The Official 2024 Maple Season Thread

Got the 150ish bags on the holders today. Another few stupid warm days coming this week. It's nice if I can hold out till time change, but gonna have to pull the trigger(pun intend) one of these days..

 

Looks perfect !

 

Right! Our average high this time of year is 29 degrees. I'd hate to tap to early and everything freeze up for a week or two. If I was on lines/vacuum it wouldn't be too big of a deal. Extended forecasts have been all over the place.

 

I hear you on the long term forecasts! Hard to plan..thats for sure !

 

Great thread everyone! I can practically “smell” the boiling from the pics!

 

I may have to do a very small 4 gallon boil (or just dump it out) A couple of my sap jugs are just starting to get cloudy I should move them from my garage space to outside in a snowbank. Later this week into next week looks good for a sap run though.

 

I understand completely. I boiled a few days back now. Luckily..what's in the pans is frozen slush..and nothing but a few inches of ice in the bags.
If I were you..Id take that cloudy sap and pitch it. It's more headache to boil and boil..then you draw it off...you find out it's no good . I've been there. It wastes time...effort...wood...etc.
I have a little saying...
"When in doubt..dump it out"

Hope everything works out good!

 

We’ve been on ice a week and a half, but had a few trickles. I collected it yesterday, dumping about a bucket’s worth of ice and only getting a couple of gallons of sap. Looks like I’ll end up with a cup or two of syrup, all done here in the kitchen to pass the days while waiting. Wednesday through Friday is looking good.

 

I’m looking forward to this week as well! Looks like perfect weather here

 

We won’t be able to do any tapping till 1st week of March. Hope we don’t miss much. The kids are excited.

 

Went down and tapped 50 last night after work. They were gushing.


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My son checked ours yesterday after school and said some were running pretty heavy. Tis the season!

 

No snow shoes this year tapping and About 3 weeks earlier than I like to tap. But momma natures the boss!

 

We are on a good run! 275g in two days in this tote. 60 taps dumping into this one. It’s hard to see but it was running over when I got to it.

 

I'd say that's a darn good run !!! Awesome !!

 

Collected another 100 gallons yesterday. Boiled it off. Drew off about 2 gallons. Sap still running. Temps are up at night too. Some real wonky inconsistent weather.
Maybe March will be better...if the trees don't bud first lol

Did get to try the new brix meter..and color grader. Pretty cool ! Will come in really handy when it's time to bottle.
( obviously this syrup isn't done..just checking as I went to get the hang of the meter...and check my draw off temp etc )

 

Someone was more excited then me about the full bags..

 

Gotta admit that I’m like a little kid too when it comes to collecting the sap. Very rewarding

 

We boiled a batch yesterday and finished late. Ended up with over half a gallon. This is everything for the year so far. 2 boils so far.

 

Looking great !!!