trees budded here I finished out my pans last night. funny thing though sap was still coming in.
So after I finished out my back pan and emptied the majority of the syrup out I finished off what I collected yesterday and today and the sap was nasty to say the least. the syrup is even worse it is VILE!!! I actually needed to RO it anyway just to top off my permeate tank
but it will get tossed.
didn;t reach my goal but factoring in everything for ease of calculation including the 2.5 that will get tossed.
I ended up with 96 gallons of syrup. I know my trees and the weather down here on the seacoast so my goal was only 100 gallons. but it was about about <1.4 pints per tap. collected 6900 gallons of sap which is the most I have collected by 1100 gallons and that is 71 gallons sap/ gal Sugar was very low 90% of season due to extended warm nights and little to no winter dormancy it peaked at 1.5 to 1.6 right before the freeze up but average was about 1.3% . made about 7 gallons of very dark early in the season and the rest was all dark. Had 570 taps on vac and about 50 on gravity and buckets but the main bulk of the sap was vac. as we all know it keeps going long after the bucket runs stop. so not much at all for sap those 50 taps. so it really hurt my per tap sap average but factoring them in was 11.13 gallons per tap.
it was one of the longest and up down temperature years I think I have seen since I have been sugaring. inconsistant temps combined for only 1 really good run which was early in the season. a little more consistency to the weather could have been a bumper crop down here.
It was a pretty good year overall and was about 45 gallons more produced than last year which was my worst year to date.
I will be working in the woods this year to improve a few things to get better flow and better vacuum transfer on my flat woods here. Adding another 50 to 60 on the vacuum lines and always looking for woods to tap. I think I am gonna invest in a leader fill-Stop bottler this year then I can label while bottling and fill 2 at the same time. 2 canners and 1 larger one has a second fitting. they did some re-designing and I think the bugs are worked out from what I am hearing. I wanted to get a candy machine but since I borrowed so much money from the house this past year for upgrades due to the poor 2016 season I can afford it so I will have wait another year.
Going forward with the weather patterns being so unpredictable with little to no extended dormancy for the trees it is vital to tap early like early January. sugar will continue to be low without extended cold to convert the carbs in the trees and with tap hole sanitation by changing out drops and adding new spouts each season the holes stay open longer so tapping in early January won;t effect end of season sap flows. tapping early is a change that needs to happen or we won;t make as much syrup. If I am tapped in and it freezes up well then it freezes up. I didn't have 1 tap come loose this entire season even with a blizzard, crazy winds, super warm temps and super cold temps.
It was a very smooth but long season and the mid season freeze up was actually quite helpful in getting ready for maple weekend.
Always fun in the sugarhouse. love to boil but time for the suck job of the clean up and get taps pulled and get along with the spring chores and start on wood for next winter and maple season!!!
See ya everybody.
I will be in touch Russ. we'll hook up soon!!!
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Russ