Any sappers out there?

[zzammon]

Running pretty good in south central MN, at least for now....

[Gissert]

Pulled another 47 gallons this morning, boiling down now. Nice to gat a small batch done before it shots down again

[mpester]

I have doubled up my equipment and am waiting to run up to the cabin for a couple of weekend to tap some trees. The cabin is in Siren, WI. Am I too late to start this or does it look like next weekend will be a good time to start?

The six year old had the choice between Cub Scout camp for two nights or trying to make syrup. When I was asking him what he wanted to do, I did not even get to finish telling him about camp when he said he wanted to make the syrup. I hope this goes well and I hope the trees have some sap flowing next weekend with the warmer temperatures they are predicting.

Thanks for the information.

[Gissert]

Next weekend should be fine. The trees shut off in a hurry yesterday.

[cherokee]

Got 6 and a half pints of syrup today. Buckets were froze up pretty tight but managed to get all in the boiler.

[Gissert]

Ended up with 1.5 gallons of nice Grade A Amber.

[cherokee]

A fine morning for pancakes. Last year's grade B (darker on right) won out over yesterday's grade A syrup. Both have unique qualities.

[mainbutter]

I hope we aren't too late. Due to life getting in the way of fun we only got taps in yesterday and the rest in today. We are tapping up in the finlayson area, LOTS of snow (our snowblown path from the cabin to the tree line is 40'' deep) and plenty of cold weather for the next 10 days at least. The taps we got in some yard trees in the north metro were flowing like crazy yesterday.

Good luck to everyone else boiling away

[pushbutton]

Spent the day doing what is turning out to be an annual kid and critter tapping day. The snow is still pretty deep, but we all hit the trail and headed back off into the woods.

Most of this crew were newbsters, but after a quick rundown, they started to get to work.

Well, truth be told the boys lost focus rather quick, leaving the girls to do most of the work

All in all, it was a great way to spend a beautiful day. All the kids got to bring some syrup home and we got to add a little more to the pantry.......I am completely exhausted though.....and now going to drink

[canman]

Pretty slow flow day yesterday for us. Only pulled 20 gallons from 100 taps. Hopefully today is better. We are about 50 west of Minneapolis.

[mainbutter]

trees in the north metro were running great. The taps we put in near finlayson weren't even running yet on Friday, should be a good couple of weekends in my future up there. The snow is VERY deep and temps have been much colder than here at home.

[JeremyCampbell]

Looking forward to this Thursday.I'm going to be a chaperone for my daughter's preschool class and were heading to some place in St johns area to learn about tapping for syrup.Never seen it done.Very excited about the field trip.

[mcgarth]

collected about 550 gallons today and put out around 200 more taps. running pretty good in Ramsey just going to get better!!

[Rick G]

Never did get my full set up running this year just way too many things going on. I do have a few taps in, Sat was crazy for flow, and almost nothing yesterday. Today seems a little better for the sugar maples, while the two silvers are a bit slower.

I have around 20gallons of sap collected, once I get about 20 more I will do a boil. I know it's not much, but like I said... just no time this year

PB, that is some nice looking A you got there

[Gissert]

Boiled off 80 gallons yesterday, finished into 2 gallons of light amber today. The system that moved through yesterday shut things down, hard. I am betting no flow of any volume until the weekend.

[MinnesotaMike]

After reading this post I taped a couple of trees yesterday. One question, when you do your boil how do you know when to stop?

Thx,

Mike

[pushbutton]

Here is a little discussion from last year....... when is sap done?

[mainbutter]

Boiled off 80 gallons yesterday, finished into 2 gallons of light amber today. The system that moved through yesterday shut things down, hard. I am betting no flow of any volume until the weekend.

No flow in the north metro yesterday, but today our trees were pouring again. Some we only had a half to 2/3 gallons out of, another produced well over a gallon and perhaps two. The bucket felt heavy

Friday I get to go up north to our bakers dozen of tapped trees and start our first boil of the year. I'm hoping to boil a gallon or two of syrup.

[pushbutton]

In anticipation of 10 inches of snow, Jr and I pulled the buckets today. So far looks like the 612/763 ers might get "our" snow....hope so Got about 40 gallons off of 5 big multiple tapped trees since we started on Sat; and suppose I will have to put in a long night. It's actually kind of nice out right now.....

[JeremyCampbell]

We did the field trip at St Johns university.Really neat stuff.Can't believe it takes so much to make just a gallon of syrup.Hope to go out again .Too bad they don't sell the syup.If the local farmers market is still going I will grab a bottle of the real stuff.

[Rick G]

Doing first small boil of season right now Ran out of storage space for sap I don't have access to the big evaporator this season, so I have four of the big metal cake pans doing the work Sap was running extremely well today. I think it was the best day I have had so far this season.

Pancakes before I go fishing tomorrow

[eyeguy 54]

cool! will trade salsa for a taste.

[Rick G]

Anyone know the exchange rate, maple for salsa?

[pushbutton]

Yeah, this is my second night of boil. It was running good today in our neck of the woods and got another 15 gallons off of my 20 or so taps on 5 trees. Stayed up rather late last night and reduced this down to about 214. Will add about the same temp mix .....into the mix..... in a few more hours as I can only reduce around 2 to 3 gallons per hour with my box stove set up. Do not feel like canning tonight so will just bury the "reduction" pot in snow until am more motivated.

The sap is running pretty rich this year and appears will get at least a couple gallons of syrup off my small little gig. To anyone new to this, keep in mind, you do not need a sugar maple, any ole one will do....including silvers, reds, norways, and even box elders. Yes, sugars have the highest concentrations of sugars, but beggars can't be choosers Sadly, looks like this year, in the central part of the state and southward might be coming to an abrupt close. The temps the next week or so do not look favorable, with the nighttime temps probably not low enough to "recharge" the trees. Weird year for sure, could not buy a nice day all winter, and now they will be too nice. I put some extra taps in tonight thinking I only have a few more days left, and still slogging through almost knee deep snow.....only to have it disappear in a matter of a few days......

[Stick in Mud]

Are you complaining?!?

Mushrooms, ramps, and leeks just around the corner now...Well, kind of...