Mid/southern Ohio 2023

[buckeye gold]

A piece of advice Iwantsyrup....Every new producer worries about losing syrup in the filters. It's part of the game, don't try and fix it you'll just make your filtering less efficient. If you want to recover some sugar then rinse the filters in some hot sap and save for the next boil. However, your just moving nitre forward too. Swallow real hard and move on. You will end up with cleaner syrup. I made up a simple filter system with a wire fryer basket and filters my wife sews up to fit. since I only filter small draws.filtering.jpgFilter set up.jpg

[Redbean]

Well it’s going ok this year, but I hope it gets colder real soon! Have made about 12.5 gallons. It’s already getting dark. The runs are slow and consistent. Get any where from 50-75 gallons of sap a day. No real big runs. Had to clean the tanks once already.

[buckeye gold]

I hear ya Redbean. I washed up once already and I need to do it again. I would be delighted to get 50 - 75 gallons a day. Right now I have one lateral that will drip about 10 gallons a day and the other 5 literally are not giving a drop. I am beyond frustrated and just in salvage mode now. I will leave taps in and boil what I can, but like you said it's all turning dark fast. If it doesn't change I'll just hang it up for the season. I wish I had went all in early January. Those runs on my early lines were really good. I made 6 gallons off those 50 taps, mostly the first 10 days of January. This is easily my worst and most puzzling season in 15 years of sugaring. This weather is dumbfounding. Like this morning it's 33 and bumps up to 35 off and on. Later today it will be 45-50. This has been a steady repeated pattern for 10 days. I go to bed every night hoping for at least a dip to 29, but no it's 34 again the next morning and 40-50 the next day. Then add 3.5 inches of rain and extreme mud and you have misery.

[spacetrance]

I have put in 151 taps this year, more than any other year.
I had 95 of them in by January 7th.
I probably only have 2.5 gallons of finished syrup.
It is very discouraging.
I am half tempted to put a vacuum and releaser on my mainlines, but after last year and a potential flop with year, I am not sure it is worth it...

For the record, the family and I only do syrup for fun and to give away.

[spacetrance]

I have put in 151 taps this year, more than any other year.
I had 95 of them in by January 7th.
I probably only have 2.5 gallons of finished syrup.
It is very discouraging.
I am half tempted to put a vacuum and releaser on my mainlines, but after last year and a potential flop with year, I am not sure it is worth it...

For the record, the family and I only do syrup for fun and to give away.

[buckeye gold]

Things still are not going well. My trees just will not produce sap. I have declared it my worse season ever and I am all but ready to call it quits for this spring. I have a Maple day with our Southern Ohio Forestland Association this Saturday and I will be lucky to have enough sap for an hour or two of boiling. After that I think I will just hang it up and get ready to work Gardens. The last few days have been lows in mid 20s over night and 50 degrees in the daytime and I get ~20 gallons of sap from 150 taps. It sucks.

[markcasper]

Things still are not going well. My trees just will not produce sap. I have declared it my worse season ever and I am all but ready to call it quits for this spring. I have a Maple day with our Southern Ohio Forestland Association this Saturday and I will be lucky to have enough sap for an hour or two of boiling. After that I think I will just hang it up and get ready to work Gardens. The last few days have been lows in mid 20s over night and 50 degrees in the daytime and I get ~20 gallons of sap from 150 taps. It sucks.

I'd hang in there! Cold front and pattern change coming the end of this week.

[buckeye gold]

I hear you Markcasper, but I no longer do this as a business and I have enough for personal needs. I just won't be able to be as generous in what I give away. I have seen at least 3 favorable weather patterns come and go and still I do not get good runs. The next 4 days will be 60 plus degrees and that will reek havoc on lines, taps and tanks. I may stick it out next week, but that's about it. I am a one man crew and an old man at that. I am tired and ready to move on. I feel for those who are seeing the same poor production and are trying to make syrup to market.

[Iwantsyrup]

This has been and continues to be an educational and fun first season for sure! As for the 60 degree weather causing havoc, do you guys recommend any line and/or bucket cleaning for maintenance? I’m on buckets and drop tubes in the woods, and collect with buckets as well. I always rinse out my collection buckets that I bring back to the house but haven’t done anything with the buckets and lines and taps in the woods. Should I make this a priority today or soon?

Hoping things turn around Buckeye Gold!

[Iwantsyrup]

Well it’s running not too bad last couple days. Another good collection today hopefully and I’ll have one more boil for sure. Maybe 40 gallons to cook on my little barrel evaporator. My only 3 red maples pretty much bloomed so those taps got pulled. My original taps from Jan 24th on the sugar maples seem to be slowing and drying up. My more recents taps are carrying me now haha. First year has been fun. All the excitement and research this past year and I was certain sap processing would be the rate limiting factor and give me the most fits. Turns out my two only little boils went great, just couldn’t get a lot sap out of a couple dozen taps. But I’ll end up with a gallon or so of syrup so we’re calling it a win! I feel very blessed to be able to get out there and just participate in the fun. Hope you guys are doing good!