MapleAcres

Into the woods by 4:30 AM to cook. Only 85 gallons of sap, but since we had the R/O setup we used it. Had to rinse the R/O before starting because we didn’t run the rinse cycle the day before.

Couldn’t get rolling boils because we didn’t have enough sap. Kept the fire smaller. Still boiled, but not as hard so it still took us 4 hours to finish. Took a final batch off at 8:00 AM because it was getting too close to syrup. It would have crystallized or worse, burnt, if we left it in the evaporator. Fired enough to get it done, but not leave much fire and heat under the evaporator. When the batch was complete, the concentrate tank was empty and the fire low. Only about 3/4” left in evaporator. This makes emptying the evaporator for the last boil easier.

The day cooking.
5:05 R/O start
5:45 batch
6:05 R/O done
6:05 3.25”
7:00 3.00”
7:30 batch
7:30 1.75”
8:00 batch
8:15 done

Back to the farmhouse by 8:30 AM.

Into the woods by 4:30 AM to cook. Back to the farmhouse by 8:30 AM. The aroma changed from the nice maple aroma to a steamy maple aroma. That’s a sign the season is ending. Sunny and up to 65.

Back into the woods by 2:30 PM to collect the tail-end of the weekend run. Another 85 gallons. But that’s the end. With higher temperatures the sap doesn’t keep. Back to the farmhouse by 4:30 PM.

The day cooking.
4:45 R/O start
6:00 batch
6:15 R/O done
6:15 4.75”
6:55 batch
7:00 3.75”
7:30 2.5”
8:00 batch
8:00 0.75”
8:30 done

We got the anticipated run. 26 overnight. 52 and sunny until late afternoon. Warmed quickly. And the trees dripped into the night. 130 gallons of nice clear sap at 2 Brix. When finished, we’ll be approaching 38 gallons. Some taps are dry while others on the same tree had a full bucket. Late in the season that’s expected. Started collecting at 2:45 PM. Done by 3:25 PM.

Into the woods by 7:30 AM to finish and bottle another milk can of syrup. Discovered the propane tank is empty when the burners on the finishing pan went out just after lighting. Not sure how we were able to finish bottling yesterday. We’ll get another tank of propane tomorrow then finish and bottle later in the week.

Tomorrow morning we cook.

Bottled today. Just over 8 gallons. Nice syrup with a lighter color.

Into the woods by 7:30 AM. Syrup on by 8:15 AM. Ready to filter by 9:30 AM. Done bottling by 11:00 AM. Back to the farmhouse by 11:30 AM after clean up. We’ll do it tomorrow again with another milk can of syrup.

30 overnight. Snow again. About 1/4”. Everything is white again. -6 PSI on the trees then up to 6 PSI before the pressure dropped a few PSI. Cloudy most of the day with sun late afternoon. Temperature up to 40 but cold North East wind. 29 forecast for tonight. We’ll collect tomorrow. That could be the last collection.

35 overnight with light rain. Cloudy and 40 today with rain and snow showers. Felt colder than 40.

Into the woods by 4:30 AM to cook. Expected a light day. Had a problem with the R/O. The hose connecting the wash tank to the R/O pump wasn’t sealing tight. The pump sucked in air. Speculated it was a hairline fracture in the PVC fitting connecting the hose to the wash tank. Searched around the building for a replacement fitting; we have a large collection of unused fittings around the building. Its a 1” nipple with threads on one end and barbs on the other. Didn’t have a spare. Fortunately, the leak wasn’t enough to disrupt the R/O, but it was noticeable because there were bubbles in the hoses. The R/O completed the without incident but we were concerned about future use including the wash cycle. Then we found a 1” brass nipple from an unused fitting we used to use on transfer pump. Swapped the brass fitting with PVC. We now had tight seal and the wash cycle completed without air leaks.

We inspected the PVC fitting. Didn’t find any fractures but the fitting did have a gouge on the barrel. It seemed slight but must have been deep enough to prevent a good seal. The brass fitting is better then PVC.

Four small batches into the milk can. Because we had less sap, we didn’t fire hard. Enough to boil and cook, but not enough to run out of sap concentrate.

The day cooking.
4:50 R/O started
6:15 batch
6:20 R/O done
6:20 4.25″
6:45 batch
7:00 3.5″
7:20 batch
7:30 2.5″
7:55 batch
8:00 0.75″
8:15 done

Back to the farmhouse by 8:15 AM.

Into the woods at 7:00 AM to finish and bottle a milk can of syrup. Filtering by 8:00 AM. Finished by 9:15 AM. After cleanup, back to the farmhouse by 10:00 AM. Two more milk cans to bottle. Plan to bottle again this weekend.

Into the woods again by 2:30 PM to collect. 110 gallons. Back to the farmhouse by 4:30 PM. This sap should put us at an average crop for the season when all the sap is cooked and evaporator empty.

Still hoping for a run this weekend when the temperature drops to 28/29 overnight.

40 overnight. Cloudy with sprinkles today. Up to 45.

41 and rain overnight. Rain early in the day. Sun appeared briefly by 10:30 AM. Temperature up to 52.

Unexpectedly there was some sap. Considered collecting. Not because the buckets will run over, but to keep the sap fresh. But it’s cold enough and not sunny so the sap should keep for tomorrow.

Friday night and Saturday night are forecast for 28/29. Maybe we get a weekend run.

Taps out 5 weeks now. Last week at this time it looked like an historically poor season. Now we project we have 90% of the crop. Sap has to move: trees need it for food to bring out the leaves. With one more run we could get an average season.

34 overnight. Cloudy most of the day until late with temperature up top 45. Rain forecast for tonight.

Into the woods by 4:00 AM. Sap to 7 Brix with the R/O. The R/O has a small spigot for testing Brix. We tasted sap from it. Hadn’t tried that before. It’s sweet.

The day cooking.
4:30 R/O start
5:45 batch
6:40 R/O done
6:40 5.25” concentrate
7:30 4.0”
7:35 batch
8:05 batch
8:30 1.0”
8:50 done

Back to the farmhouse by 9:00 AM.

33 overnight with snow starting around 3:00 AM. 1/2” accumulation. Then changed to rain around 9:00 AM. Cloudy and up to 42. Snow melted.

Into the woods at 2:30 PM to collect. Started and 2:55 PM. Done by 3:25 PM. 205 gallons. Considered collecting yesterday but the trees were still dripping slowly so wanted to get the whole run. If the weather was warmer and sunny we would have collected yesterday to keep the sap fresh. But with cooler weather felt we could wait a day.

With this sap we are at 92% of an average crop. This is based on an historical yield of 1.3 pints/tap.

Cleaned the syrup pan. Ran a rinse cycle on the R/O. Ready to cook in the morning. Back to the farmhouse by 4:30 PM.

Into the woods at 6:45 AM. Washed the syrup pan. Then got the R/O running. Had to get reacquainted with it since we didn’t use it last season. It had a squeak we didn’t recognize, but cleared after a few minutes. No leaks. Took the sap to 7 Brix. Took about 3 hours to process 285 gallons. That’s 90 gallons per hour. We should get 100-115 gallons per hour. Not sure why it wasn’t processing more per hour.

The evaporator is very sweet now. It took about 45 minutes between batches. At the end of the day we processed a final batch in 30 minutes.

This syrup looks lighter. We used a separate milk can so we can bottle some lighter syrup.

The day cooking.
7:45 R/O starts
10:00 batch
10:50 batch
11:00 R/O finishes
11:00 5.5” of concentrate
11:45 batch
12:00 3.0” of concentrate
12:20 batch
12:50 batch
1:00 done

We calculated it would take 15 hours to cook old school. We finished in 6 hours using the R/O. Glad we put into service.

34 overnight, although puddles had a slight layer of ice. Cloudy and 42 today. 2” of snow forecast overnight. Plan to collect tomorrow. The trees were still slowly dripping with some buckets ½ full.

Back to the farmhouse by 1:00 PM.