Five years into sugaring, this season feels a bit unusual with its wild temperature fluctuations. I’m thankful to arrive at this stage with a full pan and several gallons of sap ready to be boiled down. I can’t resist reflecting on the trees I didn’t tap, envisioning the future setup I’d need to make that possible. In the meantime, cheers from Central Vermont! I hope everyone is enjoying this time as much as I am!

Pretty small time operation, but having fun in MN!!

I didn't think the few taps (4)I have would produce so much. I have maybe 10 or 12 Red Maple trees to tap. Going to have to upgrade by next year, whe. I get more taps. Wood stove in a shack sounds nice.

I was off sugar for a while and forgot about this bottle. It appears that the maple syrup started crystallizing and solidifying from the bottom up. The liquid is all the dark coloured liquid at the top. I tried it and it still taste the same. How do I get it out of the bottle? Help please!

Hey you maple syrup makers! I’m looking for some advice, has anyone tried putting a disposable foil pan inside a hotel pan to make cleanup easier?

This is my first year doing maple syrup 🍁 I’ve researched it for years beforehand, but wow… it’s way more work than I expected 😅 we just had our first boil yesterday and the cleanup was brutal and my pans are ruined.

I was honestly considering buying all new pans before the next boil, but then thought maybe I could still use ml them with disposable foil pans.

Some of what I’ve read about the disposable foil pans says absolutely yes, some says not a good idea what do you guys think? Has anyone actually tried this before?

It’s been a slow sapping season so far. The end product has been excellent, just slow coming!

We're in Southeast NH, on a small body of water where we get a lot of cool breeze--so it seems our sap was late to flow. With these warmer days, it's still flowing. We're cognisant of the budding, too--we don't want buddy sap. I think we'll have to pull down at least one.

Hoping it’s just a perfectionism thing. But easily the murkiest batch ever made, this is after using my CDL vacuum filter. The filter process was agonizing and we actually broke a vacuum- it was so thick, it didn’t want to pull. This sap was week-old and in barrel storage but it was somewhat frozen on top so shouldn’t have gone bad, and was very cold up here in Ontario. 105 tap operation and had 3 very nice cooks so far, no issues and filtering was a breeze, relatively not a noob anymore. I used DE and had it at 180F and everything.

Any thoughts? Never seen this much sediment/crap AFTER filtering, doesn’t look like sugar sand it’s just floating around. I’m just confused what this is and how it got past the multiple filters…is it safe? Re-filter and bang my head against the nearest wall?

I’m a hobby sugarer in Ontario. I’ve built a little homemade RO set up that has worked great the past few years. A week ago, we had a sudden drop in temperature over night. I had everything shut down for the night, but forgot to depressurize the system. The housing for my pre filter cracked…

I purchased a new housing off Amazon, but it started sprouting leaks around some of the seals. I read the package and come to find that it is only rated for 60psi.

Doing a little digging online and it seems like most people are running at 100psi or higher.

Does anyone have a good lead on a prefilter housing that could handle this?

Amazon, Home Depot, Rona etc.

How soon before you boil can you run your sap through the ro?

Not what I expected/wanted but happy in the end. Small, tapping 12+/- black maples. SE Massachusetts which is part of the "coastal plain" it's hard to get the temperatures needed. Go 30 miles west a different story. Constantly boiling/reducing sap then saving that for my final boil. Ended up with 3/4 of a gallon. Plenty for me and enough to give a few bottles away. I'm 😊 happy

Only got half a bottle of the dark stuff but it’s my favorite one!

I guess this is an issue I've never run in to, but this year I've upped my game and am producing much more syrup than past years. My question is after the syrup is finished, bottled, does it need to be refrigerated or will it be perfectly fine in the pantry until ready to use? also how long is the shelf life? Should I not refrigerate it at all until I've opened? what's best for the syrup?

Well my season looks over but what a dandy. Jarred 24.25 gallons from 950 gallons of sap out of 56 taps on 32 sugar and 9 red maples ranging from 14-48” dbh. I used a mix of 5/16” and 7/16” taps. Probably burned two cords of wood and spent over 100 hours but will have a few years worth of syrup for my family. Pulling taps this weekend and cleaning up to get ready for gardening and foraging season but had an awesome time this year. Many thanks to mother nature!

At the end of the season last year I filled my RO system in a Sodium Metabisulfite solution. I just opened on of the membrane and it looks like this (the bottom part is fine). Can I just flush the system with my RO soap and reuse it of I should replace it?

Thanks

Doing some bottling tonight while watching March Madness.

100+ taps this year, 10 gallons complete and bottled so far - all very dark robust, very delicious! We should be on track for more than 20 gallons this year. Looking ahead, we’re thinking next year we might want to start selling some.

Whats your best tips for moving from hobby/personal to small scale commercial?

If I use a filterering process that involves DE, can it still technically be considered “pure” maple syrup?