Northern Ontario 2023

[4Walls]

-20c on the thermometer outside my kitchen window this morning. Brrrr. Forecasting 25-30 cm of snow on Friday. Not a great start to the syrup season.

[Swingpure]

-20c on the thermometer outside my kitchen window this morning. Brrrr. Forecasting 25-30 cm of snow on Friday. Not a great start to the syrup season.

It was only -12° here this morning and will briefly reach +1 this afternoon. +3 Thursday and Friday, with more rain than snow in the forecast. Today I reheat and thaw my sap in the pan and may boil later on Thursday and for sure Friday depending on the rain. I should make syrup one of those two days.

Next week looks to be when the season will truly start.

[Swingpure]

An article in Orilliamatters on maple syrup:

https://www.orilliamatters.com/local...county-6711404

The temperatures are looking great for next week and the week after.

I made maple syrup yesterday for the first time in my new pan. Next boil will be Tuesday. We are getting lake effect snow right now and -13° tonight, but soon things will change.

[aamyotte]

I tapped today and some trees were dripping a bit, no big flow.

[Brien]

Thanks for the update. I think I will go to my property this afternoon and tap my trees as well.

[Swingpure]

My neighbour’s are tapping Monday or Tuesday, likely Tuesday.

I will be boiling Tuesday or Wednesday depending on Monday’s flows.

I had a 60 watt bulb in a trouble light under my pan. It did not quite stand up to the -15° temps this morning, so the sap partially froze, but it warmed to -2 and most of the sap is thawed now. I am not sure I will need to do that again, but I will try and get a 100 watt bulb for next time.

I will likely drain and clean my pan tomorrow afternoon.

[Maplesapper]

We have 640 or so tapped as of 10 days ago- just enough sap so far to flush the lines modestly.
Looks like things will start in earnest this Wednesday

[4Walls]

300 tapped. 200 to go. Will get on it tomorrow. Still have a few days before first boil. Sap has to be enough to be pumped up the hill to the RO tank and run through that. I only bring mine up to max 16 brix. Then into the the evaporator. Late start for sure. Hoping to do a filter demo for a friend later this week. He wants to build a vacuum filter rig like mine. He only has 100 taps so might scale it down for him. I am working on the simplest and cheapest version of it for back-yarders. Ideally it will come in less than 50 bucks. Inspired by a girlfriend that does 20 taps and needs a better solution than cone filters. Will see if it works.

[aamyotte]

300 tapped. 200 to go. Will get on it tomorrow. Still have a few days before first boil. Sap has to be enough to be pumped up the hill to the RO tank and run through that. I only bring mine up to max 16 brix. Then into the the evaporator. Late start for sure. Hoping to do a filter demo for a friend later this week. He wants to build a vacuum filter rig like mine. He only has 100 taps so might scale it down for him. I am working on the simplest and cheapest version of it for back-yarders. Ideally it will come in less than 50 bucks. Inspired by a girlfriend that does 20 taps and needs a better solution than cone filters. Will see if it works.

I increased to 51 taps this year from 32 last year. The smaller filter setup may be a good solution for me was well. I would be interested to see how that works on a smaller scale.

[aamyotte]

Thanks for the update. I think I will go to my property this afternoon and tap my trees as well.

With the cold morning there wasn't much flow yesterday. Hope your tapping went well with the windy conditions. On Saturday morning I was in a blizzard one minute then full sun the next. The strangest weather I've tapped in so far.