Checking what VT sugar makers are doing

[VTnewguy]

Still hoping for a couple more boils. Elevation really hurt us earlier in the season. Trying to catch up now but the end is near.

[Andy VT]

I decided to make yesterday's rather large sap haul my last for the year over here in Essex Junction, really only because at this point we have to move on to other activities. This coming weekend will have significant flows I think, but we're going to let them spill. I have 5 gallons hot packed in canning jars, but considerably more than 5 gallons-equivalent at various stages of finishing. I'm guessing I'm going to end up with 12 gallons syrup total from my 30 bucket taps even though I'm stopping early. These neighborhood trees with their full crowns and 2-foot diameter really produce! Almost half are norway maples (which I tapped way too early) and didn't produce much, so the sugars must have averaged well over half a gallon per tap to make up for that.

[Mooneybc]

From Monday night to Tuesday night we got 1.5gal/tap sap at approaching 1.0%. It’s slowly trickling in currently. This will be the last week with hopefully a solid end of the season run this Saturday-Monday. After that we have 3 days in a row with temps in the high 70’s. We are looking like roughly .33gal/tap syrup for the end of the season. Envious of you fellas who are at .5 or close to it. The sugar content of my bush is typically much lower to the relative bushes in the area. Must be because I have a lot of soft maples and a crowded bush.

Cheers to finishing the year strong!

[ecp]

Still hoping for a couple more boils. Elevation really hurt us earlier in the season. Trying to catch up now but the end is near.

Elevation has killed us in northern Vermont this year so far. Still have full snow coverage, and the tree bases are not even away from the snow yet. Looks like bad weather in the future so it's going to be a short season, I fear. Best vacuum ever and production is down (way down). Wonder if I should go back to buckets next year.

[blissville maples]

We finished up boiling out the pans yesterday, two freezing nights coming but it's pretty well over down here. Definitely was a good year for the lower elevations. We finished out with 3090 gallons, .57 or 6.3 lbs per tap. Very pleased with the season other than extremely low sugar, nothing over 1.8 and averaged in the 1.3 vicinity. Some of the best quality sap and syrup I've ever seen. I think we boiled cloudy sap just a couple of times. Time to get onto other things, good luck to those still going.

[ecp]

We finished up boiling out the pans yesterday, two freezing nights coming but it's pretty well over down here. Definitely was a good year for the lower elevations. We finished out with 3090 gallons, .57 or 6.3 lbs per tap. Very pleased with the season other than extremely low sugar, nothing over 1.8 and averaged in the 1.3 vicinity. Some of the best quality sap and syrup I've ever seen. I think we boiled cloudy sap just a couple of times. Time to get onto other things, good luck to those still going.

Congrats on the good season in tropical southern Vermont. I have a friend in the Poultney area and every time I get snow I text him. He usually replies with something about planting banana trees next year I'm still checking for leaks with snow shoes on. Not looking good.

[DrTimPerkins]

Things slowed down a bit, but sap still coming in. SSC dropping slowly. Rain helped some. At about 0.48 gpt syrup now...mostly light syrup with good flavor. Hoping the good freeze on Sat will spur a nice run on Sunday-Wednesday. That'd push us into about the 0.55 gpt range. Won't last too much beyond that based upon the forecast. Overall looking like it will be a fairly average season here production wise, but played out a bit oddly.

[Andy VT]

Well, I'm definitely questioning this prediction at this point. It was a good year in my micro-climate but it sounds like not only was it a bad year for those in warm climes, but also a bad year for those at high elevations even just a few miles from me. It seems like this is the year for micro-climate to change everything. Is that common?
Non-the-less, high elevation folks, it ain't over till they bud! Let's see what happens!

Well, I tapped taps 15 through 27 yesterday, and the last 3 today, so I'm now up to the planned 30 taps and oh Lordy!
Is anyone thinking 2023 will beat 2022 for overall production? I am thinking so. Some warmer states had rough seasons but I think Vermont, Canada, New York, New Hampshire are going to be big.

[tcross]

had about 3/4 gpt run yesterday. hoping for a bit better today. freezing nights through this weekend, then the big warm up Monday on. currently at 60% crop. hopefully we'll get 2-3 good strong runs that get us closer, but i feel we'll fall short of an average season up here. still lots of snow and ice, but a week of 60-70 temps will change that. time will tell.

[DrTimPerkins]

Well, I'm definitely questioning this prediction at this point.

Predictions about maple production out beyond about a week are not worth much.