Made 9 half pints last night – took longer than I would have preferred but that’s due to me being a little too lazy on the RO machine and being satisfied with 1:2 ratio, grabbed another 30 gallons of sap today which I’m processing a bit slower at a 1:3 ratio (concentrate to water). Especially with it running like crazy still. I emptied the buckets this morning and will need to empty the again tonight by the looks on how fast the sap is running, following by a good run tomorrow. Another snow storm is in the future for us this week which might prolong the season. Honestly, a season…
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Sap collection is back on full as a winter storm that dumped 18″ of snow just passed and we’ve returned to 20 degree F nights and 40 degree F days. Sap is running out of the trees at a quick pace. Collected 25 gallons today and will collect again tomorrow at lunch. I have enough already to boil for a couple of days. Going to split up my concentrate so I’m not spending 7 hours boiling again. I’m hoping this is the robust style syrup – aka Late Season Dark in my speak. That’s honestly my favorite style of syrup. I love the flavor profile of the dark syrup. I’d…
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After many long days of warm weather the trees just stopped producing. I was getting ready to throw in the towel when the calendar said winter storm. Now we should be getting 12 to 18 inches of snow tomorrow, but the past two days were perfect for sap. I didn’t get a ton of it, a little less than half a gallon per bucket, but it’s enough for me to keep the buckets on the trees. At least until this coming weekend. Then the taps can be pulled. Of course I’ll check the weather just to make sure it won’t get dragged out longer. 5 gallons of sap concentrate in…
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I’ve mentioned about tapping birch trees to a few folks and you would think I was making things up… Not one person has heard of birch syrup. So just in case you fall into that camp: Yes, birch syrup is thing. It’s bigger on the west coast – Think Alaska west coast – where maple trees do not exist, but birch is in abundance. Birch syrup is also very expensive due to the birch tree’s sugar content being so low. Instead of Maples 40:1 ratio (40 gallons of sap to 1 gallon of syrup), Birch finds itself at 100:1 – ouch! To top that off with the fact that birch…
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Potential of the maple syrup season being extended… This week will be the harbinger if we continue or not. Days are to be in the 40’s, and the nights into the 20’s. Perfect sap running weather, that’s if the trees will allow it after the many days of warm weather. Will know more when I go check my sap traps (which I’ve come to call them as a joke but find myself saying that more and more though) and find out if there is a haul or not. Sailing club meeting and dues due tonight. So need to take a trip there, hand over a check and sign up for…
