Eastern Ontario 2020

[jungmaria]

Hi Galena,
Thanks. No snow or ice at all left here. Also no way of storing about 600l somewhere cool. At least it’s not going to be too sunny on Fri with all the rain. I’ll pull out the ice Sat am and hope for the best. I guess I’ll know right away if it smells off. Thanks!

Welcome Maria! Generally you should boil sap as soon as you can, but for the most part if kept cold it can keep up to a week. If you have snow still, esp on the north side of outbuildings, out of sun, dig bunkers or heap snow around the barrels. One season some years ago I got offered sap to take but it was 10 days after collection. I knew it might turn, but I got it and made some lovely syrup with it!

I also know of the freakish warmth we're also going to get Friday but it is also meant to be followed by freakish cold. Pull out any ice Saturday morning and frisbee it :-) I used to burn ice too but it't just not worth it. BTW I use clean garbage pails for bulk storage of up to 70l per. I am freezing up all the cold packs that come with my home meal delivery service (Goodfood, hellofresh etc) and will be putting them in the bulk containers Friday night to ensure as much ice as possible so I can make the most of the poor person's RO :-)

[Galena]

hey Maria, if you have some kind of dirt-floored or concrete-floored storage shed you can try that. Also maybe try getting cheap tarps from the dollar store, the kind that are blue on one side and silver on the other. Put it over the storage container silver side up to help deflect heat/any sunlight. Any shady area not too close to the house in particular as houses give off heat.

Usually it's easy to tell if sap has gone off. It'll often go cloudy and smell off. But sometimes it stays deceptively clear and smells ok. Best thing is to take a small saucepan of the sap, bring it to the boil. If it smells like you're boiling frogs, or just like swamp water on a late summer day, ditch it. Unless you want to make a novelty batch of swamp water-flavoured maple syrup lol :-) Good luck!

[jungmaria]

Haha. Thanks for the tip to boil it in a pot first. Yum, frog flavoured syrup! Going to put up a tarp for shade and hope for the best!

hey Maria, if you have some kind of dirt-floored or concrete-floored storage shed you can try that. Also maybe try getting cheap tarps from the dollar store, the kind that are blue on one side and silver on the other. Put it over the storage container silver side up to help deflect heat/any sunlight. Any shady area not too close to the house in particular as houses give off heat.

Usually it's easy to tell if sap has gone off. It'll often go cloudy and smell off. But sometimes it stays deceptively clear and smells ok. Best thing is to take a small saucepan of the sap, bring it to the boil. If it smells like you're boiling frogs, or just like swamp water on a late summer day, ditch it. Unless you want to make a novelty batch of swamp water-flavoured maple syrup lol :-) Good luck!

[TurkeyJohn]

So, city of Kingston instituting an open air burn ban starting 8 am tomorrow morning...boiling like mad so I don’t have to tip all the sap I’ve got still stored....woods going down and it’s been a great run this year, but like all seasons I’m ok to see the end...Forecast was looking like this was the last hurrah for us anyway....good luck for the rest of the season all that are still boiling, wishing you dry wood, high sugar and no nitre,

TurkeyJohn


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[Galena]

Thanks for the well-wishes, TurkeyJohn, sorry your season cut short :-/

JungMaria okeydokey hope you don't end up with froggy syrup! Hope the tarps and other suggestions help!

[Fort Wisers]

Another long but productive day for us yesterday....
We finished off what sap we had left, which resulted in 6 litres of tasty gold.
We pulled all our taps and started the cleanup process, which will continue today.
Our season total is 18.75 litres, which we're very happy about.....

TurkeyJohn -> sorry to hear your season was cut short.....
Galena -> as much as we'd love to come help with your operation, we have a list a mile long that halts during the season so it's off to that. If it would help, perhaps we can lend you our propane finisher to help you through your sap? Couldn't get it to you until next week though......
Jungmaria -> welcome to the forum

Everyone........enjoy the rest of your season, we'll see you next year.

Cheers!

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[Galena]

Hey Wisers, almost 19l is nothing to sneeze at! I've finished about 3.5l from batch #1 so far but it's a good 5 marks over density. I fixed SW yesterday so it was working perfectly yesterday. Luckily my trees seem slow today so I have a chance to catch up and tonight will load up my 72ls from yesterday with Goodfood packs, let it freeze, and boil the sweet indoors. Too much work running back and forth to SW and house every 20 min or so.

[Vandy]

So, city of Kingston instituting an open air burn ban starting 8 am tomorrow morning...boiling like mad so I don’t have to tip all the sap I’ve got still stored....woods going down and it’s been a great run this year, but like all seasons I’m ok to see the end...Forecast was looking like this was the last hurrah for us anyway....good luck for the rest of the season all that are still boiling, wishing you dry wood, high sugar and no nitre,

TurkeyJohn


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You are making food. Fireban doesn't apply...

[TurkeyJohn]

You are making food. Fireban doesn't apply...

Called the Fire & Rescue folks that issued it and definitely banned, because it's wood fueled with no on/off switch, it's a big no go.....

Sent them photos as requested, they were good about it, apologized, never had it come up before for them...

TurkeyJohn

[ennismaple]

Another decent day yesterday - the sap started running later because of the hard freeze Wednesday night but we still ended up with about 0.75 GPT for the day. Another day of 73 LT syrup! No frost overnight so it did run all night and is still running some - we need to get it processed before it freezes solid and hopefully the power stays on through the wind storm.

The freezeup that's forecast for the next 3 days is needed so we can re-charge our batteries! We've boiled 9 of the last 12 days and can definitely use a rest.