Has been a good week. 2.5 half days of boiling and 63.75 Litres of syrup. Sap did not run well yesterday because of previous warm night - however today is a different story with a cool night -5 and + temps today plus sunshine - sap is flowing well today. Plan to collect tomorrow and run thru RO and do another boil.
So far I am 80% of last years haul.
Collected 500L today and ran thru RO. Was able to pour off and bottle 15L of dark amber syrup today. Total for the year is 95.875L. Just shy of last year with opportunity to surpass.
Things have really slowed down here. Collected Friday, Saturday and today. All smaller runs. Looks like we may only have a few more nights below freezing in the next 2 weeks. However, it has been a record year for me, already 60% higher than any other year, first collection was Feb 13th, and I am ready for a break!
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
Congrats! Your hard work paid off.Originally Posted by Willen
2022 - 5 pan block arch - 109 taps, 73 on 3/16 lines, 36 on drops into 5 gallon pails.
930 gallons boiled, 109 L (28.8 gals) of delicious syrup made.
DYI Vacuum Filter
2023 - 170 taps, mostly on lines, 1153 gallons boiled, 130 L (34.34 gals) of delicious syrup made, on a 2x4 divided pan and base stack, 8” pipe, on a block arch that boiled at a rate of 13 gallons per hour.
2024 - made 48 L, December to March, primarily over two fire bowls.
Pulled my 19 taps this morning in the freezing rain.
I had already collected more than I have any year due to the early start, so I dumped a bunch of sap that had collected in the bags over the last few days.
1300l of sap, 47.5 hours of boiling (not including finishing on kitchen stove), 31l of syrup.
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
South is pulling taps and some of my trees in the thicker canopy haven't thawed yet, thats interesting.
Since I tapped on March 21 I've collected 378L from 93 taps but I've been chucking the ice so the math from sap to syrup will not add up properly nor will the sap sugar content. I will measure sugar content to see how much of a difference pulling ice makes. My last collection sugar content was between 3 and 4% between buckets without ice.
2019 - Barrel evaporator 2 steam pans 44 taps 13 Liters syrup
2020 - Barrel evaporator 2 steam pans 51 taps 21 Liters syrup
2021- New homemade 2x3 evaporator and flat pan 80 drop lines to buckets
2022- (•,•)1350L naturally ROd sap 44L syrup
2023- "\_(°•°)_/" 1100L sap 30L syrup not accurate due to natural RO
2024 { ';' }1862L sap 52L syrup 52 drop lines to buckets
Looking like the last days for me. Weather isn’t looking great plus it’s time for me to get some other stuff done this spring. Seems like it’s early but it’s not showing another freeze till Friday. Wednesday is looking like we could hit 20. I haven’t actually did a total on syrup produced but I will post it soon.
I’m also going to add a water/sap meter into my set up next year to calculate the sap collection. I always try to keep track but it’s not easy with my gathering system. I’ll add the meter so ever time I’m adding fresh collected sap to the main holding tank it’s tracking it. One between the head tank and evaporator would be pretty cool to track gph boil rate also. I might do this also.
My boil yesterday was absolutely full of sugar sand. Like handfuls and handfuls. I’ve never seen it this bad since I started doing maple. Glad it’s at the end and wasn’t like this all season.
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.
The end is here for me as well, likely the last collection today. Some of my trees have quit, leaking out a dribble of yellow sap in the bucket, while others are still gushing overflowing buckets of sweet clear sap. But the temps are staying high, the turkeys are gobbling, the snow is almost gone ad I am ready for spring.
This year has been a gusher. A full 7 weeks as passed since my first collection. I’m 70% over my previous highest year, and not quite done. Over 100L/27G per tap, and lots wasted to overflow. I keep thinking this can’t be good for the trees.....
The biggest improvement this year was a walking beam, tandem axle atv trailer with a 125G tank for sap collection. Less ground pressure and it will roll over anything. Next experiment will be in filtration, but that’s not for a week or two when I get around to bottling....
Really thinking a larger evaporator needs to find a way into next season!
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
Not a gusher in my woods. Was an ok season considering the weather. My gravity lines didn’t really produce much this year. Only pulled ok numbers from the vac lines. Next year all my lines will be on vacuum.
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.
That's it for me, I've finished the boils and pulled the taps & lines. A pretty weird season but I will consider it a win as I did better than last year.
Finished up with just over 18L from 883L of sap (~50:1) sugars were 1.0 to max 2.4. I'm pleased with both the mechanical vacuum system and the custom evaporator (I would have liked to have more sap though).
Next years plan includes finding some maple sap and doing a blend between the two.
Thanks for all the help and advice offered.
Dave
Black Walnut tapping
2021 - 3 trees 5 taps enough to boil a sample.
~ 2 acres, 35+ mature Black Walnut
2022 - 30 Southern Ontario Walnuts tapped, 69 spouts.
650 litres (143 Imp gals) on sap bags, 14 litres (3 Imp gals) walnut syrup on turkey fryer.
2023 - 35 trees tapped, 28 mech vacuum & 7 on gravity. Propane fired custom evaporator, 2'x2' divided pan, 2'x1' preheat pan.
882 litres (194 Imp gals) mechanical & gravity vac turned into 18.25 litres (4.8 Imp gals) syrup off my DIY evaporator
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