2019 Tapping in Western Pennsylvania

[Gary R]

I'm telling you this winter won't relent. When I see that groundhog, I'm taking him out! I've only collected 125 in the last two days. I've refilled the evaporator and boiling it in now.

[iby]

I'm telling you this winter won't relent. When I see that groundhog, I'm taking him out! I've only collected 125 in the last two days. I've refilled the evaporator and boiling it in now.

I've never tried it, but maybe groundhog tastes good... I'm willing to try it with you

[sbedilion]

made about 3 gallons of syrup today with another 150gallons of sap to go. I’ll probably work it for another hour then shut it down for the night.




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[slammer3364]

Not much going on here either,did find a nice shed antler today picking up sap!

[HowardR]

Slammer and Gary,

I've got the opposite problem here. The sap is coming out so fast that I'm having trouble keeping up.

I don't have a high powered evaporator; I've got a continuous process system. My gravity collection pipes feed into my barrels, which feed into my ROs, which feed into my stove-top evaporator, which trickle out almost-syrup into a stainless steel bucket. During a warm night in the middle of a big run, I run my system all night.

The forecast is for above freezing tonight with a high of 55 tomorrow, so I'll have to run my system all night tonight to keep up. I'll get up a few times during the night to make sure everything is running smoothly.

[sbedilion]

Im with HowardR. Trees have been running good. So far I’m keeping up nicely.

Made another 3 gallons yesterday. Puts me at 6 gallons for the season. Collected another 100 gallons this morning. Running it through the RO now. We have high winds so I dont know if I’ll be boiling today or not.

Last years total was 10 gallons. Already over half way there. My sugar % is much better this season. Im between 2-2.5%. Last yr I was under 1%.


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[Gary R]

Great to hear you guys are getting the sap. I'm about 50 miles north at 1500' and a slight north facing sugar bush. Didn't boil yesterday. I have about 300 gallons today that I've started on. Should be done about 8pm. Good news is sugar content is just above 1.5% which is great for me. I'll probably be about a gallon shy of my season goal tonight then a long freeze. Not sure what I'll do. Finish front pan? Good luck to all!

[HowardR]

We are just now finishing up a very good 4 day run (Thursday through Sunday). According to the forecast there will be a cool down for two days (Monday and Tuesday) followed by another four day run (Wednesday through Saturday) followed by another cool down. A couple days ago, Paddymountain detected this spring's cool-down-and-then-good-run weather pattern. He wrote:

Right now [the weather] seems steady. Cool down for about 4 days, and a good run for 3 days or so.

This could be great maple syrup year.

[Rossell's Sugar Camp]

So the season is off to a good start for us here. We are at 202 gallons after tonight's boil. I have been getting sap sugar content between 1.1 and 1.5 % sugar, but I have been getting BIG runs. Huge runs. Believe me they are the biggest runs. Anyways, from 1000 taps I got 3000 gallons in 24 hours last week.

[Sugarmaker]

Folks,
4 boils 41 gallons of nice Amber. Finished last night in the middle of the wind storm. Took all after noon to gather 600 gallons of 2.2%. High winds, had a dead branch graze me while gathering.
Regards,
Chris