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Maple Syrup 2018

Started by Chuck White, January 29, 2018, 08:49:03 PM

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bill m

The wire, conduit, and distance is not a problem. The problem is all the obstacles to run the conduit under. A concrete set of steps, 6 foot high retaining wall, another set of large stone stairs and a blacktop road. For under 300 taps payback would take a very long time
NH tc55da Metavic 4x4 trailer Stihl and Husky saws

Corley5

230 gallons plus a bit.  We had two odd jars that came out of the farm house.  One is a Del Monte and the other an old apple sauce jar.  Both accepted regular lids and rings and sealed but aren't standard size.  They're personal syrup ;) ;D  So we're 230 gallons plus a half gallon or so.  Supposed to be in the twenties Wednesday night and we've got lots of snow in the bush so I'm thinking it may do something Thursday.  It may freeze Friday and Saturday nights too but not as hard.  I'd like to see 250 gallons for the season.  I'm also ready to do something else now ;D
Burnt Gunpowder is the Smell Of Freedom

maple flats

Corley5, Be careful filling too many pints, while I usually sell 250-300 gal of syrup a year I only sell about 10-12 pints a year. Maybe your market for pints is better.
From home and the sugarhouse half gal are my best sellers, followed by qts, then gal and finally the pints. For my online sales it's HG, then QT, then I think I did sell 2 pts at Christmas time, I do not ship gal because 2 HG ship much cheaper in a Med Flat rate USPS box.
Just keep these in mind.
Finally, by far my best seller has turned out to be bourbon barrel aged maple syrup, PM me if you want to learn a little about that. For every batch so far I've used Very Dark syrup to fill the barrel for aging. Right now I have 2 ten gal barrels aging.
logging small time for years but just learning how,  2012 36 HP Mahindra tractor, 3point log arch, 8000# class excavator, lifts 2500# and sets logs on mill precisely where needed, Woodland Mills HM130Max , maple syrup a hobby that consumes my time. looking to learn blacksmithing.

Corley5

  Quarts are what we've sold the most of but we've just started.  We've got 80 gallons bottled up in mostly quarts with some wholes, halves and pints.  Way back when we did this when I was a kid quarts were what sold.  Mom would take orders for pints before season, we never stocked any, and we never did halves or gallons.  We've got 10 15 gallons barrels full too.  We'll see how this batch sells before we get rid of this as bulk.  It's all Amber Rich.  I can see the possibility of a water jacketed bottler in our future.
  26 tonight, 32 tomorrow night, 29 and 28 Friday and Saturday nights.  Seventies possible for highs next week.
Burnt Gunpowder is the Smell Of Freedom

Corley5

  One of Zach's teacher bought a gallon and he shipped it to his brother in NM.  The shipping was almost as much as the jug of syrup.  We'll surely keep the flat rate boxes in mind and let clients know as well :) 8) :) 8) 
Burnt Gunpowder is the Smell Of Freedom

Corley5

I've got distilling in mind.  I think maple rum would be good ;) ;D
Burnt Gunpowder is the Smell Of Freedom

Chuck White

FYI:  Two half gallons will fit in a Flat-Rate USPS box and ship for $13.xx, a one gallon jug will cost almost the same as the price of the syrup, just to ship it!

A couple of years ago we had a good friend of mine order 25 pints!  He is closely involved with "Wounded Warriors" and was buying the syrup to send to the "Mess Halls" in Iraq, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia!  This really touched home and we gave him a good price and threw in a few extras for free!

Our biggest sellers are halves and quarts!
~Chuck~  Cooks Cat Claw sharpener and single tooth setter.  2018 Chevy Silverado and 2021 Subaru Ascent.
With basic mechanical skills and the ability to read you can maintain a Woodmizer  LT40!

bill m

We do not sell a lot of half gallons or half pints. Our biggest sellers are quarts, pints, and gallons in that order.
NH tc55da Metavic 4x4 trailer Stihl and Husky saws

maple flats

Bill, my sales used to be similar to yours (except we sold almost no pints) until we started to sell online, then using the medium flat rate boxes filled with 2 HG, became by far our big seller. Right now, in order for all products my sales in descending unit sales order are: bourbon barrel aged syrup, half gal, qts, gal then pints. I do not pack half pints or smaller except sometimes 50ml leaves as wedding favors by order only. We do pack a little in glass but find that most of our customers look at the glass but then buy the jugs because of price.
logging small time for years but just learning how,  2012 36 HP Mahindra tractor, 3point log arch, 8000# class excavator, lifts 2500# and sets logs on mill precisely where needed, Woodland Mills HM130Max , maple syrup a hobby that consumes my time. looking to learn blacksmithing.

Corley5

  We're done.  The trees gave up and so did we.  Yesterday we pulled the plug on the releaser, flushed out the sap tanks, drained and flushed the pans and cooked off the sweet.  Going over to the sugar house in a bit to clean up the filter press and do some general tidying up.  Tomorrow we start pulling taps and flushing lines after I do some plumbing in the sugar house so I can install the frost free hydrant at the pump house.       
  We ended up with an even 235 gallons of syrup from 800 taps.  I'll take that especially for our first season.  The first six gallons are Golden Delicate.  The rest is all Amber Rich.  Have a potential buyer for some of the bulk coming by tomorrow.  It was a good season in Wolverine Michigan 8) 8) 8) 8) 
  And Yes, I'm a real sugar maker.  I burned a pan.  Got it out of the way early in the career ;) ;D
Burnt Gunpowder is the Smell Of Freedom

celliott

Well Chuck, I was planning on telling  you we were done last week, I couldn't imagine we would keep going after 60+ degrees for 4 days in a row. But I can't say that because the sap is still running and we're still boiling! I haven't got a gallon report lately, we started pulling spouts at one of the Cabot woods last week. Everyone thought we were finished. Nope. Keeping tanks washed as much as possible, and processing sap as fast as possible this time of year when it's warm goes a long way to making better syrup out of this sap. I know we broke 4# per tap on Wednesday. Maybe we can hit 5#, I don't know. 
Chris Elliott

Clark 666C cable skidder
Husqvarna and Jonsered pro saws
265rx clearing saw
Professional maple tubing installer and maple sugaring worker, part time logger

Stephen1

We finished cleaning the lines this weekend. 140 liters for the season, and we would have had more but we ran out of firewood. It was the best year we have ever had. Our normal amount is around 100 liters. 
Cleaning the lines was a breeze, we went to buy solution and were told that all we have to do now is inject isoprol alcohol into the taps and all is good, we will see. We did flush with city water and then let it drain. We then injected the alcohol and tied up tap lines, acid washed the evaporator cleaned all the tanks, and put the shack away for the summer.  
Next year more wood!
IDRY Vacum Kiln, LT40HDWide, BMS250 sharpener/setter 742b Bobcat, TCM forklift, Sthil 026,038, 461. 1952 TEA Fergusan Tractor

celliott

Finally pulled the plug on the Eden sugarhouse. Made syrup in May, last boil yesterday! Finished just shy of 16,000 gallons. We hit 4.8# per tap.  Washing tubing in the other woods, open house this weekend.

Brand new pipe ran forever 
Chris Elliott

Clark 666C cable skidder
Husqvarna and Jonsered pro saws
265rx clearing saw
Professional maple tubing installer and maple sugaring worker, part time logger

Chuck White

We took our syrup in a couple days ago!

They're paying $2.00/pound, so "somewhere around" $24.00/gallon, in the barrel!

Down from last year, but it has to go somewhere!
~Chuck~  Cooks Cat Claw sharpener and single tooth setter.  2018 Chevy Silverado and 2021 Subaru Ascent.
With basic mechanical skills and the ability to read you can maintain a Woodmizer  LT40!

celliott

Chris Elliott

Clark 666C cable skidder
Husqvarna and Jonsered pro saws
265rx clearing saw
Professional maple tubing installer and maple sugaring worker, part time logger

nativewolf

coming up on this sweet time of year.  Is there a new 2019 thread that I missed?  
Liking Walnut

Plankton

Even though its 2019 I'll throw these on here. Been tapping since first week of January here in south vt.

Just some fun tapping pictures, gotta keep it fresh doing this for weeks straight. Also a random picture of a wheeler with my bags on it from a few weeks ago snow got a lot deeper so that one has tracks on it now.

Been perfect tapping weather this season kind of cold but that made for perfect drilling and the snow is nice and light so the going has been excellent. The first real run started yesterday but back to tapping this sat.

















Stephen1

We need a 2019 page now. 
IDRY Vacum Kiln, LT40HDWide, BMS250 sharpener/setter 742b Bobcat, TCM forklift, Sthil 026,038, 461. 1952 TEA Fergusan Tractor

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