2017 Season

[Dennis H.]

I guess I am the 1st, Tapped the trees yesterday and collected and boiled the 1st syrup of the season.

Trees are running really nice down here. The sap tank was overflowing when I arrived this afternoon. Less than 24 hrs from when I tapped and turned the vac on.
Not too bad for the 1st day.

Weather is looking good for this coming week, may have a small freeze up come this weekend or beginning of next week.

Good luck to everyone. the season is upon us.

[spelunk68]

This post freaked me out as my name is Dennis Hudson and I did not remember posting to the PA board lol.

[spelunk68]

Tapped early here too, about 20 percent of my sugar maples. On my refractometer I am getting readings of 2.4 to 2.8 sugar content, not bad for an early run from what I understand (My first year). Getting around 15 gallons a day from 7 tree's.

Now with these tree's do I just leave them tapped and just discard slow flow sap if we start getting real weather here and resume at the end of winter? Or should I pull taps and then re-tap, or discard collection from these tree's now that I got impatient and tapped early?

I have a main line set up on the hill ready to tap around 30 tree's but I am saving that for the end of season tap so I do not contaminate the tubing. The ones I tapped are actually on a lake sure so ground water is never an issue for them. Or should I hit the main line now as this wacky weather is causing an early season?

Also I want to do one big initial boil (I have capacity for 20 gallons if all pans would be full to the top, not that i would do that but I should have decent boil space for a noobie and with my bad back I want to do as large batches as I can, I have cold storage for up to around 150 gallons), 7 to 8 days after first collection. The lake is semi frozen and I am moving the collected sap daily to 5 gallon water cooler jugs mostly submerged in the lake hung off the dock to act as a kind of refrigerator, water temp showed 35 degrees. Am I on the right track doing it this way? What is the longest you would recommend stock piling sap in this manner?

Am I doing this right? this is my first time ever tapping.

[Etown Maple Syrup]

I'm not ready. I still have Christmas lights to put away. Second Saturday in Feb is traditional tap date for NW Lancaster County. I go through this Jan thaw every year. Bye the way, I changed my name to Etown (Elizabethtown) Maple Syrup. I am getting away from the red maples at Cassell Farm and tapping more Sugar Maples at various locations in Elizabethtown. Gets me out and about and more people see the sap sacks hanging around and ask silly questions. I am working on profile updates. Facebook is done, Twitter is done. @Etownmaplesyrup Many more update to come. Glad to be back!
Ross

[KV Sappers]

Tapped the trees today. Yes Dennis the season is upon us. May the nectar God's smile on all of us this season.

[Dennis H.]

KVSappers, good to hear from you. It actually has been almost too warm this past week. My trees kept drop output everyday since Sunday when I tapped.
Last night was the 1st freeze since I tapped. Forecast looks good. Wishing you full buckets.

[Paddymountain]

We aren't tapped here in central Pa yet. But we have been busy, rebuilding lines ,and putting up new 3/16 where we had buckets before.
I have one more small line to put up along a road, and look over and repair my vacuum lines at the house.
Overall looking like we'll have a lot of new tubing up this year, and a lot less buckets.
Rebuilt the arch last summer with AOF/AUF, put a higher splash guard in steam hood, and a few other refinements.
Closed in the leanto on the sugarshack and put in a kitchen so we can bottle right there intead of hauling all the syrup to the house.
It looks like it will be fairly cold for 2 weeks, probably will tap close to Valentines day.

[KV Sappers]

Trees not running today. Tapped yesterday but not much happening yet. Some of the sap not looking to good right now. Some of the sap from the trees has that late season off color look to them. Guess it was good they did not run much yesterday because I ended up throwing the off color sap out. Hoping some cold nights will clear things up.

[Etown Maple Syrup]

Shout it LOUD when they start running, then I will frantically tap as usual. It was 23 here last night and right now is 43. Where's the sap? Anyway, I get a headache trying to micro manage the weather. If you all have a chance, follow Brantview Farms Maple, Inc. on Facebook from Berlin PA. https://www.facebook.com/brantmaple/
They might not admit it, but we are related! Thanks

[KV Sappers]

I'd hold off tapping Ross. I put 21 out on Saturday and I've gotten maybe 1 gal of sap.