Good luck. Three days of 60's coming here starting Monday, so the fat lady may be warming up her pipes...
How long has the season been for you? We’ve seen a lot of sugaring around SoVT for the past few weeks. One of the super houses was boiling again yesterday morning.
I tapped Feb 7th, a week earlier than last year, which was a week earlier than I ever had. Even here in this town the season start and end is quite variable based on elevation and exposure. We face southwest, and if the sun had been out last week it would have had a bigger impact on me. Others, with a northerly exposure, will run a week or two later than mine do. At this point we could continue on for quite a while longer unless it suddenly gets crazy warm for a couple of days.
Wow - I met one of the people involved with that, 25 years ago, but had no idea they did this sort of thing. Thanks for posting it!
Last night’s snow caused some moderate damage in the sugar bush. This is a Red Maple top that split off. The buds don’t bode well for much more season here. I collected 6 gallons of sap and am cooking it down on the kitchen wood stove.
Looking good everyone! We have been done here for a couple weeks now. I only had a 3 week season..with about half the amount of sap per tap compared to last year. Not too worried...just one of those years . Good to get cleaned up..organized..repairs made..and its still mud season ! Usually getting distracted my mower maintenance...grass cutting..driveway repair etc by now. Cleaning pans..buckets..RO..etc. I'll take the reward from a down sugar season anytime lol. Anyone that does this..knows collecting and boiling is the "easiest" part. The real work begins before and after season. Soon ill be refilling the wood shed.
Found many ways to make the crappy jobs better. I fill the pan almost all the way up with water..add 2 gallons of vinegar..boil it hard for an hour. It just lifts the scum up as it boils. Come back next day....lightly wash as it's draining....thoroughly wash out with clean water to deactivate the vinegar...flush it out and dry. I use citric acid and hot water to soak and clean remaining stainless steel parts and fittings. I never use and soap..ever. Oven cleaner soak...and pressure washer takes care of the underside of pan. Then rinse rinse rinse ! This is inside the pan before the vinegar boil !
I’m done, due to off-flavors. Still a bunch of cleanup work to do (I’m impressed with your cleanup, HoneyFuzz ) We bought a couple of rubber molds and are having some fun making pretty candy. I made some with the questionable flavor syrup and fed it to relatives who don’t know better; I was glad to not throw it away and they seemed to like it.
Hey thank you for the compliment ! Good idea on making candy with that last syrup. Bet it tastes darn good !!!
Time to service the generator . Apparently it was in dire need of its once-a-year oil change ! It has below the hours that I usually change at. Guess I'll have to readjust. What do you guys think ? Dark Robust ? Also like to clean/inspect the air filter and spark plug. Check the recoil rope....drain the fuel bowl of any potential water ...put Seafoam in the tank , then run the generator for a little bit to run it into the system. Then clean the outside a bit. Because if it looks good..it runs good
The fat lady is singing here. Ended up with 6 quarts and one small jar, two pint? From 16 taps. Turned out good even tho we started late. Hope to expand next season.
Bascom’s open house. Free food, education, 10% discount. I’ve been a couple of times and probably will go on Saturday.
