Checking what VT sugar makers are doing

[4 Paws Sugar Shack]

Good deal randolphvt 👍

[PARKER MAPLE]

Good morning
Does anyone have a price list for buying and selling sap for this season?
Thank you
Pm

[blissville maples]

Here we are again, another season already here!! Looks like we will be getting in on some polar vortex action so no rush to tap here, looks like cold will go into first or second week of February. I Plan on starting tapping the first or second week of February, depending on forecast. Seems to be the sweet spot; not too earlier and not too late.

Acquired a lease on a portion of property, about a 5000 tap potential. Just finishing up the first 1700 for this year this week. Pump house which holds tank and all vacuum components just about finished up, just a few loose ends. Should be right around 5200 taps this year which is a nice increase from 3500 deffinantly going to reach my next goal of producing 2000+ gals, as I expect to make 22-2400 gals if all goes as planned. 2 nice new stainless tanks which should help keep sap cleaner, should be a great year, can't wait!!

Good luck to all can't wait to see what everyone is up to....

[VT_K9]

We picked up 1500' of 1" prelash mainline from CDL...maybe 50' let on the reel after this week. It is pretty nice not tying the mainline to the wire. Also re-aligned about 200' of 1" mainline (reused the wire and used new mainline) after logging on the property. We should be able to hit 800-1000 taps this year.

The logging was pretty interesting. Our sugarbush is about 9 acres of the 70 acre property. Definitely the highest concentration of Maples. Once one area was logged we realized how many more maples were present. Looking through all the hemlocks it was hard to see the real potential. The logger did a real nice job working around the maples. If time permits we'll get a line into that area and start tapping it this year. If not then it will be there next year.

Hoping to drill mid-February.

Mike

[Mead Maple]

Morning everyone!
Hope everyone's summer was safe and productive.

Looking at adding at least 2-300 taps additional here and I'm actively on the hunt for an RO. If anyone knows of one that's a 500gph unit or less please let me know!

[DrTimPerkins]

Crew just finished up retubing (all laterals and drops) one section of our woods, mostly removing all 3/16" tubing (experiment done) and setting up a new project in that area. About 1,100 taps total. With that completed, tapping will start Monday, Jan 18. Should be quick(-er) and easy (-er) without much snow on the ground. Hopefully it'll stay mostly that way and the weather not excessively cold until they're done.

Happy New Year and good luck to all as things ramp up to the coming 2021 season.

[PCFarms]

Has anyone made syrup through the Maple belt?
We started tapping on Jan 4th, we are going to be close to 39,000 taps this year. We had the first 15,000 tapped by last Thursday and were surprised to get a run with a just a degree or 2 above freezing on Fri/Sat. About 0.6 GPT in, boiling it up today after winterizing everything once again on Sunday.

[PARKER MAPLE]

What’s happening in the maple world of Vt?
I’m sure people are getting prepared and have started taping. We will start in a couple of weeks. Looking very much forward to this season. We have built a brand new building. On route 100 in Weston. And everything will be processed there. I wish this COVID thing was over. As I’m sure there would be tones of people that would like to stop and see what’s going on.
Anyways let’s keep our fingers crossed that this is a great season and everyone makes more then they ever have.

[Mead Maple]

I had to do some traveling yesterday. My range went from Montpelier, to Fairfax, then through Fletcher, Fairfield, Sheldon, and up to Enosburg Falls then over to St. Albans (I-89) and back to Montpelier. I was so entranced by the amount of tubing I saw from the road on my travels I had to be aware of the corners lol. Looks like everyone is ready to roll, most of the large operations that I came across had already tapped. Was great to see and as Parker Maple said, COVID definitely plays an impact on everything. Being out in the woods with the kids surely makes that all disappear and I couldn't be more thankful for it, just like during deer season. Anyways, props to everyone up in the area I traveled. Everything looks great!

[GeneralStark]

I started tapping today. Hoping to finish by 2/5. Doing the mountain goat sections first before we get much more snow. Finished all the repairs and drop replacements a couple weeks ago.

Yeah the big Covid factor for me has been day care. It has been inconsistent for a variety of factors, so my time to work has been constrained. My two year old loves to be outside in the snow but she is not quite at the point of being very productive... Fortunately no major changes this year so I should be able to manage through this season.

I'm hoping to make some syrup in February as I need it. Have been buying more syrup than usual this year to keep up with demand. I need to expand...