Zim had the sap just about completely boiled down outside this year. We finished it up and bottled it in the kitchen today while the snow fell outside.


Not a whole lot, but enough for a few gifts and an occasional treat for us!

Time to put the hydrometer away for next year.

Looking good. Nothing but rain here.

That's good stuff.

Wow!!

Nice looking stuff, Patrice and Zim!

This morning Wonderful Wife made a topping with maple syrup that she added Blueberries and Strawberries and cooked it all down some. Really good on the Dutch Baby she made in a cast iron pan.

I suffer so much!

Moosetrot

Good timing, looks delicious.

We are hoping to START here next week. I haven't done it in 40+ years and I fear we may be too late and have missed it.

As always it looks like done great job.

Mac

You should be good up where you are Rob. Sap is usually OK til you just start to see red bud, syrup might be a little dark.

Zim

Thank you! Looking out the window right now I don't see that happening for a while. As I recall, we used to start roughly the first of April when I was a kid but that was "several" years ago.

Looks delicious.

Awesome stuff right there.Way to go.

Patrice,
Would you sell some of that?

Good looking syrup! I was thinking about putting up some of mine for gifts in the maple leaf jars like you have. Is the silver seal on top store bought or homemade?

Thanks, Gary! I hope it's a nice rain!

Thanks - it's great, Paul, except for a carb or two!

Thanks, Snowy!

Thank you, Moosey! You ARE suffering so much! You two are great.

Thanks, Lugnut!

Rob, the old timers say it's time to stop and pull taps when the trees get buds the size of a mouse's ear. I heard that from Zim who knows all things and learned many from old timers before him. It does seem that at that stage of leaf development, the chemical makeup of sap would change - and therefore the taste.

Thanks, Mac! Is you batch all done?

Thanks, Houndone!

Thank you, Bruce!

Watch your PMs, Swamp Wolf...

Thank you, BvrRetriever! We buy all of our bottles, caps, foils, cards, etc. from Sugar Bush Supplies in Michigan at sugarbushsupplies.com You can call in an order, talk to a nice human and they ship it the same day! I've ordered lots of the foils there!

I don't think you have missed it 160. We tapped three weeks or so ago during the first warm spell and it has only flowed for us really two days out of that time since. We got one batch run thru our reverse osmosis filter and enough sap in bag/jugs frozen at trees that I missed last Friday. I pulled all them to bring inside to melt and empty during this cold snap to be able to get them back out M or T before this next warm up coming up. The pattern of warm days/cold nights just hasn't happened for us yet and not sure that it will this season. Some years are just a bust for traditional tappers(non vacuum). One thing the shorter runs have given us though is the highest % sugar content batches. A little more syrup from less sap. We have a high ground and a low ground sugar bush and they never start flowing at the same time really. The low bush(river bottom) has always produced first and most.

Looks good!

A friend of mine made 25 gallons. I hope he shares.

Great looking containers, not used to seeing fancy ones like that!
Awesome job of the both of you.