Backyard Syrup Enthusiasts 2022

[Tuckeradams2012]

I am with you all, I hope the sap season extends itself, and like West Sumner, 2 different areas helps immensely in lengthening the season. I bottled 10 gallons Sunday, with another 1.5 settling out, I am really hoping for 20 gallons but I am afraid it might not come this year. My largest problem is just not being able to address the lower vac on my shurflo. It is pulling about 12" and every time I go up to Norway I get too busy with other items to walk the lines thoroughly. Anyone care to take a picture of their setup and show me how they do it? Will try to walk the lines this weekend, before we have friends over for Maple Sunday, to see if I can solve any mysteries.

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

Nice run today. 440 gallons collected at 3 PM and still running. We might actually have sap for Maple weekend!! First draw off is borderline medium/dark. Next week looks great, I like it.

[West Sumner Sugar]

I am with you all, I hope the sap season extends itself, and like West Sumner, 2 different areas helps immensely in lengthening the season. I bottled 10 gallons Sunday, with another 1.5 settling out, I am really hoping for 20 gallons but I am afraid it might not come this year. My largest problem is just not being able to address the lower vac on my shurflo. It is pulling about 12" and every time I go up to Norway I get too busy with other items to walk the lines thoroughly. Anyone care to take a picture of their setup and show me how they do it? Will try to walk the lines this weekend, before we have friends over for Maple Sunday, to see if I can solve any mysteries.

Are you just not seeing good vac numbers? Do you have a recirculation line? These pumps rely heavily on being wet at all times. When you walk your lines check for fast moving sap or sap "jumping" in the line. This will indicate a leak. Vacuum is a game of babysitting. Our Lewiston lines make crazy vac all the time. 27" all day today, while the stuff in Sumner is only making 10-15". I feel your pain, seems to be running good at your remote site, till you show up to collect and get disappointed.

[CanterburyMaple]

I had to dump ~30 gallons of sap i couldn't get to processing last weekend (19-20th), which is always sad. But, good opportunity to clean out my storage barrel, rinse out some buckets, and get ready for the upcoming runs (hoping!). I've bottled/stored 10 gallons of syrup so far, and hoping for a 2-3 more which looks like its in reach. I got about 40 gallons yesterday, so will RO and boil that tomorrow and make a gallon I hope. Maple weekend looks like great weather on Saturday; looking forward to taking the kids to a "real" sugar shack, not my po-dunk cinder block operation haha. Then next week should be a couple days of runs down here in southern maine, and then probably cleaning up for the year based on the long-range forecast.

Question: anyone ever made something like "maple fluff"? I was trying to make a small batch of maple sugar yesterday (1-2 cups), and my pot boiled over a little after I had last measured it at 235 degrees, and I said "I'm done waiting, time to blend it to sugar." So got out the hand blender, and after 10 minutes it became apparent there wasn't enough moisture out of it to make sugar. I thought it would be maple cream/butter, but it was much fluffier due to all the air I whipped into it I guess. So I inadvertently made what I can best describe as "maple fluff" consistency like you would have on a peanut butter & fluff (fluffernutter) sandwich. VERY strong maple flavor. Anyone else done this by accident or on purpose?

[Mvhomesteader]

Well how things do change.

I've been running around collecting sap for two days (which is flowing super clear) and have enough in the snowbank to reach my goal of 15 gallons. As the sap keeps coming, I see no reason to think I can't get 17 to 18. Super cold Monday so I expect another big surge before it starts to fizzle. My recent boil yesterday used up some older sap and put me at 13 gallons, and was surprisingly at 2.5% sugar.

I'm glad to see forum members enjoying this late season surge! I hope everyone's goals can be met and maple Sunday is once again enjoyable!

Canterbury Maple--your fluff sounds delicious.

[DrTimPerkins]

So I inadvertently made what I can best describe as "maple fluff" consistency like you would have on a peanut butter & fluff
(fluffernutter) sandwich. VERY strong maple flavor. Anyone else done this by accident or on purpose?

Sounds like you were somewhere between cream and sugar, but skipped the cooling step and went right to stirring? Maybe a touch too high of invert? Hard to say without all the parameters (invert level, temperature elevation, cooling, agitation) being described.

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

Good week for syrup this past week. All caught up on bottling and we are a little over 30 gallons. 20 gallons of Amber and the Dark we bottled is at LT 43. Sap was a little cloudy but sugar still holding at 1.9%. Everything this year had been 2% so not much change. We are cleaned up and looking forward to the freeze.

[West Sumner Sugar]

Same story for us as well. Another good weekend and the week/weeks coming still look good. We are on tap for our biggest season to date. Currently sitting at 52 gallons.

[Mvhomesteader]

Isn't it interesting to have a freeze of this magnitude this late in the month. It was quite cold today, but some sap still flowed. After boiling Sunday I still have 105 gallons in the snowbank from the past few days collecting effort. The cold nights will create some icing which will help with preservation. The boil ended up with almost 1.75 gallons from 75 for a sugar of 2.25%. I went around the yard removing taps from trees with less than 2% sugar (sort of a sap tree-age), which actually left most of my taps and I was surprised to find several big producers over 3%. So this next (and final?) run should be exceptionally sweet. Still planning on a bumper harvest.

Good luck to all in the final stretch!

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

Cooking off 140g right now we had in the totes from Sunday before the freeze. Thawed out enough by 4 PM to get it out of the totes to make room for fresh sap. About the same time the flow started good today. 13” and 17” on the shurflos so should run hard now. Be another busy weekend. Keep boiling!