2021 Season

[Islander]

Set taps Tuesday, test boil to adjust the float complete, now just waiting for the tote to fill up.

[ddociam]

I finished getting my 700 taps in by Tuesday. Some of my mainline is still under a snow drift. My wire was down and I fixed numerous squirrel chews. All my Shurflo pumps are up and running. Some of my lines are flowing well some are slow. I gathered about two hundred gallons today. My main RO pump broke so I’m using my single post to concentrate.
I finally got my new Smokylake 3 x 8 evaporator set up and tested. So tomorrow I will have my first boil And hope to have my first batch in bottles this weekend. It looked like we have 3 or 4 above freezing days in a row so things will go fast then will probably slow way down until the trees recharge. It should give us a chance to wash everything up before it picks up again.
happily sugaring in Minnesota.

[Steelesteed]

Tapped 12 today, all sugers. Eight flowing. going to be early first boil. 20 miles north of Bemidji.

[Keitha333]

Got another 20 today and boiled most of what I had stored. Now running the last 30 gallons or so in the RO and will boil that tomorrow afternoon. Early first batch!

[Keitha333]

I thought I would get a better run today than I did. I had been getting 20 gallons the past few days in Milaca and only 18 gallons today. Must not have got cold enough last night?

[Schnep's]

Put in 80 taps Friday and Saturday, all running good so put the last 30 in Sunday.
Collected 75 gallons yesterday. We were going to wait for cold weather which might be here next week. But we couldn't miss this good run. Just at the South end of Mille Lacs lake

[Bombadil]

Sap slowed on Sunday in Princeton MN. Must not have gotten cold enough over night.

[DocsMapleSyrup]

Sap flow was really low here in Esko today, even with vacuum. I'm strongly considering shutting off the vacuum until the weather cools down and the trees recharge.

[TooManyIrons...]

Monday March 08 was my first and so far only processing day for 2021. Boiled off 85 gallons in a twelve hour day, my personal best after making some slight modifications last season on my little scratchbuilt wood fueled arch. Sap run has been slow, spotty, and inconsistent so far which is much different than last year, which might be due to generally dry weather last fall, below average snowfall this winter, and resulting deep frost depth. Boiled off the concentrate yesterday, ratio ended up approximately 26:1 on all silvers. Decent quality and flavor, have had better. I expect the sap harvest to improve, plenty of season remaining as long as we do not have any ridiculous 60-70 degree temps in the remaining days of March into early April.

I am cutting back on this hobby, tapped fewer trees this year and will continue to reduce in the future if I decide to continue at it. I dropped my goal back down to 8 gallons of finished product and would be happy with 6 gallons, which was my general production goal back 5-6 years ago. Getting too hard for me to do from a physical standpoint. Considering selling off my setup, might be time to move on to other things.

Based on what I have been collecting I should be able to do my next production run tomorrow/Friday.

Finally got around to acquiring a digital thermometer, definitely a helpful equipment upgrade for me. Also finally got a decent long handled stainless commercial dipper which I have wanted for a couple years. It is the little things in life that make a person happy. :-)

Last year 2020 was my best year ever, ended up with 14 gallons of the best syrup I have ever made, consuming only one full cord of firewood for the entire season. Averaged 28:1 for the entire season on all silvers. The syrup processed into the nicest, most consistent granulated sugar I have ever made. Turned 12 of the 14 gallons of syrup into granulated sugar, which is in much more demand around here than maple syrup.

Wishing everyone a safe, rewarding maple sugaring season.

[ChaskaSap]

I passed 300 gallons on Tuesday. Caught up boiling last night which got me just shy of 7 gallons. I see several trees have turned back on this morning (the bonus of working from home, living in the woods is I have constant eye on things). Spring is wonderful!