Tapping in Western PA

[unclejohn]

I wish we had more producers around here. We have pulled our taps and started cleaning everything after making 23 gallons from 185 trees over 3.5 weeks; the syrup is turning dark and temps over the next week do not look good for sap flow. good luck to all in western PA- we took a bike trip on the Great Allegheny Passage a few years ago and went through Meyersdale, the syrup capital of PA??? Beautiful country you have there.

[helptheold]

I feel like I should be asking my husband to build an ark not a RO! This is nuts.

When (or should I say if!) the rain breaks today I'll go get my buckets and pull the taps on my bad trees. Will stick everything back out on Sunday and see what happens.

[Sugarmaker]

Was good to see lots of friends and family in the sugarhouse the last few days! Gary R stopped and we had a good talk, solved all the maple issues in the world.
We have been busy the last few days. Very warm temps on Tuesday provided large amounts of sap. Some local producers boiled all day to try to get caught up with the strong flow. We had 758 gallons of sap that day.
On Wed there was another 450 gallons of very cloudy sap. Looked like a end of season run! Mad Very dark syrup.
Have made about 60 gallons to date. Some sugarmakers in the area are tapping now. The weather looks real good into next week. We have had a freeze last night and its raining and snowing. Sap may start to run today again.
Hope things are good out there !
Regards,
Chris

[sbedilion]

Done.

I finished up my last batch this morning. Hit my season goal of 10 gallons! It took a ton of barely 1% sap.

Looking at the forecast...it doesnt look good. Sure there may be a day or two here and there but not worth it for me. If it ever stops raining Im going for a bike ride

Beside the low sugar, it was a good season for me. Got a new pan, slightly better arch (didnt have time to build a legit one this past yr), had a better preheating setup, auto feed into my pan, boiling went smooth, filtering process was less of a headache, and made enough to sell to all my annoying friends that try to score syrup off me. It was enjoyable.

2016 - 4 gallons
2017 - 6 gallons
2018 - 10 gallons

It was fun hearing about everyones season...so keep posting.

[slammer3364]

waiting for sap to run here in Elk County got about 40 gal this week tapped last Sat. Hoping for some good runs in March. Last year my sap barely hit 1 percent also, hoping for a little sweeter this year.Best of Luck!

[helptheold]

Gonna give this week a try, I would love to have some more syrup on hand for gifts. My husband has been home the past week with the flu & pneumonia and he heads back to work tomorrow so I'm itching to get out of the house and do things without having to worry about him!

[Gary R]

Acid cleaned the evaporator and removed stacks yesterday. Pulled all the taps and washed the tubing today. Hope you guys get some freezes.

[Hoppy]

I’m not planning on doing anymore other that pulling my taps and trying to make some maple cream and some maple candied nuts.

We finished with 3.5 gallons of syrup this year. Way more than I thought we’d get. Bottled the last 1.25 gallons today.

[Sugarmaker]

Gathered 140 gallons of sap and cleaned the collection tubs. Boiled and made 2 gallons of Very Dark syrup. Might freeze?
Regards,
Chris

[sbedilion]

Yup...Hit my quota, low on firewood, cleaned all my equipment up and started putting away, called it a season.....weather changed and the sap bug got me. Put all my collection barrels back out this morning. Weather looks great this week.

Now i gotta order more prefilters and bottles. Addictions....