Grand finale for the season today starting at 9 and bottled by 6. I ran 65 gallons through the pans and my wife and I bottled 5.5 quarts, so a final sugar content of 2.1% ish. Looking at the taps that have been pulled I see very little sap run.
So at the conclusion of the third season we bottled 7 gallons, our most ever, boiling 285 gallons of sap for an average sugar of almost 2.5%. The new stove arrangement worked better than I had hoped. We had intended to do only 2-3 boils this year as there was a lot of other things on the table, but the efficiency of the stove made it palatable to do a few more boils. Since the sap ran great in March I always had a ready supply for a weekly boil of 50 or so gallons. I am satisfied with the season, ready to tackle some house projects, and look forward to doing it again next year. I'm sure there will be some improvements, such as excavating the area around the stove and backfilling with crushed gravel to eliminate the mud bath, perhaps a stove door on a hinge, revamped wood pile (affectionately known as the sap and crap pile), etc.
I kept a bunch of volume records for the 13 trees tapped (15 total taps, two had 2) which was interesting though I probably wouldn't bother next year. Of interest, the three best flow days of occurred after the big snow storms-2 in March, 1 late February. I tapped most trees 2/13 and started collecting sap 2/15. Several trees were clear winners but one produced over 30 gallons of sap, a nice sugar maple 18"-20" on a rock wall between a field and orchard. Brix levels began mostly 2.8 to 3.4, but dropped steadily as March progressed.
So wash buckets, pull the last few taps, clean up, and enjoy April 1. Good luck to all who are still in the game!
Two 2x4 concrete block arches with three steam trays each
Tapping in Mount Vernon since 2016, 30 to 70 taps, 5/16" tube to 1.5 to 3.5 gallon buckets, some trees on collective gravity tubing to 5 gallon buckets.
Mostly sugar maples, a few reds on 200 year old homestead