4.5 gallons today off of 10 taps. Went back tonight and added three more. One tree had sap dripping from the bark. Boil is on for this weekend. With 10 gallons already and hope to get 5 more on Friday....
4.5 gallons today off of 10 taps. Went back tonight and added three more. One tree had sap dripping from the bark. Boil is on for this weekend. With 10 gallons already and hope to get 5 more on Friday....
Semper Fi,
BWC
2016 (1st year) 16 taps; 2 gallons of Amber syrup.
2017; oil tank evaporator 38 taps. 3.75 gallons of liquid gold
2018: 46 taps, 6.75 gallons of syrup. Best season
I have 20 to 25 gallons to boil off this weekend in Waynesboro, Central Shenandoah valley
Waynesboro, Virginia
2015 first year 9 taps, turkey fryer and round pans
Turkey fryer with steam table pans, a little faster, but still lots of propane
Completed barrel evaporator for 2 steam table pans
2016 season - New design barrel evaporator, with pre-heat pan and combustion air blower.
So the sap really ran Friday and Saturday. Got 5 gallons midday on Saturday which extended my boil into Sunday. Got 3 more gallons this morning. Still boiling but all the sap is in at noon. Just need to finish and bottle.
Semper Fi,
BWC
2016 (1st year) 16 taps; 2 gallons of Amber syrup.
2017; oil tank evaporator 38 taps. 3.75 gallons of liquid gold
2018: 46 taps, 6.75 gallons of syrup. Best season
Had 7 gallons as of yesterday. Takes me to 10 so far that I have boiled down. Looks like 2-3 gallons more collected today. I still need to get 7 more taps out. Been a little warm. A couple of my buckets on reds in the woods were full of mosquitos , I dumped them. I need to makes some tweaks to my wood fired boiler.
esetter - If you start dumping sap with bugs in it, you'll end up with no sap. I just run my sap through a filter before I store it. Gets most of the debris/bugs out. The boil and final filtering will take care of any leftover impurities.
USMCLtcol - I used to have about 6 acres in Lynchburg, outside town in the hills looking down on the James River. I used it as a camp site when I was stationed in Hampton Roads in the 90s. Sold the property about 10 years ago, but still have fond memories of the area.
Thanks for the advice. I usually don't dump buckets with a handful of bugs in them , these were absolutely full of deer flies and mosquitos. I guess anything left by them would be killed by the boiling temps huh?
I think so (unless it's far worse than I'm imagining). Get some good cone filters to clean everything up.
Been reading a lot about this ziki virus going around in the u.s.that is carried by mosquitos. Been tons about it on the news too. Just being cautious. It was a swarm in the buckets. Looks like back down in the 20's later in the week , should be less bugs and more flow.
Warm temps no sap. Hope things get back to flowing this weekend and next week.
Semper Fi,
BWC
2016 (1st year) 16 taps; 2 gallons of Amber syrup.
2017; oil tank evaporator 38 taps. 3.75 gallons of liquid gold
2018: 46 taps, 6.75 gallons of syrup. Best season