New season

[5050racing]

Good for you John on the gallons!!!! Yes on the Ro will be calling you for all the help I need running it,I forget a lot need to wright it down,I have most of it just the cleaning,my chemicals will be here hopefully Monday,will call you later.Im sure I'm looking at a 50-75 going out now to tap bucket trees.

[mickeydafinn]

I just finished putting in my taps for today. It was really fun sloshing around in the mud on a hill!!! They are running pretty good today i was suprised! Im going to end up with about 20 in total this year. I' m waiting for a few more buckets to finish the last 5 or so. Has anyone had luck with the bags instead of buckets?

[Tomahawk]

I'm curious -- I have a question for all of my latitudinal brothers here -- as I understand it, our more northern comrades get about 1 gallon of syrup for every 40 gallons of sap -- my experience has always been more like 1 gallon of syrup for every 60+ gallons of sap.

What's your ratio?

[5050racing]

Average for me as my trees are in a shaded woods with tall tulips is 60/1 but as high as 100/1 low as 35/1

[mickeydafinn]

I'm boiling down the 20 quarts of sap I collected this afternoon now. I'll let you know what it is in a little bit. My backyard trees were really high the past few years. I believe they were around 30 to 1 or so. I can't wait for my hydrometer to show up on Wednesday! So i can test the sap and know what it is for sure!

[John-NJ]

I used to use bags and they work ok - you just need to watch out for pricker bushes in your sugarbush. I have a lot of barberry and multiflora rose - I don't like hauling sap, so I went to tubing and vacuum. If you want to try some bags, I am happy to give you a bunch i never used, along with some holders that I made for them. Just taking up space here.

Decent runs yesterday and today, 120 gallons and 100 respectively. Crap weather to be standing out in the driveway cooking today, but at least it wasn't cold.

My trees tend to run about 1% sugar, so it takes around 80 gallons to make a gallon of syrup. Lots of work!!

Cheers!

[mickeydafinn]

Thanks John! that pot i got from you was put to use the rest of last season. My numbers from this boil were 45-1. Beautiful light color syrup! 5050 did you order bottles through your neighbor yet?

[5050racing]

I will call him,I should be good this year but for sure next so I will get prices for 8-12oz glass.

[John-NJ]

Mickey - glad it is of help. I just wish I had trees like yours for the sugar content! I got what looks like it is going to be 2.5 to 3 gallons of bottled syrup from 200 gallons of sap! Looks real nice though and I got it up to about 60% on the evaporator, so not going to be much finishing.

I have 95 more gallons of sap to run tomorrow...

feels good to be getting into the groove...

[mickeydafinn]

I had jury duty today that started at noon. I collected what i had in the buckets and started to boil before i left. it was only about 10 gallons. i ended up with 40 ounces. I believe that is around 32-1. I'm going to buy a barrel stove this weekend to lessen the cost of the propane. Although it is nice not having to tend a fire, but the price on the stove is totally worth it! I'm not sure if I will need the bags John I just got a few more buckets from Shoprite. I do appreciate the offer though. I may be at the max amount of taps i can put out on known maples. I'm going to have to do some more scouting this summer to find more deeper in the woods behind my house. I also found bottles from Leader Evaporator. 12 ounce 12 count cases for a dollar a bottle! And only $8 shipping!