I finished up April 3rd/4th with boiling. 50% more syrup than last year, and same amount of trees (better trees!). Had a nice neighborhood open house sugaring day on the 4th to distribute syrup dividends to everyone. Still cleaning up, one 5-gallon bucket at a time, so the season isn't over yet for me! Unfortunately... Dreaming about buying an arch, but more than likely will look to expand to 3-4 pans next year, get some stove pipe instead of cinder block chimney. Or maybe I'll just focus on the 2-3 properties that produce 75% of the sap I collect...
Glad everyone had a good year, and thanks again for the community here! To 2023 indeed...
2023 - 40-ish taps (25-30 “effective” ones), tapped mostly in New Year’s Eve. 5 gallons of syrup.
2022 - 70 taps - 12 gallons of syrup
2021 - 72 taps ~ 8 gallons of syrup
2020 - 8 taps on droplines into buckets, stove top boil, < 1 gallon syrup
A neighborhood consortium of red maple trees, a renegade group of neighborhood kids emptying 5 gallon buckets, a homemade RO, a 3 pan cinderblock evaporator near the street, and 1 very patient wife