MapleAcres

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.

Syrup was ready at 45 minute intervals today.  That was a first.  There is not time to do much in between batches.  A few cycles of fire, check pumps, adjust sap level in pan then take off another batch.  It keeps you very busy.  12 batches into the milk can.  All 625 gallons cooked through.    With the temperature reaching the 50s we wanted to get all the sap cooked.  Sap doesn’t keep well when it gets warm.

Into the woods by 6:00 AM.  R/O going by 7:05 AM.  It ran 7 ½ hours today.  Served us well.  Went to 6° Brix.  Pressure held at 400 PSI.  Had good boils.  But nitre was going to drive the day:  if we get too much of a nite build up in the syrup pan we can’t boil hard.  By batch 6 we had fair amount of nitre but boiling was still good.  Nitre continued to accumulate, but boils stayed good so pushed on until done.

Batches of Syrup into the Milk Can
1   7:35
2   8:30
3   9:15
4  10:00
5  10:40
6  11:25
7  12:25
8   1:50
9   2:35  R/O also finished
10  3:20
11  4:10
12  5:05

We now have four milk cans of syrup waiting for bottling.

Warm weather pattern the next few days.  The snow is disappearing fast.  We need colder weather for more sap.  47 overnight.  55 today.   Cloudy with a few rays of sun.

Back to the farmhouse by 6:00 PM.

28 overnight.  Cloudy today and 43.  Wind picked up at 1:00 PM, but didn’t get a windy as forecast.  Doesn’t freeze tonight.  Tomorrow forecast for 50.  We need a colder pattern for more sap.

As we guessed, the run was over today.  Tree pressure only 3 PSI.  Collected at 3:00 PM.  Picked up 625 gallons.  Done by 5:00 PM.

Bottled this morning.  Into the woods by 8:00 AM.  Finished bottling by 1:15 PM.  The temperate got away on another batch and got cloudy.  We stopped bottling at that point.

Tomorrow we cook. We’ll need to decide if we cook it all tomorrow or hold some back until Friday.    It depends on how the R/O works and if we get a nitre buildup in the pan.

20 overnight.  42 and sunny today.  Trees dripping.  There is run going on.  Plan to collect tomorrow so we get the complete run.  PSI up to 15.  Dropped to 7 PSI late afternoon.  Forecast for 30 tonight.

Into the woods by 6:30 AM.  Got the R/O going by 7:15 AM.  But it stopped shortly after starting.  That had us worried: we’ve grown dependent on the R/O.  We quickly realized it stopped because the  pipes froze up.  Liquid entering cold pipes can freeze.  Put the heat gun on the pipes for a few minutes and we were back in operation.

Six batches into the milk can today.  Nitre appeared in the pan.  That’s not surprising.  It was surprising that we didn’t have nitre before this.

All tanks empty.  Waiting for more sap.  Back to the farmhouse by 2:00 PM.