MapleAcres

30 overnight but dropped to 26 at dawn. Cloudy most of the day with a little sun late. Temperature up to 43 but it felt cold and the ground stayed cold. A little dripping from the trees but not enough to collect.

Tonight and tomorrow’s forecast is for similar weather. Waiting for mother nature now.

Started the burner at 11:00 AM. Filtering by 12:30 PM. Finished bottling by 2:15 PM. Back to the farmhouse by 2:45 after cleanup. One full milk can remains. Good progress the past three days. 49 ½ gallons bottled so far for the season.

30 at 3:30 AM but dropped to 27 at dawn. Lake effect snow covered the ground in white but melted by 11:00 AM. Cloudy until late afternoon. Temperature in high 30s but ground stayed cold.

Tree gauge -5 PSI so trees are still pulling up sap. Anticipating the warmer weather tomorrow and Tuesday will give us another run.

20 overnight. Cloudy and 33 today with light lake effect snow during the day. Did not wear boots into the woods for bottling because the ground was frozen, not muddy. But cold concrete penetrates through the shoe to cause cold feet. Wearing rubber bucket boots help keep feet warm.

Bottled. Started burners at 11:15. Filtering done by1:00. Bottled at 1:30. A slight delay waiting on help to arrive.

Broke the hydrometer. Knocked it off the filer press table. Have a spare but sill frustrating.

Cold again tonight. Warms for Monday so anticipating sap.

Back to the farmhouse by 3:30 PM.

35 overnight with rain staring at 4:00 AM. By 5:30 AM rain tuned to snow. Enough to turn everything white but no accumulation. Snow ended by 9:00 AM but stayed cloudy until 1:30 PM when the sun appeared. Temperature didn’t rise above 35. Tonight forecast for 15.

At 9:00 AM tree gauge had 0 PSI. By 1:00 PM it was -10 PSI indicating the tree is pulling up sap. After the cold spell next few days we should get another run.

Dumped a milk can at 9:00 AM into finishing pan. Started burners at 10:15 AM. Filtering by 11:30 AM. Done bottling by 1:15 PM. Back to farmhouse by 1:30 PM.

R/O. Radio. Rain. Quite the melody of sounds today: the R/O pumps were whirring, the radio picking up static and the rain pelting the tin roof. It was cloudy all day with the temperature in the low 40s. Rain started at 2:30 PM.

Into the woods at 6:30 AM. R/O going by 7:30 PM and finished by 11:30 AM. Five batches in the milk can. The day.

Batch Time
1 8:50
2 10:50
3 12:15
4 2:00
5 3:15

Concentrate in tank
8.5” 12:00
6.5” 1:00
3.5” 2:15
1.5” 3:00

Planning to finish by 3:00 PM, but checked the syrup in the pan. Close enough to take off so it wouldn’t burn or crystallize overnight. All 670 gallons cooked now.

Rain this afternoon. Turning colder. Rain may turn to snow.

Back to the farmhouse by 3:30 PM.

Started snowing at 5:30 AM. By 10:00 AM we had 2”. As the day progressed the weather warmed causing much of the snow to melt. Stayed cloudy.

Into the woods at 6:30 AM to prep for cooking. Started the R/O by 7:30 AM. Could tell right away it wasn’t working. The permeate flow-rate was too high and the high pressure gauge wasn’t even reaching 200 PSI. No visible leaks. Tried flushing with water. Checked the permeate. It had sugar. That’s bad. Pulled out the membrane and found the problem: The U-cup O-ring on the bottom of the membrane did not come out with the membrane. And the cap that fits on the bottom of the membrane was punctured. We noticed the U-cup was loose when installing the membrane. Put on some food grade grease to seal it. That was a mistake. It should have been replaced. It didn’t seal the membrane in the vessel. The fluid flow likely caused the membrane to spin wearing out the cap.

Fortunately we purchased a new membrane before the season. Fetched it from the farmhouse to install. First we had to remove the vessel get the old U-cup out. Fortunately that went well. Never had it apart before. Then flushed about 200 gallons of water through the new membrane.

Started the R/O at 11:00 AM. Watched the sugar content, flow rate and pressure carefully. Soon the Brix started climbing. Went to 6° Brix. Pressure held about 350 PSI and the flow rate looked even better the with the old membrane.

Even with the late start at 11:00 AM we cooked through 325 gallons of the 670 gallons. Out goal was always to cook half today and the other half tomorrow. Just a later start. Instead of finishing at 1:30 PM we finished at 5:30 PM.

Back to the farmhouse at 5:45 PM.

670 gallons of sap. 2 Brix. Checked the woods at 12:30 PM. By 3:00 PM when we started collecting pails were fuller. Done collecting my 6:00 PM.

Overnight it was 35. Trees likely dripped all night. Sunny and 40 today. Tomorrow, cloudy with rain showers.

Plan to cook half tomorrow and half on Thursday.

Into the woods at 2:15 PM to light the burners on the finishing pan. Wanted to try another batch. The new, fresh filter aid (DE) arrived today. This DE is white. The other DE was pinkish. Mixed in 2/3 cup per gallon. From the get go it behaved differently. It did not clump. It sank into the syrup. Mixed easily. The next test was how it when through the pump. Perfect. One hand again for the complete batch. Next was how the syrup looked in the bottle: crystal clear for the complete batch. The theory is improper storage of the DE. It was stored in the farmhouse but in the original bag, not a sealed container. It may have absorbed moisture from the environment over the years. Maybe not enough to feel or see the difference but enough to foul the filter papers when used.

Two milk cans done. Two more remain. But we do have two empty and another with only one batch. We could handle about 1000 gallons of sap.

29 overnight. Cloudy and 35 today. But the ground was colder. Ice didn’t melt and ground stayed stiff. Trees had a positive 8 PSI but the trees didn’t drip much. Tomorrow is forecast as 40 and sunny. Hoping we can collect.

Back to the farmhouse by 5:30 PM.

Into the woods by Noon to get syrup heating on the finishing pan. We had four milk cans of syrup and needed to try to bottle. One milk can had finished syrup that we twice abandoned bottling because it wouldn’t go through the filter press or it was cloudy while bottling. That was can was our goal. Since it was already at proper density we had to blend in sap so we did not get over dense which causes crystallization in the bottles. Did not add filter aid either because the syrup already had filter aid mixed in.

Syrup was ready by 1:15 PM. Brought fresh filter papers from the farmhouse to eliminate the chance the papers in the woods had absorbed moisture from the steam generated during cooking. The papers were stored an unsealed plastic bag, not a sealed container. They could have absorbed moisture.

Filtered the entire batch using only one hand on the pump. That’s how it should go. The next test was getting through the bottling pan without turning cloudy. Monitored closely while filling and every bottle was clear. A big sigh of relief.

The variables were fresh filter papers and less filter aid. We’ll need to evaluate the amount of filter aid. The composition of syrup this season may just need less.

Cold overnight 25. Sunny and 36, but didn’t start melting until after Noon again. While the air temperature was 36, the ground temperature was colder. Tree pressure did reach 15 PSI so sap is moving in the trees.

Back to the farmhouse by 4:00 PM.

Into the woods by 6:30 AM. Goal was to cook through the sap we collected yesterday. Washed pans and the concentrate tank. Tried to get the R/O going by 7:30 AM, but had to repair hose running to the water holding tank. It developed a crimp just above the fitting on the valve panel.

R/O ran from 7:45 AM to 1:50 PM. That left 9 1/2” of concentrate to cook out. Seven batches into the milk can.

While cooking looked at the filter press. Filled the finishing pan with R/O water and lit a burner to heat it. Then pumped hot water through press. Cycled through several times to get a good amount of hot water through it. Pumped normally. When we finished the filter papers were clean. No sugar build up. This verified the mechanical part of the press is working fine.

29 overnight. Cloudy and cold all day. Air temperature may have reached 34, but the ground stayed frozen. Tonight’s forecast is 21.

Back to the farmhouse by 5:45 PM.