Anyone tapping yet?

[Ed Thayer]

Thanks Mark,

I had regular twin doors on the arch when I first bought the rig and with the blower it got so hot in front of it you could not stand near it.

The air tight front was pricey but well worth the investment. Keeps more heat under the pans and provides better combustion of the wood. Also is safer because the door does not get glowing red.

ED

[Joshua Kingsley]

You all are making me wish I had enough trees to tap out 🙁 We live on the Creek here and the last few days the sap would be running like crazy. I have my stainless pan from an barrel rig that needs a new arch so maby that can be a “pet” project for next year…

Have fun and be safe duing this great season.
Joshua

[Anonymous]

1. I don’t have any hard maples. Can I tap soft maples?

2. I found some maple syrup for $24.00 for a 1/2 gallon. Is this a reasonable price?

[Does’ Leap]

Dave:

There are a lot of folks tapping soft maple in Vermont. There was an interesting article in Northern Woodlands magazine purporting the value of tapping soft maple. Here’s the summary:

• soft maple makes good tasting syrup;
• the sap does not necessarily get more “buddy” than hard maple sap; and
• the sugar content only runs a few 10ths of a percent lower than hard maple on average.

The last point can make a difference in boiling time if you have an inefficient rig and boiling a lot of sap at a time (many have RO machines here so the sap goes in the rig at 8% regardless). On a small scale, you should be fine.

George

[Ed Thayer]

Tapping soft or red maples will produce nice syrup. Most would not be able to tell the difference.

I do not tap them only because hard maple is available in our sugarbush. That said, if it was all I had access to I would not hesitate to tap them.

I had a great first week. We have made 24 gallons so far. The weather looks like it should be favorable for us, however our runs have been small and not very productive the last few days. Hope things improve soon.

I tend to hit the panic button and then two days later we can’t keep up with the runs? Just how sugaring goes.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the info. I think I will be rigging up to make enough for myself and family next year. I’ve been researching on the web, and I think I can handle a few batches.

[Ed Thayer]

Is the sap running as slow for all of you as it is here in SW NH?

I should be way ahead in terms of production from where I am now.

[mitchmaine]

hi ed, slow here(midcoast maine), too. we did have a gallon per tap last saturday, but dry since. calendar says it’s still early, but the woods says it’s getting late. we’ve made about a third of a crop yet. good luck there. mitch

[dominiquer60]

We are 15 miles west of Bennington and the sap has stopped with no signs of starting again. We are 1/2 of last year and 1/4 of 2008, so far. It just needs to freeze at night. I am not at all convinced that climate change is a false theory.

Erika

[mitchmaine]

erika, it’s the air temp only. i took a bar up to the top of the knoll and down 8″ there is frost still. sounds a little hollow but still good and solid. good for another week or ten days i’ll bet. we’re getting 1.7 sap too. pretty weak. tough year. i’m with ya on climate change. mitch

[dominiquer60]

Of course it is the air temp, even if it freezes at night a south wind will produce little sap flow too. We were hoping to get a new larger evaporator, but the way it is going we may not need the one that we have.

[dominiquer60]

Temps forecasted 40 or above for as far as the eye can see. We are done sugaring and closing up shop, actually we will convert shop to a washing and packing shed. Besides, now we can do spring clean up/grease up and focus on the greenhouse, if we fall behind a week there, we could potentially fall behind for the year.

[Ed Thayer]

This weather is depressing? I gathered 160 gallons of sap from almost 500 taps today and that was two days of run!!!!!!!!!!!!

I finished boiling it in tonight and will finish and can it tommorow. We are just half of where we were last year and the forecast is not good for the next several days.

Going to pull the pans this wekend and clean and hope for better weather.

We still have 2 feet of snow on the ground so I am hoping it will improve enough for one more good run at least.

Hope things are better for all of you.

Ed

[Carl Russell]

Definitely coming to a stand-still in central VT. I didn’t tap out the bush because 26″ of snow, and there was no way I could open my trails for gathering with the horses.

We put out a dozen taps near the house, and have yet to have what I consider a good run. Yesterday was a very small run with sap that looked like it was on the verge of turning.

Way too early for this. We are sure to get more cold weather, but I’m afraid the trees have gone beyond the point of no return. After-all it is accumulated degree days that triggers metabolism, so once that threshold has been met, no amount of cold weather will reverse that. We are definitely get some colder weather this week, so we’ll have to see.

Carl

[mitchmaine]

carl, we didn’t get your snow but 7″ rain instead. at the time i was wishing for the snow but we’ve been running on bare ground for the sap season, and it made a poor season a little better. last summer when i put our hay up in september after waiting for the end of 29″ rainfall, it looked dingy, oh, did it look poor. now, it don’t look half so bad, and everyone wants some. might be the same way with this syrup. dark, strong, not much of it. our buds seem pretty tight yet, but it’s 68 in the shade and its 3pm. go figure. mitch

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