Mid/southern Ohio 2023

[Redbean]

This year we have 126 taps. We tapped on 1/15/2024. It started to run last night by morning I had over 100 gallons. At noon we pumped up 100 gallons and left the rest about 30 gallons. At 530 we had another 100 gallons in the bottom tank. Later tonight I am going to pump up and see what we get tonight and in the morning. Probably will start cooking down tomorrow. Good luck to everyone. ✌️

[Iwantsyrup]

Hey Buckeye Gold, I got about 7 gallons from the dozen taps I have in, of which half of those were flowing. Yay! I tapped another three trees so 15 total now. If I can get up to 15 gallons or so by tomorrow I’m gonna give my little barrel evaporator an inaugural sap boil. Test run with water was awesome so I’m ready. If some of those other trees wake up I’ll hopefully get there. Pretty stoked. This hobby sort of feels like when I’m trapping. The morning excitement never gets old haha. Anyways, just wanted to give you an update.

[buckeye gold]

Good for you. I have a warning, this gets addictive and you'll just want to do more and more. Most of us started just like you and end up with shacks, bigger evaporators, ROs and many many more taps. I can see the trapping analogy. I ran a pretty large trap line up into the 90s and graded pelts at auctions for several years. Checking your sap in the morning is kind of the same way. My main bush still has not woke up yet. Those trees are barely running, but my early bush that is more open gave 60 gallons this morning from 50 taps that were set Jan 4th. Have fun.

[buckeye gold]

Next week looks like a good sap week for southern Ohio.

[Redbean]

We pump up 220 gallon the other night yesterday around 5 we pump up around 180 gallons. We cook it all down yesterday. That took about 11 hours. It’s all filtered just need to bottle it today. Have about 100 gallons in the bottom tanks. Probably will cook down what ever I have in the tank tonight.

[buckeye gold]

You’re doing pretty good redbean. I am a bit northwest of you and my trees are slowly getting going. I finally had enough run last night to flush the lines. My early taps are chugging right along. 50 gallons from them overnight. I look for everything to slow up and reset next week. Another local producer is seeing the same

[buckeye gold]

I am dumbfounded. My main woods (100 taps) still has not produced any usable sap. I got maybe 15 gallons for a flush then nothing. It went from 10 - 15 degrees for a week to 60 in two days and stayed 50 plus for 4 days. I knew that would not be good, but I expected a couple good runs. I have my early taps I put out January 4th and they are producing a gallon per tap /day and the two woods have the same exposure and are approx. 400 yards apart. What the heck is going on. Actually one lateral run the 15 gallons the other 4 have not run more than a few drips. In 15 years I never seen that woods not produce big runs.

[Iwantsyrup]

Hmmm, wonder if dr Perkins would have any feed back if he sees this. But yeah I got about 15 gallons from half dozen trees over a couple days, with another half dozen that haven’t flowed at all since I tapped last Tuesday. Now they’re all shut back down. But I was able to boil that 15 gallons down to a quart+ of tasty syrup and it was a lot of fun. Looking forward to more sap to boil hopefully!

[buckeye gold]

I heard from another producer about 20 miles east of me and they are seeing poor sap runs too. I guess it's just this crazy weather. Looks like some better conditions this week with some below freezing and 40+ daytime temps. I think we'll still see some good runs, but it may end early again this year. I am wondering if I should have went all in in early January.

Glad you got some syrup made Iwantsyrup.

[Iwantsyrup]

Thanks Buckeye it went pretty well, filtering into mason jars was a little clunky and lost a lot of syrup in the filters and the cloth filter, so might change some things up on that, but man it is delicious.

So, it’s gonna be chilly and cloudy again today, 30 tonight and finally 50 and partly sunny tomorrow; maybe see some sap flowin? It’s like a trap line that went cold, but man when it picks up you’re skinning in the evening like a madman. I’m sure the “tap line” will be the same if and when it turns on and starts flowing haha.

Have a great day guys!