Maple Syrup - When to tap in this weird weather??

PhilNH5 · Feb 2, 2006

Today's Boston Globe had an article about a sugarhouse in Fairfax VT that is already making syrup. They are 4 to 5 weeks ahead of schedule.

Is anybody on here tapping yet? I only have the 5 sugarmaples and I do not want to "jump the gun". I don't have enough trees to get a second chance.

I would normally go the end of Feb or the beginning of March.
I am worried - I do not want to miss out.

Thanks for any help.
Phil

beenthere · Feb 2, 2006

Can you tap one and watch it, to see when its time to tap 'em all?

scott_vt · Feb 2, 2006

Hi Phil,
No one around me that I know of is tapping yet. But I did read an article that someone just north of us along the east shore of Lake Champlain has been tapping and has gotten a bunch of syrup already /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

This winter is making some things difficult for sure /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

Good luck what ever you decide /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

scotty

hwp · Feb 2, 2006

I see that some of the sugar shacks around here are in operation allready. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

alan40 · Feb 2, 2006

Hi Phil, some are tapping around here and I was tempted but didn't. The long range forcast calls for cold weather. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif I've only been doing this five years and have never tapped before the last week of Feb. Mostly the first weekend of March is my date. It has been a strange year. If it happens again next year I may tap some trees I don't usually tap early. One thing that has been consistent is that the sugar content has been low at most of the places. Low sugar content more boiling. Hopefully we haven't missed the boat. None of the big places here in Fairfield have started boiling. Fairfax is about 20 miles from my place. Try mapletrader.com They have state by state tapping.
Stay in touch.

PhilNH5 · Feb 3, 2006

Thanks for the replies. Yesterday the early tapping was in the Globe and today it is on Yahoo News. In an article on Warm weather they say "In Vermont, mild weather made sap run early and let maple syrup producers go to work ahead of schedule, especially in the southern part of the state."

BeenThere, with only 5 trees I am loathe to use one as a test tree.

I think I'll just take my chances and hang the buckets the last week in Feb as usual.

Alan40, Good to see you are holding off. I was hoping you would respond.

Thanks
Phil

JimR · Feb 3, 2006

I haven't tapped any tress we own in over 5 years. I can tell you the sap is running like crazy just from looking at the broken branch ends. When they are dripping like crazy the trees are flowing.

GregMVT · Feb 3, 2006

I have been tempted to tap but we are heading to Orlando in the morning so haven't done it. If the weather is still like this when we get back I'll start tapping the trees on our property, about 280 taps, and do the college where I work the last week of Feb. Some of the science classes have been doing studies on sap flow etc so I need to time my tapping there until the students are ready but I should have about 100+ taps there. I have heard of some people around the state tapping but it's all been second hand or more.

Good luck this season!! /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

Greg

rox · Feb 4, 2006

Maple syrup time int he northeast, ahhh it must be so much fun, so enjoyable.
As a matter of fact today my husband made us French crepes for lunch and we had them with genuine American Maple Syrup. Ours is from Anderson's Maple Syrup in Cumberland Wisconsin. I didn't knwo that maple syrup was harvested in Wisconsin. Perhaps it is jsut a distributor. But is was sooooo good. Nothing fake or artifical about it, jstu God's gift to us, to harvest and enjoy.
Have fun when you do decide to tap and please write about it so we can learn. I know very little about it and it would be fun to learn it from a person who is doing it first hand.

Even your posts about when should you start to tap were informative to those of use who don't have any experience with making maple syrup.

Jstpssng · Feb 4, 2006

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( my husband made us French crepes for lunch and we had them with genuine American Maple Syrup. )</font>

Oh boy, you just made me hungry. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

It's been years since I made syrup. I have everything I need, the only thing lacking is the time. My best year I made 3.5 gallons... I'd boil all week after work, then on Sat I'd finish it off inside on my cookstove. On the next burner I'd be cooking breakfast... nothing like buttered pancakes with fresh hot maple syrup poured over them.

making it is like making any candy... use a good thermometer and keep everything clean. To tell when the syrup is ready you check the temp. which water boils at (this varies slightly due to atmospheric conditions) and add 7 degrees F. To make the highest grade of syrup you don't want to cool the sap once it reaches boiling; every time it cools the finished product gets darker and thicker.

It also gets more flavorful so I gave the "best" stuff away as Christmas presents; and saved the darker, thicker batches for myself. (Being thicker, it also stays on the pancakes better.)

alan40 · Feb 10, 2006

Looks like two more weeks of good cold weather. Just what we needed. I know what you mean about dark syrup. I gave away most of my fancy and kept the dark. Boy is it good to cook with.
Hope to break the 25 gallon mark this year. Just took breakfast to work for the crew and they went through a quart.
Also invited them up to the sugarhouse for a hands on tour. Love to have people come up and find out what go's into making maple. A couple times firing the evaporator and they have a nice glow to there face!! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif Of course I offer free food,drink, maple samples and tractor rides through the woodlot with frequent stops to stretch there legs. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
Have a great day! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

scott_vt · Feb 11, 2006

[Of course I offer free food,drink, maple samples and tractor rides through the woodlot with frequent stops to stretch there legs. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
Have a great day! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif ] )</font>

Gee Al,
If you you wernt so far away I would take you up on that offer /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif But if I got all that I guess I would be haulin buckets /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

scotty

JimR · Feb 11, 2006

rox, I can tell you it is a lot of work if you are just a little guy doing your own. We use to put in between 40-60 taps. That would give us enough to do one boil down each morning when I got home from work back then. 40 quarts will give you one quart of syrup. When the sap was running really good I could boil off another batch after the first. We use to get between 20-30 quarts a season. That is very small time for sure. It was just my father in law and I doing all the work. But it was enough to keep both families supplied for quite a while. Now most of our best trees are dying due to salt on the roads. We had two removed this past year. I could hang 4 buckets on these trees at once they were so big. It's a shame to see them all dying along the roadsides. I've been letting the small sugar maple trees grow in the woods for future sap collecting if I ever get back into it.

rox · Feb 11, 2006

Jimr,
are you sure that it is the salt ont he roads that is killing the trees? I never heard of that before. When I lived in Wisconsin, we used a lot of salt and I don't recall that it killed the trees.

JimR · Feb 11, 2006

rox, All of my maples along the road are suffering a slow death. The town tree warden told me it was the road salt killing them. thirty feet in the woods the trees are fine. It is just along the roadsides.

tat2z1969 · Feb 12, 2006

( rox, All of my maples along the road are suffering a slow death. The town tree warden told me it was the road salt killing them. thirty feet in the woods the trees are fine. It is just along the roadsides.

Its the chemical mix in the salt that kills them(calcium cloride I think), most places don't admit they use a mix.You can tell if the deer are licking the shoulder of the road and they look small in size or their racks are small and twisted a lot,just don't look right. Game commision made our township stop using it.
We tap about 300 trees each year,last year was great and hope this year is also, have everything set up and just waiting for the water to flow.

DrRod · Feb 13, 2006

I used to go out with my grandparents to tap a few trees and I've always considered it a privleged part of my upbringing -- not many kids can say they've done it. And I loved putting it on fresh snow or even mixing a little milk in to make maple snowcreme.

Ben Franklin put forth a plan to eliminate sugar imports by using maple syrup exclusively. Its interesting to ponder how American cuisine might have evolved had they adopted his plan. Think of all the things that have sugar in them and then consider how they would taste with maple sugar instead. Hard to picture maple in your coffee or maple whiskey.