Anyone making sugar or put in any taps yet?

[SwampDonkey]

One local tree farm said this morning they have been sapping since the 20th of February. Earliest they ever tapped.

[SPIKER]

all my sap storage is full up as of today.   I put 35 gallons in cold storage till tomorrow,  getting about 1~1.5 gallon/day/tap if not more depending on the tree & tap site.   1 tap on a bag & 24" tree got 3~3.5 gal sense late sunday!

8)

mark m

[nas]

Going to tap Wed. or Thurs.  Looks like the weekend will be good 8)

Nick

[SPIKER]

took vacation day boiling all day tomorrow!

should end up with a gallon of syrup by days end...

[RSteiner]

In this corner of the world, southwest corner of New Hampshire I have been helping a friend with some of the 12,000 taps they put out.  There was a good run or two about a 10 days ago.  As of last night he has made only 400 gallons of syrup.

The nights have been too warm the last week or so for a good run.  We need nights in the 20's it's been in the 30's at night around here.

Randy

[SwampDonkey]

Been hovering around 28 F at night and 40 in the day. 55F on the south side of a building where I place my lounge chair to soak up some sun. ;D

Getting daylight at 6:30 am now and dark at 7:00 pm.  8)

[SPIKER]

ok I got some time finally to upload some pics.

tree with single tap & sap bag



several taps into 1 bucket

bucket close up

boiling the sap down & pulling off into bucket cleans & sterilizes bucket & I do this for all buckets each time I rotate the buckets into sap catching  production and into storage


closeup of the pan boiling


bridge I cross walking this day with woman


heading home looking back up creek towards the tapped trees area.


hope this helps people out!

sap flowing good today and this weekend, might end up pulling taps as already have close to 2 gallons of syrup !  that should hold me over a year or so:)
Mark M

[nas]

Pulling your taps already ??? .  I just tapped yesterday 8)

Nick

[BBTom]

I washed and sanitized all the lines on Thursday, then tapped about 250 on Friday.  I hope to finish the tapping today so I can collect sap on Sunday.  Looks like it will be a great run this week.  I am hoping that the lows will keep getting down below freezing for a while.  We will see what mother nature gives us. 

[SwampDonkey]

Went in the back yard to tap one lone tree with my portable drill. Got about 1/4" in and no more juice. :D Used to have a hand drill around here, but stuff disappears over time. Borrowed and not returned is most probable. :D

[kevinlt15]

  Yesterday I got A dairycool bulk tank (all stainless steel about 300 gal.)  for holding the sap until it is ready to cook down. Around here that is what the sapers use, ;D it should work good I have to build A stand for it and put it along side my sugar shak.

The sap isn't runin to good yet, my trees are slow to get goin the temps have been good this last week but my trees are still sleeping yet. pics will come later.

                                                                     Kevin

[SwampDonkey]

The maples are running good here, but my lone back yard yellow birch has not woke up yet. They are later to run sap. ;D

I have a few small sugar maples that the squirrels, or something, have gone around to and made tiny breaks or chews in the bark for the sap to flow. Darn things are smart.  :

Kevin, your about to get serious. :D

[thecfarm]

SPIKER,you have some snow still. Out in the open is just about bare,in my area.The woods,maybe a foot.
I noticed some trees being tapped the other day.I have no idea how it's flowing.Should be good.Below freezing at night and in the 40's during the day.The wind has been blowing some.That will slow things down.

[Engineer]

I've lived here among the maples my whole life and never made syrup, so yesterday was my first foray into syrup making at home.  My oldest son and I set 12 taps, we got used buckets from a sugarhouse that converted to plastic lines, and got an old freebie, 55-gallon drum evaporator with a couple of galvanized pans from a friend.  Set the taps about 4 yesterday afternoon, one of them was flowing so fast it was like a continuous drip, not quite a stream.  I set them all on south faces and low, about 30" off the ground.  We still have a few inches of snow left but it's supposed to be in the upper 40's all week and below 30 at night.  I've been around this stuff my whole life, I'm still trying to figure out why I've never tried it before.  The only thing I wish now is that I had more maple trees.  I can realistically only put in about 15 taps before I run out of my own trees.  Three of my taps are on little tiny maples (6-8" dia.) that are marked for removal, figured I'd get something out of them besides firewood before they get cut later this year.

Now I just have to dig out my mason jars for canning.  We're doing this on the cheap, I expect that I'll have about 2 gallons, maybe three, by the time I'm done and that will pay for everything I've bought so far and then some.  With good syrup around here at $45-$60 a gallon, and a couple of my kids who would just as soon drink the stuff like water, I think this may pay off. 

[SPIKER]

I boiled down yesterday a good bit again, but am pretty worn out as my setup is heavy on the manual labor and lite on the mechanical work.   I have been using the tractor to drive back & collect but the near 40 degrees f yesterday has really started to melt some snow.   This with 4K+ lb tractor really ruts up the yard.   I walked back at 4pm  with 5 gallon buckets (I had collected at 1 pm & got 25 or so gallons) & I hand carried 4 gallons from my 17 taps in that time & tossed it into the pan & boiled that plus all I had down to less than 5 gallons by 530PM when the fire was down and was low enough on sap volume in the pan to let the fire die down and put out what was left.   I extinguish the fire rather than let it burn out, and end up with a good bit of nice hardwood charcoal for BBQ later!

There was about 24" of snow in the woods when I first started the taps.   the tractor drug bottom on the axles on way back.   It cut a pretty decent path which iced up but the path also melted away and catches the melt making the path very mucky.   Where I boil is in a  corned under large white pines and beside the house which shades the area.   the yard still has about 6 or so inches where it is undisturbed.

I think I put my taps a little too high this year on most of them, snow may have made it seem like I was in a good spot at the time???.

Someone asked about the BAGS vs the TUBING into Buckets.    I'm starting to think that the tubing does slow the flow some as I'm getting a lot more sap from the gravity taps into bags over the restrictive tubing into the buckets. 

I have not got a good method of draining yet I did like suggested cut corner of bag & rotate around the tap & pour into the bucket.   This works but getting the sap into the bucket I'm loosing some sap & getting more bark floaties in the buckets...

Not boiling today going to collect it later and store it until Monday and get the fire ready for monday as well.

heading out to do that about 330 or 4 pm probably
Mark M

[evergreen]

what causes sap to turn brown? i have a couple of trees that are giving me brown sap rather then the clear i get from the rest. it is rainy and in the 40's days 30's at night sap not running well right now

[SwampDonkey]

If it's cloudy, then it's bacteria. But when it goes cloudy in my experience it's like the color of 2-in-1 epoxy when stirred. Maybe the sap is touching a rotten compartment in the wood to make it brown or some type of extractive or mineral if the sapwood is real narrow. Probably what is likely happening is stem flow from the rain running down the bark, dripping off limbs. Is the sap pale covered and the lip of the pale not tight to the tree bark? Assuming your not using pipeline. You can get a lot of stem flow from a large tree in rain.

[BBTom]

I've made a little over 50 gallon of syrup so far this year, will make another 20 gallon or so today.

We need some freezing at night, and the weatherman is not cooperating.  I can just hope that the trees don't start to bud before the temps drop again.

Good luck to all!

[SwampDonkey]

mis-typed "stem slow", should be "stem flow".

[evergreen]

it must be flow off of the tree, it has been rainy and wet for the last week. i have a jug on this tree and rain could be following the bark down, the other one though is tubed into a jug on the ground and the tube is tight. i suppose that the rain could be following the tube down. it just seemed strange that i only have two trees doing this. the sap isn't cloudy just colored.
the weatherman better watch out his getting on my bad side with this nasty weather lol

[LAZERDAN]

To warm, the sap has not run all week, 55 degrees SW WI.
We have made a concrete block boiler, works okay.
Does anyone have pictures of smaller 55gallon-ish boilers that they have made or bought or any other tips or suggestions?
We can not afford a professional arch, any pictures would be appreciated.
Should the fire lick the bottom of the boiling pan or should it sit on some sort of boiler plate?


Thanks, LazerDan 

[evergreen]

i would also be interested in any ideas on making a boiler.or any such info thanks

[Brad_S.]

I picked up this one from an oil bunker a few years ago but haven't had time to use it. The door and the smoke stack vent are from one of those barrel stove kits. The pan is the only thing you would have to fabricate.

[kevinlt15]

Hi all

It has been warm all week with no freezing nights so the sap is   sloooowly running thurs.  I got  35 gallons over 4 days(I like 50per day), not so good next week is looking bad too.

What I use to boil sap in is A wood stove I got from A friend (free) ;D A piece of stainless I got off A job dumpster(free) ;D had it bent into and weldedup for A pan. Once I got the pan back Icut the top of the stove off,welded A new top on so the pan would fit snugly. Sothe top had to widen out A bit now the flames do lick the bottom of the pan.it boils nicely once I giter ripen hot. It takes time get to get set up when on A budget.

  Gettin tired of this week long rain/fog storm.


                                                                        all for now KEVIN

[LAZERDAN]

Thanks guys for your replys     Brad   That looks great.  how did you attach the fire brick??  where does the smoke exit,can't quite see from the pic.   No sap today, very warm and heavy rain.  8" of snow last night nothin but the dirty piles left this mornin.   Now for the mud  O well  thanks   Lazerdan