We might as well get started on the Syrup thread for 2024.
We have cut back this year, where most people are expanding.
This year we have a 2x8 CDL evaporator, vs the 3x8 that was installed in Aug 2012.
We have around 800 taps this year, vs about 1400 in the past.
We'll likely be tapped by the first week of February.
It always amazes me how early the syruping out East starts. We will start about the second week in March if the weather is nice.
We have been tapping since December 4th. Boiled twice on sap collected since December 11th. Got a little over 40k drilled so far, about 1/3 done.
Made 1850 gallons so far.
Where are you from Randy?
Our sap season really starts in March and our biggest runs are typically mid April. We start so early just due to having so many to tap, it takes awhile. But if you have trees tapped, and it warms up, we gotta go through the motions and collect the sap. We have now made maple syrup in 6 different months- incredible. A new spout and rigorous high vacuum are the keys.
I'll post some pictures later on of what we've been up to since last year.
we are located in north central Wisconsin we only put out 25 to 30 taps just enough for our own needs but I sure like seeing your operation.
We've finally got some snow in this area! However, it's not very much, maybe 6 inches on the flats, and of course there's always snowdrifts!
Nothing starts locally for the small guys until March. But I would imagine it's been underway to tap or whatever needs getting ready on the big operations on crown land. As far as sap flow goes, I wouldn't think much has started yet up here. Never been mild for long enough to make stuff move. Some guys do a lot more than just syrup.
Mr. Hargrove told me last spring, a gale force wind or an ice storm may not bother some, but for me it's one more thing to stress about. :D
We've got the new spiles installed, and preliminary tubing system maintenance done. We'll see what falls on the lines and what the squirrels chew up in the next few weeks. We're looking to tap the end of the 1st week of February. There have been runs the middle of February the last few years and then it's done until the meat and potatoes of the season in mid March. Don't want to miss the potential 50-100 gallons of golden delicate ;D ;D
Put a few taps in today and the sap is flowing in North Carolina.
We're planning on tapping next weekend, the 10-11, it'll be around 800 taps!
We'll be about 600 taps shy of the past few years, due to the crew splitting.
We have an RO and a new CDL 2x8 evaporator.
Our taps are all 5/16", and 3/4" mainlines!
Incoming photo dump...
We're rolling along. Got 100k tapped, we'll finish up in Eden this week. Then a week in Cabot, and a week to finish up our summer install and get it tapped. Looks like some sap weather end of next week for us. Been a busy winter, we're a bit short handed, looking like I'll tap the most trees I ever have this year. I did 4100 last week, on 4.5 days 😮 we got a solid crust, staying on top and legs are strong.
Edit, guess I gotta look into posting pictures again, got them in my gallery but haven't figured out the new way with the forum changes.
Looking forward to it.
If you upload to the gallery, then click on the photo you get a page with that photo and a string of code under it, 3 ways of posting it. Click one, copy and paste into post. Easiest to keep the gallery open in a new tab. You can also just attach the image now as long as it is resized, that will stay with the post and won't be in your gallery.
Or just drag and drop.
IMG_4357~0.jpg
hmmmmm,
I'm cutting hard maple now and if I was quicker I would have gotten a pic of a big one the sap was pouring out. I couldn't believe how much as it is early but very warm. It was a big tree so I had to double cut it. I cut the first side and when I started driving around I could see the sap dripping.
Not much above freezing here. I would say that sap is still kinda froze.
But did see where someone plowed out the place for the tank..
Tapped half yesterday here in NW Ohio. Got a gallon a tap this evening. On buckets. maybe we shoulda tapped em all but warm comin this week. Then colder again. Maybe we ain't gonna be all right be we ain't gonna be all wrong either 😂 pretty early start for around here
Nothing running here yet, gets too cold at night and no 40's during the day here, not even 30°F. 20° night time to 40°F day time is the window of good sap here. It ain't happening yet.
We will do our first cook today yesterdays high was 52 so sap ran well we only have 35 taps out and hope to make around 25 pints that will be enough for our needs. What a winter this the earliest tapping I can remember in my 75 years get out and enjoy the sun shin. Randy
Well it is a weird winter. I will float the bobcat over and open up the bush this week. I see warm for the next week, not great sap weather. We have traditionally been end of march and 1st of April for the real runs. To set up our vacuum this early means lots of freezing protection running for 2 months.
About 300 miles to east of here is a 5 foot deep blizzard happening. :uhoh2:
I'll be tapping tomorrow here in NW Ohio. Might have missed out on some good sap flows as it's been pretty mild lately. Rather odd for this time of year in this area.
I'd like to asks the people that know what is the best sanitizer to use to clean my buckets, taps, poly tubing, etc, etc? I hang 5 gallon food grade buckets on stainless taps with a short length of poly tubing poked through a tight hole in the lid of the bucket.
(tried adding a picture but I can't figure out how now)
I've used a little dawn dishwashing liquid and bleach to clean everything but it takes a lot of rinsing to make sure I don't have any residual smell and I'd hate to have off taste syrup because of that.
Your thoughts and advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Brent
I will not use bleach or Dawn for cleaning. It is too hard to rinse. I use hot water and maybe a tiny amount of dish washer non sudsy soap. I try not to use soap at all. Cleaning promptly at the end of the season makes start up cleaning much easier.
Do not use bleach squirells are attracted to it. Nothing is the best option we pull our taps with the vacuum on and keep a regular tubing replacement schedule.
Sorry just read your post more thorougly For buckets and stuff if you want to sanitize maybe starsan? Should be able to find at any brewery supply store. Or just hot water it does get boiled after all.
We went to the sugarhouse yesterday and got the RO ready to go, connected delivery lines into the sugarhouse and the line connected to the feeder tank, then just regular cleanup.
We were going to tap today, but I've been laid up with sciatica for about 4 days. pushed through it yesterday, but it's not going to happen today!
Don't push it too hard with that sciatica. I've had that for 3 weeks before. smiley_thumbsdown
Quote from: Plankton on February 06, 2024, 07:19:36 PMDo not use bleach squirells are attracted to it. Nothing is the best option we pull our taps with the vacuum on and keep a regular tubing replacement schedule.
Sorry just read your post more thorougly For buckets and stuff if you want to sanitize maybe starsan? Should be able to find at any brewery supply store. Or just hot water it does get boiled after all.
Good info to have, thank you. I saw something once about a sanitizer used in the milk house on dairy farms but not sure exactly what it was. No big deal. I got it all cleaned up, trees tapped and sap is flowing heavy..
Thanks for the info,
Brent
peracetic acid is one used in the dairy industry. May have different brand names.
So I tapped 20 tree's last Tuesday afternoon. On Wednesday afternoon I went to the woods to check on my buckets and pulled 45 gallons. On Thursday afternoon I got 25 gallons. Got way to warm the past few days. Ran the 70 gallons through my RO and took out 50% of the water. What a great time saver that is. I'm almost finished with my first boil.
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Brent
When at the hardware store we had 2-3 different cleaners for milk rooms.
Has to be something in your area.
Some maple producers would come in and buy it from us.
Quote from: DbltreeBelgians on February 05, 2024, 09:55:45 PMI'll be tapping tomorrow here in NW Ohio. Might have missed out on some good sap flows as it's been pretty mild lately. Rather odd for this time of year in this area.
I'd like to asks the people that know what is the best sanitizer to use to clean my buckets, taps, poly tubing, etc, etc? I hang 5 gallon food grade buckets on stainless taps with a short length of poly tubing poked through a tight hole in the lid of the bucket.
(tried adding a picture but I can't figure out how now)
I've used a little dawn dishwashing liquid and bleach to clean everything but it takes a lot of rinsing to make sure I don't have any residual smell and I'd hate to have off taste syrup because of that.
Your thoughts and advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Brent I was told a long time ago to never use soap on any sap equipment. I have always used a very small amount of bleach and a scrub brush for the buckets and just soak to small lines in the barrel. ( 1-2 cap fulls in a 45 gallon barrel, amount of bleach) This is the 1st year all we ran thru our lines was water . We normally used Alcohol to sanitze the drops and stopped that this year. I notice walking the bush last week that no mold in any lines so it must work.
We don't allow ANY soap in our sugarhouse.
As far as sap and/or syrup goes, it can easily be cleaned up just using warm or hot water.
Looks like we're taking the boiling part off, this season.
I'm still limited with the sciatica issue, and my brothers wife fell and cracked her right humerus near the shoulder.
We're tapped and still going to gather, my brother worked out a deal with another brother (he has a sugaring setup) to boil on halves.
We gather, he boils.
Hope next season is better!
Probably her Humerus near the shoulder or Femur near the hip? :huh?
Thanks for the heads up Lynn, fixed the post!
My mistake, it is the HUMERUS, right at the point where it starts to round out at the top to form the ball.
Sometime it is humorous (pun intended) chuckling at us old farts stumbling over simple stuff. ffcool
Sorry for sidetracking this thread, but here is the only place I've mentioned the problem.
I do believe that I'm "on the mend" with my sciatica attack!
I start PT at the clinic on Monday, that'll help a lot, or so they say!
I've been doing the stretches that the ER Doc suggested, and my last muscle relaxer ( 500 mg Methocarbamol) pill is going down at 4:00 today, script was 1 pill, 3 times a day for 5 days!
I'm feeling well enough that I went out and plowed 4 driveways with my JD 1023E this morning.
Glad your coming along with the sciatica. Muscle relaxers and steroids never did a thing for me. I've had it 3 times bad over the last 15 years. Seems to get worst each bought. Oh well, we're a tough lot. Gotta keep moving. Just came in from kick sledding 3 miles. :D
Mine started getting bad on the 7th and there's still a little discomfort once in a while, but mostly gone!
ER visits on the 9th and 11th.
Therapy starts tomorrow afternoon!
I was looking for a forum to join for sugaring and this one popped up. Didn't realize there was a yearly thread.
This is my 1st time sugaring. My daughter house has ~10 large red maple. smallest I tapped was ~24" diameter. All trees but 1 have 2 taps. I tapped 7 holes on feb 3rd. They were flowing immediately. I got ~3 gallons overnight from everything. and have got pretty much nothing since. I tapped 5 more Feb 11th and 7 more on the 15th. so I have 19 taps now. granted it got warmish here. (SW ohio) We got some snow and ice this past friday and it been 20s and 40's the last 2 or 3 days and I don't think I got half a gallon. My buddy has a couple trees he has been tapping for 3 years. He has 7 taps and got 25 to 30 gallons this weekend. he is about 40 miles north from my trees. we both use 5/16 spiles and tubing that gravity feeds to a bucket below. I read to drill 1.5" deep into the tree, which I did, but he says he goes about 3" to 4". I'm also about 5 feet off the ground he thinks i'm too far up but i can't find anything to support what he says for either. it was low 20s last night and is 39 as I type this at my trees location. I thought with it being in the 50 the last week or so that it was the reason, but with him getting that much and I got nothing now I'm kind of confused. I will see tonight....
my location and my buddy and his trees are both near oxford ohio. My trees are in Blanchester Ohio, about 40 miles south east of me.
thanks for any feedback guys
Welcome to the Maple Syrup 2024 thread
@BeeBazaar!
Lots of good info in these type threads!
Welcome to the FF Beebazzar, 1.5" is plenty deep enough. Are you on the sunny side of the trees? Your trees could be bigger and have not thawed out yet.
On my side I floated the bobcat in today and opened up the yard and down to the pad where we place the tanks. Pretty warm today and going to rain tonight, then Friday night it's going down -4 F. Pretty darn cold considering its 45F here today. No sure what kind of season we will have. our normal season is the end of March and 1st of April.
I did it on a small scale too, maybe 20 taps. If the tree did not produce sap, I moved onto the next tree.
We had a lot of fun doing it.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10436/4maple2014.JPG)
This is a small scale boiling operation.
I would get the sap up to about 214° than the wife would take it into the house and finish it off. Bring it up to 218° maybe.
Most times we would not even finish off a quart in the house. Only took a few minutes to do it. Then into the canning jars.
Always did a small bunch with grandfather up on his ridge. Got in by skidoo. Live boiled it in an old drum over a fire to get most of the water out, then finished off on a wood fired cook stove. Only did enough for a fresh supply, he gave a lot away. Grandfather was different, only ate it while it was in season. Same with fiddle heads in the spring. After the season was done didn't care for any more. :uhoh: Used to tap the yard trees a little at the house here. Dad's uncles said the maples down on the lower elevation of the farm never made much sap. There was about 35 acres of sugar maple down there. Not wet ground, just not a ridge and also a lot of balsam fir undergrowth all through it. Dad never got into it much other than a bottle or two because we had lots to do on the farm already. When he wasn't tending cows and selling potatoes he was cutting wood. So who had time? :D Keep in mind a generation ago it wasn't a commercial enterprise. Not in these parts. Government and lobby helped make it what it has become. Government was helping find ways to generate income off woodlots other than wood.
We set up the vacuum pump yesterday, had to trouble shoot the check valves and replace. Tapped 140 taps , put it on vacuum and only 5in of vacuum. So walk the lines next warm day to find the leaks.
We gathered sap yesterday afternoon and got around 300 gallons from our 900+ taps!
Jack delivered it to the other sugarhouse for boiling!
Some sap has been coming in last few days getting ready for what should be a 3 day run starting monday.
We gathered again this afternoon and got about 125 gallons! Now we have a freeze-up coming tonight, lasting about 3 days!
I think it should start moving this coming week, looks like 30's and 40's all week except 20's on Thursday and Friday then warmer on the weekend.
We finally got the 15" of vacuum which is prettier good for our guzzler pump. Sap flowed real nice yesterday and we fixed a few leaks, squirrel chews. We ended up with 100 gallons of sap by freeze up. Looks like a we will see a run the 1st of the next week. We will get the evaporator set up tomorrow and be ready to boil on Monday Tuesday.
Last few years I boiled a gallon but ended up emptying some buckets without boiling them because of timing/scheduling. Going small this year: 8 trees, 8 taps, 8 5-gal buckets, but making an effort to boil more frequently and not waste any sap. Hopefully will still get a gallon, we'll see!
Pulled 90 gallons of sap from 20 taps over the last 3 days. Got a good boil going on right now and I'm pounding through the sap concentrate. I'm on the last 10 gallons of sap running through the RO system and I'll be done for a short while ffcool
Brent
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Brent , the boil looks great. what kind of RO are you running.
Good morning
@Stephen1 its the components from Carl at the RO Bucket. It's been a great time saver and I've had very little issue with it. If I have any questions or concerns I email him and he replies within minutes. Can't beat that!!
Brent
Gathered another 60 gallons yesterday, it warmed up the night before and pretty-much shut the run down.
A little over 800 gallons of sap so far!
No one gathering around here yet. Too cold this morning for sure, down in the teens here now. Was 9° two hrs ago.
We've been boiling for 2 days now. We had. good run. 1st time we have ever boiled on Feb 29 ffcool
Finally got all the taps in and main lines tight, I still don't have a count of taps. Maybe Rita can get a count if she doesn't forget ffcheesy. I now have to get the evaporator set up and build the reverse osmosis. I hope we didn't tap just to hit the close of the season.
I have concentrated sap from RO waiting to boil but I'm sitting in a waiting room at our hospital waiting for my first grandchild to be born.
Weather is so wishy washy I figure I'll probably pull taps this coming week. Calling for 70° in a few days. Looks like I'm done.
Brent
WOW! Hey, congratulations Brent! Hope all comes out well and mother and child are doing ok. I hope the poppa is OK too!. ffcool ffcool
SUGGESTION: Don't let sap that has been processed through the RO sit around more than two days before boiling it!
When RO'd sap sits to long, bacteria will grow and most likely your evaporator will do a huge boil-over!
If RO'd sap has been sitting around very long, boil raw sap first and slowly add the RO'd sap.
If the RO'd sap has been kept "near the freezing point" you might not have a problem with boil-over!
Thank you for the kind words Tom and thank you Chuck for the advice on the RO concentrate. Maybe I'll just have to dump it as much as I hate too. It's only 30 gallons of concentrate. My loss but my daughter is priority #1
Brent
Congratulations Brent to everyone on the new addition the family!
Chuck , you're saying the bacteria causes more of a boil over? Would that also affect sap that has sat for a day or two?
Brent and Stephen;
If in doubt, just blend the concentrated sap with raw sap, no need to throw it out!
We had a concentrate "almost" boil over a couple of years ago, it just kept rising, kind looked like a giant loaf of bread coming up!
We handled it and kept it from boiling over by following 3 Steps: 1. Close the draft door! 2. Open the feed door! This will put cool air against the bottom of the pans! 3. We ended up pouring pail after pail of water directly into the back pan, total about 55 gallons.
If you can do it safely, when the feed doors are open, take a shovel and remove as much fire as you can, we did, and just threw it out the door!
We cautiously resumed boiling after things calmed down! We even salvaged the thrown out firewood!
Thank you
@Stephen1 she finally arrived last night around 10:00pm.
Also thank you
@Chuck White for the advice. I was about to send you a message but Stephen must've been on the same wave link as me and you answered the question for both of us. I went to the woods this morning and brought back about 50ish gallons of sap and pulled the taps. Getting way too warm. Had several 5 gallon buckets I dumped. Nasty yellow cloudy and mildew in buckets. Mostly on South side of trees where sun was getting to them. I'll finish boiling after I get back from seeing my newborn granddaughter at the hospital.
Thank you for all the great advice and I hope your syrup is as sweet as I've made this year.
Brent
Been getting some decent runs last few days. Really opened up last night and today! We have one section with 800 taps we did a fresh install this fall on that has been pretty much full pipe into the releaser since 8 ish this morning when the sun came out. Also forecast has changed here to have some freezes later this week so hopefully season wont end as fast as it started been another unusual sugar season here in w. Mass.
Congratulations Brent, on the new arrival!
Gathered another 192 gallons last evening, it broke loose the night before!
With this sort of weather, no telling how long it will last!
I noticed that the neighbor put up his sap buckets yesterday afternoon.
Congratulations Brent on your new Granddaughter, my son and grandkids came on Saturday the 2nd and they tap our trees on Sunday I think maybe 280. It ran on the ground during that day and over night, I plugged the tanks and late yesterday we had 100 gal today I'm going to show my son how to put the connections' and auto draw off together on the pans and start boiling. Hopefully we don't pull the tap on Saturday.
Due to a warm stretch, there was no sap yesterday or the day before!
We hope that today is different, we had a freeze-up last night!
We did gather 60 gallons yesterday, looks like there should be a good amount today!
We just keep gathering and have been boiling since Monday. slowed down to today in the rain and tomorrow is going below freezing all day. So we should get a day or two off.
We bought an RO and are working at getting it set up.
I hope I can it get it working for Monday run.
We decided not to gather today, due to the high-wind warnings we're getting on the news.
Leaving the sap in the barrels will help hold the barrels in place! :thumbsup:
finished pumping up the last of the Sap yesterday and will boil it down today .Fixed a bunch of branches down on the lines from the wind.
I will keep setting up the RO. We need to build an insulated box for it as our barn is only heated by us with a wood stove and the evaporator.
Went down and gathered sap this morning, we got just about 160 gallons.
It has been a nasty day here, started out with misty rain, then it turned to a mix with snow, now it's just snow!
The weather broke and so did the sap. We pulled in 100 gallons of sap every 4 hrs yesterday, was waiting for amazon to deliver some 3/8" fittings for the RO,
Hoping to get the RO running this morning.
Sap ran all night and almost all our tanks are full.
Looking like 2 more weeks of good sugar weather here if the forcast holds. Ran for 7 days and 6 nights last week! Never froze but we got a good freeze sunday and monday reset the trees. We just hit half crop with todays boil so not looking like a record breaking year.
I haven't seen the first boil here yet. Can't be running too much.
We gathered another 260 gallons yesterday afternoon.
It's really been a screwy year, sometimes sap runs daily and sometimes not run for three days!
Won't last much longer!
I did see the neighbor boil some early this morning when I was walking up the road.
We tapped 160 buckets on Feb 23rd. As of last night we had collected over 800 gallons, with 185 of that on Tuesday. I've been boiling steady for 2 days and I'm still 2 days behind.
Home made 20"x 65" drop flue, no RO. Days like today an RO seems like a good idea. What one did you buy Stephen?
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/63722/F6612144-B0CF-4CE8-A7E8-0CBB83C78FF5.jpeg) (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=352935)
Nice looking evaporator, Eddie!
Especially being home-made, you've done a really nice job making that!
Nothing wrong with that. I have a neighbor who made an evaporative pan a few years ago. Actually two, one for his brother to. That was after he sold one not long before that, one he never made. I think he had a brain fart, because he sold off some other stuff to. Then all the sudden he wanted to do syrup again. ffcheesy Neither one of them have much for maple trees. The brother bought a piece of land with maple on it for cheap. Trouble is it's all red maple. He found out that red maple don't run too good. He has one red maple in among a little sugar maple grove and he said it doesn't produce much. But some stands of sugar maple don't either.
After taking 3 seasons off, while selling down my stock I'm finally getting back into syrup production. I sold my 3x8 and much of everything that went to supporting it, while keeping my 2x6 propane finisher, my WJ bottler and the filter press (everything to re-filter, and pack syrup).
I just sent a deposit to buy a 2x6 evaporator, it will be oil fired. The 4 evaporators in my past were all wood fired, at my age I think it's time to go with oil.
I do have a Deer Run 250 RO but I'm now thinking I might be better off with an RO that's able to get better than 8% one pass and 12% in 2 passes. I don't really need a much bigger capacity but on pass to 16-18% might be best, to save some oil. What do some of you suggest?
I'll have a hood, new head tank, new draw off tank and an auto draw, all of which I foolishly sold with my 3x8. I still have, in my bush, most of the mainline I'll need, but I'll be putting in all new laterals. I'm going to use an old Alamo vane pump, but I'll be increasing the oil flow to get higher vacuum, it last run at 20", I'll try to get 25".
My plans are to put in 200-300 taps for 2025, maybe I'll grow to about 425 the next year, which is about the max possible without hauling sap from remote areas. I don't want to get back into hauling sap. I'm 77 now and will be 78 in a few months, all before the 2025 season, and I work solo, but my wife has volunteered to help with the boiling, but not help tap. I do still have one grandson who does help at times, buy he's in so many sports that he's not available for much of the time, he's now 15, great help but limited availability.
Quote from: SwampDonkey on March 14, 2024, 03:43:29 PMNothing wrong with that. I have a neighbor who made an evaporative pan a few years ago. Actually two, one for his brother to. That was after he sold one not long before that, one he never made. I think he had a brain fart, because he sold off some other stuff to. Then all the sudden he wanted to do syrup again. ffcheesy Neither one of them have much for maple trees. The brother bought a piece of land with maple on it for cheap. Trouble is it's all red maple. He found out that red maple don't run too good. He has one red maple in among a little sugar maple grove and he said it doesn't produce much. But some stands of sugar maple don't either.
SD:
Concerning your last sentence, do you have any idea what the soil conditions are where these trees are?
The reason I ask is I had an old time sugar maker one time say that trees growing in sandy or gravelly soil were good for one good run per season.
Has anyone else heard of this or have experienced it?
GAB
Quote from: GAB on March 14, 2024, 09:34:41 PMQuote from: SwampDonkey on March 14, 2024, 03:43:29 PMNothing wrong with that. I have a neighbor who made an evaporative pan a few years ago. Actually two, one for his brother to. That was after he sold one not long before that, one he never made. I think he had a brain fart, because he sold off some other stuff to. Then all the sudden he wanted to do syrup again. ffcheesy Neither one of them have much for maple trees. The brother bought a piece of land with maple on it for cheap. Trouble is it's all red maple. He found out that red maple don't run too good. He has one red maple in among a little sugar maple grove and he said it doesn't produce much. But some stands of sugar maple don't either.
SD:
Concerning your last sentence, do you have any idea what the soil conditions are where these trees are?
The reason I ask is I had an old time sugar maker one time say that trees growing in sandy or gravelly soil were good for one good run per season.
Has anyone else heard of this or have experienced it?
GAB
Don't tell my trees that. My bush is on a glacial esker. All sand and gravel. We usually get about 6 weeks of runs a season. I tap 3 reds. All the rest are sugars. Pulled the taps on the reds this week as they are budding out. Nary a bud to be seen on the sugars.
Aspect and elevation has more to do with it. My cousin abandoned one grove the last 3 years on a north facing slope. The soil is like dark brown garden soil around here under maples. Classed as sandy clay loam on top of calcareous shale. Another grove on lower elevation, lots of fir undergrowth, was not a good producer according to dad's uncles. That stand was cut and sold for logs 30 years ago now. Still like garden soil under them. Lots of sugar bushes here are on glaciated thin soil with sand and rock not too far down and rocks on the surface. They are out beyond settlements, abandoned settlements or on the edges. High ridges.
IMO the biggest factor for sap volume is competition from other trees and crown size. Soil affects the flavour. Not so much the amount of sap.
And weather of course.
Larger trees tend to provide more sap over a season, but can take a few days to get going after a cold spell. The younger trees are more eager to get going, but give up sooner too. Kinda like people that way ;)
After years of putting it off we bought the RB25 from the RObucket company out of New York. It is 1/3rd the price of the other syrup producers RO systems. There is a guy in Almer Ontario, that is importing and selling them.
In 2 days we have process 600 gallons of sap. It takes our sap from 2.5% to 5% taking out 1/2 the water in 1 pass. it came as a kit and we have installed it in a cabinet on the wall with heating in it as we have no heat in our sugar house or running water. We now have lots of water and are using 1/2 the firewood. The next thing we noticed is the syrup is coming off the evaporator at 2x the speed.
It is a game changer that we should have got years ago. we have 330 taps on vacuum that is finally working to it's capacity.
Goes without saying crown size affects sap. But seen site influence it to, it affects growth after all. One of many factors.
We had a woods of all sugar maples that were on the smaller side (12"-17"). Very high sand and gravel unlike most woods around here that are in the wettest part of the farm. We tapped the woods every other year. I thought we just tapped them small trees on the wrong years but a very experienced sugar maker here said it never produced much sap was cause the high and dry ground. The other wetter laying woods always out produced that woods. I gave up on that woods. It's a shame to cause it's ALL sugar maple and never slopped in the mud and very open and easy to get around in. You all saying I should give that woods another chance?
Everybody around here is boiling. :thumbsup:
Best of luck all.
I would give them a chance for sure. Ive worked at a lot of different outfits from medium sized (3k taps) to large (28-30k taps) with trees in all sort of different site exposures locations soils elevations and states etc.They all made syrup.
That being said there are definitly sites that have better soil and exposure for maples that seem to run a little sweeter and slightly longer. Better site conditions make for healthier trees so in the end more sap I would think.
Did some tapping a few years back for a guy with 8k taps on a north facing cliff that was all rocks and streams and he was averaging 1/2 gal per tap.
If the tree's getting water (meaning it's alive) you should get sap!
The amount might be less because of location, but you should get sap!
We are up to 145 litres of syrup. Another small run today will happen and then we are back to winter all week with lows in the mid teens and highs still below freezing all week.
Maple syrup is like wine, every bush has a slightly different taste, caused by soil, weather, trees, red or sugar maple, how its boiled and collected. Probably more noticeable in smaller bush, as it would be more site specific. these big operations with 100k taps are spread over such a huge area that it would not be a noticeable.
Cousin says it's not running enough to bother with so far. I saw the neighor run one boil, but he's not getting much either.
This time of year there is usually 4-6 feet of wind drifted snow up against by north line. Might be 4".
Ohio Logger, do you have a forester your friend's with? Could be that 12" -17" wood's needs to be trimmed some. My whole 10 acres is timber logs, no branches for 30' to 50'. I got with my forester and we decided to log the woods so that the tops weren't close to each other. It's really hard to cut hard maples when that's all you have for extra income. Rita an I did the logging in 2022 and some of the trees are starting to grow new branches already. My soil is gravel, rocks and stones over ledge.
Y'all have a great day.
The weather turned cold yesterday, with on-and-off snow showers, and snowed through half of the night. Got up this morning to 20 degrees and about 3 inches of snow!
Maybe the Sugaring Season will gain a few days.
Been wet snow in the air for 3 days here and looks like 2 more. The snow is a little drier today because it's still only 30F, but very light and doesn't add up to anything. Colder weekend, not above freezing. If the weather is like this all summer, it'll never dry out. Just keeps churning and swirling out there. :D
@SwampDonkey I am down in the Norton area just outside Sussex. I only have 25 taps this year produced about 125 Gallons of sap so far, all collected from about Mar 6 to the 15th. Hasn't really run since Saturday. I almost feel like the run is over in my area, located on a side hill with shallow dry soil (24-30"). The best production was in the areas that hold surface run off. Temps are looking like they will only be around freezing here for the next week or so....so i guess we will see. Its been a great winter for cutting firewood ffsmiley.
Pretty decent collection on 25 taps. :thumbsup:
We've had a warm spell here for a while, when that started we pulled all of the lines out of the barrels, assuming that was the end of sugaring 2024.
It got real cold yesterday and this morning we had just 2 degrees and it warmed up to 35 degrees this afternoon, so we put the lines back in the barrels, since the forecast for the coming week is up in the mid 50's, and we're hoping for at least one more good run before it's over!
Wow, that's a cold dip. We were predicted to get there this morning, but the gauge says 18°F here. Suppose to be in the upper 30's this afternoon. I haven't seen 50's all month and none showing in the week ahead. Suppose to be snow/rain mix here for most of the week. It was like that 4 days last week, then the big snow bomb.
Well, our "expected run" didn't amount to much, so we just proceeded to pull the lines out of the barrels again and haul the barrels to the sugarhouse for cleaning and storage!
We'll go up again this morning and flush the lines and sanitize the spouts, after that we're done for the season!
We got a little over 1/3 of the taps and mainlines done today, we'll give it another try on Saturday and will probably finish!
On a happy note, being a no-boiling year for us, we've already got next years firewood sitting in the woodshed! :thumbsup:
We dropped to below freezing for 8 days, Winter was back with a vengeance, a week ago and then we went above freezing last Monday, gushed for 3 days and then we had a couple of good days and more sap. It finally slowed down last night and we have caught up, only just above freezing here today so a very slow run. Looks good for the next 3 days and then we should be done. We are over 200 litres, (close to a quart) for my southern friends. We are still boiling today and will empty and clean the evaporator tonight, and are guessing we have 40 liners in the pans.
We finished up with the sap lines yesterday about mid-afternoon.
In a few days they should be airdried enough to go back and put the spouts in their appropriate cups until maple 2025 season.
Our production is less than 1/3 of our normal, good thing we are not dependent on the market!
Can't help but wonder how
@celliott is doing, over in Vermont!
They are a very large outfit, but I do believe "everyone" is down in production this year due to the whacky weather!
I haven't seen anyone mention it yet so I have to ask: What you you sugar guys seeing for sugar concentrations in your sap this year as compared to in the past? I don't not collect and boil, but there is a branch of my family in VT that has done so for 4 generations and it is still part of some family incomes. I won't be able to sit and talk with them about it until July or so.
I keep a very close eye on the winter weather and trends because it affects many mushroom logging and when I can cut. This year has been terrible for me and all I could think was with the lack of any long-term hard freezes in most areas, this had to be a terrible year for the sugar folks and I am wondering if sugar content in the sap that was collected was also lower quality, meaning more boiling and RO work?
They didn't have RO's back in the 30's and 40's and they (my family) still used wood, then galvanized buckets, A big wood tank mounted on a sledge with a pair of horses to pull it. They had no plastic spiles, or tubing or vacuum lines. I wonder if a season like this might have put them out of business.
I don't know why, but it's been on my mind the last 2 months. I hope y'all come through this OK, and yeah, Celliott has been on my mind too.
We have only sap lines, no buckets!
Our lines are all gravity flow, no vacuum, so from end to end each line is on a long slant with the line going into a plastic barrel at the lower end!
Surprisingly the sugar content was good this season, our highest was 2.3 and the lowest was 1.6 percent!
It has been a very funky season here really warm. We have been tight all season and the lowest our sugar got was 1.5 late february i think. It ran for 7 days and 8 nights non stop so the sugar was bound to drop. Were back up to 1.7 and clear sap still making amber rich syrup. Started at 2 for the first few weeks.
Thought this would be a good place to share my U.P. neighbor's sugarbush. The lumber was sawn out on my mill this last year out of trees cut down by the powerline company 2 years ago that crosses our properties. Also other reclaimed parts to make a nice shelter.
The evaporator came from
@upnut who sold it to Gary a year ago. ffsmiley
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/1000024472.jpg) (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=353268)
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Jeff
Looks like a good time with a neighbor.
Reminds me of the time member nailhead (RIP) was setting up a planned visit to his sugar bush Spring 2008 in the UP.
Does my heart good to see it up and running again! Thanks for the pics....
Scott B.
Quote from: beenthere on March 31, 2024, 04:44:00 PMJeff
Looks like a good time with a neighbor.
Reminds me of the time member nailhead (RIP) was setting up a planned visit to his sugar bush Spring 2008 in the UP.
I've not been able to actually visit the sugarbush due to having been sick for 3 weeks. I seem to be over the hump, but just not right. We went up to do some cabin chores, but I let everyone up there know, i was not dragging something up to them. Deb still dared the odds and brought us a jar of syrup. :)
I had a bad one last summer, no strength at all. Had to take off 3 weeks of work.
Spring has sprung with a vengeance up here with constant wet weather events days long, but we are starting the wood shop this morning. ffcool
Have not seen much boiling going on. When you ask a hobby farmer around here if the sap is running well, you get told it's running. But running is expected no matter how rough it is, but at what output? :D Most big operators will say it's not a great year. :D Pretty sure Quebec said production is way down. That's significant because they out produce everyone else combined.
A local syrup producer taps trees on my sister's land across from me. He pulled his taps a week ago. He said he got about a half a crop. He uses tubing but hangs buckets on the trees in front of the house just because it looks nice.
We are all done, boiled the last of the sap on Monday.
The trees budded, and sap had turned and we made about 10 litres of BBQ syrup. Has a very strong taste.
I would say we had an okay year for syrup, but we added more trees to vacuum than previous years. it definitely was the earliest we had ever boiled, end of February. Actually I boiled on Feb 29, 1st time ever and the weather was beautiful, like warm April weather.
We will start wash up this Sunday, clean the lines and tanks. All our lines stay on the trees.
We flush with water and then put alcohol in each tap and seal with special caps to seal the system.
What does everyone else do with their lines?
First wagon of sap I have seen go to my cousin's sugar shack was yesterday. I've not seen a boil today yet.
Boiled everyday for the last week got a bunch of wet snow and another freeze up today. Pretty sure we wont see another good run after this though. Sap has not gone buddy and syrup flavor is still good. Tap holes are starting to dry up though.
On dealing with lines at the end of the year we pull them with the vacuum on thats it. Were not running stubbys so snip the spouts and plug into the tees nice and tight to facilitate fall vacuum walking next year.
Quote from: SwampDonkey on April 01, 2024, 04:02:31 AMHave not seen much boiling going on. When you ask a hobby farmer around here if the sap is running well, you get told it's running. But running is expected no matter how rough it is, but at what output? :D Most big operators will say it's not a great year. :D Pretty sure Quebec said production is way down. That's significant because they out produce everyone else combined.
Strategic reserve nearing empty in Quebec | Sap & Syrup | The Maple News (https://www.themaplenews.com/story/strategic-reserve-nearing-empty-in-quebec-/495/)
We were done boiling Monday. I still have pails of syrup that need final filtering and bottling and our buckets are still hanging, but it's been wet snow for two days so they can stay out a few more days. I don't have a final tally yet, but overall I think it was a decent season. Will know more when the filtering and bottling is done.
Linked Quebec report was from last November. Haven't heard how this season went yet
Last year the NB crop was down by 1 million pounds, normally 3 million pounds. A drop in the proverbial bucket as they say. Quebec buys most of the syrup we make in NB if I'm not mistaken.
While I was out of the picture this season, I'll be back for 2025. I sold my 3x8 wood fired and was working off my syrup in ss barrels. I'm now down to 3 barrels of dark and 1 barrel of Amber, all 26.5 gal barrels.
I bought and just picked up a new 2x6 raised flue evaporator, made by A&A Metal shop in Monterey, Va. this past week. If my plans are completed it will be oil fired and ready to go before the end of the year. If not it will likely be wood fired. It was bought as wood fired but I have my mind set on going to oil fired. If things prevent that from being completed, I do have a good stock of wood for one season only and likely only if I don't tap over 250 taps for 2025. My plans are to do 200-300 my first year with the new evaporator. I can cut and split enough if needed, I have several standing dead ash trees that need to come down and all are between 10" and 16" I believe. My brother also just bought a processor that goes on his skid steer, it would make short order of the initial bucking and splitting but I'd need to resplit everything to get it to wrist sized but that could also be done in a day or 2. I'll see, if I get to August and it's not looking like the oil will be a go for 2025, I'll get the wood going. Dead ash ca be fairly dry in 4+ months, maybe not perfect, but it would burn fairly well.
I forget the name of this processor, but it's a beauty. I mounts on the front arms of his big JCB skid steer and with it he can pick up a log, buck it and split it into 6 pcs an maybe 3 minutes or less. He can also run it on his Toolcat but he prefers using the JCB.
Back to me, I'm going to be , in addtition to converting to oil fired, falling and sawing enough lumber to build a 14x32 addition on the side of my 14x28 shop. Then the time to build it and get it dried in. The shop is a hip roof design, so the rafters will need to be long enough to reach from the peak of the shop to out 14' + overhang on the addition. Since my Woodland mills has a max length of 16'9" I may choose to join 2 rafters at a knee wall rather than trying to cut logs at over 20'+. I'm leaning heavily towards the knee wall approach. In fack even if I decide to wrestle with longer logs and cut the rafters long enough to go it in 1 piece, I'll still have a knee wall to support the rafters at the outside wall of the current shop. Then I'd only need rafters at just under the max of my mill, the over hang will only be about 10-12", because I want to keep a driveway back into the woods beside the addition. The walls at the far outside will only be about 6.5-7' high because I plan to continue the slope from the hip out across the addition, a 3/12 pitch it appears. When I drive the cab tractor into the addition I'd just need to keep towards the original shop wall, but that fits my plan fine. The only issue might be that my grandson, at 15 is already over 6' and his uncle is 6'7", his dad is only 6'2". He may need to wear a hardhat when in that side of the addition. We'll get it figured out, I don't have that issue, I'm only 5'6", infact I might now at 77, be down to 5'5".
Back to Syrup. I hope to get the oil conversion done and all set by early December. Before then I'll go out and decide if my existing mains are ok to use. They were last used in 2022. I know the laterals will all need replacing, but the mains were only up since 2016, some were in 2017, all were 3/4" or 1" blue maple tubing most was Leader brand. The laterals which will all be new were Leader, D&G or Lapierre. My Saddles were all the hose clamp type, but I forget the name at this time, it will come to me. I used to buy them from Homestead Maple, In Chazy, NY but I have an idea they are no longer dealers for some reason. The name DDS or something similar to that seems to ring a bell.
Along with the evaporator I also bought a 2x6 hood, a 100 gal head tank, a 20 gal draw off tank and all of the stack to get up well over the peak of my cupola, with the sugarhouse walls being 10', a 6/12 pitch roof on a 16' wide sugarhouse. I bought 18' of ss stack including the 4' base stack, it should easily be high enough. The cupola stands 36 " tall at it's peak.
You guys are killing me! Maple sugar is maybe my favorite food stuff and I didn't realize it was really a thing in Ohio, until recently.
Over this winter I saw a bucket on a tree down the way and it turns out it was my neighbor to the back. It was said there was a lot of effort for not much syrup, but I'm not positive how they really did it. I know it's a good sized tree sitting on the edge of a field, so not much competition. I asked if I could help next season, we'll see if that happens.
I also didn't realize that my neighbor across the way, that we are close with, has what appears to be a big sugar maple in their front yard. I asked about them tapping it and they said they'd never really thought about it. I'll be thinking about it for them this year...
I know I don't have any usable sugar maples in my yard but there is a "park" right down the way from me that is just forest land that I've never seen anyone in. I'd like to go in and scout the trees there. Is there a best time to identify a good sugar maple? I think I could find and tap some trees in there and make out ok, though the woods are a bit thick.