Maple weekend...No Sap!

[Snowmad]

So I'm having a small open house for maple weekend this Sunday. The problem is...I've got not sap! Trees have been frozen for 2 weeks now. Should I boil water? Seems like such a waste of time and wood but people want to see something don't they? Or do I just say "Well, here's the equipment". This weather really sucks! What would you do?

[VTnewguy]

I think you would have to postpone it. We might be in the same boat next weekend.

[Kettle Ridge]

I don't plan to boil on Maple Weekend. If it goes anything like mine, your small open house may turn into a madhouse. Crazy busy, how can you concentrate on boiling? Kids running around wanting to touch the equipment is a huge risk if you are boiling. Not to mention parents trying to lift their kids up over the finishing pan so they can see the boiling sap. I find that visitors are happy just to see the equipment, hear the process explained, learn how maple trees get tapped, and sample the finished product.

[Snowmad]

Sounds good to me! I had a 4-H group last Saturday and I was glad I wasn't boiling! We were last year and it worked OK but like you said, it's hard to pay attention to everything and everyone!

[Wanabe1972]

I had some people over last year and had no sap. I fill the evaporator with permeate and dumped a couple of gallons of syrup from tha canner into the pans and just boiled nice and easy. Im not doing anything this year due to work schedule.

[David Wayne]

If possible I would postpone, seeing idle equipment and hearing about the process is not the same as seeing it happen. All the work that goes into it, the heat,steam, and smell. Crowd control could be someone there to tell about what is taking place and keep them at bay so to speak. But thats just my opinion.

[maple flats]

In NY state, if you are advertised as a stop on the association web site you are expected to boil, water if necessary. I've had to do it in the past. Even if you drain both pans and set it aside and fill your head tank with water or permeate to boil, you will still get the aroma and atmosphere and the pans will get cleaned. Run the fire at less than half or 1/3 force, and it will be fine. When you add wood, only fill it about 1/4 maybe less full and add wood about every 30 minutes.

[Russell Lampron]

People want to see you boil. In 2012 the season ended the week before Maple Weekend and we had a very poor turn out. The people that would be going around to the sugar houses heard that no one was boiling and stayed home or did something else. I was boiling water just to make steam and the few people that did come were happy.

[maple flats]

At least this is better for Maple Weekend when one year we had temps in the mid 70's and into the mid eighties. That was a real tough year to keep the evaporator boiling water, had to open every door and window, but the worst part was that most who might have come to visit were at the beach or working on their yards. That year in 4 days (2 weekends) of open houses we only had 3 visitors. Our best year we had a full sugarhouse all 4 days, with lines waiting outside to get in. We enjoyed record sales that year. But we were boiling sap that year too, not water, but when we have an open house we boil slower, use less wood and space the fuelings out, plus we raise the levels in the pans. We do not push it when visitors are there.

[Road's End]

I would boil water if that happened to me, maybe dump a little syrup in to get the aroma. For Maine maple Sunday I always plan on a very slow boil. Last year I didn't pour off at all in the 5 hours we had the open house on my 2x6.