I thought I would post again about the maple sap collecting, just in case we don’t remember things real clearly next year when we try to do this again. For us, the 08 maple syrup season started the first weekend of February and we got about 40 gallons of sap on the 2nd and 3rd. There were a few days when the taps dripped some, but it was nothing like it was on the 2nd and 3rd and we didn’t bother to try and collect anything. Our temperatures were consistently above freezing until the 10th and then the temperatures dropped and stayed pretty much consistantly below freezing until the 14th.
I had posted on the 14th about hanging the buckets back on the maple trees in the snow. That was Thursday. On the actual day of Valentines we only collected about 2 gallons from the 8 trees we have tapped this first year. We had snow all day on Wednesday and well below freezing temperatures. Thursday it was near 40 degrees but back below freezing Thursday night. Friday saw a wonderful day with temperatures in the 50s. Then the trees really decided to start flowing.
We collected 10 full gallons of sap Friday by noon and another 10 full gallons Friday evening around 6:00. Friday night was in the 20s and Saturday was another beautiful day in the 50s. Saturday saw another great effort on the part of the maple trees with 10 gallons again collected in the morning around 10:30 and another 10 gallons collected around 5:00 in the evening. Saturday night the temperatures stayed near 40 for a low and that apparently stopped the flow for the most part. When Matthew checked the buckets this morning there was only an inch or so in each bucket. Today was warm and rainy and not much more sap came into the buckets. Matthew went up at dark and said he probably could have filled up a 5 gallon bucket, but it was too dark by that time. We may go and get it tomorrow, but it has set out all day in warm weather (60s today) and tonight is not getting very cold. I don’t know if that sap up in the buckets on the tree will still be good.
I have been boiling the sap off and on all day Friday, Saturday, and today. I have found that it is not exactly a 50 to 1 ratio like I thought last time. It is more than 40:1 but a bit less than 50:1. I am still using 50:1 but I am having a bit more than a half pint from each 3 gallon batch of syrup, which is nice. I can fill each jar all the way to the brim and then I save the left over for another jar later. Out of the 42 gallons of sap this weekend, I have made 9 half pint jars of maple syrup so far with about 5 still to go. Six gallons of sap are boiling right now and we have about 9 gallons of sap still in waiting. And that is not counting what we left at the sugar bush, if it is still good.
I feel like I have the system of syrup making down pretty good this time. It has not been as difficult or confusing this go around. The super sweet, pure and natural, maple syrup is worth the trouble. And it has been fun, too!
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