MapleAcres

Into the woods by 6:45 AM.  Back to the farmhouse by 4:45 PM.  400 gallons of sap collected yesterday all cooked today.  Topped off one milk can.  Filled another milk can.  One batch into a third milk can. We were taking a batch off the evaporator every 45 minutes.  Eight batches total.  Past years it was about an hour between batches, but taking the sap to 7° Brix makes a difference.

Started the R/O by 7:45 AM.  Finished by 12:45 pm.  Should have finished sooner but did not have the high pressure pump adjusted properly.  We needed to make an additional turn on the handle controlling pressure.

The transfer pump worked better today.  Placed food grade grease on the threads and washer.  This helped seal hose/pump connector.  We use food grade grease to seal the O-rings on the R/O so using it on the transfer pump was worth trying.

Froze overnight.  Upper 30s and cloudy all day.  Dripped a little later in the day.

4”-7” of snow forecast for Monday night into Tuesday.  We’ll see.  March storms are hard to predict.

22 overnight.  Sunny and 40 during the day.  Trees dripped.  We started collecting at 3:00 PM.  Picked up 400 gallons of sap.  Had a crew of 6.  Makes collecting much easier.

The biggest challenge was the transfer pump:  its not operating at full efficiency.  Its rated at 1450 gallons per/hour which should empty our 225 gallon tank in 10-11 minutes.  The pump took 50 minutes.  We could collect and fill the tank faster.  Looking into replacing the pump.  We can’t go through the season waiting on the pump.

Connected our new propane burners.  The finishing pan got a new 3 burner and bottling kitchen got a new 2 burner.  Each burner is rated at 15,000 BTU/hour.  With 45,000 BTU under the finishing pan we are hoping to cut our time in half to finish syrup.  The 2 burner replaced the stove in the kitchen.  Its smaller and gives us more space to around the bottling pan when pouring in the milk can of syrup.

Forecast is 20s overnight with 40s but cloudy tomorrow.  Tomorrow we cook.

The 1”-3” of snow did not materialize.  About 4:30 PM it snowed a few flakes but if you were not watching would have missed it.

35 and cloudy all day with a North East wind.  Trees not running.   Only activity in the woods was to run a rinse cycle on the R/O.

Forecast for low 20s overnight with sun and 40s tomorrow.

Into the woods by 6:30 AM.  Froze overnight, about 30. Fog at 5:00 AM.  Cloudy most of the day.  Reached 42.   Trees are not dripping.

Snow for tomorrow:  1”-3” possible.

Connected the propane tank this morning but the gas is not flowing.  Fortunately the syrup pan did not have much nitre.  Cleaned it with cold water.  Cold water is unpleasant on the hands.

Got 7 Brix concentrate from R/O.  It was done by 11:00 AM.   Three batches into the milk can.  About an hour between batches.  Finished cooking by 12:30 PM.

Burned out the heating element on the R/O wash tank.  Forgot to unplug it when emptying the wash water.   Without water covering the heating element it burned up.  Actually had arching between the element and the tank.  That was scary.

All tanks empty.  The 435 gallons of sap we collected Monday is now cooked.  Back to the farmhouse by 1:00 PM.

28 overnight.  55 and sunny today.   Trees barely ran.  The frost must be deep yet because this was a text book day for sap.  Of course 55 is too warm for February 27.

Into the woods by 6:30 AM.  Washed down evaporate pans.  Setup the pipes from the tanks to the evaporate.  Filled the evaporate with sap and lite the fire at 8:45.  By 9:30 had a boil.

After starting the evaporate, worked on the R/O.  Installed the membrane.  Then ran 200 gallons of water though it.   By 11:00 the R/O was ready for sap.   Was able to get 7 Brix today.   That’s a 12:1 ratio. One difference: a new hydrometer for the sap.  Its likely our old hydrometer was not accurate and under reporting the actual Brix.

Cooked 225 gallons today.  One batch in the milk can.  Back to the house by 4:00 PM.

210 gallons to cook tomorrow.

25 overnight.  Sunny and about 40 today.  Sap was dripping.  Between yesterday and today’s run there was 435 gallons.  We went out collecting at 3:00 PM.  Trees did stop dripping around 4:00 PM.  We we done a little after 5:00 PM.   Forecast for around 30 tonight and upper 40s tomorrow.

Firebrick in the evaporator.  Its set to use tomorrow.

The R/O is connected and we have water for it.  We have to run a wash of the R/O in the morning and then we can start cooking.

Down to 28/29 overnight.  Sun appeared at 8:30.  Temperature up to 40, but windy all day made it feel cold.  It was warm enough for the trees to drip.  May collect tomorrow.

A day of repairs.  Replaced the hoses on the R/O valve unit.  Then brought the R/O to the syrup building.  Membrane is at the farmhouse yet.  Tomorrow we work on preparing the R/O and loading the membrane.  We have to get water to wash the membrane before using it.

We also got a new three burner propane stove for the finishing pan.  Added some additional angle iron to help the pan sit better.

And we got a new fill spout for the bottling pan.  Hope is it will eliminate bubbles when we fill the bottles.    The new spout has ½ thread which is the same size as the old coffee make fill spout.  That worked out well.

The big repair was to the evaporator.  The back end by the stack was badly rusted.  We were worried last year that it may collapse under weight of the pans with sap.  Got through the end of the season, but it needed repairs for this season.

Welded on new angle iron along with sheets of steel on the sides and bottom.  Firebrick will go in next.  Without the repairs we wouldn’t have been able to cook.   This should support the weight and get us through the season.

Forecast is 22 overnight and 43 tomorrow.

205 taps out today.  505 total.  50 taps between 9:00-10:30.  50 taps between 11:00-12:30.  50 taps between 1:30-3:00.  55 taps between 3:00-4:00.  Had help for last 55 taps so it went faster.

28 over night.  The day started cloudy.  Sun came out around 9:30.  Temperature up to 40.  By 3:00 clouds returned and it got colder.  Forecast to freeze tonight with possible wintery mix again.

Tomorrow we prepare the syrup building and get ready for sap.

If sap is moving in the tree, a  new tap always runs.   A maple tree can be 50′ or more tall.  When we drill a hole at the base of the tree all the sap above that hole now has an outlet and gravity pushes it out.

100 more taps.  Washed spouts in the morning.  Also got hose for the R/O.  We need to replace hoses that went bad over the summer.

Its easy moving around in the woods.  Not much snow.  The ground is still frozen.  Lots of water.  When the ground thaws there will be mud.

Not much of a wintery mix last night.  Lower 40s and cloudy today.

Sap is starting to move in the trees.