I got all my taps in today. going to be mid 40s next two weeks. Where I'm at I might get a week in march before it's to warm. 38 today mid 40s IT ON :
I got all my taps in today. going to be mid 40s next two weeks. Where I'm at I might get a week in march before it's to warm. 38 today mid 40s IT ON :
It will likely be nearly 2 months before I tap here in northern NH
2012: Probably 750 gravity taps and 50 buckets.
600 gal stainless milk tank.
2 - 100 gallon stock tanks
one 30 gal barrel
50 buckets
3' x 10' Waterloo Raised Flue wood fired evaporator w/ open pans.
12" x 20" Filter Canner
Sawmill next to sugarhouse solves my sugarwood problem
Gather with GMC 3500 2wd Pickup w/ 425 gallon Plastic Tank.
Been tapping here in Lyman NH since 1989 but I've been sugaring since 8 years old in 1968.
I am going to tap about half my trees this weekend in southern Ohio.
I have similar forecasts as some of you. I have tapped in late January the last two years successfully. Last year, my trees started to bud the first week of March.
I think us in the southern range just have to jump in when the sap gets deep enough, regardless of what week it is.
2' x 6' / Kawasaki Mule 610/twin 35 gal. tanks
Arctic Cat TRV 650/Trailer w/ 60 gal. tank & 5 gal. jugs
In the foothills of Appalachia
http://www.facebook.com/newmanmaple
Well, the fever has reached a high degree. I have 18, 5 gallon buckets and we plan to go to the hunting woods and tap there. It will be a good experiment and we can save the trees we have at home for February. We have no electric or water at this site so it will be a learning experience. What I want to do is tap and boil down the sap to reduce and then bring home and do the finishing boil at home. Has anyone ever done that? Boil sap at a remote site and then bring it home to do the finishing?
Nancy and Mike
Our first time tapping, Spring 2009
24 taps, (1) 2'x3' pan, Sugar shack is an easy up.
Aunt Stella's Gardens,
My Dad talks about doing exactly that when he was a kid 85 years ago. The sap was boiled down in a big flat pan in the woods and then brought to the house in milk cans when it was "sweet stuff". It was then finished on the kitchen stove (wood fired cook stove) by my grandmother in a 3x3 pan that we still have. Much of the syrup was processed directly to sugar. Several buckets of soft sugar were made for home consumption and blocks of hard sugar were made to take to the store to barter for other goods.
I've never heard it suggested before but maybe all you south'n eager beavers should take a thermometer to the bush with you and drill a hole in the first tree just small enough to put the thermometer stem in a few inches to see if the tree has thawed. No sap comes from frozen trees.
I won't set a tap here in Central NH for at least another 6 weeks
2 x 6 Grimm raised flue for 2012 season. Rebuilding a 3 x 13 for 2013. 51 Ford 8N, St. Bernard, 30+ chickens.
http://s106.photobucket.com/albums/m257/cardigan99/
probably 3rd or 4th week in feb depending on weather!!!
may your sap be at 3%
Brad
www.willowcreeksugarhouse.com
585 or so on Vacuum, about 35 on buckets/sap sacs
Atlas Copco GVS 25A Rotary Vane vacuum pump
MES horizontal electric releaser
2x6 ss phaneuf Drop flue, Leader woodsaver blower, homemade hood
300gph H2O RO
husquvarna 562 XP
Its Here!!! 2024 season is here get busy!!!
We tapped just a few yesterday. tapped more today and we have run! We are on the very, very edge of the sugar maple growing zone on the western edge of the Shenandoah Valley. The trees are few and far between and the season can be very short so our idea is tap as soon as the weather lets us in the new year. We will sweeten our pans by the weekend.
When have youguys in southern mass and norther ct tapped in the past few years and when do you think you will tap this year. I'm just woundering?
02 F350 powerstroke and 89 Toyota 4X4 5 speed sap haulers
16X16 sugar shack
30"X8' raised flue GH Grimm evaporator Smoky Lake Maple front pan!
Sthil MS 460, 026 (2), 009, husky 61, 365, 272, and a 42
2009 41 taps, 2010 72 taps on a barrel evapotator all buckets, 2011 151 taps 34 buckets 117 taps on tubing.