Southeastern WI Tapping

[gatzow]

I’m off to a slow start near holy hill. My bags are battling squirrels again. Little buggers can really take out a lot in 2 days. Started putting duct tape along the bottom of my bags to see if that will stop them from chewing through. Disheartening to think there could be a bunch of sap to find 40 bags chewed up…. I’m boiling now and this should put me at 350 gallons of sap cooked. Have a long ways to go for my goal of 2500 gallons. People are pulling taps already and I’m barely even getting started!! Weather forecast looks crappy, but the Erin parade is on Monday so all is good!

[littleTapper]

Sure been fun keeping things clean with that heat we had. Oof.

pro tip, when cleaning out a sap tank, be sure to close the valve so you don't lose a ton of sap.

Forecast keeps improving for next week. Could be out with a bang here. Sold everything I had bottled up (22 gallons).

[WI Sugarpop]

Brought home 440 gals last night. Boiling now!

[Super Sapper]

I boiled 925 gallons yesterday and have 415 in the tank for today. I will collect this morning and boil after. I had to boil raw sap a couple times last week because the prefilter housing cracked. Never want to do that again. I'm at about 70 gallons of syrup and the next week looks good.

[littleTapper]

Sounds like people are swimming in sap lately

I've had to boil lower concentrate lately just due to timing of when I can run the RO. Sure takes longer and uses more wood. Went through ~250 gallons last night and got everything cleaned up again.

Sap is clearing up now after that really warm crap; but holy cow has it made good syrup. Tons of niter too. Need to go get more vinegar...

[gatzow]

All caught up. Feels good. Got the 15 gallon Bourbon barrel filled yesterday and washed up everything. Sap ran a bit yesterday and should run a bit today. Hopefully we have a nice little stretch here to make a solid dent in the goal. Im only at 33% of target so I need a big week here! But bourbon barrel is good and now I can focus on just boiling and bottling. Would like to make 10 gallons of Cinnamon infused plus all the regular syrup. Sugar average has been good. right at 39:1 after 17+ gallons bottled (assuming the bourbon barrel is exactly 15 gallons). Long ways to go yet, but enjoying the season so far!!

[littleTapper]

Nice!

I caught a hint of buddy in my sap from the trees at home after cooking down a test last night. Mostly silvers and a few norways (one sugar). Pulled the silver taps and will see if the norways are good. Leaf bud size/changes make me think the silvers are the problem. If the norways and one sugar keep going there, that's 10 taps. Plus 74 sugars on 3/16 yet. Hoping for one more good push. I'm right around 12.5 gallons of sap per tap. Buckets on silvers are dragging the average down a bit. Those should be done here too but will need to test it. Got some dark sweet to cook down and about 3.5 gallons to check density, filter and bottle. Maybe this afternoon.

[littleTapper]

All caught up over the weekend and even got a bunch of buckets washed. Still making pretty dark stuff (really powerful flavor too). Boiling more tonight and hoping for a couple more good runs this week from my sugars, then pull the plug.

[gatzow]

cold day today but boiled 200 gallons. Not certain what the sugar percentage is as I would have expected to draw off my evaporator even though i started with a fresh clean. maybe its just stacked with concentration (i hope). Trees ran for a few hours today but maybe a half gallon per tap. I am pulling for tomorrow and Wed to be big sap days as the season is running out of time. My north ridge and upper hill trees have just woken up, so I am not worried about buds yet, but temperatures are projected to warm up a lot in early april. I am going to keep things going as long as I can, but keeping everything clean will soon be getting more difficult! I tapped about 5 weeks ago, so I think my holes will also started to heal up sometime soon. Im over 50% of goal but running out of time... 15 gallons in bourbon barrel, 9 gallons of cinnamon infused are made. Now I need to stock up on the real stuff!

[littleTapper]

Yeah, hoping for these next two days to give one last big push. Can't be much time left here.

Anyone else getting unreal amounts of niter? I had 190 gallons to cook last night and maybe a quarter of the way through my pan was banging and popping like never before. Got done and drained the pan and there was so much sludge.

Had some excitement with my little RO. Replaced the needle valve on the concentrate line a few days back. When I set it up to run yesterday, I set the valve like I normally do, closed then back off to where I need it. Well, the back off didn't actually back off since the knob separated from the shaft. Valve was closed. Ran for a couple hours like that since I started it while at work. Thought it hosed up my membranes as TDS was quite high after fixing things, but they recovered. Apparently not enough "glue" holding the knob on. I think I'll put some good epoxy on it instead.