Northern Ontario 2024

[aamyotte]

I collect daily and the flows have slowed down from a peak on Saturday. It's starting to lose its clarity a bit. I'm doing my last boil tomorrow.

[4Walls]

Same. Trees slowed way down. Didn't really get cold last night. -2 here. I know that they dont like to flow in windy conditions. I always thought it was a preventative measure in case they lose a limb. Maybe they could feel the big winds coming on. Ice just coming off the lake out front. No buds yet. No peepers either. Think we still have some time left. My neighbour is done with syrup this year. He offered to keep his 75 pails up for me and collect. I am happy to have the extra sap.

[Someclown]

Boiled my 400L from Tuesday plus another 80L for 14L of syrup and I made it a bit thick 69 brix
Sunday will be my final collection and tap pulling day. Final boil on Monday and then the fun part, cleanup

[4Walls]

Looks like an early end to the season this year. Managed to pull 600L sap yesterday. It's currently sitting at -3c, dead calm and not a cloud in the sky. Should have a good little run this morning before it gets too warm. Forecast is warm all week and nothing dropping below freezing. I think its time to pull taps and get things packed up. Weird tho. No buds on the trees. Sap is still light and fresh. No peepers in the bay.
Finished 11 gallons yesterday that will need to be filtered and bottled up today. On a positive note, was out to Magnetewan the other night and got a pail of smelts. Had a couple of good feeds and the rest went into the pressure canner. I love those little buggers.

[Andy VT]

The last three days would have been flow days and it looks like there might be five more before one would call the season over.

I am still cleaning stuff and putting stuff away. I should be all done today. I am glad I stopped when I did, because I was done. I think to do sugaring for many years, it is much easier to keep doing it when you have family and friends helping and being part of the process. I started the hobby too late in life to make it a family tradition, and I had zero tradition myself, before starting.

Gary, I've still enjoyed watching your journey. I think your next frontier is to keep the season to about 5 weeks. One of the sweet aspects of the tradition is that the season is short, leaving us eager for the next one.

[Brien]

I pulled all my taps last weekend April 1st and gave my friend the rest of my sap. Around 500 litres. I did 4 batch boils on my 2x3 flat pan and ended up with 43litres of Syrup. I could of kept going but I figured I had enough syrup. It was the easiest year for me this year. My homemade float box with head tank worked great. And the modifications I made to the woodstove to make the firebox smaller and adding a blower were well worth it. I ended up burning 3 face cords of wood. Not sure if that's good or bad, but it was definitely less wood per hour than last year.

The other reason it was a great season was I was able to drive my truck in the whole time, and I got an old atv last year as well and used it to collect the sap. Then to top it off my friend said he we would wash all my buckets and barrel since I gave him the sap! Pretty good win for me.

[Someclown]

Looks like an early end to the season this year. Managed to pull 600L sap yesterday. It's currently sitting at -3c, dead calm and not a cloud in the sky. Should have a good little run this morning before it gets too warm. Forecast is warm all week and nothing dropping below freezing. I think its time to pull taps and get things packed up. Weird tho. No buds on the trees. Sap is still light and fresh. No peepers in the bay.
Finished 11 gallons yesterday that will need to be filtered and bottled up today. On a positive note, was out to Magnetewan the other night and got a pail of smelts. Had a couple of good feeds and the rest went into the pressure canner. I love those little buggers.

Early finish to the season for sure but my best season with less taps and strange weather.
I was wondering if and when the smelt were running, thanks for the info.

[4Walls]

I have to admit that I am a little sad. I just bottled up 11 gallons of the most amazing, clear, amber grade syrup. Intense maple flavour. Almost too good to sell. I am shocked at how light (relative to mid/late season) syrup. The sap just stopped. No buds. Still no peepers on the lake out front. First few mosquitoes are out. I tapped late and didn't try to catch the freak very early season run in Jan/Feb. I should be humming along for the next few weeks. Normally pull taps last few days of April. I have pulled taps in the past early May. It was pulling dark syrup. I didn't even get close to dark this year. I did well. Managed to bottle up almost 550 litres of syrup from 575 taps. I have to admit, I was expecting more.
I think all the trees are done. I collected only 125 litres of sap today from all the trees. Still light and clear. No buddy flavour. Just not running and almost not worth firing up. I will, but will have to be very careful to not scorch or warp the pans.
The trees still have a lot of potential for good syrup but the weather just isn't there.
Good luck out there for anyone further north. I know the majority of the the maple guys are way south of me and have pulled taps weeks if not months ago.

[ennismaple]

I am shocked at how light (relative to mid/late season) syrup.

This sometimes happens right at the end of the season. Our sap was VERY cloudy and was leaving a milky residue in the tanks. The LT came back almost 40 points over the course of a 2 hour boil - but definitely did not have an Amber Rich flavour. I recall Dr Perkins explaining why this happens with end of season sap. Any time we've seen it happen the syrup has a "bite" so it's one of our signs that the season is over.

I'm looking forward to seeing what Carlton University works out for their buddy sap research project. I believe it's supposed to be a test strip you can dip into your sap to tell you if the sap has gone buddy before you boil it.

[DrTimPerkins]

This sometimes happens right at the end of the season. Our sap was VERY cloudy and was leaving a milky residue in the tanks. The LT came back almost 40 points over the course of a 2 hour boil - but definitely did not have an Amber Rich flavour. I recall Dr Perkins explaining why this happens with end of season sap. Any time we've seen it happen the syrup has a "bite" so it's one of our signs that the season is over.

That is correct. The sap spoils in the lines or in storage so much that it gets very acidic and during boiling never (or only for a brief time) gets above neutral (ph 7.0). Above neutral, boiling sap undergoes what is called "alkaline degradation" of sugar molecules, causing darkening and flavor formation. Below neutral this doesn't happen, so the syrup remains quite light-color, but with a "sour sap" or "fermentation" off-flavor...or the "bite" that is noted.

IF this happens, but you get a solid freeze afterward so that you get solid sap flows afterward, the lines can get flushed out and you'll make good syrup again. You may need to let some of the spoiled sap run on the ground and flush/clean the evaporator to get there, but depending on where you are in the season and what the forecast is...it is sometimes worth doing.

Once it turns buddy, there is little chance of a return to good flavored syrup.