Schenectady-Albany-Saratoga Counties

[crzypete]

We boiled our final boil on Saturday as well. Finished with 9.5 gallons- just short of my 10 gallon goal, but perfectly respectable. Also made my first batch of maple cream during the big snow storm last weekend. Turned out well and seems to be a hit amongst the family, I will make more.

Now to get it all cleaned up!

Pete

[MRFNY]

We boiled our final boil on Saturday as well. Finished with 9.5 gallons- just short of my 10 gallon goal, but perfectly respectable. Also made my first batch of maple cream during the big snow storm last weekend. Turned out well and seems to be a hit amongst the family, I will make more.

Now to get it all cleaned up!

Pete

Nice job Pete! I haven't tried maple cream but we started doing maple sugar this year which is very easy to make and quite delicious!

[Trevor5]

My season was not great, ended up with only 2.875 gallons of Syrup. Filtering was terrible this year, even though there did not appear to be as much niter as other season (I wonder if the particles were smaller and less visible this year), but the syrup would not go through the filters, so lost a fair amount of syrup, probably would have hit 3 gallons at least if filtering went better. Definitely one of my lowest outputs ever. I did have about 80 gallons of sap spoil before I could boil, but overall I think my sugar content was very low this year.

[ADK_XJ]

Hey all, getting excited about another season here in Saratoga County...although snow has been practically nonexistent for us (i.e. no snow pack in the woods), I am hopeful for a strong season given the fairly consistent cold this January (so far and as forecast).

We are planning to install a small solar array (4 panels for 100 watts) and a ShurFlo pump setup at the bottom of our 3/16th tubing run this year. We have about 100 taps on 3 lines, but may throw caution to the wind and add in another 25-50 that I've held off on because there is a bit of a depression between that top part of our sugar bush and the main set of trees. I'm thinking putt ing the system on vacuum will help carry that sap through the hump and then down into the main path that is all on a descent.

Anyway, happy tapping in advance!

[MRFNY]

We'll be getting things ready soon. Looks like a stretch of pretty frigid temps early next week so not in any rush yet. Ordered some more RO filters today and also getting the process started for custom labels for plastic quarts and pints. Took a ride to Shaver Hill Farm in November to buy some glass containers and they showed us around and their new machine to put the labels on the containers, so we're going to have them made. Quite an operation at Shaver Hill, great people too!

[sugarman3]

They are great people,i was one of the 1st customers to have them do jugs for me,awesome guys,dwayne,david and damian

[MRFNY]

They are great people,i was one of the 1st customers to have them do jugs for me,awesome guys,dwayne,david and damian

Yeah they have been fantastic to work with!

[YBSean]

I have been using a Shurflo pump on our 3/16th lines with 100 taps for the past several years and the yield has increased by 1.5-2x.

[Aslowrie]

Checking in too, also getting excited for the year. I did around 25 taps last year, but found about 10 new good size and convenient sugars and reds on a new trail I built. We'll see how many taps I get total.

The weather has been nice this year, so I'm hoping for a good haul. We'll see how long I can hold out before I get anxious and inevitably tap a week or two early :-).

[ADK_XJ]

I have been using a Shurflo pump on our 3/16th lines with 100 taps for the past several years and the yield has increased by 1.5-2x.

That's what I'm hoping for. I just bought a new (well, used..."new to me") 500-gallon collection tank to replace my IBC tote, which regularly overflows on a good day already. The guy who sold it to me does 2400~ taps and he said the same thing: "vacuum is a game changer."