Maine season in review

[abbott]

Ok, Mainers, how'd you make out?

Here's my totals (approximate) 840 taps, 16,100 gallons sap, 422 gallons of syrup. That's over 19 gallons of sap a tap and a half gallon of syrup a tap. 38:1 sap to syrup was my best ever. 125% of "average" production was equal to last year. Could have maybe held on for another day of 1.5% sap, but my remaining wood wasn't very dry and the buds were worrying me. In hindsight, though, I would have preferred to boil normally for another half day and dump the contents of the evap. rather than try to finish off the sweet.

Biggest lesson learned: An airtight, insulated arch front makes a huge difference. I didn't get mine completely tight, but greatly reduced the huge gap between the doors and went from a boil rate of 80 gph up to 105 gph. Wish I'd figured that out years ago! With all that extra time, I managed to visit 10 other operations so far and still hope to make it to some places north of here.

[McAllister farm]

We are still going, been a slow year for us so far. Last Sunday it finally let lose our west line was running at 2 gallons a minute with about 1500 taps and the south line was 1 gallons a minute with about 500 taps. We are about halfway of last season crop. We have made a lot of nice Amber rich this year and did a lot of improvements for this season. I think we should be able too keep going for at lest another week the weather is looking good for us for the next week still lots of snow on the ground.

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

If we had tapped in early February and got some from those couple early runs we would be at about half of last year which is still quite a bit under normal crop. 7 gallons..........terrible. 30 gallons last year.
Taps are still in, maybe we'll get a little more this weekend if the temps get low enough.

[maineboiler]

Sounds like a good season for you Steve. I pulled my taps this past Sunday and I am in the process of bottling another 5+ gallons. I collected 75% the sap I collected last season but I am on track to make at least was much syrup 40+ gallons. Sap bridge was 3% for most the year, 2.5 the last couple of weeks. Mostly I got better at boiling and didn't waste any sap. We collected 1600 gallons of sap, all in buckets and 5 gallon pails. Kind of glad it's done, now the clean up

[coastie]

Tapped 40 trees this year in mid Feb, all buckets. 28 sugars and 12 reds. The reds did nothing. We probably got 95% of our sap from the sugars. Finished up 2 weeks ago with 13 gals of syrup. Very happy as that is our best yet.

[Timber207]

New to posting on here, been tapping for 15 yrs on and off, thanks to all that provide there input, very helpful. Tapped March 8, 170 buckets, made just under 10 gallons, and gave away a good amount of sap. all syrup was very light. Pulled taps a week ago, could have left some as the buds had not swelled that much, was a good year in some aspects as I got to try my new stove.

[Atgreene]

Ok, Mainers, how'd you make out?

Here's my totals (approximate) 840 taps, 16,100 gallons sap, 422 gallons of syrup. That's over 19 gallons of sap a tap and a half gallon of syrup a tap. 38:1 sap to syrup was my best ever. 125% of "average" production was equal to last year. Could have maybe held on for another day of 1.5% sap, but my remaining wood wasn't very dry and the buds were worrying me. In hindsight, though, I would have preferred to boil normally for another half day and dump the contents of the evap. rather than try to finish off the sweet.

Biggest lesson learned: An airtight, insulated arch front makes a huge difference. I didn't get mine completely tight, but greatly reduced the huge gap between the doors and went from a boil rate of 80 gph up to 105 gph. Wish I'd figured that out years ago! With all that extra time, I managed to visit 10 other operations so far and still hope to make it to some places north of here.

Impressive! We're at roughly 900 taps 1/2 On vac, 1/4 On 3/16 and we'll be at less than 1/2 your total syrup. And I still consider it a good year. If love to see your setup and see where I can improve. If much rather upgrade than add taps.

[abbott]

Impressive! We're at roughly 900 taps 1/2 On vac, 1/4 On 3/16 and we'll be at less than 1/2 your total syrup. And I still consider it a good year. If love to see your setup and see where I can improve. If much rather upgrade than add taps.

You're welcome to come visit, though I'm not sure I'm doing anything special. Just happy to have a productive orchard. I do tap conservatively - 1 tap for 10-20" dbh, 2 taps for 20"+. I run 25" vacuum, no leaks allowed, all check valves. Almost all sugar maples. But I'm always happy to trade ideas with another producer!

[bees1st]

Total for me this year was 238 gallons on 880 taps . 1/2 on vacuum. 85 of the total tap count were 3/16 added 1/2 way through the season. I'm certainly happy with the production this season.

[Dale Sparrow]

155 gallons from 428 on vac. 68 Norway taps, 80 Reds and 280 sugar taps.