Tapping in Western PA

[karl evans]

Sure looks like a black maple leaf. I would guess that. Black is considered by most same as a sugar. I met some producers from Ontario years back who felt the black maple was slightly Superior to the sugar. I always found that interesting. They should produce better than 1%

[sbedilion]

They should but aren't. haha. Nothing like boiling 100 gallons to make 1 gallon. I'm only selling a limits number of bottles, this is just a hobby so its not a big deal.

Sure looks like a black maple leaf. I would guess that. Black is considered by most same as a sugar. I met some producers from Ontario years back who felt the black maple was slightly Superior to the sugar. I always found that interesting. They should produce better than 1%

[Sugarmaker]

Sap ran a little today. But we did not gather. Spent time making candy, Sugar coating candy, making Maple BBQ and Maple mustard.
Will gather and boil whats out there tomorrow. Seemed like a weeping run. Started to get some light drizzle at dark so that might help get the big maples running better.
Regards,
Chris

[Springfield Acer]

I started drilling Friday evening. We finished up a new tubing system at my friend's so he can stop handling buckets Saturday including putting all the taps. Saturday PM we Finished all the sugar maple taps then cleaned out the shack and started cleaning everything. We got some decent run yesterday and I boiled for three hours and actually got the first draw in just over two hours. There was a full gallon in the jug by the end of the three hours. There was another nice run today but had no time to boil since my wife owns a flower shop and I had to help deliver. More sap coming and steady boiling starting again tomorrow night. I might get the last third of my taps which are on vacuum in this weekend..... Last night's syrup tasted awesome!

[red gate maple]

Thanks for this post. We tapped our trees on Sunday and we are getting a very slow drip at best. Maybe the sap will run on Thursday.

Brenda

[Kippster]

Northwestern PA over here. Put out 64 buckets yesterday, drilling every hole by hand with my brace and bit. It was a gorgeous day in the woods and the sap was running nicely. I plan to put 50 more buckets out today. Evaporator is set up and ready to go. We're off and running!!!

[Gary R]

I sent 80 gallons to the neighbors this morning. They've also got about forty taps. They boil about 10 gallons an hour so they should be busy all day today. The sap isn't running that well. The weather doesn't look to good also. Not many freezes next week. It will be tough on the buckets.

[Hoppy]

Sbedilion, your labels are awesome. How do you filter? That’s the main thing I can’t do as well as I’d like.

So all last year we collected 16 gallons of sap, I collected 15 today. This year will be a big success over last year.

Today I bottled 104 ounces of syrup, bringing our total to just over 2 gallons finished. That’s from 75 gallons of sap.

[PA mapler]

I tapped 200 trees today, til the batteries ran out... the sap was flowing really well, but looks like a cool down for a few days up here. I normally tap the beginning of March, but this year looks unusual again.

[helptheold]

No way to check my sugar content but I've gathered about 60 gallons over the past two days in the rain. I'm not sure my jeans and boots will ever recover!