Backyard Syrup Enthusiasts 2021

[CanterburyMaple]

I am wishing I had more than my 55 gallon barrel... I'm a bit overrun right now. 15 gallons of concentrate and 55 gallons of sap and more in buckets that I need to get out of the sun. But we had a nice little neighborhood "sugar shack" gathering yesterday and I walked everyone through tap to sap to syrup and gave out a gallon and a half of syrup. I did little 2 oz glass bottles as well as some 8 oz and 32 oz jugs. Seemed like the spring gathering people needed after the winter/pandemic as everyone lingered well past "closing Time". Some neighborhood kids brought $1 and gave me my first revenue! Now what equipment will I put it toward for next year...

Good luck to everyone processing the next few days!

[eustis22]

"Now what equipment will I put it toward for next year..."

275 gallon Tote.

This has been another in Simple Answers to Simple Questions.

[woodsy]

Finished off Sunday's boil today. Not sure exactly how many gallons of sap were boiled but ended up
with 1 3/4 gallons of liquid gold. Had a rolling boil at 10 AM and stopped stoking the fire hard about 5PM.
Couple hours later had a little over 3 gallons in the finishing pots. All time record 1 day boil for me.
Sap was spitting from the trees yesterday. Thats it for me , back aches but pulled out and cleaned up till next spring.

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

Boiled 240 on Sunday. Sap ran today but not great. Need a good and prolonged low 20’s freeze. Snow still holding in the woods which I’m hoping gets us through this crap week. We will see what happens next week. Still making a light amber.

[West Sumner Sugar]

We cooked about 800 gallons of sap this weekend. Just about 30 gallons of syrup completed which is about half way to a good season for us. If we can survive this week, next week is looking good.

[Tuckeradams2012]

In Norway I've been lucky to post big sap numbers, the woods I think are still too cold with snow still 6-12 inches in most places and they all sit in a low valley by the lake. I have been pulling 20" of vacuum on 3/16 on one of my lines, 10" on the other and 12" on the last one. I think next year for my sanity I am going to invest in a shurflo connected to a 275 tote, I can't keep dealing with how I am collecting now in 55 gallon drums, might have been faster as buckets!

I have pulled off 5.5 gallons so far, most however off of sap from a new friend that is ending his season. He was generous enough to give me 115 last weekend and I collected on his buckets for another 110 gallons last night. I am having an issue with the syrup being in the really dark range, but I still haven't filtered it, only stuck it in the fridge and I think I've figured out that I need to run my sap through a t-shirt or strainer before hand to get out larger particulates. Also need to not wait a week to boil, even though I have it stuck in my 35 degree basement or covered in snow. I am going to empty my sweetened pans tomorrow, filter everything through and put it back in. the pan itself is pretty coated on the bottom with a combination of sugar sand, ash and the occasional leaf bit.

Boiling tomorrow! Hope I can come up with some more strong numbers!

[eustis22]

clen your pan before your next boil

drain it, water + vinegar above the boil lines, boil it, while still hot use a nonscratch sponge to clean the niter off, then drain cold and rinse really well.

[Tuckeradams2012]

Thanks eustis22, thats a good idea on top of draining it and boiling in vinegar, I do have some rough spots of burnt material because I sometimes get too crazy and it boils so hard it jumps out of the pan!

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

Cooked off 140 gallons at 1.8% today and made a few gallons. Went from a light medium to darker medium by the last draw. Sap was a little cloudy, no surprise with the heat. Our cold woods really let loose today. 120 taps, collected 40 gallons and had 50 gallons back in the tote in only 5 hours. Should run all night, Shurflo vacuum at 13”. Going to boil again tomorrow then decide what to do with no freeze in sight. Almost hoping it just stops so I don’t have to dump anything. I’m thinking the sweet in the pans will be OK. May bring it to a boil Saturday and chase with some water if needed. Looks cool again after Saturday, fingers crossed!

[Mvhomesteader]

It looks like everyone experiencing the flow surge early this week. Same here, though it's been declining steadily each day. Saturday and Sunday were on the order of 70 gallons each, 50 yesterday, and 30 today. The sap still looks good so I'm stashing like crazy. I started boiling Monday (55 gallons), today (55) and will boil tomorrow as well (another 55). That will leave me with roughly 160 gallons left to do starting Saturday. At this point I will be able to get 9 boils in. If the flow comes back next week, perhaps I'll squeeze in a tenth. Time will tell. My trees are not generally in the woods, and most of the snow is gone so I have no cooling help there.

The sugar content of today's batch was up slightly over yesterday's (2.51% vs 2.34%).

Congratulations Woodsy on your mega boil. That is a good haul. Enjoy it in the off-season and we'll see you next season because you'll need to duplicate the feat.