2018 Season

[Paddymountain]

We boiled out the evaporator Sunday afternoon, and filtered and bottled the last of our syrup.
The diaphragm on our hand pump filter press ruptured on the last stroke!! I was thinking the other week, when will it go? It was a white one
and I've been filtering at a little over 200 degrees, so I knew it would happen sooner or later. Actually got 2 seasons out of it. We bought
2 of the new black ones last year, so I'm all set to start out next year. Total syrup for the year: 67 1/2 gallons

[Plutoman15]

I think the sap is done here in south central PA. I boiled the last I had and made the lighest syrup yet. 16D86EFE-46D8-4B3C-A53E-54CC8618EB1E.jpgMade 2.1 gallons total. This was my first year and learned a lot. Need to line up more trees for next year. Now it is on to honey season if it ever warms up for my bees. I am thinking of changing our farm name from “out of the woods” to “all things sweet”.

Good luck up north. Hope things thaw out and finish with a big run.

Joe

[HowardR]

I think the sap is done here in south central PA. I boiled the last I had and made the lighest syrup yet.

What a strange season. Usually the first sap of the year is the lightest and the last sap of the year is the darkest!

[Gary R]

Well the weatherman was wrong (imagine that!). Didn't get a freeze Monday night. Collected only 18 gallons yesterday and boiled. 82 gallons so far boiled to 2 1/2. I'll finish that down on a turkey fryer. Borrowing the neighbors cone filters so I don't have to use the press for maybe 1 1/2 gallons syrup. Looks light so far. No freezes for a few days. Sugar dropped to 1.2%. I'll wait for next run to see if I keep going.

[HowardR]

Well, I just bottled up 6 gallons of Grade B dark syrup. No frost Monday night, so no sap today. I'm done for the year, except for clean up. This season had three runs:

1. February 9-18 -- The Flood. Constant rain. Made about 20% of my syrup.

2. February 19-21 -- The Big Short. It got warm fast and stayed warm. A 3 day run, but intense. I made about 20% of my syrup.

3. February 27 - March 27 -- The Run that Never Ends. Perfect maple weather that went on and on and on. I made 60% of my syrup.

[helptheold]

Pulled my last taps yesterday and ended up in the creek Man that water was cold!

No time to finish or clean up anything until after Easter so all my boiled-almost syrup is in the freezer while buckets are everywhere over our deck. Gonna be busy next week.

[Sugarmaker]

Gary R,
Soon you will be boiling in wooden troughs with hot rocks!
We had visitors in the sugarhouse last night for boiling. Bob S. and Gary G stopped by and we solved all the maple problems.
My 8 week old taps are not producing much but the 230 gallons of 2.2% was enough to move 9 gallons of very dark syrup through the evaporator and reach the 100 gallon matk for the year.
We will wait till next week and see if the freeze may start things again? (keeping my expectations low)
Haven't heard the peepers yet!
Regards,
Chris

[Gary R]

Sugarmaker, now that you bring it to my attention, I really have been going backwards. I'm not sure about sooty rocks in my syrup! I'll probably be at this for two weeks and not make as much as one good evening with the vacuum and whole evaporator. Hopefully your taps hold out. The weather has changed again and looks promising.

[Sugarmaker]

Gary,
Sap flow has diminished to a drizzle. Gathered yesterday, 2 days worth of sap. Checked today and there would be about 100 gallons of sap. Too warm but not worth gathering today. Will check what happens tomorrow.

On a side note: Maybe you could heat the rocks in the microwave and keep the syrup cleaner?
Keep boiling!

Regards,
Chris

[Gary R]

Hang on Chris, good weather is coming!

Check out this syrup. Almost Cranesville Ultralight Rocks definitely wouldn't have helped. I have not made any Golden syrup for 10 years. Back then I had buckets and a flat pan. I attribute this to a few things. Mostly, because of vacuum I'm usually boiling just over 1% sap. This sap was about 2%. Also, in the tubing the sap sits there for some time before it comes in. I'm sure the bacteria level is up even though my sap is usually clear. Syrup 2018.jpg