2017 Missouri Tapping Season

[Goggleeye]

I have not seen anything from Goggleeye this year. He is probably busy with the 500 or so trees he taps.

Yeah, I'm here. Just been a little quiet while lamenting over the last two weeks of non-production. We put out about 465 taps the weekend of the 7th hoping to catch the forecasted warm-up. Unfortunately the warm up came with 40-45 mph wind gusts, and the trees produced next to nothing. We do have almost 4 gallons of finished syrup sitting on the counter right now, but I'm looking forward to a real flood of sap by the coming weekend. Hopefully the taps haven't started to seal up yet. I don't ever remember having two weeks of non-production due to temps above freezing.

MG

[esetter]

Needing some colder weather down here still.......... hopefully later this week.

[skinny78]

We tapped our trees this weekend and are looking forward to sweetening the pans Monday night! I have extra evaporator capacity this year and am willing to cook someones sap on shares. I have been cooking the sap from a friends 300+ taps but he is not able to tap this year. If you all know anybody close to the Jefferson City or Holts Summit area with some extra sap please let me know.

[RiverSap]

I have 40 maple trees and 14 walnut trees tapped this year. I collected another 3 gallons of walnut sap today and my first maple sap as well. I only checked a few maple buckets and collected about 5 gallons. There was more sap in some of the 35 gallon containers but I did not lug it up the hill. Hoping for a good day tomorrow.

[unclejohn]

finally some flow today when the sun came out and into the evening. about 1/2 gallon in each bucket. gonna collect tomorrow and start boiling. weather forecast looks good for continued flow.

[Sugarbush Ridge]

I started taping Thursday afternoon and then all day Friday,, about 315 on tubing,,, 115 on buckets. I had about 40 gals from tubing with some color. only got about 17 gals from all the buckets. Some had not run at all yet. BUT the starlings have been using my woods as a rest,,, between flights into the fields!!!!!! Bird **** and piss on tops of most buckets. SO,,,, dumped 55 + - gals. Weather not good..... Not cold enough at nights so not much run

[unclejohn]

had great collection this morning, and with 45 degF and climbing, the drips were coming faster than my heartbeat from some trees. Tomorrow should be another good collection. Ive been trying to build a network of Missouri tappers; if you know of other folks who don't post on Maple Trader, please tell them about this website. Skinny- hows your new RO working? Goggle and Sugarbush- did it get cold enough for your flow to start this week? Thanks to all. John

[skinny78]

MES Dolly 100 RO is working great. It is very well made and did a great job last year. I was averaging 75gph of cold sap with it cranked down to 50/50. It was just keeping up with my evaporator, between the RO and evaporator we were chewing through 100+ gallons per hour. Unfortunately I don't think I will have enough sap this year to justify using it, I am working on that though. Just talked to a guy tonight from Boonville and told him about the trader, hopefully we will hear from him soon. He is on his second year of syrup making and has quite a bit of potential on his land! Looks like we will be collecting Tuesday night now and firing up the evaporator then, can't wait to get the pans sweetened!

[Sugarbush Ridge]

uncle john mid mo I got a little run Sunday but say was off colored so dumped. 40 gals The 115 buckets I set out,,,,,,, Well,,, **** starlings.,, they were feeding in wheat field next to woods and as they flew around and sometimes in my trees. Well,, the bucket lids were covered with bird **** and piss. so had to dump that sap and bring in all buckets, wash and set back out. this time covered then with plastic bags. got 85-90 gals off tubing today,,, 315 taps. I got a Guzzler on one mainline. too much leakes to get just more than wiggle the needle but I can see a slight increase in sap. Not enough sap to run RO so cooked raw sap today.

Too warm. Not getting cold enough at nights,,,,,,, 25,, 28 degrees,,, 31,,,, trees not freezing at night enough.

[potatopie17]

Started tapping january 28th saturday I have 27 taps on buckets 4 big trees 4-5 foot diameter and rest smaller trees
Was flowing a little bit. Stated flowing better around monday. got almost 30 gallons of sweet water in 1 day. Have been boiling since Tuesday and still boiling I think Ill finish boiling around friday. Ive canned 1gallon and 3cups of syrup so far about 1-27 ratio (pretty good). looks look it might start flowing again on weekend according to the weather. hope its a good year. Because last year sucked it was worst year I have ever seen.
oh and I use use a stove with 2 big pots for boiling about 1-2 gallons per hour.