Category: 2018: Season 101 Page 4 of 6

Into the woods at 6:45 AM.  Even with the syrup pan washed and ready it still took an hour to prepare for cooking.  The storage tank pipes were frozen and needed the heat gun to thaw out.  The pipe into the evaporator was also frozen at the  outlet valve into the evaporator.  It was 9:00 AM before we could commence production firing.

R/O from 7:45 AM to 1:15 PM.  6 Brix.  Doing a soap wash to see if we can get back to 7 Brix.

From the first batch we had nitre on the bottom of syrup pan.  Lots of nitre.  Typically we get a nitre buildup by the end of the day and don’t have nitre most of the boiling day. Nitre disrupts the boiling causing very fine, golden bubbles.  It will boil over if not watched and stirred.  Stirring helps dissipate the heat.  This boiling pattern slows down the overall cooking time: we can not fire as hard and have to have deeper sap levels in the evaporator.    We still managed to finishing firing by 5:15 PM.  440 gallons processed.  Five batches into the milk can.  The batches were a little bigger so there was more than an hour between them.  But still filled the milk can.  Back to the farmhouse by 5:45 PM.

18 overnight again.  Sunny all day but the temperature barely got above freezing.   The sun was warm and sap is likely moving in the trees.  By 3:00 PM there was some slow dripping.  By 5:45 PM it was 28 already so that stopped any dripping.

22 overnight.  Partly sunny and cold in the morning.  At 11:30 AM everything frozen yet.  But 1:30 PM  sun warmed the trees.    Temperature 35.

The trees started dripping yesterday afternoon and ran into the evening.  It didn’t freeze until after 8:00 PM yesterday.  They resumed dripping from yesterday afternoon around Noon.  By 1:30 PM the ice melted enough to collect.  Headed out at 3:00 PM.  The weather was perfect for sap:  sunny, upper 30s.    Collected 440 gallons.  A Good Run.

Forecast for the next week looks like text book conditions for sap.

Got a new mop for cleaning the collection tank.  It fits through the opening on the tank allowing use to absorb all the wash water.  We had to reach in with a rag before to absorb water.  Cold on the hands.

Cleaned the syrup pan last night while waiting for the pump to empty the collecting tank.  That gives us a head start on the day tomorrow.  Also cleared ice from the hose feeding the R/O from the storage tank.  Should  be ready for a good day cooking.

Down to 10.  Sunny but warmed slowly.  At 10:00 AM everything frozen yet.  By 1:30 PM temperature up to 35.  Trees started to drip.  By 4:00 it was up to mid 40s.    The trees will drip into the night until it freezes again.  Maybe tomorrow we can collect.

Into the woods by 6:30 AM.  Back to farmhouse at 4:30 PM.  400 gallons cooked.  Started the R/O by 7:45 AM.  Finished by 12:15 PM.  When pumping out the 175 from the collecting tank the hose into the storage tank popped up causing sap to miss the tank.  Lost 20-25 gallons of sap.

Steam did not rise today.  It hung low in the building making it hard to see the sap level in the evaporator.   It was challenging to keep the level consistent.  There is an outlet on the far side of the pan that we use to gauge the sap level.  Try to keep the level at ½ to ¾  of the outlet.  Because of the steam we could not see it well.  Had to use the scoop several times to measure the level.  And the steam makes everything wet when it condenses.

25 overnight.  Partly sunny and 30 with a cold North wind.   Tomorrow looks promising.

About 30 overnight.  Snowed about a half inch.  A nice white coating on everything.  Sunny upper 30s today.  The sap dripped.  We went out collecting at 3:00 PM.  Picked up 400 gallons at 3° Brix.  There was ice in the buckets that we dumped giving the higher Brix.  Ice it nature’s R/O.  About 2:00 PM it turned cloudy.  A few snow flurries.  By 5:00 PM it cleared and started getting colder.   Forecast tonight is 20s.  Tomorrow’s high around 30.

Got a new pair of buckle boots.  They are not fancy but very practical.  Keep the feet warm and dry.

Tomorrow we cook again.

The house felt cold waking up this morning at 4:45 AM.  Went to turn on a light.  Didn’t come on.  Started to realize it seemed quite dark.  No yard light.  Checked other windows: neighbor’s yard lights also not on.    Power outage.  How long was the power out and how is the R/O handling it?  The R/O is not supposed to freeze.   We keep it in an insulated and heated room but with no power the heater won’t run.  The clocks were stopped at 1:56 AM.  It was now 5:10 AM.  Power out for about three hours.

Into the woods to check the R/O.    It was 8 outside.  The thermometer in the R/O room showed 33/32.  Getting cold but the R/O doesn’t become an ice cube at 32.  It would take several hours at the mid 20s to freeze it.  Contacted the power company.  They estimated power restored by 6:45 AM.  Sunrise was coming about 6:15 AM.  That provides a warming sun.   At 5:30 AM decided to maintain the status quo.   Unless the temperature of the R/O room  dropped into the mid to low 20s the R/O was going to be okay until sunrise and the power was restored.   Power came on at 6:10 AM.   Checked the R/O about 8:00 AM.   Temperature already about 50 in the R/O room.

Into the woods to get the filter press.  The pump plunger broke yesterday.  The collar holding it on is made of plastic.  As the hot syrup passes through the pump, the plastic becomes soft.  This causes the pump handle and plunger  to move out of alignment.  The plunger rubbed against the collar and wore through.   We replaced this pump last year.  We kept the old pump for parts.  And the old pump had a metal collar which is not affected by heat.   Swapped collars.

Into the woods by 11:00 AM to finish and bottle.  Had a problem with filtering.  We put a partial batch back into the milk can yesterday.  We did not account for the filter aid already mixed in.  Added the normal amount of filter aid, but this now proved too much.   Stopped half way through filtering to replace the papers.  This gets messy but it worked and we finished filtering the batch.  Back to the house 2:30 PM.

35 and sunny today.  Trees started dripping around 1:00 PM. The trees take a long time to warm up when its 8 overnight and any sap in the buckets is ice.   Possible flurries tonight.  Hopefully not as cold.

We focused on our finishing and bottling process to improve it.  Three changes:  new propane burners, new fill spout, new bottle caps.  It paid off.

The propane burners under the finishing pan were old.  Likely from the 40s or 50s.  It would take 2 ½ hours to finish a milk can of syrup.  We replaced the 3 burner with a new 3 burner.   Each burner is rated at 15,000 BTU per hour.  We’ll never get 100% efficiency out of it but we were hoping for an improvement in cooking time, possibility saving of 50% of the time.  Today we finished a milk can of syrup in 1 hr 15 min.  These burners give a nice rolling boil.  We were lucky to get a moderate boil on two burners with a weak boil on the third.  One of the cast iron burners cracked several years ago and was held together with wire.  It was past time to replace it.  New burners should make finishing less time consuming.

In the bottling kitchen we replaced the old stove with a new 2 burner.  Freed up a lot of space making it  easier to access the bottling pan for emptying in a milk can of syrup.

We replaced the fill spout on the bottling pan.  No More Bubbles! We had used a coffer pot fill spout with a long tube that almost reached the bottom of the bottles.  We had bubbles when we filled bottles.  Our theory was the long tube caused turbulence and that caused bubbles.  The new fill spout is short: maybe an inch.  And when turned off, its off.  The coffee pot spout was prone to keep running as the long tube drained.  After a little experimenting, we found that tipping the bottle about 30 degrees so the  fill stream ran against the side of bottle allowed us to fill at good speed without bubbles.  We are thrilled with eliminating bubbles.  Bubbles didn’t hurt the syrup, but they didn’t look nice on top of finished syrup.

Finally, new no drip caps on the bottles. The caps are plastic with an tear drop shaped lip.  They won’t stop all drips, but most drips are arrested making pouring syrup from the bottle more pleasant.  Otherwise syrup would accumulate on the screw top causing even more drips and fouling the threads of  screw top.

5 overnight.  35 and sunny.  But it takes a long time to warm when its 5.  Sap moved in the trees but we didn’t get much dripping.

Into the woods by 9:00 AM.  Back to the farmhouse by 6:30 PM.  Finished and bottled three batches of syrup: 17 gallons, 1 qt total.

20 overnight.  35 but warmed slowly.  Sunny most of the day.  Sap likely moving in the trees but froze as it hit the cold air.  By Sunday we return to upper 30s.

Bottling tomorrow.  We have three milk cans of syrup.

18 overnight. Lite flurries this morning.  Partly cloudy.  Up to 35 but felt cold.  No activity with the trees.  Tomorrow’s forecast is repeat of today.

After we collected Monday the trees must have continued dripping until later when the snow started.   Buckets have a quart of sap.  All frozen now.

18 overnight.  30 and sunny this morning.  Turned cloudy after 2:00 PM.  Flurries after 5:00 PM.

So glad we collected on Monday and cooked on Tuesday.

An observation: using the wheel barrel to get wood from the woodshed makes the task less tedious.  You can only carry 6-8 pieces by hand which means many trips through the day.  The wheel barrel can hold three times that resulting in less trips back and forth from the woodshed.