Day 39: Last Day for 2008

Boiled down the final 9-10 gallons of sap to get 24 oz. of syrup. A little stronger flavored, really nice...medium in flavor/color. In hindsight, the weather changed very abruptly. Most of the days barely hit 40, and then, all of a sudden, it was 60 deg. outside with 40 deg. nights. The sap totally stopped. It's been a lot of fun...and a lot of work.

Lessons learned:
1. Making maple syrup is a rewarding hobby - try it!
2. Start small. Worry about mass production later.
3. Never, ever complain about the cost of maple syrup!

Day 37: No more sap

Yep, that was the end of the sap. I've kept it cool with snow this week, planning on boiling this weekend.

Day 35: 4/9/08 Still running

I've collected 8 gallons of sap in the last two days. The temperatures have dipped to the upper 20s at night. Same last night. This will probably be the last day because the forecast is for very warm temperatures. The buds on the trees haven't changed yet up here, but with the 50s and low 60s coming, I'm sure they will soon.

Day 31: 4/5/08 The Longest Day

Boiled today. 15 1/2 gallons of sap into 1 3/4 quarts. That's a pretty good ratio. It was a long day - 14 hours total. I modified the boiling setup a little to try to capture all of the heat. Sheet metal on the right side stopped most of the heat from escaping, as did the bricks. I need a new plan for next year. This way is too slow. If I had more sap, I would have been boiling endlessly.

This might have been the last day. We'll see. It did get down to 29 degrees last night. That doesn't mean all the trees were that cold, though.

Day 29: 4/3/08 Two warm days...

Some of the taps are producing a lot...overflowing the milk jugs. I had to replace two half-gallon containers with gallons. Since some of the taps seem to have nearly dried up, I moved four of them to trees without taps. The sap poured out, literally. I'll have to empty them tonight. I have about 13 gallons now, hoping to get 20 by this weekend...probably will miss that mark by a little.

It looks like the south-western taps are doing really well. A couple of trees had taps on the eastern side because that faced a clearing. The cold mornings plus sun weren't that good compared to the trees with western or southern taps. I'll make this change for next year.