MapleAcres

Into the woods by 7:30 AM.  Got syrup on the finishing pan by 8:00 AM.  Our goal was to finish and bottle three milk cans.  That takes a lot of focus but we got it done.  Took longer then expected because we filled a lot of specialty bottles.  It takes filling four of the 250 ml bottles to replace filling one quart bottle.  That’s 4:1 bottles to fill.  We have 88 gallons bottled now.

All the spouts and buckets are down.  That’s a big item completed.  The evaporator is empty.  We have about 11 gallons of sap to finish.  Hoping that will give us 2-5 gallons more of syrup.

Into the woods by 6:30 AM.  Soaking the syrup pan worked well. Quick cleanup this morning.  Struggled to get the fire going.  Used a big piece of wood which elevated the kindling too high causing too much draft.  Still managed with one match, but took longer then usual to catch.

R/O going by 7:15 AM.  Done by 10:45 AM: 81 gallons/hour.  Will shop around for membranes before next season.

5 batches into the milk can.  By 12:30 PM we were done cooking, but continued carefully cooking to reduce the amount of sap in the evaporator to making emptying, finishing and cleaning it easier.  This requires careful attention to firing and monitoring sap level in the evaporator:  no more sap to add if the fire gets too hot.  Have to carefully simmer it down.  A 6th batch became ready so we took it off.  The fire was very low by that point.  We had R/O water nearby if needed.  We spread out the fire under the evaporator and closed the damper causing the heat to rapidly disperse.  We achieved our goal:  the sap level is very low and the fire and residual heat will not burn the pans.  This will make the remaining evaporator work easier.    Some seasons we end up with 30+ gallons to finish off.  Takes time to finish.

Batches into the milk can
1  8:00 AM
2  9:15 AM
3 10:05 AM
4 11:05 AM
5 12:00 PM
6   1:35 PM

Back to the farmhouse by 2:30 PM.

Started at 2:45 PM . Finished by 4:30 PM.  285 gallons.   Still 2° Brix.  But this will be the last collection.   We used food grade grease on the fittings to the transfer pump.  That sealed any leaks ad we did not suck in air when emptying the collecting tank.  Emptied fast as we expected.

We loose freezing nights with days in 50s.  This will be our last collection.  We cook tomorrow then get into cleanup mode.

Into the woods by 1:30 PM.  Needed to run another wash cycle on the R/O and clean out the nitre from the syrup pan.  The pan is soaking and should be ready for the morning.

Into the woods by 7:30 AM to start the finishing pan.  First can ready to bottle by 9:30 AM and bottled by 10:30 AM.  Second can ready by 12:30 PM, bottled by 1:30 PM.  Third can ready by 2:50 PM bottled by 3:55 PM.  A good day.  Monitored temperature carefully so syrup stayed clear.    Found some better ways to warm bottles.  Interweave the empty bottles with the fulled bottles that are cooling.  The dissipating heat warms the bottle awaiting filling.  Back to the farmhouse by 4:30 PM.  Satisfying to get this much bottled.  1 ¾ cans still waiting for bottling.

And it looks like we will get more sap.  There was a run on today.  PSI up to 7.  Some pails half full.  We will collect tomorrow, but that’s most likely the last collection.  Forecast for 60 over the weekend.

Into the woods by 6:00 AM.  Cleaning the syrup pan yesterday was very helpful because we could start the fire right away.  Had the R/O going by 6:30 AM.  R/O finished at 1:45 PM.   Our flow dropped to 79 gallons/hour.  Not as good boils today either  Took 65-70 minutes between batches.  But we still had 11 batches into the milk cans.

By the 4th batch the nitre was accumulating.  We continued to monitor it and were able to cook with it.  As the day went on we had to cook with more sap in the pans to compensate.  That helped.

30 overnight.  50’s and sunny today.  Forecast called for a windy day, but that did not happen.  With the  warmer weather its important to cook the sap as soon as we can.

Tomorrow we bottle.

Snow flurries this morning between 6:00 AM and 10:00 AM.  No accumulation, but a white coating on the ground.

The trees ran through the night.  It was a good run.  Buckets ½ to running over.  We collected 575 gallons.  That should give us an average season based on sap volume.  Started collecting at 3:00 PM.  Problems with transfer pump again.  Somehow it was getting air and not pumping at full capacity.  Took about 25 minutes instead of 12 minutes to empty.

By 5:00 PM the sun was out.   Forecast for 32 tonight.  50S tomorrow.

After collecting cleaned the syrup pan of the evaporator.    It had a heavy buildup of nitre for our last cooking.  Took an hour to clean, but its now ready for the morning.

The filter press pump part arrived.  We replaced it so we are ready to finish and bottle again.  Now we just have to find time.  Three milk cans now.  We’ll add to that tomorrow when we cook.

18 Overnight: colder than forecast.  42 today but mostly cloudy.  Sunrise was clear, but clouds quickly moved it.  By Noon we had snow flurries.  Lasted two hours.

Sap trying to move.  Trees are dripping.  Pressure up.  Monitoring to figure out if we collect tomorrow or Wednesday.

Filter press hand pump part should arrive tomorrow.

21 overnight.  Cold north wind today.  Partly sunny.  37 maybe.  Did get above freezing until around Noon.  Felt cold.  The trees did start to drip later.  Trees pressure up to 7 PSI.  Tonight low 20s again.  Tomorrow forecast for low 40s.  This is the pattern we need.  If we make an average season, it will happen this week.

The base on hand pump cracked and leaked syrup while filtering. We had to stop filtering.  We checked our records:  the same piece cracked in 2017.  We got the filter press for 2002 season so the original part lasted 15 years.  We were not expecting the base to crack again so soon.  We keep a spare diaphragm on hand because they wear out from the pumping action.   But the base is just a reservoir although it does get the pressure generated from the pumping action.

33 overnight.  Cloudy windy most of the day.  Snow flurries at 12:45 PM.  By 3:45 PM the sun was out.  Forecast for low 20s next two nights with high around 40.  That’s what we need.

Into the woods at Noon for finishing and bottling.  We were planning a big weekend of bottling.  We had 4 milk cans of syrup.    Planned to bottle 1 today and 2 or 3 tomorrow.  Now we have to wait for parts to recover from the pump blowout.    Time is running out.   Back to the farmhouse by 4:00 PM.

30 overnight.  42 and partly cloudy today.   30 for a few hours isn’t low enough to stimulate a sap run.  We need mid-20s for 8-10 hours.

We’ve collected 6 times this season.  During a normal season we’d collect 9-11 times.

We cooked 625 gallons in 12 hours yesterday:  that’s 52 gallons per hour.

R/O processed 625 gallons in 7 ½ hours:  that’s 83 gallons per hour.  We should get 115-120 gallons per  hour.  Considering replacing the membrane for next season.  The first two seasons we were inexperienced with proper washing of the membrane and it wasn’t treated well.

We collected 2785 gallons of sap so far.  That’s approximately 68 gallons of finished syrup.  We consider 80 gallons an average season.  We need approximately 500 more gallons of sap to reach an average season.