2018

[TooManyIrons...]

Today will be my last day boiling sap, I have had enough of it for this year. Sap is still running but I pulled the taps yesterday, have more sap than I can use and will be dumping the extra after today's processing. Managed to scrounge up enough firewood to last out the extended season which really surprised me. I have no idea how much sap I have processed so far as I have not added up the numbers. Don't know how much syrup I have at this point but I think it will be around 18 gallons, which is quite a bit more than my 12 gallon goal. All things considered it has been a good year...

[212Maple]

I too will be pulling my taps tonight/tomorrow. I will update with final numbers after processing this weekend, but so far over 3,500 gallons of sap and about 102 gallons of syrup. I am ready for tractor driving season!

[Islander]

Things are looking sweeter on the Island today. Sap let loose this week and the weather is fine with a 3 day weekend ahead. I will boil either through the weekend or until the wood runs out and call it a rescued season on Sunday to move on to other spring activities.


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[warners point]

After collecting 180 gallons over the last few days, today was horrible, even with a prime freeze/thaw. I think there's still to much frost in the ground. The metro trees are letting loose but being 2.5 hours north we are normally 2 weeks behind our metro friends. I fear with the extended forcast our season is going to be lost.

[GoldyCon]

After collecting 180 gallons over the last few days, today was horrible, even with a prime freeze/thaw. I think there's still to much frost in the ground. The metro trees are letting loose but being 2.5 hours north we are normally 2 weeks behind our metro friends. I fear with the extended forcast our season is going to be lost.

Same in Cromwell. My yard trees did well but the forest trees are still locked up and the ground is still very frozen.

[chad]

After collecting 180 gallons over the last few days, today was horrible, even with a prime freeze/thaw. I think there's still to much frost in the ground. The metro trees are letting loose but being 2.5 hours north we are normally 2 weeks behind our metro friends. I fear with the extended forcast our season is going to be lost.

Same thing in my woods south of Mille Lacs lake. I to fear our season is going to be a bust, gathered 3 gallons off of 50 taps

[BigPine]

NW Corner of Mille Lacs - 81 taps - about 350 gallons of sap. Cooked yesterday, still need to reduce concentrate. Guessing about 9 gallons of syrup. I will leave my taps in, but I wonder if it is about done.

[billschi]

I have both Accuweather and weather.com tabs always up on my computer. According to weather.com, the season is almost over. The accuweather forecast gives me looks promising. Being an optimist, I am wanting to believe accuweather.

[TooManyIrons...]

The silver maples started blooming here today. All the taps holes have ceased weeping sap, taps were removed Thursday and Friday. Temperature reached 59 degrees by my most accurate thermometer which means we have still not reached 60 degrees here yet this year.

I finished my last batch of concentrate today, will be blending and bottling tomorrow. The last two days of processing sap did not produce very good syrup, but it is usable. Had I known this would occur I would have skipped those last two batches. I do not plan on blending this syrup into my main syrup inventory. I now have no regrets that I dumped my remaining 35 gallons of sap rather than processing it.

[Wannabe!apleMan]

Crazy spring it has been!
After the big storm meltdown I collected over 60 gallons in one day on natural vacuum.
Boiled down 200 gallons over the weekend on my barrel stove with auf at 240 cfm.
4A258B7F-74E4-4293-B4CA-D7327248461E.jpg
Going bigger on the evaporator next season.
I was able to process more than anticipated on the barrel stove. Used ceramic insulation and firebrick on it.4E2E2EA0-A3B0-4151-BCEE-81B5D62DB0E0.jpg
Also did small scale RO and that was definitely a true time saver.
Tapped 6 big black walnut trees for fun and boiled down to approx 1/2 gallon of syrup.
Really good syrup with a walnut finish to it. They produced way less sap then the maples but will tap more next year.
Ended up with 18 gallons of maple syrup this season.
Learned a lot this season and look forward to next
Now time to clean it all up!