MapleAcres

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.

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.