Category: 2010: Season 93

We collected 300 gallons of sap today.  It was cold again last night: down to 17.  That freezes everything hard.  The buckets had ice in them.    By 10:30 AM  it was above freezing.    We knew we would collect but had to wait for the sun’s rays to do their magic to  melt a lot of the ice in the buckets.

While waiting to collect we washed out the collecting tank, storage tanks and evaporator.  That meant a water run with the tractor and milk cans.  After washing we had to connect the pipes from the storage tank to the evaporator.  

We also enlarged the opening on the collecting tank by cutting off a 1 ¼” lip on the top.  That added 2 ½ “ to the diameter making it much easier to dump the collecting pails in the tank.

By 3:00 PM we were ready to collect and set out.  By 5:00 PM we were done and had 300 gallons of sap.  Tomorrow we will fire up the evaporator.

It was cold last night, down to about 19.  That freezes everything so hard that it takes a long time to warm up during the day.  It was sunny today and up to 37 or so.  The trees were dripping.  Walked through the woods this afternoon.  A few pails were full.  Many are half full.  We will collect tomorrow.    We would have collected today if we had help lined up. 

Spent the day getting the building ready.  We had to replace some damaged fire brick in the evaporator.  Also worked on getting the niter out of the syrup pan.  Its hand scrubbing with at fine abrasive. 

Tomorrow we have to get water tot he building and wash out the tanks for collecting. 

Just wish it wouldn’t get so cold at night because it freezes everything so hard.

Another great day for tapping.  It was down to 20 overnight.  It was sunny all day with a North wind at 5-10 mph.  The wind was a little chilly.  It warmed to about 34.  We went into the woods by 9:00.  By 9:30 we were loaded up and out tapping.  Worked until 3:00 PM.   We got out about 325 taps.  With the 75 from yesterday we have a little over 400.  We again lost exact count.  It likely between 400 and 410 taps.

Next we get be syrup building ready.  We have to setup the evaporator, wash the storage tanks and connect the pipes.

The weather forecast for the next week looks ideal for sap with freezing nights and days into he lower 40s.

Arrived in WI about 12:30 PM. From the air on the plane ride in from Washington DC we can see the snow cover over the fields and woods.  By 2:30 PM we were out in the woods getting organised for tapping. We washed the buckets during January and brought them into the woods during February. Our shipment of bottles arrived about two weeks ago. We are ready.  By 3:00 PM we started tapping. The sap is definitely moving in the trees. We see a good steady drip after setting the tap. Wish we would have taped last week. We would be collecting now. We did get 75 taps out by 4:30 PM. It was nice in the woods. The sun is warm. The snow is not too deep: maybe 8″. Tomorrow we hope to finish all the tapping. We have two or three helpers coming. The weather forecast sounds like it will be ideal for sap the next 5 days or so.

The tap from Saturday had about 2 quarts of sap. And it tasted very sweet. We were not able to formally test it with our hydrometer, but it seemed much sweeter than we normally get.

Put out one tap yesterday.  The sap is moving in the trees.   The tap ran.  We plan to start tapping on Tuesday, March 2.   There is always an apprehension about starting.  Will you miss and early run?  What will the season be like?   Will the weather cooperate?    We have to accept what mother nature gives us.

Some Vermont produces have had taps out since early February.  And made good syrup already.