Checking what VT sugar makers are doing

[Mooneybc]

I am holding out hope that the snow storm will charge up the trees one more time. Just not holding onto too much hope!

[tcross]

woke up to a good 9-10" of snow this a.m. supposed to get another 4-8 i guess. boiled last night what came in yesterday... which was not a whole heck of a lot! trees are slowing down big time. hopefully this snow will help. last nights boil had a little different smell to it. sap is clear and syrup tasted perfectly fine. hoping to have a couple more good runs over the weekend if the sap quality holds up and the snow recharges the trees a bit. never ended the season with snow on the ground. there's a real possibility of that this year now.

[blissville maples]

All done in poultney vt ...2000 gallons if sap at .9% just isnt exciting! Weird seeing snow and being done. Unfortunately the trees have nothing left. With this cold weather and no freeze the trees are in shutdown mode as I call it and wont produce any amount of sap unless we had a prolonged freeze of atleast 12-20 hrs which wont be happening this year. Polar vortex has been favorable for cold but it never materialized. We just had a median zone reversal and split PV which usually happens in February and triggers severe winter weather but not this time, this will likely lead to a cool april, but unfortunately did nothing for the maple season.

Weather has sucked to say the least our last week has featured a low of 31/33 for 2 hrs...5am to 7 am, not enough cold to induce sugar production from the trees. We saw 1.7 for a run or two.
70% of our sap was less than 1.25.

Less than an average year we only made .48# per tap far cry from.last years 6.3 which was our best year ever. We usually have several days making 160-200 gallons of syrup. This year we made 170 once and 130+ only a few times.

My biggest take on the last two years is that mother nature controls the maple industry! Sanitation, 28" vaccum, 4 taps per
line, CV's, none of it matters. Its 80% weather dependant, there is
no normal or standard in this industry theres what mother nature allows in a given season that's it!

Good luck to those still going, im going RO shopping 

[spud]

Woke up to near no sap in the tank. The woods froze up at 11 pm last night. Getting very heavy snow now and the roads are terrible. We have about six inches of snow now, with another foot to come. The woods could stay froze till Saturday which would be great. Hoping for a few more good runs.

Spud

[Mooneybc]

13 inches of the white powder today and still had school!

[spud]

We got around 16 inches and the trees are white. I let my kids stay home from school yesterday. Once the branches thaw we could either get a great run, or the season will be over. Usually when a person ask for a miracle, they say the planets have to line up for that miracle to happen. On Monday some of the planets will be lining up. This is a good sign. 😁🤞🤞🙏.

Spud

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

Best of luck spud, our trees are white over here in western Maine as well with fresh snow. 1 bush was still pulling this morning but the others are all done. We seem to have a very similar start, heavy run and end as you. Hope you get some more, we're all done tomorrow.

[spud]

Sap started running at 10 this morning. I checked again at noon and it running 300 gph. Should run till 10 tonight and then it will freeze up. Hoping for a good weekend. Thank you everyone for posting and joining in on the fun. Let’s hope the price of syrup is good this year.

Spud

[Mooneybc]

It did not run today for me. Thinking I’ll be pulling taps this week.

[VT_K9]

It's coming in pretty slow today for us. I think by the middle of next week we'll likely be done if no sooner.

Mike