Southwestern Ontario

[Willen]

It has continued today with another 600L. However the sugar is dropping, down to 1.8 in today’s gathering, so I think I will pick up whatever runs tomorrow and call it a season.

As far as how long sap stays good, I think it depends on temps, maybe sunlight during storage, how clean your collection and storage equipment is, and how close to budding your trees are. I made some really weird syrup at the end of last year that we finished, tasted, debated, but ended up not bottling. Early season and cold temps, I’ve kept sap for a week no problem. The later in the season the shorter the window, but I am certainly no expert.

I have collected late season sap that is cloudy, with a yellowish to greenish colour, that boiled into perfectly normal tasting syrup.

[Sugarmaker Dave]

Hi Harold - sent you a personal message earlier but not sure you saw. I am getting close to calling my season and I still have 300+ gallons in the bush that i won’t be able to boil. Would you like?

[Hkb82]

Getting a early jump this year new set of pans and gotta customize the arch to fit the extra length. plus a few changes to the shack. Upgraded from a 2x4 flat pan to a 2x4 drop flue and 2x2 divided finishing pans up front. I use to be in the refractory business and still have a few friends that are so was able to get some top grade insulation and brick. I think a new shack is in the picture for next year. Something tells me I’ve outgrown my existing sugar shack.

[Trends]

Hi All,
As the title mentions I'm a new member to the Trader Forum and am hoping that somehow I can be a small help to someone along the way as you all have been to me.
I've been reading and using your shared knowledge in an effort to learn and hopefully over time improve my sugaring experience (albeit Walnut syrup rather than Maple) over the next few seasons.

As I figure out the forum I'll certainly be posting pic's and related information on what I work with and such.

Cheers all.
Dave
Southern Ontario (Scotland)

[Hkb82]

What a crazy winter we are having. Can’t remember the last time I had grass showing this late into the winter. I sure hope we get some cold weather that sticks around a bit so the sugar season isn’t a busy also. Part of me feels like I should be running my lines well the other thinks don’t jinx it. Lol

Welcome to the site trends. I’ve never tried walnut syrup but you got me curious. Look forward to seeing your posts about it.

[Sugarmaker Dave]

Any idea what this weather does for our season? Will it be short with a milder winter?

[Swingpure]

Lots of winter still to come.

[Trends]

Well I tapped one Walnut tree today as a test. This tree is about 200' up at the top of the lot with a drop of probably 40' down hill. My plan is to see how much I collect over say 24 or 48 hours just with natural vacuum then hook up my beer cooler (new build) Surflo vacuum setup and see if a get any significant increase in sap. Being Walnut I don't expect any great accumulation over a couple of days.
My hope is the vacuum system will pull about 50% more sap. Time will tell.

[Trends]

Well that plan didn't work well. We got 1 gal in 48hrs then the line froze.
Try again net week maybe.

[Swingpure]

Since December 15, there was a possible 15 days sap could have flowed in the Brampton area solely based on overnight below freezing temperatures and above freezing daylight temperatures. Likely 10 may have only been decent flow days. So 10 days out of 37 days, mid winter, does not make for a compelling reason to go all in on tapping.

I did this more for me thinking if I lived down in Southern Ontario like I used to, would I have tapped. The answer would be no, other than if I have some extra taps I wanted to use, for some mid winter fun.