I got 5 gallons from my one tree yesterday. Hope it keeps up for a few days. Is anyone's trees starting to bud yet? Other trees are budding but not my hard maple.
I have only one sugar maple as a yard tree and it is only about 16 inches dbh so I don't even bother tapping it. I just noticed today that buds are forming but not starting to open yet. They are just a bit of color change at the tips so far.
No buds up here and its blowing snow its been down in the low 20s most of the day.I collected 20 more gallons of sap just from 2 days and that is only from 7 taps.I can only cook around 3 gallons at a time which we average just over 2 pints of product.
It's going to be a long day........ I have close to 75 gallons today and the wind is whipping. Even though I've got an intense boil, it's wind vs fire
Well, This is taking a looooong time..... but I'm in it for the long haul. I'm expecting 3 gallons of syrup when it's all said and done. Low 20's with a cold wind. The wife and tator tot had the quads out for some mudding, and the coals are nuts! It's gonna be a long night!
I got rid of some coals......in the ash can, added snow and good to go. It's cool at night,I can see flames coming out of the stack now. Oh, and it's snowing.
3 gallons from today. Long day for sure. 4.5 gallons totals for the season of 1 month. Not bad guess....
I just added a spark arrester from the door of the fire pit. The wind is fierce. It turned red within 30 seconds.
It sure is a ton of work, but the end product is very tasty. We have a local guy interested in looking at our Maples for the SAP, we'll see how much or if it's worth it to him. The last time he was going to come to look at the Maples, we had a huge windstorm, that was two years ago so maybe it's time we schedule another tour.
It's hard work and YES worth it. My azz is dog tired right now. For this quantity, I need another 2 pans to cut time in half. Down to the final warning pot, then just cook these 2 pans a bit more, filter, then final reduction in the kitchen tomorrow.
Pulled the taps today its over 60 degrees out today crazy.Have about 40 gallons of sap to keep good and cook yet. Took us a little while to get the syrup right being new to this and all . It takes us 4 gallons give or take a little to 1 pint. My wife and I decided to cook the syrup a little longer to our liking Man is it GOOD.
Looks like I missed a bunch of action in this thread - nice work fellas! It's been feast or famine here for sap flow. The last two weekends were frigid and I had near zero flow. But then this Monday, I collected about 40 gallons! Overall it's been a great week - I've been averaging about 20 or so per day. I can only cook off 10 gallons per evening during the week, so I work in 1 quart batches. I've made around 3 gallons so far, and given away about 3 quarts.
There's an old "Dirty Jobs" (2009) on right now, Mike Rowe is making a mess, as usual, of making maple syrup!