MapleAcres

We didn’t finish cooking.  If everything went right we would’ve finished by 4:00 PM.  It didn’t go well.  Into the woods by 6:15 AM.  Had the R/O going by 7:00 AM.   Had two batches into the milk can by 9:00 AM.  Then started feeling unwell.  Chills.  Tried to work through it but by 10:00 AM it was obvious we needed to rest.  Shutdown.  Back to the farmhouse by 10:30 AM.   By 12:30 PM feeling better, but the R/O was into its wash cycle.  Then needed to cool.  We were not able to fire up again.  We will retry in the morning.  Feeling fully recovered now.

Returned to the woods at 4:30 PM to deal with the concentrate.  Concentrate doesn’t keep well.  So we pumped back into the storage tank, then added R/O water to get back to 2° Brix.

20 overnight.  A cold northeast wind made the ground frozen hard.  36 and sunny today but the northeast wind continued most of the day.  The trees did start dripping.   Low 20s help stimulate that.  Tonight is low 20s again but warmer, low 40s, tomorrow.  The sap run should continue.

30 overnight.  42 during the day.  Mostly cloudy until late afternoon when the sun appeared.  Then a cold northeast wind came up.

Checked the trees at Noon.  Good amount of sap in the buckets.  Trees dripped into late night before temperature dipped below freezing.  The sap run that started yesterday was coming to an end.  Tree pressure dropped to 4 PSI.  We started collecting an hour earlier at 2:00 PM.  We usually start at 3:00 PM.  By 4:30 we were done.  Picked up 475 gallons.

Based on sap volume collected so far, we are over half way of an average season.  Collected 1960 gallons of sap so far.  For an average season we would collect about 3200 gallons of sap.

Forecast for mid 20s tonight.  That’s a good for keeping the sap flowing.

34/45 today.  Started out cloudy.  Around 1:00 PM the clouds broke and the sun appeared.  Bottling plans fell through when we got sick this morning.   Recovering now, but taking it easy.

Crew when out collecting at 3:00 PM.  Picked up 200 gallons.  This was the tail end of the Monday/Tuesday run.  There was no new sap today.

30 overnight.  Cloudy and 38 during the day.  A little drizzle.  Into the woods by 6:00 AM to start cooking.  R/O going by 7:00 AM.  Went to 7° Brix.

Several interruptions during the day with visitors caused us to miss starting/stopping pumps or opening/closing valves.  We missed starting the transfer pump to empty the collecting tank into the storage tank.  By 10:00 AM the R/O stopped because it was out of sap.  We took the opportunity to run a rinse cycle before starting again. Then we missed closing the permeate value to the water storage tank.  This caused some sap  to back flow into it.  When visitor come we stop to talk with them, but it breaks our concatenation and routine causing us to miss a step in our process.

10 batches of syrup in the milk cans.  Filled two milk cans.  We had very good boils.  By 5:30 PM we were done.  Tomorrow we have to bottle again.

26 overnight.  Sunny and 45 today.  The last three days have been the idyllic weather associated with maple syrup season:   freezing nights, sunny days, the snow sill in the woods but melting.  We seldom get that.

Into the woods by 6:30 AM to wash the finishing pan.  Had help at 7:30 to dump in a milk can syrup.  We needed to bottle to free up milk cans for more syrup.  We had two full milk cans of syrup and started on a third.  We knew we would collect today and that meant more syrup coming.  Bottled 27 quarts.  Grade A Robust.  The first syrup is usually lighter.

Trees started dripping by 10:00 AM.  The sap from yesterday was already in the buckets so we knew there would be a big haul.  Set out collecting at 3:00 PM.   Many full or overflowing pails.  We had storage for 600 gallons.  Had a spare 100 gallon tank at the yet that we setup.  We ended up with 700 gallons of sap.

Our new pump and hoses with quick connect finally worked as envisioned.  This was a good to get the pump and hoses figured out..  The pump problem was a bad extension cord that didn’t deliver the volts or amps the pump needed to turn over.  It takes about 12 minutes to empty the collecting tank.

Tomorrow we cook.  Most likely we won’t cook through all 700 gallons.   Need to check if we have to collect tomorrow again.  But the dripping did slow down by 5:00 PM which is good.  Forecast is 33 overnight with clouds and snow showered tomorrow.

21 overnight.  42 and sunny today.  Trees started dripping around 11:00 AM.  We focused on cooking.  Wanted to get yesterday’s 410 gallons cooked down.

Into the woods by 7:00 AM.  Started the R/O by 8:00 AM.  We had to thaw some pipes and it took longer to wash the front syrup pan.  Went to 7° Brix.  R/O done by 1:00 PM.  Finished cooking by 4:00 PM.  Back to the farmhouse by 4:30 PM.

Better pressure on the R/O today.  Stayed at 400 PSI.  Fixing that leaky valve must have helped.

We may bottle tomorrow.  We will collect.  Expect a lot of sap.

21 overnight.  38 and sunny.  The forecast called for partly cloudy today.  With the exception of a short period around sunrise, it was clear all day.  With no wind today’s 38 felt warmer then yesterday’s 38.

We were concerned the buckets would be full of ice from yesterday’s run.  The trees dripped into the late evening before freezing.  That frequently causes big ice chunks.  By 10:00 AM it was above freezing.  The sun did its magic and melted the bucket ice.  By 11:00 the trees were dripping.   PSI rose to 15.

We when out collecting at 3:00 PM.  Took sips of sap from several buckets to quench our thirst.  Picked up 410 gallons.  Still had problems with our new pump.  We think now the extension cord is bad restricting the voltage the pump needs to start.    After collecting we tried the pump on different outlets and it worked.

Cook tomorrow.  Forecast is 23 overnight and 40 tomorrow.  Hoping we can collect on Tuesday again.

25 overnight.  Sunny and 37 today, but a cold North West wind made it feel cold.  Around 2:00 PM the taps started dripping.  They are running now and will run until they freeze tonight.  Forecast calls for low 20’s overnight.  We will get ice.  Tomorrow partly cloudy with high 38.    With luck we get ice melt and can collect in the afternoon.

Tree pressure went from 1 PSI this morning when it was below freezing to 13 PSI this afternoon when the taps started dripping.  Although its limited data, it looks like tree pressure increases as the trees start to drip.  It will be interesting to watch if higher pressures correspond to better sap runs.  And could we start to predict from tree pressure how much sap to except.

Found a leak in the R/O.  During the wash cycle yesterday the wash tank lost water.  It should be a closed loop during the wash cycle that circulates water through the membrane.  We use about 17 gallons in the wash tank.  About half was lost.  During the rinse cycle today we looked for the leak.   We could see drips under the 220 volt motor and a pump seal.  Its unlikely two separate places could leak at the same time.  As we continued to investigate we noticed two fine sprays from a pump drain valve.  One stream went to the 220 volt motor.  We loosened and tightened the valve several times and got it to reseal.    Most likely there was a particle – tree bark, twig, small grain of sand, etc – that prevented a good seal.  R/O pressure seemed a little off yesterday during concentration:  it approached 500 PSI.  The R/O automatically stops at 500 PSI to avoid damage.  The floor around the R/O was also unexpectedly wet.  We’ll see if the leak fix helps with R/O pressure too.

38 overnight.  Cloudy with snow showers all day.  Temperature up to 40 so the snow showers were unexpected.  Must have been colder at higher altitude.  No accumulation.

In the woods by 6:00 AM.  Needed extra time to assemble and prepare the R/O.  Got the evaporate pans washed out.  Filled the evaporator with sap and got the fire going by 7:00 AM.  Turned the focus to the R/O.  Connected all the hoses.    Inserted the membrane then ran 200 gallons of water through it to prepare it from siting idol during the off season.  Started concentrating at 10:30 AM.  Took the sap to 7° Brix (12:1).  R/O completed by 3:00 PM.  Done cooking and back to the farmhouse by 5:30 PM.

When starting from fresh sap it takes several hours to get going.  It was 1:15 PM before the first batch was ready.  But after that we took off batches about every hour.  Four batches into the milk can.     No sugar sand or nitre but the syrup was darker then expected for the beginning of the season.

Forecast is 25 overnight.  Connected the heating tape to the R/O water tank hose to protect it from freezing.  Tomorrow 40 and partly sunny.  Hoping for sap.