MapleAcres

Into the woods at 4:00 PM. Washed storage tanks. Brought R/O lines to the farmhouse. Washed with bleach solution to sanitize for off-season storage. Also took down the pressure gauge on the tree.

32 overnight, but cold wind at dawn caused ice on puddles. Sunny, windy and 50 today.

On the left, first syrup of the season. On the right last syrup of the season. As the picture shows, we had outstanding quality all season. Too many seasons the “Last Syrup” is how the season starts or very soon after the season starts. No dark syrup this season.

Into the woods by 5:00 AM to finish and bottle the last half milk can of syrup. Just over 4 gallons. Season total: 56 gallons, 3 quarts. Rounding up to 57 gallons. Kept track of the total during bottling because if we bottled 3.5 gallons, we would achieve 2 pints/tap (1 quart/tap.) That’s the highest yield we’ve ever had.

Finished bottling and cleanup and back to the farmhouse by 7:45 AM.

Mid 40s overnight. Rained. By 7:15 AM we had another downpour. Rain subsided by 7:30 AM. Cloudy most of the day but sun appeared after 4:00 PM.

Back into the woods by 4:00 PM to disconnect the R/O. All lines disconnected. The R/O is draining now. Plan to bring it back the farmhouse on Friday.

Back to the farmhouse by 5:00 PM.

Into the woods by 5:00 AM. Half milk can into the finishing pan. Returned wood to the wood shed while waiting for the syrup to finish. Filtering by 6:00 AM. 4 gallons and 6 pints. Completed clean up. Back to the farmhouse by 7:45 AM.

Repeat this tomorrow with the final half milk can of syrup and get the season’s total syrup crop.

Into the woods at 3:45 PM to collect buckets and covers. It was a nice day. Sunny and up to 58. Clouds moved in by 4:00 PM, but still nice. Got all the buckets and covers in while there were dry. Too many years we’ve had rain and the buckets took too long to dry.

Back to the farmhouse by 4:45 PM.

25 overnight. Cloudy. 42 today.

Dumped a milk can into finishing pan at 7:30 AM. Then into the woods at 11:45 AM to finish and bottle another milk can of syrup. A little darker, but still Grade A, Amber color, Rich taste. Very nice syrup.

Two more half milk cans of syrup to finish and bottle. We’ll bottle them early in the morning this coming week.

Back to the farmhouse by 3:00 PM.

Into the woods by 7:30 AM to finish another milk can of syrup. Bottled a pint less then 8 gallons.

After bottling, started the evaporator to finish the last of the sap. It’s a big batch: around 5 gallons. Projecting 55-57 gallons when all the syrup is bottled.

37 overnight. Cloudy most of the day. Temperature dropped during the day. Snow flurries and wind by 10:30 AM. But no accumulation. The forecast wasn’t accurate. But it was blustery and cold. Temperature forecast for the teens tonight.

Bottle tomorrow again. Back to the farmhouse by 2:45 PM.

Into the woods by 6:00 AM to start disconnecting the R/O. The membrane is out and half he lines disconnected. Back to the farmhouse by 6:45 AM.

40 and rain overnight. Cloudy all day with periods of rain. 45. A few bolts of lightning and thunder. Often predicts more snow. 1”-3” of snow forecast for Friday night to Saturday afternoon.

Bottle tomorrow and plan to finish all the sap from the evaporator while the flue pan has water and cleaning soluiton.

12 overnight. Glad we emptied the evaporator flue pan yesterday or the sap would have froze. Sunny most of the day. Up to 37. Clouds moved in late afternoon. Rain and rain/snow mix forecast for tonight and tomorrow.

Last year the season was just getting started.

Into the woods by 5:00 AM to work on emptying the evaporator. Got the fire going. Getting this boil right is important to emptying the evaporator. You have to fire enough to boil down the sap so there’s not much left, but can’t over fire and burn the pans. We did well. There’s about 13 gallons left to finish. We’ll fill the flue pan with water while we finish the syrup on the front pan.

Light snow started by 4:30 AM. Lasted until 5:30 AM. Got 1/2” of light fluffy snow. Then it got colder. Half the buckets were still up and they were filled with sap. The cold was going to make them full of ice. Had to get them down and emptied. Started by 7:00 AM. Had them all down and emptied by 7:45 AM. Back to the farmhouse by 8:00 AM.

Returned to the syrup building late this afternoon. Emptied the evaporator. Took off the flue pan and rinsed it. Replaced it. Remaining syrup is ready to cook down. Back to the farmhouse by 5:00 PM.

Most seasons we fight for every sap run and drop of sap. Today we dumped many full buckets as we started taking down taps. It felt off, but the sap wasn’t sweet to the taste. And the hydrometer showed 1 Brix when testing the sap. This reinforces that ending the season is the right decision.

Into the woods by 4:00 PM to start pulling taps. Half down.

29 overnight. Sunny and 42 today. The trees dripped well. Likely 350 to 400 gallons of sap because many buckets were full.

Back to the farmhouse by 5:00 PM.