2014 Season West Virginia Mapler

[Homestead Maple]

600 gallons on 710 taps seems like a fairly good run considering that you don't have vacuum. Your taps have been in how long now?

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Most had been in 8 weeks. All new drops and Leader seasonal taps and they show no signs of slowing down as of yet. Got about 750 in 24 hours last monday, but well up in day last 3 days before they thawed out. Prob ran 500 yesterday in about 10 hours. Left about 300 in woods last night that ran up into the night. Nice light syrup.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Picked up another 645 yesterday and boiled it off. Cleaned out evaporator and steamaway yesterday morning with vinegar before boiling in the afternoon. More light syrup. Waiting now for another freeze to get them started again. Sap still not running that good. North side still has lot of frost in the ground and fairly deep. Guess there is frost on the south side too if you dig down 3 or 4 inches and keeping sap flow slower.

[Homestead Maple]

Picked up another 645 yesterday and boiled it off. Cleaned out evaporator and steamaway yesterday morning with vinegar before boiling in the afternoon. More light syrup. Waiting now for another freeze to get them started again. Sap still not running that good. North side still has lot of frost in the ground and fairly deep. Guess there is frost on the south side too if you dig down 3 or 4 inches and keeping sap flow slower.

Light syrup and the taps have been in for 8 Weeks. Most people wouldn't expect that, it has to be the cold temps. Steady as it goes seems to be the way for your season so far. I wonder if you will get any snow out of the coming storm? The low pressure system may give you a decent run.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Calling for some snow but not showing any accumulation. 13 Wed night and 18 Thurs night. Hoping that holds true so we will see. I would guess the 8 week old taps giving light syrup has a lot to do with the cold weather and the new drops and spouts on everything. I try to sanitize and rinse all my stainless field tanks least once a week when the sap is running and sometimes a couple of times which helps a lot. The 620 holding and 320 feed tank in the sugarhouse get blasted out every day.

[Homestead Maple]

Ya, cleaning your tanks and sanitizing often definitely makes a difference. I know new drops and spouts help your tap holes stay fresher, so it has to hold the grade also. Your doing everything right for sure.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Picked up another 455 this afternoon which was way more than expected. Season total at 4580. Hoping for 2500+ more. 60 yesterday and 66 today and deep freeze the next 2 nights and then looks like good syrup weather for the 7 days after that. Hoping and praying so. Sugar seems little low this year. Would guess it would have to be because of the ground being frozen so hard still. Sanitizing and cleaning all the tanks saturday really helped as syrup today was probably still light in spite of running since sat night and being warm the last 48 hours. Tanks and buckets all cleaned and sanitized for the next run hopefully starting again on friday.

[Sugarmaker]

Brandon,
Nice work! thanks for the update. 600 plus gallons boiled in one day very nice.
Regards,
Chris

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Picked up 502 gallon yesterday and boiled it off. Making medium syrup. Weather looks good for next 10 days with about 6" of snow forecasted for tonight and tomorrow. Don't think the tap holes are going to hold out for the 10 days. The north side ones might as they have been in aprox 6 weeks but the south sides went in Jan 8th & 9th and they are about done despite being all new drops and taps. We are less than 50% of syrup to tap ratio compared to last year. Hoping to make another 20 gallons in next 10 days.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Boiled off 125 gallon today for my wife's 6th grade science class she brought over on a field trip. Normally wouldn't start up for that unless end of season but managed to get that much out of the tanks yesterday evening in spite of cold and ice. Hoping for a run this week and maybe next week. South sides are about done but north sides might make it another week or so. Still have about 300 taps on the north side that will hopefully run some. Warmed up this even for a few hours after being frozen since saturday night and tomorrow looks good so will know tomorrow afternoon how much sap we will have to boil on thursday.