Eastern Ontario 2017

[Clamer33]

I am just minutes north of Belleville, and after the one and only big sap run of the year last weekend we hit the 1 LPT of syrup. I have had the pumps running all day and night since last Sat. Starting to slow down, (thou the high winds this evening sure had the lines running good, when I was leaving) The sugar is dropping .1% a day. We ran most of the season at 2.5 to 2.8 which has been the highest since tapping this bush a few years ago. This morning we were at 12401 gallons of sap at 1.8% and 213 gallons of syrup. Wasted about 1000 gallons of sap at the beginning of the season to clean what may have been contaminated membranes that were supposed to be cleaned from CDL.
We started tapping Friday of family day weekend and had all the pumps running that Sunday. Buds are starting to break, no off flavored syrup yet. Hopefully a few more days to go. Planned for 200 gallons on 800 taps so anything extra is a bonus. Thou the wood pile is going down fast.

[ennismaple]

Yesterday was a good day - not spectacular but good. Sugar was still decent at 37:1 We made about 20 gallons of Dark-Robust at the start of the day but it lightened to 60LT once The Beast got rolling at full speed and the new concentrate pushed through to the front. The sap coming in is getting tougher to pre-filter going into the RO causing it to shut off from time to time when the supply pressure drops.

The freezing temps Friday and Saturday night will help extend things a bit but I'm not hopeful that we can get through +13, +20, +19 and +12 with no freeze up from Sunday-Wednesday and still make syrup that doesn't make your face pucker up! The fat lady may be warming up her voice...

[Run Forest Run!]

Sounds like a pretty decent day ennismaple! I'm hopeful that the forecast lows here on Friday and Saturday nights will give a last gasp for me. On the other hand I've heard peepers for the past three nights. Not great. I'll do my best to keep them off the 401 so that they don't find you too soon. Good luck with the weekend!

[Big_Eddy]

I am just minutes north of Belleville, and after the one and only big sap run of the year last weekend we hit the 1 LPT of syrup. I have had the pumps running all day and night since last Sat. Starting to slow down, (thou the high winds this evening sure had the lines running good, when I was leaving) The sugar is dropping .1% a day. We ran most of the season at 2.5 to 2.8 which has been the highest since tapping this bush a few years ago. This morning we were at 12401 gallons of sap at 1.8% and 213 gallons of syrup. Wasted about 1000 gallons of sap at the beginning of the season to clean what may have been contaminated membranes that were supposed to be cleaned from CDL.
We started tapping Friday of family day weekend and had all the pumps running that Sunday. Buds are starting to break, no off flavored syrup yet. Hopefully a few more days to go. Planned for 200 gallons on 800 taps so anything extra is a bonus. Thou the wood pile is going down fast.

Chris - glad to see you back. I've seen the truck parked a few times so knew you were boiling. Big difference between vacuum and buckets. We have had no sap since Sunday, less than 5km away.

[ennismaple]

Sounds like a pretty decent day ennismaple! I'm hopeful that the forecast lows here on Friday and Saturday nights will give a last gasp for me. On the other hand I've heard peepers for the past three nights. Not great. I'll do my best to keep them off the 401 so that they don't find you too soon. Good luck with the weekend!

Thanks Karen! I hope you get another kick at the can this weekend.

We got 1/2 GPT overnight, plus what runs today and tonight should make for a long day tomorrow. We're desperately trying to go from a bad to an OK season before we hear the peepers! We still have lots of ice on the lake and that creates a micro-climate.

[JeffB]

Hi all..
Well I'm done..I arrived back home today and found stored sap really cloudy and nothing in collection sites ...Soooooo I pulled taps "I'm tapping out" ..
Returned my cloudy sap back to the earth as a offering to the sap gods for a good run next year.

Drain the pan and finish it off then start the cleaning process this weekend .
Good luck to those who are still plugging away at the season .
I will add up the numbers and tally up all the totals of bottled product .
I don't think I hit last year's total that's for sure !

[Clamer33]

Yes big eddy only the one big run this year. Everything else has been like 1/2 GPT a day. This is the most I have run pumps around the clock. Gas bill will be high this year. We are still running. Pulled up alost 2000 gallons since yesterday morning. I always waiting on my RO. Think it's time to upgrade to the 600 GPH. If anyone's is looking for a Hobby RO. Let's talk

[JeffB]

I'm interested in the RO . Email me I will private message you my number to text or email

[DrewCP]

We ran our last 500+L of sap on Tuesday. Made around 15L of syrup. There is no question we could have come up with enough for 1 more boil but decided to pull the taps and clean up instead. Dad and I both needed to move on to other things this spring.

Nice and short. Tapped on March 17, all cleaned up by April 4.

I thought we had all 65 buckets on but it turns out we only had 50. There was a whole stack that didn't leave the shop. I thought something was amiss when I was collecting but honestly only got to collect once this year. I currently live 40 minutes from my parents place where we tap. They did almost all the sap slugging this year. I was lucky enough to be there for 2 of 3 boils and all 3 "finishes"

We've had a perfectly average season. 50 trees tapped, 3 400-500L boils, 40L of syrup made. This will keep us in syrup all year with lots and lots of 250ml and 500ml bottles to give away.

Very happy with our new CDL 18"x48" Hobby Evaporator. We ran the same amount of sap as usual but slightly quicker (even though the new pan is smaller) and used about 25% less wood. Also, for the first time EVER I didn't smell like smoke after loading the arch all day! Really clean running, well sealed, efficient unit. Already looking forward to next year.

It's crazy to look at this Eastern Ontario thread and see how spread out the results have been. It seems like 30 minutes North, East, South, West of any 1 location can have wildly different results.

[Galena]

...It's crazy to look at this Eastern Ontario thread and see how spread out the results have been. It seems like 30 minutes North, East, South, West of any 1 location can have wildly different results.

yeah exactly, that's just how it is! Impossible to offer advice to local noobs asking my advice other than to shrug and tell them what to watch for, and when the trees dry up or the sap turns, pull your spiles then. Got 15l over last couple days but maybe this weekend will produce something.