Not a bad year...

Three gallons this year. Could have had more, but the syrup was getting pretty dark and time was getting short. Hope you're all enjoying your syrup this year!

A gallon and a half this weekend...

Happy to have made a gallon and a half this weekend. That makes three gallons so far. Time to give some away!

Steady...

I've made about two gallons so far and have more on boil. Hope everyone else's season is going well...the sap has been running pretty wild this week.

Sugaring Poem by Buzz Kuhns

If you have a sense of humor, you'll find this funny.

If you have ever tried to make maple syrup, you'll find it hilarious. But, then again, you might cry as you're reminded of all the time and money involved.

Things are rolling...

Each year, things go differently. This year, I put in my taps over a two week period (as opposed to one or two days). Sap slowly started to flow. Today felt like the real start of things because I put in 11 taps and boiled the first sap to make a quart and a pint. Not much, but it all adds up in the end! The weather is slowly changing in favor of sap flows and this week looks pretty good. Here we go.....

Fingers crossed...

Looking forward to another year making syrup. Coworkers are into it also. Anywhere from seven to over a hundred taps. That's a little too ambitious for me - I'll stick with the 20-30 I usually do and try to clear another tree or two to improve the sunlight on the maples. Last year (2012) was a tough year for sugaring. The year before that was one of the best anyone can remember.

I wonder what this year will bring?

An early ending to the 2012 sugaring season...

Yesterday (Sunday), I boiled off the last of the sap and made 3 quarts of syrup. I think the sugar content was down in the sap, but that's not a big deal. In the end, it was the darkest syrup I have ever made. It tastes different than the lighter syrup, but equally as good (in my opinion).

All in all, we made just shy of 2 gallons this year. That's less than half of last year, which was a very good year. An article in the paper (link to article) sums up the season around here - mild winter, very warm February and March. This is Maple Weekend in New Hampshire, but I think most places are already done boiling. Better luck next year!

Thanks for reading.

Not a lot of sap...but another quart of syrup

They weather has been tough. The temperature has been almost high enough to really let the sap run, but unfortunately it never got there. Mid-upper thirties with some sun. After collecting the buckets this morning and boiling, another quart of syrup is complete. Some of the sap was starting to taste buddy. One tree was really bad, so I dumped that one. Early signs of the end, I think. A couple decent days are coming up, but the forecast for Wednesday is 61 degrees ?!

All done for the day!

One half gallon, exactly, all finished. For the first time ever, when I brought the boiling sap (now syrup) inside to finish on the stove, it was already done. I only boiled for 2-3 minutes inside. This is in contrast to a couple hours inside, which creates a nice, sticky mess on the cupboards.

First boil

Finally set up the burners today and started boiling. I have about 20 gallons of sap or so and hope to get around a half gallon of syrup. I keep watching the trees to see if the buds are starting. We'll see how the syrup tastes before coming to any conclusions.

Glad to be back

Welcome back! After putting four taps in Wednesday, we finished putting in the rest of the hanging-bucket taps yesterday. 19 so far. It seems really early to be doing it, yet I see it was the same weekend last year. A lot of people put them in a full week earlier as the weather was changing.

This had been a 'dud' of a winter. After a decent snowstorm before the holidays, there hasn't been more than a few inches of snow...total. The yard is covered with an icy/snow mix of about 2-3 inches thick. Tromping through the woods to tap usually involves snowshoes. Not this year. Word has it that the sugaring season will be shortened by no snow because the trees will bud earlier. We'll see....

In walked bud

Yesterday, I went around to collect the sap, only to find all of the trees had buds coming out. Some of the sap tasted OK, some was flavorless, and some was just plain bad (buddy). I kept the sweet stuff and may boil it or not. Those trees had buds starting and the syrup could be considered grade B, or cooking syrup.

I boiled down about 30 gallons today, yielding 3 quarts and 6 oz. (just shy of a half-pint) of syrup. The sap was from several days ago, before the buds started coming out. It needed to be segregated from the other sap. The syrup was pretty dark, but tasted good. Dark amber.

Five more quarts.

Five more quarts - getting darker. The trees are starting to bud and the sap is losing its sweetness.

Awash in sap

After only collecting sap off and on during the week, several buckets ended up overflowing today. The buckets are around 2.5 gallons each. After making the rounds tonight, we collected 45 gallons of sap, giving us around 55 gallons total. That's a lot of propane. And the replacement fan came for the range hood. Now I don't have to worry about the steam as much.

Three more quarts!

I'm trying something new this year. Finishing the syrup always takes so long. So, after boiling sap down for many hours, I just stick it in the fridge or the garage. Then, I finish it another night. Last night I boiled 30 gallons of sap down to four gallons. Tonight, it finished to three quarts and a half-pint.

I also filter a little less. Getting the tree parts out of the sap seems like a good idea. Then, after boiling for hours, I filter the "almost done" sap into a cleaner boiling pan. That keeps the burnt pieces down. The rest just settles out in the jar over time and doesn't cause any problems.

I need something else to write about. But for now, at least I can keep track of how much I've made throughout the season and hopefully someone out there is learning from my mistakes. I would like to convert to wood in the future or get a better boiling pan to reduce boiling time. But, it's just more money.

Tonight's production - more than expected

Five quarts tonight! It's still fairly light-medium in flavor. The sugar content must be very high right now, as I'm almost positive I didn't boil much more than 40 gallons. So far, we've managed just shy of seven quarts. That's nearly as much as I made all of last year, which wasn't a great year. There are about 50 more gallons of sap to be boiled, as well.

As you can see by the clock in the photo, it was late (not lunch time). The good news is that I boiled outside longer than ever before. Using the larger pan, it boils faster. Only 30 minutes was needed inside to finish it off, compared to the 1-2 hours I usually take. The larger volume of this batch helped keep the boiling sap deep enough in the large pan. This was especially welcome since I finally broke the exhaust fan in the oven hood last week. A replacement is on the way.

I don't even know how much...

We weren't around long enough this weekend to boil , so I'm a little behind. There was so much sap, I lost count. And I know many of the buckets are filling up again as I type this. But, we're boiling now to take care of any sap from early last week. With the snow and cold night time temps, I haven't had any issues keeping the sap very cold (with ice on top). We got another six inches of snow yesterday - the sap is all buried in the snow on the north side of the house. Hopefully, I'll have some good reports of actual syrup soon!

45 gallons!

It's been a busy few days...about 15 gallons each day (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday). Lots of sap is nice, but it's hard when it comes all at once! Of course, with the additional taps, this is somewhat expected. Will have to boil soon!

Boiling day

Today, we boiled. 14 gallons of sap boiled down to fill one quart-sized mason jar, a 3/4 pint jar, and a few tablespoons. That's about a 40:1 ratio of sap to syrup. The color is medium-light amber, and the taste is a little more robust than the last batch, but pretty light. Not bad at all.

Finally got some sap

The last few days produced about 14 gallons of sap. Earlier this week, there was a really bad ice storm that took out power to the area (and many trees and branches). Warm temperatures and rain returned yesterday, but it wasn't very cold last night. The taps were all dripping slowly mid-morning as we emptied the buckets. There is still around 2 feet of snow in the woods, so snowshoes are essential.

It's time to set up the boiling station. For me, this involves cinder blocks and outdoor propane burners (high-BTU burners often used for frying turkeys or boiling crawfish). If the price of gas is any indication, I'm afraid the price of propane is going to make it an expensive year. On the bright side, it's very easy to start and control boiling with this method. Still hoping to use wood one of these years.