Southwest PA Tapping 2023

[DRoseum]

2023 thread - considering tapping this weekend.

[SRM]

I am not ready yet, but it does look good for Sunday to start. I am trying a small RO this year. Hopefully it helps with less wood having to be burnt.

[DRoseum]

Best of luck on the RO and the season! ROs are game changers, you will love it. If I don't tap this weekend, perhaps next.

[DRoseum]

Tapped last night, sap was flowing nice. Have to find a leak in a line quick after work tonight and fire up the RO and evaporator. Its officially begun! Best of luck to everyone on their season!

[SRM]

Yesterday afternoon I was able to tap 1/3 of the total I want this year. First time using 5/16 gravity line and the two handed tubing tool. It took a few tries to figure out how to use the tool efficiently. Today I'll finish the rest. The low is 17 today and the high will be 37. Hopefully sap will be flowing. I have parts for a solar vacuum system coming in as well. I plan on testing it out on about 15 taps latter on next week. We will see how it goes.

[Polish Wizard]

As I travel between Allegheny and Mercer counties it is interesting on the different weather conditions, and not always with Mercer being the coldest or most snow covered.

Last year I set up and tried a new StarCat and RO Bucket systems and eventually tapped on February 16th, about a week late from my previous norm - making 9 gallons of finished syrup before I pulled the plug.
(My friends and family loved me -- kinda like hanging hot dogs around your neck to play with the dog.)
Really glad I made the transition from 3 buffet pans over a homemade arch.

With the weather jumping up from really cold temps these past couple days I plan to head north tomorrow and tap my 47 trees to start my season.
I'll take the rest of the day to clean all my equipment and get the RO out of summer storage.

A couple years back I found a man up north just over the Ohio border who has a commercial oil-fired set-up, rents additional bush and hauls the sap, works with neighboring farmers to process their sap, and also sells maple equipment.
This past week I noticed his rented bush has already been tapped - so by following his lead -- I'm already behind schedule.

[HowardR]

Whew! It's been a busy three days, but now I've got almost all my taps in, my evaporator boiling and my RO's humming. The sap is pouring in. This season is starting out with a big flow.

I'm in the middle of Armstrong County and following three different weather services -- weather.com, accuweather.com, and wunderground.com. Right now I'm hoping Weather Underground is right because they're the only one showing a couple of frosts between now and Saturday night. Without a frost, the sap would slow and stop flowing, but a couple of frosts would keep it pouring out and make this one of the fastest starts to a season ever.

[SRM]

I have collected 200 gallons of sap and was going to start the RO today and the 2x4 evaporator, but it's going to be 68 degrees with very high winds here so I thought I should wait until Friday Morning? I can keep the sap cold enough until then. My RO can process 24 gallons of sap an hour. That will take over 8 hours of running. We are expecting high winds and that means a chance of electricity going out. What do you think I should do, keep everything cold and wait out the "storm" or forge ahead and start the RO and try to make it through. This will be my first time running the RO so I'm not sure how that will go.

[HowardR]

SRM,

I'd process the sap right away. It's very hard to keep sap cool enough in that sort of heat. Besides, a power failure wouldn't wreck an RO. If the power goes out, I would just unplug the RO and turn off the sap entrance to the RO until the power failure is over. Then, as soon as the power comes back on, I would turn on the sap entrance to the RO and plug in the RO and resume.

[DRoseum]

Yep - agree with HowardR. Just don't let the concentrate sit in the warm weather very long either. It will spoil faster than the raw sap. As others have said, treat sap (and especially concentrate) like you would milk. Letting it sit for hours in 60+ degrees is a sure way to spoil it.