Eastern Ontario 2017

[Kyle Baker]

Hey Galena, ya, I tapped down near merrickville as well, but I tapped it later in March when the weather kind of looked right and only put about 20 taps down there. It was very disappointing, I only gathered maybe 45 gallons total off those taps. I'm pulling everything now... total for the year was 21 litres of syrup off of 36 taps. I tapped fewer trees this year which was a stupid idea, but I only boiled 3 batches, so I didn't work that hard this year either. All the taps at the merrickville spot were on tubing into 2 55 gallon drums, so ive only got a few barrels to clean up and 18 buckets from my yard. Next year I'll do my usual 50 or so again I guess.

@ maple75...don't call it quits just yet! Now that there is finally a warm spell you may get a few more good days of sap.

@ KyleBaker....glad to hear that they haven't tried to pilfer any of your stuff. Are you tapping the bush near Merrickville too?

[Galena]

Think I've made a grand total of 10.5l this year, a far cry from last year. Maybe just maybe this weekend will be it...?! Meanwhile still messing around with a few litres that will make 2-3l for batch #5 but not holding my breath. Very glad I still have about 2 gallons from last year in reserve.

What a frickin frustrating year.

[Clinkis]

Finished off the last of my sap, drained and finished off what was in my evaporator and everything bottled. But taps still in with fingers crossed for one last run this weekend. Weather still looking very good for Saturday and ok for Sunday with lows predicted of -6 and -2 respectively and warm sunny days. It seems every year I hold out for that one last late run and always end up being disappointed. Here's hoping we get it for a change. That said, I have 302L of syrup from 265 taps which already exceeds my 300L goal so if we don't get another drop I'm happy.

Here's hoping that everyone who's still in the game drowns in sap this weekend!

[halladaymaple]

The weather has not been the friend to producers with buckets from sure. I put out 40 buckets a year to go alone side my 700 pipeline with vac and I noticed only 1 really good run with buckets. The pipeline and vac produced very well. I had a really good week and boiled 4 times in 6 days and made 300 litres 1/2 my haul in 4 days. I haven't pulled out yet, I think we might be in for a run Sunday. Still making medium syrup now.. but that can change quick. Hope everyone gets another kick at it before it's over

[Galena]

Right now we are *enjoying* weather better suited to BC...which is why I left BC in the first place and returned to Ontario! Trees no liking all this damp though maybe my cold-weather guy, #9, has produced some, haven't checked yet. Going to pull on floaties and slosh around as I say thanks and night-night to the trees...*sigh*

ETA: Ok soaked to the skin now and 2/3 of my bush is asleep...but #1 and #9 are happily pumping out sap,including some lovely tree pee (which I use anyway, it's perfectly fine) from the west spiles. Wondering if they'll go all night.

[Bruce L]

Quit boiling Monday night,would have been Sunday,but while I had a sugarhouse full of visitors/ customers the flexible pipe from the blower to the steam away decided to come off in pieces,so had to shut down,make a trip to Lowes Sunday night to get solid furnace duct work so that won't happen again.
No giant runs here this year,and pretty well everyone of the runs was late afternoon,which meant boiling at night after supper. Not a full crop,but still pleased with the season. Made 250 gallons,full crop would have been 300-325. Missed the first runs getting set up as my back was out for two weeks unable to do anything. Sap deep freeze lifted the ice on two tanks letting probably 500-600 gallons on the ground,and transfer pipe from tanks to sugarhouse froze solid that couldn't pump sap up for two days,so didn't have the vacuum on bringing more in.
Steam away worked great,wouldn't have had enough wood without it. Kept the last 600 gallons of distillate from it to put back through the pans,syrup pan is spotless,not sure about flue pan until I lift the steam away off,but it is not looking like we can count on more sap to fill the pans to clean if needed,so whenever the monsoon quits here I will check to see if the flue pan is clean,or need to fill with sap

[northwood]

I'm hoping for a tsunami this weekend. I'm in the northern region and the weather has not been on my side. Either it's too cold or too warm. -7 tonight and +7 Saturday could be the best conditions all season. After tomorrow, it looks like double digit daytime highs with plenty of rain and only 2 nights bellow freezing. So far I've made 14 L from 100 taps.

[ennismaple]

Yesterday was a much longer day than expected. The RO went on at 7:15am and went off exactly 12 hours later (with a few short rinses in between). The initial colour was 35LT, rising to 54LT and then falling again later in the day as the pans got gunked up.

We kept the pumps on all night and I'm sure we'll get some sap today now that we're back up to +3 C. Tonight's freeze should mean a decent day tomorrow. Saturday's freeze should mean another good one on Sunday. 10 days ago I was really worried we were going to have a disaster of a season. We're now at "average" and aiming for good/great after making almost 0.75 L/tap over a 9 day span. It's not how you start it's how you finish!

I've seen a few comments that folks are pulling taps because the sap was cloudy. Cloudy sap doesn't mean it's bad! We have one section of the woods that runs cloudy all season and we still make Golden (maybe 30% of our taps from that section). Cloudy sap will tend to make darker syrup but that doesn't mean it's gone buddy. We've made good tasting syrup on the last day of the season that graded medium (old classification) out of sap that looked like skim milk!

[Galena]

Just saw the OMSP report for this week, it's also basically saying for my area to expect a sap tsunami this weekend and that's it. Glad I still have some snow on the north side of house cause may need to dig bunkers, I'm taking a seminar on the afternnons this weekend so the timing couldn't be worse!

ETA just got in 10l of tree pee from my two cold-weather trees...better than nuthin

[Run Forest Run!]

The trees with fresh taps are dripping like mad here this afternoon. Even the older taps have been producing. Looks like there will be some boiling tomorrow!