2019 Tapping in Western Pennsylvania

[Sugarmaker]

Dennis,
Also Northwestern PA Maple Taste and Tour March 16 and 17! We have 19 sugarhouses to visit. www.pamaple.org
Your welcome anytime! I enjoy going to other local sugarhouses to get recharged too!
Not sure when we will be getting the first boil in? Froze up today. Might have some sap by Friday evening???
Regards,
Chris

[HowardR]

Hi, Moeferg,

You asked if anybody is in Armstrong County. I'm half way between Kittanning and Rural Valley.

[Gary R]

Well, finally some sap! Weather has been cold. Only have about 200 in the tank. Just got the fire going. Might be another week froze up starting tonight. I’ll take what I can get.

[HowardR]

I finally finished building my second RO at 5:30pm today. (The way the sap was coming out today, I wished I had finished it earlier.) The new RO is almost identical to my first RO.

I've got a continuous process system going. The sap flows down from the hillside into my collection barrels into my side-by-side ROs which push out the concentrate into my stove-top evaporator, and at the end of the evaporator I've got a stainless steel bucket collecting a trickle of 214 degree almost-maple-syrup. While it's running, all I have to do is check every few hours or so to make sure everything is working.

[sbedilion]

that sounds awesome HowardR!

i snagged 2 wireless security cameras from my work and they are now watching my RO process....and when I boil, I’ll just need to check the cameras in between loading wood to make sure the boiling is going fine.

Collected 180 gallons today. My sap finally registered over 1% today! A solid 2%! Im so excited. hahaha.

Things are freezing up tonight and will hit 36 tmw. Im going to spend the day and finish welding up my new evaporator and will be boiling hopefully on it by Sunday morning. If not...I’ll break out the cinderblocks to boil this down.

Have a good wkend everyone!

[Chuck c]

I'm right outside KITTANNING on route 85. This is my 2nd year. Very small 9 taps just trying to learn as I go. Around 15 gallons of sap as of Thursday. My containers have allot of sap in them Friday Eve. Empty and start to boil sat morning

[Sugarmaker]

Folks,
Avg sap run yesterday, 440 gallons of 2.2%. Tis the season for things to go wrong! Broke a valve on the float box, snapped a feed hose in half for the gathering system, repaired air line for steamaway it was too short first time. Yep its syrup time! Made 8 gallons of Amber last night! Looks like we will be froze up till next Wednesday.
Regards,
Chris

[HowardR]

Chris,

Tough luck to start the season, but it sounds like you were on top of things and didn't have to send away somewhere and wait for parts to come in and were able to solve the problems yourself!

[HowardR]

Chuck c,

You're only a few miles from me as I also live on Route 85. I think Tim and Janet Rosenberger (Rosenberger Farms) told me about you. Either that, or there's another maple syrup producer near Sunnyside.

[Sugarmaker]

Folks,
Couple shots from our syrup perspective!
All the girls helping make syrup last night.
Cheryl (wife in red) next to her is granddaughter Addison, then her sister Marly and our daughter Kelly.


Here is the new hose for the 325 gal leg tank


Those fittings go into the new 1-1/4 tubing hard! Really wanted a disconnect fitting going into the tank, but Tractor Supply only had larger sizes!

Regards,
Chris