Sugar Time 2020

I guess I didn't post a blog entry about my backyard maple sugaring last year (2019). It was another early year, once again I tapped my trees in January and was done by early March. I boiled sap on three very cold days and ended up with  2 1/4 gallons of syrup.

Day 1: This year, my eighth year of backyard maple sugaring, it seemed like winter was never going to get here. I tapped six trees on Friday February 21st, but because of rainy and windy weather, I didn't get out to boil until Monday March 2nd. By then I had about forty gallons of sap collected. I managed to boil down 35 gallons of sap (a new PR) to make 3 1/2 quarts of syrup (also a PR) in eleven hours of fun filled (read back breaking) maple sugaring. I may be getting too old for this. I think two days of boiling will be enough for me this year.

Day 2: Sunday March, 8 Today I boiled down 25 gallons of sap to make a little more than a half gallon of syrup, then I pulled my taps. I only wanted to spend two days boiling this year, turns that's all the sap I got any way. We didn't have very many cold nights this winter. I could have tapped my trees a week earlier and gotten another day in I guess. Total this year one gallon plus three and a half pints of syrup.


2018 Maple Sugaring Blog

2017 Maple Sugaring Blog

2016 Maple Sugaring Blog

2015 Maple Sugaring Blog

2014 Maple Sugaring Blog

2013 Maple Sugaring Blog

Backyard Maple Sugaring 2018

Wed. Jan. 31, 2018 - Day 1, Year 6:
I tapped seven trees last Wednesday January 24th, the earliest I've ever started my backyard sugaring. Today, one week later, I started boiling. This was not only the earliest I've boiled but also the coldest day I've spent hunched over my homemade evaporator. I brought three buckets of, mostly frozen, sap inside the night before so I would have some warm liquid to start with. I started the fire at 7am, (the air  temperature was 18 degrees) by 7:30 I had a good boil and by 4:30 I had boiled 30 gallons of sap down to 2 1/2 quarts of syrup.


Tues. Feb. 6, 2018 - Day 2, Year 6:
A little warmer today, but not much. 23 degrees at 6:45 am, high for the day was around 32. It started snowing around 10 am so I threw up a pop up canopy over my evaporator; a real home, not too far away, from home. I boiled 30 gallons of sap in 10 1/2 hours. The yield was 2 quarts plus 1 cup of syrup. I'm really tired right now.

Tues. Feb 13, 2018 Day 3, Year 6:
I collected 40 gallons of sap over the past week. I boiled down 30 gallons today in about 11 hours. The yield was 2 1/2 quarts of syrup. I still have about 10 gallons plus whatever is in my buckets, maybe another 5 or 6 gallons, but very little wood left, so unless I scrounge up a pile of wood in the next few days, I'll be done for this year. Total for the year; 90 gallons of sap boiled, over 31 hours, for 7 1/4 quarts of syrup.

Thurs. Feb 15, 2018 Day 4, Year:
I picked up some good sized oak branches the power company left along the roadside last summer. They had been lying on the ground throughout the fall and winter, so they were fairly wet. I cut them up, split the bigger ones, and stripped the bark and wet sap wood. Once I had a hot fire going I warmed them up around the edges of my evaporator. It took a couple hours to get a strong boil, but I managed to cook up another 2 quarts plus a cup of syrup over another ten hour day. I'm done. Nine and a half quarts of syrup, 120 gallons of sap, and 41 hours of boiling.



2017 Maple Sugaring Blog

2016 Maple Sugaring Blog

2015 Maple Sugaring Blog

2014 Maple Sugaring Blog

2013 Maple Sugaring Blog

Backyard Maple Sugaring 2017

Monday morning Annalee and I tapped seven sugar maples in our yard to kick off my fifth year of backyard maple sugaring. By the end of the week I had collected about 25 gallons of sap, so Friday was my first day of boiling.

Friday February 17, 2017 - Day 1, Year 5:
Cold and clear at 6 am in Rocky Point. At 25 degrees with 15 mph winds, wind chill 14, and 8 inches of snow still on the ground, it was a Frosty Morn' for sure. I got started around 6:30 and had a good boil going by 7 am. I averaged about 2 1/2 gallons an hour on my homemade evaporator and brought the syrup in to the kitchen for the final boil around 4:30 pm. They say you should get one gallon of syrup for every 40 gallons of sap, it seems to be more like a 50 to 1 ratio form me, my trees, and my evaporator. I ended up with a little less than a half gallon (7 1/2 cups) of Long Island Maple Syrup from my 25 gallons and ten hours of toiling over the hot stove.

Tuesday February 21, 2017 - Day 2, Year 5 
Cold, clear and calm, mid to high 20s at 6:30 am. Disappointing sap flow the last two days, only collected about 2 gallons, but good flow Saturday and Sunday. Today I boiled about 22 gallons of sap in 9 hours to yield 4 1/2 pints of syrup. The weather forecast for the next ten days doesn't look good for sap flow, night time temps are predicted to stay above freezing all week. This year was the earliest I tapped my trees, but conditions were good (nights below freezing, days above) a couple weeks earlier. I hope I didn't wait too long.

Monday March 6, 2017 - Day 3, Year 5
One of my trees started flowing brown sap last week, I pulled the tap and put a second tap in a big tree that was producing well, even so it took nearly two weeks to collect 15 gallons of sap. First it got too warm then too cold. Went out at 7am this morning, all the sap in my buckets was frozen solid. The sap I had in my barrel was encased in about four inches of ice. I manage to get about five gallons of liquid to start my boil and had it all thawed by 11:30. I brought the syrup in to finish the boiling on the stove at 1:30. Six hours of boiling yielded one quart of syrup that tastes a little off, slightly less sweet. Buddy?, or just because some of the sap was two weeks old? Oh well, I pulled my taps today, so I ended up with one gallon plus five cups of syrup including today's iffy batch which will be used for cooking only. I only collected about 70 gallons of sap this year. Although this was the earliest I ever tapped my trees, I was apparently still two weeks too late. Chalk it up to global warming, I guess.



2016 Maple Sugaring Blog

2015 Maple Sugaring Blog

2014 Maple Sugaring Blog

2013 Maple Sugaring Blog

Backyard Micro Maple Sugaring 2016

First Drop - photo by Rick Jackofsky

February 20, 2016 - Day 1, Year 4: Sugar season came early to Long Island this year. I tapped 7 trees on Wednesday morning. I actually could have started a week earlier, when we had above freezing daytime temperatures, but I decided to wait until the predicted cold snap and rain storm passed. The sap flow has been prodigious. I collected about 40 gallons from my 7 taps between Wednesday and Saturday. I got an early 7am start this morning and worked 'til about 5 pm. It was a beautiful day, temps in the 50s, and I had a good supply of seasoned wood. I estimated that I boiled down about 30 gallons of sap. I was expecting a yield of 2 1/2 to 3 quarts of syrup, but was disappointed to only end up with 2 quarts plus a few ounces.

Movin' to the Pantry - photo by Rick Jackofsky

February 22, 2016 - Day 2, Year 4: I did a short day of boiling today since I won't be able to get back out till Friday or Saturday. Another pleasant day, sunny with temps in the high 40s. I only collected about two gallons of sap today, I guess it didn't get cold enough last night for a good flow. All told I boiled about 20 gallons of sap in 6 hours for a yield of 3 pints of canned syrup and another 1/2 cup for the fridge. A little less than a gallon so far this season. I'm not getting as much syrup per gallon this year. I wonder if the lower sugar content is because of the unusually warm, short winter.

February 28, 2016 - Day 3, Year 4: Weird weather this week. On Tuesday the temperature shot up to 60 degrees and we got hit with a big thunder storm.  A three foot square 3/4" piece of plywood was blown off my evaporator and landed about 20 feet away. My sap collection barrel got blown over. It only had about five gallons of sap in it, but still must have weighed about 40 pounds. A wooden swinging glider that weighs about 40 or 50 pounds was also blown over; yet my barrel of kindling and an empty recycling bin stood firm. ???? With the warm temperatures this week sap flow was pretty much nonexistent, but the sap started flowing again on Friday and I managed to collect about 22 gallons of sap over the weekend. On Sunday (sunny & 60 degrees) I boiled it down (7hrs) for a yield of three pints of syrup.

Watching the Pot - photo by Georgianne Jackofsky

March 7, 2016 - Day 4, Year 4: Today was my last day of boiling. I pulled my taps and boiled down 28 gallons of sap to yield  a few ounces more than a half gallon of syrup in a nine hour day.

2016 Totals:
7 trees tapped
100 gallons of sap collected
32 hours of boiling
2 gallons of maple syrup

2015 Maple Sugaring Blog

2014 Maple Sugaring Blog

2013 Maple Sugaring Blog

2016 Syrup Supply - photo by Rick Jackofsky

Backyard Maple Sugaring - 2014

Backyard Cinder Block Maple Syrup Evaporator

March 11, 2014 Day 1:
Year two of maple sugaring, finally the weather cooperates, today I boiled down 30 gallons of sap and bottled three quarts of grade A Long Island maple syrup. I was much better prepared this year than I was for my inaugural attempt last year. This time around I had a good supply of dried, seasoned, fire wood and some proper pans with plenty of surface area. It was also a beautiful sunny day with temps in the 60s so I was working in jeans and a tee shirt. A good day to boil sap. One more day of boiling and we'll be good 'til next year. How sweet it is!


March 15, 2014 Day 2:
It was a lot colder today than Tuesday, more of a traditional sugaring day. I managed to collect 20-25 gallons of sap between Tuesday and today (Sunday.) This was enough to keep me busy for  about eight hours of boiling and yielded two plus quarts of tasty maple syrup. The finished syrup seems to be a little darker than last year, maybe because of the hotter fire and increased volume?, but tastes just as good.


March 21, 2014 Day 3: 
Day 3 once again yielded a little more than two quarts of syrup, but it took a lot longer than day 2. I think my sap may have gotten contaminated with rain water. I was also getting down to bottom of my wood pile and the wood was a little damp which made it much harder to keep the fire hot and the boil steady. This brings my total for the season up to a little less than two gallons. Unless I come across a pile of nice dry wood this weekend, I will probably pull my taps this week and move on to the next project.

Snow in Rocky Point March 31, 2014

April 1, 2014 Day 4: 
Nearly a month later than I pulled my taps last year I still had three trees producing sap, so I covered my buckets with plastic bags and  waited for the rain to end. After three days of rain, and a surprise snow storm that left four inches of snow on the ground, I had collected  about 10 or 12 gallons of sap. Today was a beautiful day with bright sun and temps in the 50s, so I pulled my taps and boiled down a quart, plus a half cup, of syrup. This brings my total for the season up to two gallons and one pint.


 photos by Rick Jackofsky

2013 Sugaring Blog
2015 Sugaring Blog 
2016 Sugaring Blog