Maple Sugar 2023

[celliott]

Well, since it's still 2022 lol i guess this thread is still valid for maple sugaring for another few weeks. 
We start tapping tomorrow. We have about 150,000 holes to drill this year. If we get the right weather in the next few weeks, we will make some 2022 maple syrup. Some in our area have tapped already and made some syrup!
Cheers to a good year!

[thecfarm]

Nice matching saws!!!
There is one in my garage somewheres. I have not seen it for 15 years.  The Grandson loved that saw. Never replaced batteries in that saw. 
We don't tap evergreens trees in Maine. We use too. But the sap was kinda pitchy, so we gave up on it.  :D

[Chuck White]

Good to see things starting again, Chris!

We're planning on reassembling our evaporator again next week, won't be tapping for a while yet!

Best of luck to everone!

[doc henderson]

good to see you, Chris!  nice family and pic.  

[SwampDonkey]

Keep on keep'n on. If the maple woods isn't busy enough the fir trees will take up the rest of the time. ;D

[celliott]

Hard to believe it's not January yet.
We have right at 40,000 trees tapped. Last week we got hit with a windstorm. Our vacuum dropped to 10" (with two 25hp pumps running, not good). Our crew pulled off a miracle and we got every mainline we have tapped, walked, repaired and ready to go again in 3 days. There was a rush because we have good sap weather right through till next Friday! We didn't have a ton of wind damage, but it was enough. Lost a few taps, quite a few pulled out of trees, some broken wires, etc.
We turned pumps on yesterday when it got above freezing and had 25" of vacuum. That's great for what we just went through. 
Gonna get some more leaks tightened up today and this weekend. Probably make some syrup next week. 





Anchor tree uprooted. Not an easy fix.



Yes there is a mainline under that hemlock mess. Was about 35 minutes cutting it out.

[celliott]

Anyone else thinking of tapping yet?
We are getting a week of good sap weather in the northeast.

[SwampDonkey]

No one in this region, too cold for sap up here. Out in the back country where the big operators are on public land even colder than here. It's not -30 below, but it don't run at 24F either. :D Well will be rain here for 2 days, then freeze up, so not going to happen. Mid March is ball park start of sap season here.

[Corley5]

We'll tap late in January or early February.

[Chuck White]

Over here, we're pretty-much in line with Corley's schedule!

[SwampDonkey]

The Dec 2022 update on this site gives you a time frame of the start up here.

New Brunswick, Canada Maple Syrup Orchards and Sugarworks: Find a local maple syrup farm near you in New Brunswick, Canada to buy local maple syrup, even see it being made!

[celliott]

The Dec 2022 update on this site gives you a time frame of the start up here.

New Brunswick, Canada Maple Syrup Orchards and Sugarworks: Find a local maple syrup farm near you in New Brunswick, Canada to buy local maple syrup, even see it being made!

Many state and government organizations don’t really make it well known that many producers start tapping well before “sugaring season”. Sometimes the less consumers know, the better. Less confusing that way. We start so early because it takes us so long. We start mid December to finish mid February for March and April sap runs. I know there is large producers in New Brunswick and Quebec that have already started tapping just like us. However, if we are going to start so early, and we get a January thaw, we will take full advantage and gather sap and fix vacuum leaks. It really is becoming more of an industry standard for bigger producers and even smaller ones who make a large volume of syrup per tap. Just not advertised much. Honestly Quebec and New Brunswick are probably only 2 weeks later than us in northern VT, at the most. 

[celliott]

Found a few vacuum leaks. It's great we are finding such small leaks like this, so early. We typically don't find things this small until mid March. 
Sap cleared right up. Sugar is very low. 1.3 yesterday, 0.8% today.
Thank goodness for RO's. Our h20 high brix machines are taking 0.8% sap to 25%+ in one pass. That is just incredible. We will save concentrate in our refrigerated bulk tank and do one boil later in the week.

[SwampDonkey]

I know they are out in the woods looking at lines and taps in winter, but have not seen any boils here. I've been to a few large operations 20 miles away and there are several small ones practically next door. Some operations here are actually boiling sap produced during the season and making other products into summer. I was thinning plantations a couple years ago practically in the middle of operations at one big outfit. They've got hundreds of acres, actually a few thousand. The boss man came out of the sugar camp and asked what was going on. I said we are thinning plantations out here. He said leave all the maples. :D The camp is more like candy factory, not a camp. People walking around with hair nets, like folks making semiconductor wafers or something.  :D

You've got more snow then we have, it's next to noting here now locally. But more out in Glassville, Divide, South Ridge and Skedaddle Ridge. It will snow there some days and not here. The drive to those places is uphill from the river all the way.

Yes to those RO machines, saves a lot of boiling.

Quebec is further south than up here, from Quebec City west to beyond Montreal toward Ottawa for a ways in sap country. All flat ground like farm ground. Probably more in line with your climate. World of difference on South Ridge, for instance. :D Might be someone in S New Brunswick that taps early, but they have not got the sugar maple forest like we have, just pockets of sugar maple. It's red maple mostly down there in low country. Even around Frederiction, mostly swampy red maple and with silver maple around the river and  Grand Lake.

[Chuck White]

Chris; Just wondering if you made syrup in December as planned?

You're about 2½ months ahead of us!

Good luck everyone!

[celliott]

Chuck, no, we didn't. We could have.
We have concentrated sap chilling in our bulk tank right now, and sap is still running. We will just concentrate it the rest of the week and fill up the bulk tank (it holds 6000 gallons). Probably boil it on Thursday. One fire up of the boiler, one day we pull guys out of the woods, maximize the potential of all our equipment. We couldn't keep concentrate more than a few days unrefrigerated, so we otherwise would have had to do 2-3 small boils. It makes us more efficient.
0.8% sap doesn't RO down to very much! First time we ran the RO's we concentrated I think 16,000 gallons of sap and ended up with about 150 gallons of 25%. Not even enough to fill our evaporator.

[celliott]

Boiled yesterday and today. Early January and it feels like April, crazy. 
We haven't tapped in 2 weeks. Been fixing storm damage on the part of the system we don't have tapped yet (80k+ taps) mostly ok, one hillside got whacked pretty bad.
The crew called for help with my bigger chainsaw, I got down there at noon and went through 3 tanks of gas by 4:00 😮 

For a first sap run, the sap quality is excellent. First day was a little green, then we threw 150,000 gallons of clear sap on top and it made an excellent flavored amber rich syrup.
Had some issues with the boiler and one evaporator, nothing we can't fix and at least we have time to do it before the next run. Nice to get these things out of the way and taken care of before the big show in March and April.
33 barrels, 1815 gallons so far in 2023!

[SwampDonkey]

Yeah, it is rather mild, but the head pond here is frozen solid except for a ways below the dam down to dead water again. The small rivers and creeks with faster water are wide open and ice free. Been 18-20F in mornings here and 30-32 by afternoon. We need daily highs of 40's for much sap here. Not getting that unless it's raining.

I have to wear cork boots in the woods to walk, everything is ice. We've had 14" of snowfall but the mild weather has reduced it to ice with crusty snow of 3" on top. There is no deep frost, maybe 2", basically the duff layer.

[Chuck White]

Congrats on your first boil Chris.

We put our evaporator back together yesterday and did some sugarhouse cleanup.

We'll be tapping near the end of February.

[celliott]

I've been wearing micro spikes in the woods. But I want to try a pair of cork boots. However I can't see paying for a good pair to wear for (maybe) a week or two of cold/no snow. Any recommendations? I have Hoffman pac boots and love them but, like I said for a few weeks I don't want to drop that kind of change.

[Old Greenhorn]

For different reasons, I find my self in the same situation, not a lot of use, but when you need them, well....
 I got a pair of Viking chainsaw boots and you can buy their screw in spikes and install them yourself. Pretty sure you can remove them after. I got a tip from another guy (my buddy Bill) that I could just screw short SS sheet metal screws into the pre-molded holes. SO far, on ice I find these very helpful, but we haven't had a lot of ice/snow ...yet. They are NOT spikes, but they sure grip on ice. Also the boot design with the felt liners work well for standing in snow and cold while working. For other times, with lighter (logger type) boots, I wear those commercial slip on traction spikes and they worked well for me cutting mushroom logs last winter doing similar work to what you do running/checking lines and taps.
 I have only worn the Vikings a couple of times this season, but so far they seem promising. I need to add a few more screws after the initial test, because  the heavier weather will be here soon enough and I have several orders to fill when the trees settle in to the cold stuff.
 Good luck.

[SwampDonkey]

Can you can some strap on ice spikes? They are a rubberized gadget. Pull them over your boot soles, heal and toe.

[SwampDonkey]

I use chaulk boots all year and I only wear wool socks with a felt insert not liners. When I'm working or moving my feet stay warm. A guy running skidder or loader truck would have cold feet I suspect. Our woods is wet in places but lots of spruce roots that will put you on the ground quick. I used to try to work in leather work boots. No way. :D

I've got the chaulk wrench and can get spikes to replace as well. I get them from good old reliable Deakin Equipment in Vancouver, BC.

Viking also has a logger sole with holes for studs like in winter tires.

[SwampDonkey]

The maple syrup report for 2022 in New Brunswick was recently released. 810,000 gallons (10.56 million lbs). A 3.2% increase over 2021.

NB producers are looking at more public land to nearly double production acreage from 34,000 acres to 64,000 acres, which is less than 1% of public land holdings.

Quebec produced 15.9-million gallons (207 million lbs) in 2022.

[beenthere]

SD
Are chaulk boots something different from caulk boots? just curious...