MapleAcres

30 overnight. Sunny at low 50s all day. A big change from cloudy everyone other day we’ve written about.

Into the woods late to take down more buckets. About 1/3 down. No sap in buckets either. Frequently we dump a fair amount. Not this year. Buckets empty. At least we know the sap run is over.

Did not needs boots in the woods today. Snow gone. Mud drying up.

37 overnight. Cloudy most of the day until late afternoon when the sun appeared. Temperature mid 40s. Started pulling taps.

Evaporator should be ready to empty remaining partially cooked sap. Then fill with water to start cleaning. This year we will add our cleaning solution while cooking sap in he front pan. We messed up last season and did not get the pan as clean as we usually do.

Into the woods by 6:45 AM. R/O going by 7:45 AM. 6 Brix. R/O finished by 10:10 AM. Four batches into the milk can.

Slightly different aroma in the syrup building. The maple aroma is mixed with a steamy aroma. Not sure how else to describe. In place of delicate maple aroma is a wet maple aroma where steam mixes more with the maple aroma. This happens at the end of the season. The chemistry of the sap changes. Likely due to a higher bacteria load.

Projecting 90-92 gallons of finished syrup.

Next up: cleanup mode. Cook out the last of the sap in the evaporator. Pull the spouts and get in the buckets. Clean the R/O. Clean the evaporator. We still have three milk cans to bottle.

Originally scheduled to leave April 14. But COVID-19 caused non-essential places to close. Virginia is in a mandatory stay home order until June 10. Should have time for clean up. Then move on to transplant maple trees to the area between the syrup building and the road.

35 overnight. Cloudy, 37, northeast wind all day. Between 7:00 AM and 9:00 AM we had drizzle.

Back to the farmhouse by 2:00 PM.

Into the woods at 2:00 PM to wash tanks and prep for collecting Started at 2:30 PM. Done by 4:30 PM. 230 gallons. Sweetness dropped 1.5 Brix: 57:1. Without the R/O wouldn’t cook it. Should end up with about 4 gallons from this sap.

We loose freezing nights. The season has been 30 days. We should end up with 90-92 gallons.

37 overnight. Cloudy and 47 during the day.

Tomorrow we cook. Should be a short day.

Into the woods at 7:00 AM to start the burners on the finishing pan. Planed to finish and bottle two milk cans today so we had to start early. By 8:30 AM filtered the first batch. Had it bottled by 9:45 AM. Second milk can into the finishing pan by 10:15. AM Filtering by 11:30 AM. Bottled by 12:45 PM.

Rain and 43 overnight. Cloudy and drizzle all day with temperature of 52. Forecast is 35 tonight. Partly cloudy and 40s tomorrow. We plan to collect. The season could be ending. We loose our freezing nights.

Back to the farmhouse by 1:15 PM.

No woods work. Cloudy. Rainy. 40s. Rain tonight.

Tomorrow we bottle.

Finished collecting yesterday at 4:30 PM. Finished cooking all 420 gals 23 hours later at 3:30 PM. R/O got 7 Brix.

Into the woods by 6:45 AM.

The days batches into the milk can.

9:30 1
10:50 2
11:50 3
12:45 4
1:45 5
3:00 6

Getting more nitre build up in the syrup pan.

Ice on the puddles this morning. Foggy in the morning. Cloudy all day. Temperature 45.

Collected 420 gallons today. More then expected. The tree pressure gauge was at 5-7 PSI the past day so sap was moving. PSI dropped to 0 this afternoon indicating the run is over. Started at 2:30 PM. Done by 4:30 PM. Still good sugar: 2 Brix.

40 overnight. Cloudy all day with temperature in mid 40s.

Into the woods by 6:30 AM. R/O going by 7:30 AM, finished by 1:00 PM. Finished cooking by 5:30 PM.

The day.

Batches
9:30 1
10:50 2
12:15 3
2:05 4
3:30 5

Concentrate Tank
1:00 10.5″
2:00 9″
3:00 6″
4:00 4″
5:00 2″
5:30 1″

30 overnight. 52 and cloudy today, but the sun did appear for a few hours this afternoon. Rain forecast for tonight.

Into the woods at 2:30 PM to collect. Done by 5:15 PM. 475 gallons. 2.5 Brix. Sweeter because we took out ice.

28 overnight. Cloudy all day. Up to 45.