tapped in hooksett NH

[Brian Ledoux]

Hello,
tapped on saturday, nothing ran until today and it ran VERY well from what I could tell. The 2 gallon buckets were almost overflowing on some of the bigger trees. Boiled tonight in the new sugar shack (just finished final touches on the cupola tonight) and with the new to me 19" x 36" evaporator. I boiled about 8 of the 25 gallons of sap I collected today from the 30 trees I have tapped.

Need to figure out (fast) how much I am supposed to draw off when the sap in the 3rd row of the divided pan reaches the right density? And then, what is the best way to replenish what I draw off? How do others with a single divided pan operate it? Anyone advice would be greatly appreciated! -brian

[Brian Ledoux]

Boiled some sap left over from weekend, 2nd batch in a row that tasted terrible. Extremely disappointing after all that work. The first 3 batches were excellent. Last 2 tasted and smelled horrible. I thought it may have been the way I was boiling and pans not clean enough. I cleaned pan and changed up the way I was boiling to prevent crap on sides of pan from getting in syrup. Must be the sap itself. The silver maples I had tapped all had buds that were pretty well opened. So I just removed all my taps from those trees. Still have one location with trees that don't have buds that are opened yet, let's see how long that lasts with this weather. Made 2 gallons this year with 100 taps. nuts.

[BascomMapleGirl]

Brian, sounds like the last couple batches were from "buddy" sap-that gives it a very strong off-flavor (and smell). Any sap you boil from trees that are close to budding taste that way. Good luck with the other locations!

[Brian Ledoux]

thanks. still hoping for cold weather and one last chance to boil...