West Virginia Mapler 2016

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Picked up another 1,445 today and boiled this morning and again tonight and boiled off 2,370 today. Temperatures hit 70 yesterday and 73 today and sap just kept on pouring without a freeze last night. Over 5gpt on this run in 3.5 days and over 15 gpt for season. 14.25 gpt in last 19 days, it has been unbelievable how the sap has ran. Only downside sugar has been 1.2 to 1.4 throughout the runs but it is making up with a massive amount of sap. Boiled 4,670 last 2 days. About 54% of full crop so far and looks like we will end up somewhere between that and 60%. Extremely warm temps showing for next 15 days so season will end about 3 weeks early unless weather changes very soon.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Picked up 500 more gallon yesterday and it mid 70s. Pulled lines out of all the tanks and they are washed and ready for the next run. 70s the rest of the week and warm all week next week so unless the weather changes we are done. Would be the earliest season would have ended that I can ever remember by a lot. So far 15,850 gallons of sap and about 225 gallon of syrup. Ended up with 5.75 gpt run in 3.5 days on this last run and just over 15 gpt in last 19.5 days.

[Russell Lampron]

The sap has been running good up here too. I hope a cold front comes through for you so you can keep going.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Looks like we are done for good here. No sap since March 9th and it has been in 70's most days since the 7th and when it hasn't it has still been in 60's. Never seen it this warm this time of year as normally this is peak production time for us. We basically had a 19.5 day season from the afternoon of February 20th until the morning of March 9th. We got just over 15 gpt in those 19.5 days but sugar was terrible. If sugar had been normal, we would have been at 325 gallons of syrup instead of 225. Syrup quality was tremendous with most being light with about 35% medium and about 15% dark. No real freezing forecasted all the way to the end of the month and I don't think trees would run if we did get a freeze this weekend. I have made syrup in April the past 3 years, so hard pill to swallow. Shortest season we have had and similar to 2010 season. Could have been a lot worse had we not gotten 3 incredible runs during the 19 days and it may be many years before I see that much sap per tap in that short of a period of time.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Saturday March 19th is the first annual Mountain State Maple day. We will be open from 9 to 4 and boiling water some since we have no sap. We will be educating people on how maple syrup is made and have some for people to sample. This event is sponsored by the WV Dept of Agriculture, the WV Dept of Tourism and the WV Maple Syrup Producers association and is scheduled to be an annual event every year with sugarhouses across the state participating.

Cold weather is forecasted this weekend for 3 or 4 nights, so will see if the sap will run again. Today is day # 10 in a row of temps in the 60's and 70s and some of the taps have been running on the ground now for a week. They are still running in spite of 9 days without a freeze but with these high temps and such slow run, it would ferment and spoil before enough to be gathered to run unfortunately over the last week.

[Russell Lampron]

Good luck with your Mountain State Maple Day. It is always fun to educate people about the syrup making process.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Finally cooled off some Friday and got to 29, but not enough to get things going again. Got a little better freeze Sunday night and everything flowing some yesterday after 12 days in 60s and 70s. Got to 24 last night with good 10 to 12 hour freeze, so hoping sap is still good for table syrup and we can make little more syrup before trees are done for good. Weather better this week and next, just 2 weeks too late.

Guess we will find out syrup quality this even. Evaporator is completely clean and ready to go.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I finished up 2016 season last Wednesday 03/23. Got 1,285 sap in a couple of days last Monday and Tuesday and it was loaded heavy with yeast. Made 14 gallons out of it and pulled out lines. Ended year with 239 gallons, so we got to 60% crop. Been 2 tougher years here in a row so hopefully next year will be better. We the extreme temps for 2 weeks that came in on March 8th, we lost half our our normal season like last year, except last year was 23 days of arctic blast that killed first half of season. There is always next year if the Lord blesses me with another year.