To really make things interesting for ya only about 50 of my 160 are on the vac lines. You can bet that’s changing for next year. Also 15-20 of my last taps were only out for the last little bit of I guess our run this year.
To really make things interesting for ya only about 50 of my 160 are on the vac lines. You can bet that’s changing for next year. Also 15-20 of my last taps were only out for the last little bit of I guess our run this year.
225 taps 180 on vac 45 on natural gravity lines.
2x6 drop flue with auto draw.
Home built 3 x400gpd ro
2017 kubota M7060hdcc12
2019 can am defender
2017- first year 80 taps 22x36 home made arch and pan.
Ended the season with 63 litres of Syrup off of my 90 buckets. It was a strange season but all in all I’m happy considering I harvested 65% of my sap in 3 days.
EDD48695-771F-4971-BEFA-B02EA1411D71.jpg
Still collecting some sap here..... No buds on my trees yet, and I really want to boil some more... Big Flow yesterday afternoon, but the Sugar is way down at 1.4% though... Glad I'm not in the "business"....
Couple more freezes this week... Going to stick it out to the end and see what we get.
We were very similar, got total of 54l off our 84 buckets. We normally average about 1.2l/ bucket!
2023 - 130 taps, 90L from 4,000L as of mid March
2021 - 84 taps, 50L from 2100L
2020 - 100 taps on buckets, 21L syrup from 2700L so far (FEB 26-Mar 13) and then the pandemic hit! End of our season!
2019 - 62 taps on buckets, 95L syrop from 3215L sap
2018 - 62 taps, collecting by hand, 90L syrop from 3200L sap
2017 - Lapierre Waterloo Small mini pro with 40 taps
2014 - 2016 40 taps making one or two batches on a 2x6 flat pan over an open arch as it would have been done in 1900
Finished bottling today - ended up with 110L from 137 taps = 0.8L/tap. Normally over 1.0
Glad I left my buckets up after the heat wave, as we got a couple more runs.
My very last batch wasn't "bad", the sap was still sweet although it had a tiny bit of cloudiness, hadn't turned sour, but the last batch has very little maple flavour - its sweet but tastes more like toffee or caramel than maple. My kids say its "not maple syrup".
Two new things this year that really worked out well - first my firewood - I switched to using tote cages to store and move wood I split through the year with the tractor forks - this is a real time and back saver!
I also jumped into a homemade RO similar to what others have built on this site, and I have to say that it was a complete game changer. I didn't run it real hard, around 50% recovery at 120 psig = HALF the wood & HALF the boiling time vs a bit of membrane system flushing and the occasional caustic clean. I normally run out of wood before I am done, and find myself looking for standing dead or scrounging pallets, and with this year's short season + the RO, I have enough wood for next year already (I cut wood this winter before going down the RO path....).
Nothing left to do now except label the bottles! Hope you all have a great spring!
2x6 Waterloo pan on an antique Piette & Fils arch
2019 - 60 buckets, 85L of syrup, 2x4 pan outside
2020 - 100 buckets, 105L of syrup, 2x6 flat pan in a Redi Rack Shack
2021 - 137 buckets, 110L of syrup and a homemade RO (why didn't I do this sooner?)
2022 - 154 buckets, 201L of syrup
2023 - 166 buckets, 343L of syrup, cold sap float box, walking beam sap trailer, 4Walls vacuum filter
Next year check the sap sugar of your trees half way through the season. Sometimes the small trees' sugar is low
by then and they bring your total sugar down...and you end up with lengthy boils and dark syrup.
My large trees had good sugar right 'til the end. I never collected the sap from the small trees the last few boils and
continued to make amber syrup in short boils.
Well I hope everybody is doing well. Wondering thoughts about this upcoming season. Was a cold start to the winter but temps look to be on the warmer side of things for the mid to end of February in my area. I’m getting the itch
225 taps 180 on vac 45 on natural gravity lines.
2x6 drop flue with auto draw.
Home built 3 x400gpd ro
2017 kubota M7060hdcc12
2019 can am defender
2017- first year 80 taps 22x36 home made arch and pan.
Yes, plan to put in taps on Feb 20, hope I'm not jumping the gun!
2023 - 130 taps, 90L from 4,000L as of mid March
2021 - 84 taps, 50L from 2100L
2020 - 100 taps on buckets, 21L syrup from 2700L so far (FEB 26-Mar 13) and then the pandemic hit! End of our season!
2019 - 62 taps on buckets, 95L syrop from 3215L sap
2018 - 62 taps, collecting by hand, 90L syrop from 3200L sap
2017 - Lapierre Waterloo Small mini pro with 40 taps
2014 - 2016 40 taps making one or two batches on a 2x6 flat pan over an open arch as it would have been done in 1900
This 10 day forecast didn't look that great for Milton.
https://www.wunderground.com/forecas...on/IONTARIO200
2015 - 8 buckets, 332L sap, 8.5L syrup - Barrel evaporator, 2 steam pans
2016 - 8 buckets, 432L sap
2017 - 10 bags, 470L sap, 9L syrup
2018 - 20 bags, 1050L sap, 17.6L syrup
2019 - 20 bags, 970L sap, 22.2L syrup
2020 - 17 bags, 813L sap, 17L syrup
Yes, but starting on 21st they're showing swings from plus daytime highs to nighttime lows so I suspect (hope!) the sap will start running!
2023 - 130 taps, 90L from 4,000L as of mid March
2021 - 84 taps, 50L from 2100L
2020 - 100 taps on buckets, 21L syrup from 2700L so far (FEB 26-Mar 13) and then the pandemic hit! End of our season!
2019 - 62 taps on buckets, 95L syrop from 3215L sap
2018 - 62 taps, collecting by hand, 90L syrop from 3200L sap
2017 - Lapierre Waterloo Small mini pro with 40 taps
2014 - 2016 40 taps making one or two batches on a 2x6 flat pan over an open arch as it would have been done in 1900
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