The Official 2024 Maple Season Thread

Crazy year in Ohio to be on bags and buckets ...thats for sure.
The vacuum guys have been tapped and doing ok for some time

 

I'm no expert on the matter but from where I'm sitting it looks like this week will be the last to collect any more sap, at least from the red maples. The buds on my reds are starting to swell and the long term forecast looks pleasant to be outside, but well past maple sugar season Today I dumped out about 6 gallons of sap that was getting rancid. I'll be lucky to have another 15 to boil by the end of the week.

 

This might be our last week but it looks like there’s one more good run coming around the end of the week. We had a big run yesterday. This tote only had a couple inches in it Sunday night.

 

That usually signals we are toward the end of our season, hopefully not the case for you!

 

Only collected a small 65 gallons from 125 taps today. Drew off about 2.5 gallons..with more left in various forms in the pan.
I just now have only gone through one row out of 4 of firewood.

I hope for our sake...that this is not a long term trend year after year. This makes it tough to get much done. I'm about ready to be done and pull taps. This weather makes me want to do other outdoor activities..that are more productive!

 

I had buckets overflowing when I checked last night after I got out of work. Collected about 25 gallons. Probably check them again tonight. Been running strong since the weekend cold snap let up. Gotta hit it hard the rest of the week and see where that puts us.

 

All of a sudden I got up to 12 gallons this afternoon, so while I was at work I instructed my uncle to stop by my house and take them since he was getting ready to boil tonight. I’ll have more by the end of the week anyway.

 

From my morning commute. Pretty typical to see these. He’s fully full - I think it ran all night. A cousin reported they gathered a second time last night, after they boiled, and it was running strong at 9pm.

 

I collected between shifts Monday and Tuesday and had several buckets overflowing each time. Be nice to get a few more days of that! We have a guy around here that has a big tank on a truck like that. Doesn’t produce any syrup for himself. Just in the sap collecting end of things and operates on shares with a guy that runs a huge evaporator and RO. I wonder how much he ends up with at the end of the season on that agreement

 

Caught up with my boiling this evening. Ended up with exactly a gallon of syrup! Man that stuff is good!

 

Bet your uncle was pleased with that! If it’s flowing anything like it is here, you’ll have your hands full come the weekend!

 

I think he had 25 gallons to boil last night. He was sending me pictures until about midnight As of this morning all of my jugs were overflowing and the trees were still flowing hard throughout the day. The season is going out with a bang!

 

Got up early to make steam in the moonlight. I sure am jealous of you guys with dedicated sugar shacks and legit equipment..

 

Bottled some light syrup today !
Also...gonna sell my new meter. I'll put it in the classifieds if anyone is interested .

 

Looking forward to using this for the first time. This tells you what your boiling water and syrup done temps are at ..at any given time. Checks every two seconds.
I'm excited..because this will help me set my auto draw off temp every day..or throughout the day. At least get it closer than guessing lol.
The other day it changed 2-3 degrees from one day to the other.
They offer some different options. Even with temperature probes on them to stick right into your pan !
The one I got is a stand alone gauge..with the option of powering from a USB plug...or AA batteries.

 

Cool unit! That’s funny I never even heard of Plymouth Sugarworks. I looked them up and they’re only about 5 miles away from me. I’ve probably driven by them more times than I could count. I’m going to have to check them out. My grandfather used to be the first selectman of Plymouth CT back in the 70s.

 

That's awesome !!!

 

We were gone for school vaca, didn’t want to tap before we left. Got a few out today. Hope to make enough for pancakes for the year. It’s dripping fast at the moment.

 

Collected 130 gallons this morning. Boiled it down. Just barely on the Amber/rich category still. Lots of sugar sand..plugged filters. And bugs and moths in the sap filter. That's how you know things are getting close to being done.

Good boiling day !

 

https://vermontmaple.org/maple-pie-10-31-17


My favorite.