MapleAcres

Got 75 more taps out today. 100 total. Sap runs after tapping, but that’s expected. Taps radiate out from the syrup building. We could almost collect without the tractor and tank: walk it in. But we’ll use the tractor and tank to make it easier.

Tomorrow’s forecast is sunny and low 40s with high 20s overnight.

25 overnight. Did not warm during the day. The sun did appear late in the day.

Washed more spouts. Should be ready to complete tapping tomorrow. Forecast is favorable for sap.

Arrived at the farmhouse today at 2:00 PM. Arrived at Green Bay airport at 11:00 AM from DC. Waited for ride and stopped for groceries on on the way to the farmhouse.

February was cold with temperatures below 0. Looks like the weather is breaking now. Cloudy and mid-40s today. Got organized to tap 25. Sap is moving, but a fresh tap usually runs because there is now a outlet from the sealed tree.

Scaling back to 100 taps this season. A lot of other life events to take care of that limit our time. This scale back isn’t permanent. 100 taps should yield 15-20 gals of syrup. A big run day will be about 125 gals of sap. Other days 50 galls. Planning to cook old-school without the R/O.

COVID-19 is still with us. Over 500,000 have died. We’ve dodged it so far but continue to be careful. On the flight back, donned an N95 mask, bandana and face shield. Used lots of hand sanitizer too.

Transplanted 20 trees in front of the syrup building. Ranged in height from 4′ to 6′ with one tree at 7’+. The ground was moist so got a good root ball. A good root ball causes less stress on the tree. Buds just started coming out. This was a good time to transplant.

Transplanted 14 trees on Saturday and 6 on Sunday. Used a small wagon. Allowed us to get close to the tree for moving the root ball. Milorganite in the hole. Move the tree. Stomp down. Add water.

Expect some mortality. In October 2012 transplanted four trees. Two survived. Hoping for better results this time. The area in front of the syrup building has no young saplings. With luck we might be able to tap in our lifetime. That would be 25-30 years away.

Its now up to mother nature.

Rinsed buckets out today. Sunny. 65. The buckets had a lot gunk: sticky sap, bugs, moths, twigs. We had time so rinsed out with the hose and a brush. Lined up all the buckets after rinsing so we could count them. 504.

Good yield per tap this season. Typically we get 1.3 to 1.4 pints/tap. We had 1.5 pints/tap this year.

Yield
gal	qt	pt	taps	pt/tap	qt/tap
94.5	378	756	504	1.5	0.75

Because of COVID-19 we are not traveling back to Virginia until late May. No date fixed yet. That gives extra time to do work around the woods and farmhouse.

Up next is transplanting trees. We’ve wanted to get young trees upfront around the building for a decade but were never here at good times for transplanting. Spring and Fall are good times to transplant. This year we have time and are here for the Spring. Also get to see wild flowers in the woods. That is always pretty.

We have a lot of syrup in inventory. Over 30 gallons left from last year and 5 gallons from 2018. With this season’s crop that gives us a lot to sell. However with COVID-19 we haven’t had many people coming to get syrup. May need to come up with creative ways to market and sell the syrup.

Thankful for the season. Overcame R/O pump problem and problems with cloudy syrup while bottling. Every season there are challenges. That’s part of agriculture. We did have good weather: no warm periods that hinder the sap run.

The annual maple syrup producers meeting is in La Crosse, WI this year the end of October.

We’ll be back next season.

R/O is in. Washing hoses with bleach next. We learned that lesson a few seasons ago: didn’t wash with bleach and got mold. Had to replace all the hoses connected to the 3-ways panel.

All that remains is washing the floor. Then bring in various pieces of equipment like the filter press, hydrometers, etc. Disconnect the propane tank.

22 overnight. Sunny and 42 today.

19 overnight. Cloudy and cold today; only 35. Wonder how the spring plants that are sprouting will fare?

Cleanup is dragging on. Mostly because we have time. Work in the woods in morning then late afternoon.

Disconnected the hoses from the R/O this morning. Then opened all the drains. Should be ready to come in the farmhouse tomorrow.

Pumped the remaining permeate water through the R/O this morning. Washed the storage tanks while that ran. Brought in the membranes this afternoon. They are now in the storage canisters with SMBS solution. They will go for professional washing hopefully in May so we get them back earlier in the year. Next big task is to disassemble the R/O: disconnect and bleach rinse hoses, drain all tanks and pumps, bring the R/O to the farmhouse.

Alternated between cloudy, sunny and snow flurries today. Temperature mid-30s.

The hands usually take a beating during the season. Wet. Cold. Warm. Burns from hot sap or fire. Immersed in cleaning solution while cleaning pans. Stiffness in the finger joints. Broken finger nails. But not this season. Hands did well. The difference may have been a different pair of gloves. The gloves were rubber coated to make them water resistant. Nothing is water proof. And the rubber coating provided additional cushioning which may have helped too. The test will be next season to see if hands also stay healthy.

Snow overnight. Just enough to make the ground white. Windy. Cloudy most of the day but the sun made an appearance late afternoon.