MapleAcres

Snow overnight. Less than ½” but everything was snow covered. Sunny, but a little colder today, only 37. Had second thoughts about taking down the buckets because it felt like there should be sap today. Of course we were correct to take down the buckets. No sap. A few trees tried to run, but nothing significant.

Into the woods by 7:30 AM to empty the evaporator and finish all the sap. Had the pans emptied, rinsed and back on the evaporator by 9:30 AM. There was 15 gallons of sap to finish. It took until 1:45 PM to finish cooking it. The last batch was about 2 gallons. Bigger then expected. We isolated it into a separate milk can again because it’s much darker then the other syrup. We’ll bottle it separately.

Back to the farmhouse by 2:00 PM.

Into the woods by 6:45 AM to cook. Getting this cook right makes finishing up easier. Three batches into the milk can. Then simmer until we have a very low level of sap left in the evaporator. Looks like we nailed it. Should have less than 20 gallons to cook. This goes into the milk cans. The big flu pan is filled with water and cleaning solution while using the syrup pan to finish.

The day cooking.
8:00 AM 8 ¼”
8:45 AM batch
9:00 AM 6 ¼”
10:00 AM 4 ½”
10:35 AM batch
11:00 AM 2 ¾”
11:30 AM 1 ¾”
11:50 AM batch
12:00 PM ½”
1:00 PM done simmering to low level in evaporator

Running another wash cycle on the R/O even though we didn’t use the R/O today. This is to prepare the membrane for the off-season. We’ll again send the membranes to professional cleaning.

As forecast, it started raining this afternoon.

Back to the farmhouse by 1:15 PM.

Unless something spectacular happens, the season is ending. After two nights of upper twenties and sunny days, the trees aren’t dripping. We went out collecting at 3:00 PM. Picked up sap that looked good dumped the rest. Got 70 gallons. We won’t use the R/O to cook it. Rain forecast for tomorrow. Weekend forecast shows freezing nights again, however we aren’t expecting sap because we didn’t get sap the past two days. Our season is ending. The season isn’t over until all cleanup is done.

Into the woods by 9:15 AM to bottle. This was the batch from the isolated 2018 milk can. The syrup looks good. We have 64 gallons now. Still approximately 5 gallons in the milk can. With the sap from the evaporator and what we collected today, we’ll finish with 72 or 73 gallons.

Back to the farmhouse by 4:30 PM.

Into the woods by 8:15 AM to bottle. Small batch of 3 gallons. We’ll bottle another milk can tomorrow of about 5 gallons.

29 overnight. Sunny and 45 today. Tree pressure showed -5 PSI this morning indicating the trees are drawing up moisture. Similar temperature tonight. We’ll see if this leads to a sap run.

The weather forecasts this season have attempted to indicate the future weather, but they rely too much on historical weather data and aren’t accounting for this season’s weather pattern. The three day forecasts are more accurate but the 10 days forecasts show favorable weather for sap, but as the days progress the forecasts are revised to show less favorable sap weather for the three day window. After three days, the forecast relies too much on the historical weather data. March weather is always volatile, but this year is especially challenging because of the strong El Nino and effects of climate change.

Back to the farmhouse by 10:45 AM.

Into the woods by 6:15 AM. 42 and rain overnight. Sunny and 45 today. Actually, a thunderstorm overnight but we didn’t hear the thunder. Folklore says thunder over an open woods means more snow will come.

Nice syrup today. The maple aroma returned and the syrup looks lighter. Glad we isolated that batch from last week.

The day cooking
6:30 AM R/O start
7:00 AM 2 ¾”
8:00 AM 5 ¾”
9:00 AM 7 ½”
9:05 AM batch
9:25 AM R/O done
10:00 AM 8”
10:15 AM batch
11:00 AM 5 ½”
11:20 AM batch
12:00 PM 3 ½”
12:30 PM 2 ¾”
12:45 PM batch
12:45 PM 2 ½”
1:00 PM 1 ½”
1:15 PM done

We need freezing nights again. Forecast is for 32 tonight but that may not be cold enough. We are in a holding pattern. If the season ended right now we’d have approximately 70 gallons. Our target is 75 gallons.

Back to the farmhouse by 1:30 PM.

Into the woods by 7:00 AM to bottle. Finished bottling by 10:30 AM. Then cleaned the syrup pans and tanks. Also cleaned the concentrate hose on the R/O. And cleared the transfer pump because leaves got into it on Saturday. But didn’t clean it well enough and had to take apart again because it didn’t work when we tried to empty the collecting tank. The impellers are stainless steel, but they are very thin with tight tolerances. They don’t like debris like leaves, twigs and bark.

45 overnight. Sunny and up to 50 before clouds moved in after Noon. We noticed a good amount sap in buckets so decided to collect. This was unexpected. The trees dripped slowly yesterday and all night. Rain was forecast to start between 4:00 PM and 5:00 PM. We started collecting at 3:00 PM and finished by 4:00 PM just as it started to sprinkle. We need the rain. It’s dry. The rain may recharge the groundwater the trees need for sap.

We have a few cold nights forecast for Tuesday and Wednesday so hoping there is another run. With this collection we will approach 70 gallons for the season. Or target is 75 gallons.

Back to the farmhouse by 4:30 PM.

Into the woods by 7:00 AM to cook. It was an easy day.

The day cooking
7:15 AM R/O start
8:00 AM 3 ¾”
9:00 AM 6 ¼”
9:15 AM batch
9:50 AM R/O done
10:00 AM 8”
10:15 AM batch 2020 can
11:00 AM 5 ½”
11:30 AM batch
12:00 PM 3”
12:30 PM 2 ½”
12:40 PM batch
12:45 PM 1 ¾”
1:00 PM done

The aroma changed. The maple aroma is hidden now by the steam while cooking. That happens as the season comes to an end.

Back to the farmhouse by 1:15 PM.

Into the woods by 8:30 AM to bottle. Finished by 11:45 AM. When to get gas for the tractor then prepared tanks and cleaned syrup pan. Sometimes it takes an hour of effort to clean the nitre from the pan. Today it just flaked off with little effort. Can’t explain why.

Collected at 3:00 PM. Picked up 210 gallons. We had a lot of help with collecting and finished in 45 minutes. That was nice.

It was 32 overnight. Sunny and high 40s today. Trees dripped into he night and dripped today, but not a big run. We expected more after recovering from the cold spell. This was the 10^th collection. We typically get 9-11 collections a season so maybe we are coming to the end? Its three day until the next freezing night is forecast.

Cook tomorrow. Should be an easy day with 210 gallons. But we’ve had “easy” days become challenging days.

Back to the farmhouse by 4:30 PM.

Into the woods by 12:45 PM to bottle.

33 overnight. Sunny at 42 today. Trees starting to recover from the cold and drip. Trees may drip into the evening. Not sure if we can collect tomorrow.

Back to the farmhouse by 3:45 PM.

Into the woods by 5:30 AM to cook. It was 10. As dawn broke, the temperature dropped even lower. We knew the pipes would be frozen, but hoped the heat gun could thaw them. But as it got colder, the heat gun lost effectiveness. The temperature was forecast to rise as the morning went on so we returned to the farmhouse by 6:30 AM to wait until it got warmer. It was sunny and the tanks are on the South side of the building so they would also warm from the sun as the morning progressed.

Back into the woods by 9:45 AM. Temperature 23. The heat gun was effective now. By 10:15 AM the R/O was going.

With the obstruction removed from the pipes, the stream from the tank to the evaporator flows freely. It was much easier cooking.

The day cooking
10:15 AM R/O start
11:00 AM 3”
11:55 AM batch into 2018 milk can
12:00 PM 6”
1:00 PM 7 ¾”
1:00 PM R/O done
1:15 PM batch
2:00 PM 5 ½”
2:25 PM batch
3:00 PM 3”
3:30 PM 1 ¾”
3:40 PM batch
4:00 PM done

We’re separating this day cooking into its own milk can. It’s a darker grade because we used the tank heater. The sap was about 50-55 F for over 24 hours. It didn’t freeze in the tank, but the elevated temperature causes darker syrup. It’s still good syrup but a grade darker: Robust instead of Rich. We noticed the R/O temperature was about 10 degrees higher too. We isolated this cook and hope the grade rebounds for the next.

Also resolved the unexpected R/O shutoff during the wash cycle from two days ago. We have a tank heater on the wash tank the heats the water to 100 F. When starting the wash cycle the temperature surges to 106-108 F. The pump streams the water through quickly with little loss to the vessel or membrane. After a few minutes heat is absorbed into the vessel and membrane and the temperature recedes to the mid 90s. Over the next 6-7 hours the R/O slowly heats to 113 F before shutting off at the high temperature mark. It was close to 70 that day so the R/O was already warmer then normal. When the heated water started cycling through, the temperature reached the auto shutoff value. By the third attempt the water had cooled just enough to keep the temperature below 113 before receding.

Back to the farmhouse by 4:00 PM.