Northern WI

[markcasper]

Pete,

Am headed out to run the last through now, will finish the stuff in the pans tomorrow. My pumps are all off. Still got a good amount off the north sides today.

[Rhino]

Finished yesterday, like Pete said, good taste yet, not stringy, ours was dark though. Being in a really low area/cold area helped alot that the sap stayed good up to this point i think. Happy Easter!

[Haynes Forest Products]

Mark I could have stayed a few more weeks if the oil and money didn't run out. The wife and kids didn't have to get back to work or school so yea I'm a little disappointed that the oil prices put an end to the fun. That dang George Bush and Chaney are still getting rich of of me Now if I had a RO I would still be going.

[bison1973]

We tried to go as long as we could and would have made a good amount of more syrup. But, here like I said it became stringy. Too bad because the sap was still coming. Must just depend on the area and from year to year if the syrup does this.

[markcasper]

I never ran into any stringy sap, one tank last week was border line and thought it would show up in the evaporator but never did. I talked to another guy about 4 miles west of me last night that is still going. Hes got 400 taps on a steep north side west of Knapp in the Knapp mountains that gave a gallon per tap Sunday on vacuum. (He's using check valves by the way)(It was 28 Saturday night) The syrup was a little off but not bad, I tasted it. He told me he is going til May.

All of his south bushes he pulled the plug.

[Jim Schumacher]

We finished boiling on the 1st of May up on the border. I and another medium sized producer had record production this year. .38 gallons per tap. We left about 40 bags hanging in order to collect enough sap to clean the pans. On Sunday the sap in the bags was still very nice. No sign of buds on the sugars, reds are pretty big. I am absolutely exhausted. If I had pulled when so many in my area did I would have missed over half of my production. It was a very interesting season. I learned perhaps more this year then I did during any other one year.

[Haynes Forest Products]

Thats because you visited my operation saw what it takes to make it in the BIG TIMES. Then when you saw how easy I made it look I showed you how you do it while drinking Coors Light Then I sent all the equipment back with you that needed fixing because something went wrong

[Jeff E]

Wow Jim, May syrup.
This is a wierd year.
I shut down the vac on 4/22. The last 80 gallons of syrup were good looking, filtered poorly and did have an off flavor. Not bad, but not right. As it was Light and Medium amber, it will no doubt be blended by a large bottler for commercial grade.
Still pulling taps. I do it with the vac on, and suck water through each tap to rinse the lines. Most of the sugars with check valves are still making sap. That is sap from March 2 to May 3. Pretty amazing.

Thinking about starting a thread for production levels. This is the first year I had a 100 gallon day, and a 1000 gallon season. I was just as happy when I made my first gallon, had my first 10 gallon season. It never gets old.