Category: 2012: Season 95

Today was mostly sunny, but cold.  Low of 20 overnight.  Up to only 35 this afternoon.  Took a long time to warm up today. 

We worked on setting up the storage tanks and evaporator this morning.  The tanks were easy.  They are stainless steel and just need a rinse.  The stainless steel evaporator pans are heavy.  Fortunately we had help.  Moving them solo is quite the task.  We did run into problems with our pipes from the storage tanks to the evaporator.   We did not check them carefully.  Turns out lady bugs used them for home over the summer and blocked the pipes.  The sap flow into the evaporator was very restricted and would have caused problems.   We had to take down the pipes and flush them out.  The second time they were fine with a normal sap flow.

The smoke stack on the evaporator is getting bad.  We think we can patch it for this season, but it will need to be replaced for next season.  

The sap in the collecting tank did not freeze.  It takes sustained cold for several days to freeze 200 gallons of liquid.

Everything was ready by 3:30 PM to start fire under the evaporator.   And by 3:55 PM we had the first boil in the evaporator.  

The sap tested at 2 Brix, 2% sugar.  That is normal.  At 2% sugar it takes 42 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup.

We boiled for two hours tonight.  We will finish tomorrow. It takes around 10 hours to boil down 200 gallons of sap.  Another reason for the R/O.  With the R/O we should cut the boiling time for 200 gallons to around  three hours. 

There is a good change we will have syrup tomorrow.    The weather is forecast to be around 40, windy and partly cloudy.

Woke this morning to snow.   We got about 3” overnight.  That was unexpected.   Everything is snow covered and a nice white replaces the browns.   It was down to about 29 overnight and up to 34 during the day.  Cloudy all day.

Checked on the R/O shipment.  Its still in transit.  It should arrive at the dealer on Monday and arrive here by Wednesday or Thursday. 

After lunch started cleaning up the syrup building.  Swept the floor and cleaned the cobwebs.  Assembled the burners on the finishing pan and bottling pan.  We should have almost a full tank of propane gas left from last season.

About 2:00 PM we checked some buckets.  We were expecting some sap as the trees were running after we tapped.  And ice since it was down to 15 the other night.  What we found was quite a few full buckets from the first 200 taps we put out on Tuesday and Wednesday.  So now we had to quickly prepare the collecting tank.  It needed washing after sitting for a year.    About 3:00 PM we went out collecting.  By 5:30 PM we had 200 gallons.  We covered about half the woods with the first taps from Tuesday and Wednesday.   There is more sap in the 200 taps we put out yesterday but we don’t have any place to put it  and it was getting dark.  So that will stay in the buckets until Saturday or even Sunday if the ice does not melt. 

Since the storage tanks are not setup the sap is staying in the collecting tank overnight.  We tried to wrap in plastic to hold in some heat to keep it from freezing overnight.  It has to get pretty cold to freeze 200 gallons.  The forecast is for a low of 23.

Tomorrow we prepare the storage tanks and evaporator and start boiling.

It was down to 15 last night.  Colder then expected.  The day broke sunny but became cloudy by late afternoon.   A little cooler today: only up to 38.  About 200 miles south around Chicago a snowstorm is forecast to drop 6-9 inches of snow.  We will miss that.   

Had help today so we were able to get out 200 taps.  We did three batches this morning of 50, 30 and 40 taps.  After lunch we washed more buckets and then did 80 more taps.  Total now should be 400 taps.  We were back in the house by 4:30 PM.  And no buckets to wash tonight!

We are waiting for piece of equipment to arrive.  One of our biggest constraints is firewood.   We burn between 10 and 12 cords of wood a year.  Making up the wood takes time that we don’t have.  So we are investing in a Reverse Osmosis machine (R/O).   The R/O takes in fresh sap and pumps it under pressure through a fine membrane that separates the sugar solution from the water.  The larger sugar molecules do not pass through the membrane so we end up with a concentrated sugar solution and distilled water.  In a lot of R/O applications the water is the end product people want and the concentrate is the waste.  With maple syrup its the opposite:  we want the sugar concentrate and the water is the waste.  Although we have uses for the water for cleaning and even drinking as the “waste” water is potable. 

It takes about 42 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup at 2% sugar.   The R/O can concentrate to 7% sugar which reduces the ratio to 12 gallons of sap concentrate to make one gallon of syrup.  About 30 gallons of water are removed before the sap ever goes into the evaporator.  That is 30 gallons of water that do not need to boil away.  And with less boiling we use less wood.   Our hope is to reduce the wood burned to around three cords.  That would mean a full wood shed would last for four years rather than one year.

But we are still waiting for the R/O to arrive.  We ordered from a company in Quebec. (Quebec  makes lots of maple syrup.)  We ordered the R/O in the beginning of October 2011.  Last we heard it shipped February 15,  but has not arrived yet.  That is disappointing and frustrating because the R/O is a large part of our strategy for making maple syrup in the future.

As the season goes on we will revisit the R/O topic to cover when it arrives, gets setup,  and as we learn to use it.

150 more taps out.  200 total taps now.  Sap moved well today.  It was down to about 29 last night.  Sunny today with high around 40.   Tonight will freeze again, but there is a chance of snow showers tomorrow. 

Started the day washing more buckets.  Finished the day yesterday washing buckets too.   The buckets are not completely dry when we take them into the woods.  But that’s OK as they will get wet with sap and weather.  If we were storing them, then the buckets need to be completely dry so they don’t rust. 

When tapping solo, you have to visit each tree four times.  First visit is with the tapper to drill the whole.  Next visit is to set the spout.  Third visit is to hang the bucket and the forth visit is to place  the cover on the bucket.    That’s a lot of walking during the day.    We usually do 15-20 taps at a time so you get into a rhythm with drilling, followed by setting the spout and then the bucket and cover.   Takes about 2 hours to get 50 taps up.  Of course there will be more visits to the tree when it comes time to collect.

The calendar says its about three weeks early, but the weather pattern of freezing nights and sunny days is here now.  Its been warm all winter.  12” to 15” total of snow.  Average snowfall is around 60”.  Rivers barely froze.   Unusual and troubling.  We are very concerned about this maple syrup season.  And we are concerned about future seasons if this pattern starts to re-occur.   Because of the warm winter sap has been moving in the trees for much of the winter.  

Today was over cast and rainy with a few snow showers.  High temperature of 37.  But the previous week was sunny with freezing nights and days in the high 30s to low 40s.   That is certainty maple weather no matter what the calendar says.

So we started tapping on February 21.  This is among the earliest dates we have ever tapped.  We have to check the records but in past 20 years it has not been this early.   Neighboring producers tapped a few days ago.  We had to clear our schedule before coming but would have liked to tap last week.

The flight in from Washington, DC was uneventful.  But there was little snow on the ground.  Past years the snow covered ground looked pretty from the air plane.   Today it was just brown with a few patches of snow.  Our woods is petty much snow free.   It looks like the end of the season.

Got to the farmhouse by 2:15 PM.  By 3:15 had 50 buckets washed.  We washed all the spouts during the Christmas holiday so at least that was ready.  Out to the woods with the tractor and buckets to begin tapping.  By 5:15 PM we had 50 taps out.  The sap is moving.  This evening we washed about 125 more so we are ready for tomorrow.  

As with any agricultural activity, you have to have faith because we have no control over the critical factors that determine production.   So we will see what this season brings. 

In the coming days we will tell about the activities and plans of the off-season.