Checking what VT sugar makers are doing

[northwoods_forestry]

Thermometer has been stuck at 31 for the past 36 hours. Must be time to replace it?

[GeneralStark]

No freeze overnight, but down to 33. Sap ran all night but slowed down quite a bit. Probably not going to hit 2gpt in 24hrs. , but will get to 1.5-1.6gpt. Sugar was @ 2% yesterday and still making light syrup. I'm interested to see what happens today as it warms up. Will the trees really thaw out and get going? Or, will it continue to be average?

[Scribner's Mountain Maple]

Talked with a large producer today. They said typically they would have made 14K gallons by now. This year they are at 1000 so far.

This is surely a strange year. It seems like in the lower elevations, production is close to normal. Where in the higher elevations, it is way down.

Is there any word on how CA is doing on production. I could imagine a lot less syrup being produced this year overall. The prices seem to depend only on CA production and then the strength of the CA dollar.

Ben

[ryebrye]

I'm at a lower elevation (hinesburg) - things broke free for us this week. I've had over a gallon per tap each day for the past six days. I'm on pace today to end up with about 8 gallons per tap over a 6 day period. (every day for the past five days has been over a gallon per tap, but no 2+ gpt days here).

There aren't any more freezes forecast for my area - there's a slight chance of a freeze Saturday night here but that looks less and less likely as Saturday approaches. The weather forecast for next week seems unsettled but not generally favoring freezes here (and that is probably good news for those at higher elevations)

I tapped late (I have only 110 taps so I have the luxury of just-in-time tapping before the first thaw) - and I expect my trees to continue to be capable of running until the trees here bud. (They will of course stop running if we don't get any more freezes) They are running at a moderate and steady now - peaked a little last hour but seem to be slowing slightly (I have my releaser set up to post ever release event on twitter and graph the data etc so I can monitor it from work, so I have a good idea how it is running)


The graph of gallons of sap per tap for my location show pretty clearly how it's broken recently:

gallonspertap.png

I'm lower than where I want to end the season for gallons of sap per tap - but the sugar content is high this year (either due to seasonal variation, or the new trees I added being extra sweet) so I'm not in a bad situation in terms of pounds of sugar per tap.

[WestfordSugarworks]

It seems like I have the same weather as you do here in Westford, Ryebrye. Hoping for a freeze tomorrow night but I doubt it will dip below 30. Things really broke free for us too last week, following those 50 degree days. I really am hoping to make some Medium tonight but we will see. So far we've made 13 barrels of Fancy and that's it. I am sick of drinking Fancy all night when we boil. I love how the elevation varies the season for producers here in VT. I'm going to take a trip north once the season ends for us. Or at least a trip up some big hill.

[DoubleBrookMaple]

Thermometer has been stuck at 31 for the past 36 hours. Must be time to replace it?

I had the same issue here.
My weather station showed a high of 31.8 yesterday, but all hell broke loose today, and I got my first view of what my 260 taps on 24" could do. It scared me thinking what the hell id this rookie going to do with all this sap? I was at a flow rate of almost 4 gpt for a couple hours there. Of course things slowed down in the evening, but I filled one of my 275 gallon totes in 7 hours! I won't know until tomorrow what my daily average was.
Boiled off 245 gallons for 5 gallons in 8 hrs. Thats my 30gph boil rate again.
NWS, and Weather Underground both calling for 29 Saturday night here, so I am good!

43 gallons, shooting for 75

[northwoods_forestry]

I had the same issue here.
My weather station showed a high of 31.8 yesterday, but all hell broke loose today, and I got my first view of what my 260 taps on 24" could do. It scared me thinking what the hell id this rookie going to do with all this sap? I was at a flow rate of almost 4 gpt for a couple hours there. Of course things slowed down in the evening, but I filled one of my 275 gallon totes in 7 hours! I won't know until tomorrow what my daily average was.
Boiled off 245 gallons for 5 gallons in 8 hrs. Thats my 30gph boil rate again.
NWS, and Weather Underground both calling for 29 Saturday night here, so I am good!

I'm with you DoubleBrook. All tanks are full this morn. Had to empty one twice last night. Poised to set a new production high today if the wood holds out!

[Flat Lander Sugaring]

Broke 200 last night, head is thumping can't imagine why, running out of wood at least 600 gal to process still

[wiam]

280 total Did not run as much as I expected over night. But 500 gallons with what ran after I ROed last night.

[GeneralStark]

Sap still coming in steady. Was 2% yesterday but not sure about what came in overnight since processing yesterday afternoon. Finished ROing what I had pulled in by 4pm so I should easily get over a gpt by 4pm again today. My two buckets have stopped. No freeze in two nights but perhaps tonight. After that it may not be until next winter...

Made another 22 gal. of Golden Delicate yesterday which brings me up to 214. I'm happy about that given the nature of the season. I have been hoping to get to 300 and I just might do it. I need to make some dark syrup, and lots of it.