Still running great here just north of Norwich NY. Tapholes drilled in Dec are still running like day one. Best run of the year the last three days. We hit 100 percent of a crop tonight.
Neil
Still running great here just north of Norwich NY. Tapholes drilled in Dec are still running like day one. Best run of the year the last three days. We hit 100 percent of a crop tonight.
Neil
Still running in Saratoga Monday will be the end though. We have made mostly dark all season. It's been a good season despite the ups and downs in the weather.
Still going strong in cortland county. Getting a gallon to gallon and a half a day off holes drilled in mid January. Sugar around 1.0 %, at .45 gallons syrup a tap after yesterdays boil.
hey Dave I just had my first boil Thursday,had to sweeten pans and made 4 gal of light amber. Yesterday made 20 gal of light. Still 2 and a half feet of snow and the trees arent opened yet. Froze last night so should be a good day today and for the next two weeks.sugar is at 3.1
2012- 200 buckets 2 by 8 woodfired leader evaporator with hood and pre-heater. 2013-400 taps with cheek valves and new tubing system. 2014-600 taps with cheek valves and wesfab short bank filterpress and a 16 by 16 canner from Leader and a Kubota L3200 sap hauler.2016- new 250 gas powered Ro from Deer Run Maple. New Airablow 1000 tap gas powered vacuum pump and 1000 tap duel releaser and 1800 ft of sap transfer line to sugar house and down to 540 taps.
Still going up in Whitehall NY. Making a darker syrup and the weather is showing no more freezes uuggghh
5x16 woodfired blower preheater
8k taps 60cfm indiana vac 18cfm airtech
Cdl 600 RO
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=...type=2&theater
I thought id get the week of running but this morning the forecast changed. It was supposed to get to 26 last night but there was no ice on the puddles this morning. Tonight is supposed to be 25 then no freezes for a week. Ill let it go and see what Monday brings but maybe pushing all the sweet out on Tues or Wed. Considering the low sugar content and a 10 day hard freeze in the middle of the season i will meet my goal.
2021 230 Taps on vacuum
Smokylake 2X6 pan set with auto drawoff
Homebuilt 2 4x40 membrane RO
Homebuilt filter press
Rebuilt arch with under and over the fire air we have named V 2.0
Smokylake steam bottler
Hoods and preheater
500 gallon vertical polytank to store sap for RO
Adding a laser eye to my bottler for autofill/stop
We just boiled yesterday as well. Had some of our best runs last week. Our syrup did turn very dark with yesterday's boil. And our sugar content must be low, it took a lot more sap to get syrup then the past few boils.
On another note we tapped trees in two areas, around the house and in the woods. The trees around the house have budded out and we pulled our taps. The trees in the woods with less sun haven't budded yet, but they must be close. We had frost on the ground this morning. Going to see how it runs each day and plan out from there. Not a lot of cold nights in the 7 day. If it runs good today we may have trouble keeping the sap till next weekend. Maybe a weeknight boil and call it a season.
I collected 70 gallons here in CNY today from 52 taps. All sugars except I have one tree that's a red maple with 2 taps that produces really well. Being it's not a sugar maple I was concerned about it being buddy seeing that it was a bit cloudy and the buds look like they are starting to swell. I test boiled some of it and it was fine. I'll probably pull my taps tomorrow afternoon with the warm forecast. Like most here, I've had below normal sugar content this year. Around 1.4. I'm wondering if last years drought played a part? I've also had more sugar sand so I've let my syrup sit a few days in the fridge in half gallon mason jars and siphoned syrup off the top to bottle. Worked great. Seems to work better than extra filtering. Just takes longer which isn't a problem for me. I've learned a lot reading others posts and advice the last few years. Thanks to all who have been so eager to help out their fellow syrup makers!
Collected 20 Gallons from 16 taps today. The other 4 dried up. Hoping to get enough for 1 more boil.
2014 - 6 Taps (and some borrowed sap) - Barrel evaporator - 1 1/2 Gallons syrup
2015 - 30 taps - block arch -7.5 gallons syrup
2016 - 20 taps- fire bricked arch - 5 gallons syrup
2017 - 20 Taps- still boiling outside - 5 gallons of syrup
2018 - 30 Taps - Mason 2x4 XL inside Garage - 10 gal. syrup
2019 - 2 Taps - Propane stove and pot - 1 pint syrup
2020 - 4 Taps - Propane Stove and pot - 3 Pints syrup
2021 - 6 Taps - Stove/Smokey Lake Star Cat evaporator - 8 Pints syrup
Still at it in Rensselaer county. Sap went below 2% for the first time this weekend. We haven't made any Dark all year,no matter how much I abuse the sap. Oh well, I sense the end is near. Running out of wood and running out of steam.
Still learning after all these years.