have a couple litres going from the virgins.

Also heard from a client who did find some small but tappable maples on her property, which is largely birch. She reports 25g of sap from 7 taps!! Wisely they boiled outsisde mostly but did have an indoor sap-boilover recently. I've offered to help finish their syrup if they need it.

Oh and speakin of which, have learned a very important lesson from last two batches, #5 and #6. And it must be temp-related cause batch #4 was from the same great sap collection as batch #5 but definitely finished at a lower temp. Anyway. #5 and #6 didn't finish til 222 or 224. It was way up there and yes the temp of boiling water was normal at 212 both times. Both have nice colour on them, but **** did they ever show a CRAPLOAD of nitre in the bottom, which I haven't had from my trees all season!! I should have been tipped off that somethin' weren't right when both batches filtered in record time, just about shot straight through the cloth in a few minutes flat.

So been trying to refinish the syrup....letting batch #5 do it's thang at room temp through just one cloth filter, and alternately heating #6 to about 170 and refiltering but through 2 layers of cloth. Jury still out on both methods, though #5's smaller 500ml jar filtered clean. Haven't yet checked the 2l jar of #5 to see if it's done the same.

Sadly #6 looks just as nitrey as before and even worse lost some syrup to the filters....Argh....well, will just have one helluva salvage batch when I do boil those suckahs down, have a giant Ziploc Freezer bag jammed with filters awaiting a reboil!!!

[Lespetras]

So collected more sap... Total of 35 litres and boiled it down... Currently at 217 C and it smells off... I don't know but I think I'm gonna throw it out! It's still sweet but it's just different from the other syrup we've made this year. And I don't really like it! My husband is refusing to throw it out ... But I think the season is done! Gonna pull spiles tmw! Thanks yor a
Everyone's input thus year.. Also gonna try some maple sugar tonight with some of my blotted syrup!
Lesley

[Galena]

LOL if hubby refuses to toss spoiled syrup, Lesley, make sure he eats it ;-)

Also planning on pulling spiles by Friday at latest. Kid sis coming for a weekend. We only see each other 1x a year for a few hours, normally. But this time she is free of her 3 kids and hubby, so want to spend quality time with her and not fretting over syrup!

[Lespetras]

LOL if hubby refuses to toss spoiled syrup, Lesley, make sure he eats it ;-)

Also planning on pulling spiles by Friday at latest. Kid sis coming for a weekend. We only see each other 1x a year for a few hours, normally. But this time she is free of her 3 kids and hubby, so want to spend quality time with her and not fretting over syrup!

True that Susan! We threw it out! Yuck

[Run Forest Run!]

Lesley, so what did the syrup taste like?

[Lespetras]

Lesley, so what did the syrup taste like?

It's funny you ask that... Because I was about to write a thread about it.. But then erased it... So the aftertaste is terrible! So gross it's hard to explain... It smells 'earthy'.. Like vegetables cooking at the end. So we tossed it..
But to make matters worse.. I decided to go ahead and boil the syrup from last night.. You know the disaster night, to make candy and this also tasted aweful.. But I had my husband taste it and he says it's fine.. But I think that the one taste of buddy has my taste buds buggered because I put that aside and threw on two more syrup from like two weeks ago and I can still smell that **** buddy scent! I don't know... 6 litres later, I better call it a night lol! All I can say is once you have a taste for buddy, it screws with your mind.., like there is a fine line between really good syrup and really bad.. Sort of like cheese...lol.. Maple candy will have to wait until my poor damaged taste buds recover.. Needless to say our maple season is over and actually I am depressed about it because we really loved it... But 2016 is not that far away
Lesley

[Lespetras]

... And on waking up this morning buddy scent free, I smelled the stuff I put aside and realized that it too was buddy bad!! So that means that my batch from 2 nights ago the 2300 ml is null and void! And so subtracted from my totals
On a positive note after 3 attempts last night.. I made delicious homemade maple candy... It's yummy and 2 litres made a ton!

[Galena]

Yep you've had a helluva learning curve this year, Lesley! I've also had to adjust a syrup amount or two due to syrup loss through filters. So have to rejuggle #s.

Make notes of what you've learned esp the buddy stuff. So far I've been lucky to avoid any encounters with buddy sap, but mostly having such a small bush to run helps. Mind the virgins could still throw me for a loop so can't get complacent! :-)