Eastern Ontario 2019

[Galena]

That's pretty much how my chart from last year tracks, too. Started Feb 21, had a nice long slow but steady season with a bit of that late March-early April spurt to wrap things up. This season....yep pretty much SFA til now and we're inundated with sap.

Oh and a big shout-out to Fort Wisers, whose top-sekkrit location I stumbled upon while searching for the middle of nowhere. Came home with 3 nice big water jugs to borrow for the remainder of the season. Thanks so much! :-)

[Clinkis]

JeffB, that’s exactly how I was feeling first of last week. I was expecting a bust season but things went crazy this week. Don’t give up just yet. There is still some good sap weather in the forecast next week and hopefully this mild spell will loosen things up for you! Just and FYI I’m just south of Trent River so propbably even closer to you.

[Fort Wisers]

Oh and a big shout-out to Fort Wisers, whose top-sekkrit location I stumbled upon while searching for the middle of nowhere. Came home with 3 nice big water jugs to borrow for the remainder of the season. Thanks so much! :-)

You're most welcome, glad you came by and happy we had a chance to chat for a bit.
Realized after you left we never even really showed you our trees?!?!
Next time.......
What a gorgeous day today, got a lot of odds and ends done that were put to the back burner due to sugarin'.
Also got all the equipment cleaned up and put away for the season.

[JeffB]

Oh ok clinkis im 2 minutes north of tims in havelock so shouldn't be of a weather change by the distance.

[Galena]

You're most welcome, glad you came by and happy we had a chance to chat for a bit.
Realized after you left we never even really showed you our trees?!?!
Next time.......

Hehe no prob, I could see those nice thick stands of silvers and was a little jealous! I have stand-alone sugars and a few reds, which I no longer tap.
You and fam are welcome to come and visit Shack Whacky and the tiny little 8-tree bush I run. If that little blue car is in the driveway I'm home :-)

ETA...peeps, what's the secret to fixing syrup that looks like peach jam? Can't remember if it's just lots of suspended sugar - I finished this batch #5 again over redline at about 5 hashmarks. It's been so long since I've had any that I've forgotten what needs to be done to make it look like syrup again! And am I the only one who notices that syrup this year is really temperamental?

[Big_Eddy]

People like Eddy (and others) who have been doing it for decades

Sheesh Fort. Way to make a guy feel old.

Maybe we should make syrup together. I can just see the labels now

OLDER AND WISERS.
The best syrup anywhere.

[paulslund]

OLDER AND WISERS.
The best syrup anywhere.

I know you were joking with this but I really like it!

Turns out this past week, with the few days that ran I managed to get approx. 240l of sap on my 30 taps. Started this morning at 8 (fire lite at that time) and as I was still collecting from the trees didn't really get it going full bore until well after 9. Finished cooking it down around 7 (although I just leave it to simmer down while I have dinner.). So that's about 225 L cooked down to about 15 in 11 hours.. would have been less had I been more aggressive and collected all my sap last night.

Amazing how spending 12+ hours (including set up time) in the fresh air will tucker you out!

Forecast looking not to bad this week either..which is a nice surprise.

Unfortunately forecast for tomorrow changed so my sledding plans are kaput!

[Lespetras]

.... well for a very late start, sure hasn’t been a bad season! The pace had actually been more manageable this year! Had my sister here to help from BC where maple syrup seems to be quite scarce!! She bottled with me last night and is shipping 6 litres back home.. expensive to ship but will be worth it to have homemade maple syrup where it’s so rare out there!!

Still working on our last batch! Maybe another run coming this week? We’ll see..

[Bruce L]

All finished for the year,made over 1 litre per tap,sap had gotten milky this past week,hung on to boil yesterday and today for maple weekend open house,now for the cleanup

[Galena]

So glad to hear the season seems to be winding down esp for those somewhat local to me :-)

Lesley, you're dead on about the maple syrup in BC. I've seen it priced at $33/l for *organic* syrup. BC does have bigleaf maples but they have a very low sugar content - 1% or so - and the ratio is mostly 70:1. My brother has made bigleaf maple syrup in the past, but in such small quantities that I've never had any :-/

Was talking to sugaring to a vendor at McHaffie's flea market, down near Morrisburg. We were discussing our bushes and he said he tapped sugars, silvers, reds...and black maples. Had to google it but apparently there is such a beast, a subspecies of sugar maple. That's what i love about sugaring, learn something new every day!