Eastern Ontario 2020

[Bruce L]

Susan,how did you end up getting one? Last I read you were trying to get one shipped across the border

[Galena]

Susan,how did you end up getting one? Last I read you were trying to get one shipped across the border

Emailed Cooke's Maple, a listed dealer, bemoaning the fact that I couldn't get ahold of one up here and all US dealers seemingly were refusing to ship to Canada, and my passport has expired and I don't want to/couldn't cross the border right now anyway. George himself called and said he'd ship me one, so I ordered through their site. Costs an arm and a leg but hey at least I'll soon have one! Apparently Bascom will ship them north of the border too but Maine, where Cooke's is located, is a leetle closer than NH.

[ennismaple]

Another good boil yesterday to clean up the sap from earlier in the week. I was expecting dark syrup because the pans had sat since Friday night. After the first couple of runoffs it was obvious the syrup wasn't dark despite the incoming sap being rather cloudy. The 1st drum was 66LT and by the end of the night we were at 70LT. It tastes great but it's really light in colour!

The sap that ran overnight is crystal clear and there's a lot of it! it will be another late night in the camp by the time we get through everything.

[paulslund]

The sap that ran overnight is crystal clear and there's a lot of it! it will be another late night in the camp by the time we get through everything.

Funny thing.. I seem to have had a good run overnight too even though it didn't dip below freezing. Trees were still dripping first thing this morning and still about an hour ago! Warm weather is coming so we'll see how it goes next week...

So, high of 9 today, low of 0 tonight, then high of 10 tomorrow (but -4 tomorrow night).

I'm going to try and throw what remaining snow is left around the buckets (they are on the ground).. do I run the risk of spoilage if I don't boil tomorrow and wait until Sat? Busy with work stuff so would be a big relief if I can wait until Sat (that and I need to cut up more wood!) and maybe get a bit of freezing in..

Silver sap still tasting good which is unusual as we are into week four for me..

[paulslund]

Hey Galena.

I meant to mention..remember last year you had a batch that just wouldn't filter out some really, really fine sugar sand? I have the same thing with one of my batches. Sat in the fridge for a week and it just wouldn't settle to the bottom. Those will be for maple cream, maple candy and maple sugar..

[Galena]

Paulslund, put the sap storage tank you're using in the coldest, shadiest part of your property. Doesn't hurt to drape a cheap Dollarama blue/silver tarp over it, silver side up, to help deflect heat.

Sap can keep good for a surprising amount of time - I once got a batch of perfectly fine syrup from sap that had been collected about a week prior to me picking it up, then I had to wait a couple more days to boil. I was lucky! But if the sap looks/smells off...call it a day. Esp if a small test-batch boiled in a little saucepan smells like old socks or swamp water on a hot August day.

[paulslund]

Esp if a small test-batch boiled in a little saucepan smells like old socks or swamp water on a hot August day.

Oh I know that smell all to well. My first ever attempts to make syrup with equipment borrowed from my neighbour was 4 taps around late April.. I had no idea the sap goes off when the trees bud.. made a whole 500ml of the grossest smelling and weird tasting stuff on the BBQ.. then I researched it and realized what happened. The smell gave me headaches actually!

I think I'll be okay. Found enough snow to bury my most exposed buckets and will deal with the rest soon as well.. still some ice floating around in them from the weekend.. Will do the same tomorrow and then boil on Sat..

Don't we hate it when work gets in the way of sugaring?

[Bruce L]

Dumped around 800 gallons yesterday morning that had been sitting for a week,washed out the tanks and drained the flue pan so everything was cleaned up fresh for new sap. Two tanks overflowing this morning,was unsure about syrup,but it has great flavour and actually tested 82 golden this late in the season.

[Galena]

Seems that Ennis also got some golden, I am curious to see if I get some golden this late in the season. It's happened before!

[paulslund]

My last batch of the season is usually the darker batch, often with molasses flavours to it.. at least the two prior seasons anyhow.. will be interesting to see how this turns out on Sat.