Have only collected 6 gl jug of sap in the last two weeks but pulled in 10 gl in the last two days and weather looks ideal for the next week. Only tapping about 2 dz trees. Interesting that two of the trees have produced almost no sap at all the tap locations don't appear any different than others, in clear white sapwood in knot ,scar free bark zones). Do others experience this?

Yep, I'm only tapping 12 trees out of a couple hundred that I could be if I only had the time and a good evaporator. 3 or 4 of the trees produce half the sap yet they are right next to the others. They seem to run better than others every year. 20 gallons today out of 12 taps, low of 18 last night, high of 45 today. The sap I am getting now is noticeably darker than that from the first run a couple of weeks ago.We are just small time hobby guys and run off a gallon or two every year.

Zim

A tad too cold here in God's country yet. Right on the verge tho.

Tapped three maples and two box elders today. Some of them were running really fast and some just a little. Probably tap a few more tomorrow.

Here in New Hampshire.....we have what they call "Maple Sugar Weekend" .....March 25 - 26 ... Sugar Shacks in the State ,open their doors to the public, for sampling, sugar on snow, show off their evaporaters ....and just educate the public on how it's done... One year we went to Canterbury...and the owner of the shack and I ,just hit it off taking about his operation....when the crowd subsided...he bent over and pulled up a floor plank,and reached under for a bottle of his homemade Apple Jack !! Dang that was good...and a good buzz too...lol

Nessy, if I ever get old enough to retire I want to build a little sugar shack in our woods, boil sap, drink beer, shoot the breeze and generally enjoy early spring.

Zim

Yup...that would be nice. Iam going up to an old friends sugar shack in Heniker NH ..to do just that ! He does it old school...collecting buckets...and wood fired evap.. but like you say Zim...would love to have my own . And one year we helped collect sap...and he had a big container on a wagon...Pulled by his 2 Oxen...that's was great !

Looking forward to getting buckets back out tomorrow. I too boil over fire, one batch at a time.

I have been done for two weeks here. My bees have been working the maples for pollen the last couple days here.

Looks like the weather will be above/below freezing all next week, will sap be of good quality for that many days or does one need to watch it so as not to add poor sap to good already collected?

Drake, Im no pro at this but I think the sap is good as long as you get it before the buds start to pop.

Just tapped last night. Put 59 in. Will put about 41 more tonight.
Sap just starting to flow here.

Too cold here. This weekend should see some real action. We have collected 597 gallons over two weeks but from 500 taps. We have a lot of ice in our buckets that needs to melt. Down in the teens here again last night. Sap sugar % has been really high. Our lowest was 3.4% our highest was 8%. It seems where we had less snow cover the ground froze harder and deeper and that is where no sap is running. A warm rain would help bu then we work in the mud.

Bryce

Bryce that's really slow. We have 100 taps out now and collected 280 some gallons yesterday. And the day before It was about the same. Lots of those 4gallon square buckets were running over. This whole week looks good next week looks pretty good too.

Pulled off a batch 2 days ago and will pull off another batch today. WE now have 2 evaporators going. It's about 2 points from being finished we like to do the final cook on the kitchen stove then bottle.
One of the crew Is working on building a reveres Osmosis set up. Way above my pay grade but If It gets done It should cut down on our cooking time by half.

I put in a lot yesterday and will be adding around 60 more in a few minutes.
I pump it to the truck. Not possible to carry buckets up the hill.

It is usually pretty easy to tell when to stop collecting sap. The sap can also spoil if you don't process it soon enough or don't store it cold enough.

With my operation I like to remove ice from my pails, seems to speed up my boil off.

Nice visual! Thanks Mark.

We collect all the ice when hauling. Then we just let the ice sit to melt. Don't know If It's any big deal but we do It.

I was going to ask about this. Thanks for the picture

An old tree tapper who lives not far from here says you can tap until the frogs start to croak.

I go to the open houses every year and the experts said that they tested the sugar content in the ice and determined that if you toss it, you are tossing good sugar. As a result they keep and process the ice also.

The sap can only be kept until it begins going bad. You will have days where the sap is crystal clear in one bag, yet off color in others. This means it is time to start pulling taps. I keep going and pulling bad taps until it is no longer a good numbers game. Then I pull everything.

Box elder sap is good for syrup?

Yews it is. Give it a try. You will like it.

I am hitting the silvers real hard right now. When they are done, I will hit the box elders for another run.

Couple of better days Sat and Sun. We collected about 850 gallons. We averaged 3.7% sugar also.

Bryce

My taps still didn't flow that great. Still have a foot of snow by the trees.
Should pick up later this week. Will boil tonight and probably not enough until this coming weekend.

We collected 300+ gallons yesterday and boiled off about 5 gallons of syrup from the previous collect.
I think we have around 20 gallons of finished syrup.

Anyone tap Hickory?

I got some trees running some not? think there might be to much frost in ground by ones not running? This is 4th year I've tapped them and they have always run last 3 years. Got about 50 gallons cooking down in the big kettle on the wood burner. I'm going to go put a lid on here in a bit. Fire the stove back up in the morning see how it finishes. Hope it don't turn out to be a 50:1 batch?? I'd stay after it and see but I'm just not set up to play out there in the dark woods. Plus I'm not at tough as the Beav I need some beauty sleep..

Thought the coyotes were just starting to cutting loose?? wrong flock of swans,,Doppy me!


Mac

We only collected 150 gallons today. Most likely won't be much of a run tommrow with the highs In the high thirties.


We set a goal today of 50 gallons of finished syrup. WE are pretty close to the 40 mark right now.
I think I need to find some new friends. Ones that hang around In bars and talk smart and shoot some 8 ball.

Almost fell into this trap once. Before I drilled a tap hole into my hickory tree, I decided to Google it.

Turns out, you peel the bark off, make a tea from it, then use sugar to make a syrup and flavor it with the bark tea. Shagbark is what they use, and you have to really scrub the bark to get the dirt off.