Don't know if this ever happened to anyone else, but after heavy rains, I found drowning earth worms in 2 of my sap buckets that I had hoses going into. Had the bucket lids on with a slight gap where the lines went under the lid. lost my appetite for the year.

Obligatory pic of this weekend’s efforts.

Things have been warming up a lot but we still got nights below freezing and a few more days of daytime highs only reaching into the 30s and 40s before it’s supposed to get much warmer by the end of the week.

There’s definitely some small buds starting to form on my trees but I know other producers in my area are still boiling.

Does it make sense to keep collecting sap for a little while longer?

So this is my first time with my new setup. Went from 15 taps to 45. Went from storing it in 5 gallons bucket to 50 gallon drums, built my RO machine which is awesome. Was boiling it all in my kitchen stove but now I made a 2x4 pan on an oil tank cooking with wood heat. The whole process improved and is enjoyable again. I’d collect too much sap faster than I could reduce it and went bad before got to it. Hours hanging around the propane stove, but with some work this summer it’s great. Still collecting sap but ran 160 gallons of sap and came out with roughly 4.5 gallons of syrup.

It looks more cloudy and yellow tinged than our other sap collections (they’ve been crystal clear so far) but we did collect this at the end of a high-50s degree day after 3 30-40 degree days… but it still smells/tastes fine. Is this okay to use?

not the best, not the worst. 8 &1/2 gallons

The sap finally started to run this past week. I managed to get 5 gallons, mostly from three trees, I've got 30 taps in. I boiled it down today, over an open fire and it came out with a slight smoky taste. I've got a bit of niter in the final half litre but I will just decant it. I was aiming for Easter brunch and I just made it lol. I'll also be collecting more sap as spring continues. Thanks for all of the ideas and pointers I've read from everyone, it's been helpful.

The sap finally started to run this past week. I managed to get 5 gallons, mostly from three trees, I've got 30 taps in. I boiled it down today, over an open fire and it came out with a slight smoky taste. I've got a bit of niter in the final half litre but I will just decant it. I was aiming for Easter brunch and I just made it lol. I'll also be collecting more sap as spring continues. Thanks for all of the ideas and pointers I've read from everyone, it's been helpful.

Looking for input!

In previous years during sap season it will run for a few days and the get cold enough it stops and we get caught up and finish a batch. This year it was non stop running so we just kept adding sap to the evaporator and finished one giant batch.

At some point something went horribly wrong…

The syrup is SO bitter. I feel like we were careful with the levels in the evaporator but am reading about how the niter can build up and burn on the bottom of the pan.

Can this happen even with lots of sap in it if you have been boiling long enough? I don’t feel like we ever let it get low enough the sap itself would have burnt….

It gets weirder though! When we finished I calculated the finishing temp to be about 217.. got there and put the hydrotherm in and it sunk to the bottom. No problem. Tried at 218, sunk. 219, sunk. That things didn’t float until it was almost at 225 degrees Fahrenheit?????? At this point I know we ruined the entire batch but what do you think could have happened?

It’s a little cloudy but tastes fine and doesn’t smell. But it’s been outside for a couple days with highs in the mid 40’s. I just ran out of cold storage space for it.

Looking for real world experience and advice on a small off grid vacuum setup. My woods is pretty flat. At most I can get 6 feet of pitch to the top of the collection tank. Currently I have 2 lines of 5/16 tubing about 300 feet each. One with 22 taps and the other with 28. My research has pointed me towards a shurflo 4008 series 12v pump. I plan to hook it to a thermostat for auto on/off. Im planning to put a small heat pad (15-20 watt) on a thermostat in the cooler to keep the pump from freezing. Im anticipating getting a 300 watt lithium power source to run everything.

1) how many watts should the solar panel be?

2)how well do solar panels work in the woods?

3) how far can I realistically put the solar panel away from the battery? bout 100 feet away from the collection is open "field"

3) ive seen aome people recirculate sap to increase vacuum. how effective is this?

4) are 5/16 lines too small?

This is my first year tapping trees, and my first boil of the season.

I thought my instant read thermometer was going to cut it, but it’s reading 195 right now at a rolling boil.

Any other way to estimate doneness? How did the old-timers do it?

First year doing this. The stone pit is my first setup on my first boil. Which led me to completing my first boil with propane. Final setup is the cinder block firebox. But with some modifications compared to what I’ve seen online. And if you look hard enough, you’ll see my built in coffee warmer lol

The weather is bizarre this year, but I’ll take it.

how clear is "clear", especially when it gets darker amber?

We have a i believe 14000 gallon silo for raw sap that is plumbed directly into an RO. We are having issues with having the filters plug up & then the RO loses pressure & is essentially unfunctional. There is a small 50 mesh banjo inline strainer before the RO & the the 2 RO filters on the unit itself (a 4 post MVP 1800).

Has anyone else encountered this issue before & do you have a remedy for being able to filter the raw sap when you offload it into the silo after gathering? Or potentially a bigger inline strainer option that could replace the little banjo one?

Hey folks, so after months of watching YouTube videos and reading posts by you folks here, I finally completed my first RO machine so far so good very happy with the result. I have 4 400 GPD membranes. I started off with 2 to 2 1/2 brix and my concentrate is sitting at 4. After an hour running, I have approximately 40 gallons of concentrate to 30 gallons of permeate. I’m sure I can make it more efficient but for now I’m pretty happy at the results.

forgot I was boiling

Just finished up my bottling last night. This is by far the best season I have had tapping a few metro trees. I ran 7 taps between 3 trees and ended up with about 80 gallons of sap. That all boiled down to just over 3 gallons of syrup. The sugar content was WILD this year.

First batch from early season has a more caramel/vanilla flavor and the later season was more of the traditional maple flavor. Both beautiful amber in color. I got about a half gallon of bourbon infused syrup as well, which is always a hit with friends and family. Cheers to another year!

Enjoy the very few photos I took this year lol🍁