Tapped in the Berkshires

[berkshires]

Played hooky and got all my taps in today. Many of the taps were already dripping. My one gusher of a tree was, of course, gushing. Everything in tapping went fine this year except... found my stovepipe had fallen off the back of the sugar shack. Thought it had just gotten blown off in a storm, but when I went to seat it back on, found it was actually all rotted out. Didn't have more stovepipe on hand (or the time to get it and install it). Have a bunch of other small things I didn't get to that I need to deal with too. So I guess I'll have a very long day for my first boil this weekend.

Anyway, excited to have finally pulled the trigger!

GO

[berkshires]

Played hooky and got all my taps in today. Many of the taps were already dripping. My one gusher of a tree was, of course, gushing. Everything in tapping went fine this year except... found my stovepipe had fallen off the back of the sugar shack. Thought it had just gotten blown off in a storm, but when I went to seat it back on, found it was actually all rotted out. Didn't have more stovepipe on hand (or the time to get it and install it). Have a bunch of other small things I didn't get to that I need to deal with too. So I guess I'll have a very long day for my first boil this weekend.

Anyway, excited to have finally pulled the trigger!

GO

First boil today. That "gusher" of a tree put out over 9 gallons of sap in three days. In Feb! That tree is awesome! And my sugar levels are really good this year. I have one tree that puts out higher sugar sap than the others, but never seen it like this before: 4.7%! I had to taste it to make sure i wasn't misreading my hydrometer.

Anyway, 52 gallons of sap since tapping on Weds makes a gallon per tap per day. Great start to the season! Looks like we're in for a cold spell for the next week. I didn't boil quite enough to draw off my first syrup, but i think it's sweet enough to be okay in the pan for a week.

GO

[Aaron Stack]

Nice sugar content Gabe! I haven't tested yet my sugar content yet but going to in the morning.

[berkshires]

Nice sugar content Gabe! I haven't tested yet my sugar content yet but going to in the morning.

I'm surprised considering how rainy it was all summer. I know my yard trees at home did not like it. They all got fungus that caused a lot of leaves to fall off.

GO

[berkshires]

Had to collect yesterday. All the sap was pretty frozen solid, so I just chopped it up, threw away some ice where I could tell it was low sugar, and I'll deal with it after it melts out.

One rather nasty surprise: You know I mentioned I have one tree that is a super-producer. It has three taps on it, and it produced 4.7% sap the last time I tested it. Well that tree has its own collection barrel on it. So yesterday I went to collect two weeks worth of sap from the barrel, and at first I was excited, walking up to the barrel I can see that it was completely full, the ice was lifting the lid up off the barrel. But after chopping through the ice at the top I discovered... the barrel was empty. There was a slow leak around the bulkhead fitting at the bottom of the barrel. So it filled up all the way, froze, and then slowly all the concentrated sugar sap dripped out around the bulkhead fitting, leaving a couple inches of pure ice coating the inside of the barrel.

I repurposed one of my storage barrels as a collection barrel on that tree (it has no bulkhead fitting, so if it fills up I'll just have to scoop it out) and brought the collection barrel home to fix that bulkhead fitting. What a bummer, though, to lose two weeks (25 gallons) of my best sap.

It's hard to get that **** bulkhead fitting to sit really well because of the shape of the barrel, but I'm doing my best to fill in ridges in the barrel with silicone.

GO

[Pdiamond]

Why don't you replace it with a metal barrel?

[eustis22]

I have found that these:White Silicone Rubber Sheet, 60A Duro, 1/16 x 9 x 12 Inch, Food Grade

cut to fit, work really well to seal bulkhead fittings. from Amazon

[berkshires]

I have found that these:White Silicone Rubber Sheet, 60A Duro, 1/16 x 9 x 12 Inch, Food Grade

cut to fit, work really well to seal bulkhead fittings. from Amazon

Do you think that would form a seal between the flat rubber gasket and the plastic ridges of the barrel?

Here's a photo: https://photos.app.goo.gl/9r9XU7k8uiEYNph69

GO

[eustis22]

might need to double them up for that gap

the earlier poster was referencing food grade steel barrels for collecting

[berkshires]

the earlier poster was referencing food grade steel barrels for collecting

Looked around a little online. Those things are expensive! Not worth it for my hobby. Anyway, I fixed the barrel and it is back in business.

One bit of frightening news: I heard my first peeper when I was boiling yesterday. I can't believe it, a peeper on March 3rd in the foothills of the Berkshires! Normally I can't recall hearing them until middle or end of March. I hope that doesn't mean the end is nigh. I guess it's good I got an early start.

GO