Tapped some nice sized trees down in a north facing hole that do not run during regular season. By the time they thaw out maple season is usually long over. Maple leaves here have been gone for 3 weeks only thing left are the beech and a stray oak but I didn't know the leaves had to be off, will it give an off flavor to the syrup if they are still on the tree? Technically this will be the third setup for this year, January had a two week run then shut it all down and set back up in March and now again in November.
I'm a small operation (for now) so setup and cleanup is not too much work.
Matt Durrell
2012 - 12 Taps hand me down 2x2 and made a barrel stove
2014 - 20 Taps 8x10 timber-frame shack
2015 - 25 Taps
2016 - 28 Taps new 110 acres
2017 - 12 Taps january, 55 Taps spring and 15 Taps fall, same ol 2x2
2018 - Helping another sugarmaker 5000 Taps, 57 at home