Tapping in Ontario

[ennismaple]

Thou shalt not covet.......Ennismaple's operation.

There were several moments of weakness this season when you could have owned it for not much more than a song! I'm glad to hear that people like Jakeman's are buying - that's a good sign that demand still exceeds supply.

[argohauler]

Got the rest of the buckets brought in. Wouldn't be right if you didn't get a flying squirrel in a bucket. Found one today. Poor little fella.

Tomorrow I start pulling the lids/spiles.

[Jerome]

Pulled my taps on last Sunday now just have the cleanup to do. Made about 6 gallons on 18 taps. Seems to be quite dark I still need to bottle to see for sure.

[Northern Ont. Maple]

made my first batch of dark syrup last night but the weather looks good for the next week so expect to finish with a litre per tap. I changed to all cv spiles and they seem to be paying off. Love my new 600 gal/hr RO couldn't have done with out it. I won't need to cut wood next year. Still making modifications to my AOF home built evaporator.

[argohauler]

Well we had RAIN today, while most others had nice weather. I decided I'd go to Weber's Maple Supply for the dark grade stickers and on the way get some seed potatoes near New Hamburg.

It was 17 and beautiful in Heidelberg. The Weber's were washing their 1100 sap buckets. They were very nice people and we talked a good half hour about the season and growing vegetables, but they had sold out of Dark labels. The shipment they got in were Amber instead of Dark. So I said I'd try Reist's Farm Supply east of Elmira. They told me they get their grade labels from them! The were going to pull the lids/spiles when I left. They had to get the team of horses they rented for the syrup season back to the farmer for seeding tomorrow. They had a neat cart they pulled with the horses. It had a set of wheels side by side like you see on a bale feeder wagon, then a bed for a tank to sit on and 2 wheels on each side on the bed part. The wheels had tracks on them. Mr. Weber said they were great in the snow and the mud!

Got to Reist's and they had lots on hand. nas said they were $4.50 at Weber's, well they were $4.00 at Reist's. Talked with the fellas's there and a guy south of Guelph and how great a season they had. The only complaints they heard were north of Elmira, where it wouldn't warm up enough.

Very enjoyable day, saw some Mennonites selling syrup by the road, but didn't stop. Saw ground being worked west of Mt. Pleasant in the blow sand and saw a Mennonite seeding spring grain with a 3 horse team, just north of St. Clementes.

[can'twaitforabigrun]

Gathered 65 gallons today, and 30 on Tuesday, peepers are out in force, but the trees haven't budded yet. Looks like tomorrow or Monday will be our last day and we'll be pulling the taps early next week. Quite a few taps have dried up and while others gave almost 2 gallons today.

[RyanB]

Well we had RAIN today, while most others had nice weather. I decided I'd go to Weber's Maple Supply for the dark grade stickers and on the way get some seed potatoes near New Hamburg.

It was 17 and beautiful in Heidelberg. The Weber's were washing their 1100 sap buckets. They were very nice people and we talked a good half hour about the season and growing vegetables, but they had sold out of Dark labels. The shipment they got in were Amber instead of Dark. So I said I'd try Reist's Farm Supply east of Elmira. They told me they get their grade labels from them! The were going to pull the lids/spiles when I left. They had to get the team of horses they rented for the syrup season back to the farmer for seeding tomorrow. They had a neat cart they pulled with the horses. It had a set of wheels side by side like you see on a bale feeder wagon, then a bed for a tank to sit on and 2 wheels on each side on the bed part. The wheels had tracks on them. Mr. Weber said they were great in the snow and the mud!

Got to Reist's and they had lots on hand. nas said they were $4.50 at Weber's, well they were $4.00 at Reist's. Talked with the fellas's there and a guy south of Guelph and how great a season they had. The only complaints they heard were north of Elmira, where it wouldn't warm up enough.

Very enjoyable day, saw some Mennonites selling syrup by the road, but didn't stop. Saw ground being worked west of Mt. Pleasant in the blow sand and saw a Mennonite seeding spring grain with a 3 horse team, just north of St. Clementes.

Sounds like you where in my neck of the woods! I grew up in St.Clements and am not up by Fergus. I get all my supplies from Webers also...great people and he makes some really nice Arches too! We had a great season and landed up with 1.25L per tap. We probably could have went a few days longer but I pulled the taps last sunday as I had a busy week in the shop this past week. In the end we only had nice light syrup this year!

Ryan

[Brookmaple]

Pulled our taps and buckets one week ago. At that time we had 60 ltrs from 64 taps ~ 95% season. Noticed taps are still running today. With the warm temperatures predicted Wednesday, this might be a good last day for others.

All in all, a banner year exceeding last year's total of 40%,

[butler]

anyone in Ontario have one for sale at a decent price...looking to upgrade from my 2x6..

[can'twaitforabigrun]

Here in the Pembroke bush where I normally help out we gathered 70 gallons on Saturday and 25 yesterday. Half of the trees have dried up while others are still going strong. The syrup is quite dark, but still tastes great. We'll gather today and see what the rest of the week brings as it's supposed to freeze well on Thurs. night. We would probably be getting a lot more sap if it wasn't for the few warm days we had last week that caused the bacteria to get into the tap holes. We should be done here for sure by this weekend and wash everything out next week. Meanwhile, I visited my uncle's bush, which is 1.5 hours south of here but a few hundred meters higher in elevation and is on a northeast slope. At 4:00 pm on Sat. many pails were close to running over and by the time we were finished gathering at 8:30 pm, we got 300 gallons from 250 taps and 125 trees. Then on Sunday we gathered 150 gallons. This is his first year making syrup at this location and he has enough trees to easily expand to 800+ taps in the future. Just wondering if anyone else in Ontario (particularly northern Ont.) is still making syrup?