MapleAcres

Into the woods by 8:30 AM to bottle.  First milk can bottled by 11:45 AM.  Then finished and bottled a second milk can.  We still have one milk can of syrup to finish but we have room with two empty milk cans.

At 3:00 PM we went out collecting.  Not collecting yesterday turned out to be the correct decision.  The sap run finished overnight.  When we went out today the trees were not dripping much so we got the whole run.   The new hoses for the new pump arrived.  Just what we needed: flexible and food grade.  The new pump emptied the tank in 8 minutes.  We finished collecting by 4:30 PM.  Four experienced people make short work of it but the new pump also saved us 30 minutes.

Rain overnight.  Mid-30s.  Showers this morning then cloudy most of the day.  Upper 40s.  By 5:00 PM the sun appeared.  The ground is finally starting to get soft: the frost is coming out.

Forecast is 30 overnight and sunny and 50 tomorrow.     Back to the farmhouse by 5:15 PM.

Into the woods by 6:30 AM.  Washed out the pre-filter cloth wraps.  Finished cleaning the syrup pan.  Sitting overnight worked out and made it easy to clean.  The extra R/O hot rinse cycle we did likely wasn’t necessary.  The wash tank water was quite clean.

R/O going by 7:20 AM.  Finished at 12:30 PM.  5 hours for 400 gallons works out to 80 gal/hr.   That’s getting slow.  After the season we want to have the membrane factory washed.

We drew off eight batches into milk cans.  Five batches into the new stainless milk can.  Three into another can.  We now have three full milk cans of syrup waiting for finishing and bottling.

1.    8:50
2.  10:15
3.  11:00
4.  12:05
5.    1:00
6.    1:55
7.    2:55
8.    3:45

In a perfect world we would have collected today.  Some trees dripping well.  And rain is forecast for this evening.  Hope that doesn’t spoil the sap that is in buckets.  But then we couldn’t have finished cooking.

Back to the farmhouse  by 4:15 PM.

Mid 20s overnight.  Sunny and breezy today.  Up to 40 by late in the day, but still took time to warm up.  Trees did drip.  We went out collecting at 3:00.  Picked up 400 gallons.  Starting to see dry taps.   Not surprising since taps have been out for a month already.

Used the new pump to empty the collecting tank.  Its fast.  Once we get the hoses worked out it will be a good upgrade.  New flexible 1” food grade hoses are on order.

Broke the sap hydrometer.  It fell off the hook and hit the concrete floor when we bumped it.  We have a backup, but its older and may  not be as accurate.

Frost still in the ground.  Will we get big runs when the frost comes out?  Or are the trees moving their sap now in smaller runs?

Done collecting by 5:30 PM.  After collecting we started the clean the syrup pan.  Heated water to let it stand overnight.  Hopefully its a quick cleanup in the morning.  Back to the farmhouse by 6:15 PM.  Tomorrow we cook again.

Into the woods by 7:00 AM.  R/O running 7:20 AM to Noon.  7°Brix.  A much better day cooking using a properly calibrated hydrometer.  Nitre did not affect boiling.  Batch off of the evaporator every hour or less.  7 batches total into milk cans.  One milk can filled another with two batches.

28 overnight.  Sunny but windy.  Up to mid 30s but the wind kept it cold.  Trees starting dripping in the afternoon.  Forecast for mid-20s and 43 tomorrow.  Hoping for another sap run.

Back to the farmhouse by 3:00 PM.

15 overnight.  Again.  Sunny and mid to upper 30s but it takes so long to warm.  Checked at 1:00 PM.  Trees starting to drip and ice melting.   But we were not sure we should collect or wait another day.  Looked further in the woods and found some pails mostly full.  Decided to collect at 3:00 PM knowing the sun would help us for two hours yet.

By 3:00 PM the trees were dripping moderately with more ice melted.  Found some full and overflowing pails.  Ended up with 325 gallons of sap.  And that is after dumping ice.  Without dumping ice would have been close to 2 tanks, 450 gallons.  Glad we collected.  Now we have room for another run.

We have to change the hoses on the new pump.  They are too stiff making them hard  to work with.  If the pump gets air is looses flow.  Its hard to keep the stiff hose in the liquid because it wants to curl up and pop out of the liquid sap.

Forecast for 28/29 overnight and low 40s with sun tomorrow.   Into the woods at 2:15.  Back to the farmhouse by 7:15 PM.

15 overnight again.  Sunny and up to 38 by late afternoon.  But it takes so long to warm up when its cold overnight.  Trees started to drip slowly around 2:00 PM.  Still lots of ice in the buckets.  We need some nights with low in the upper 20s to give us a chance.

Into the woods by 3:30 PM to put syrup on the finishing pan.  Working again with   an over dense milk can that needed sap added back to it.  Returned it proper density and finished it.  The filter aid dissolved properly.  Went through the filter press properly.  Ended up with 38 quarts.  Back to the farmhouse by 7:30 PM.

We did get another stainless steel milk can.

34 on the thermometer at 4:30 AM.  But the it froze at some point overnight because the snow was crunchy and the puddles had ice.  Up to 40.  Cloudy until 1:30 PM.  Cold north wind.  Trees are not responding.

Into the woods by 8:00 AM to start the fishing pan.  Bottled at 10:00 AM.  Done by 11:00 AM.  Started the evaporator to cook yesterday’s 200 gallons.  Finished by 3:30 PM.  Four batches into the milk can.

The R/O makes it possible to bottle first then start cooking at 11:00 AM and still be done by 3:30 PM and to the farmhouse by 4:00 PM.

Waiting for another good freeze so we get another sap run.

We had a faulty hydrometer.  That explains the problems we had problems boiling from so much nitre and the over dense batch of syrup.  And why it took 2+ hours between batches when last year it was about an hour.  It also explains why we had problems getting syrup through the filter press: it was too thick from being over dense.

We bottled today.  When the milk can was emptied into the finishing pan it was a thick as molasses.  We couldn’t get all the syrup out of the milk can.  This raised a red flag.  We could tell it was too dense and added sap into the finishing pan to reduce it before we started the burners.  We ordered a new hydrometer yesterday and it arrived today.  When the syrup came to a boil we tested it.  It was still over dense.  Cut back with more sap to reach 31.  Then boiled a little longer to reach proper density.  It went through the filer press without problems.

By adding sap back we made the batch bigger.  Bottled 9 ½ gallons, one of the largest batches we can recall.

With faulty instruments the results are faulty too.  We now wonder how much of the previous batches are over dense.

26 overnight.  Partly cloudy.  Tried to reach 33 for a little while then dropped again.  Trees tried to drip: the sun warmed them but it never got warm enough to drip much.

Forecast is 20 tonight and 43 tomorrow.

26 overnight.  Cloudy all day.  A cold North East wind.   33 for a brief period today.  Sap in the buckets is frozen.   Forecast is better for later this week.

River ice starting out go out.  Last weekend’s high 40s and low 50s helped.

That’s the number of gallons cooked through today.  Almost too much as the pan gets coated with nitre by the end of the day making it harder to cook.  Into the woods by 6:45 AM.  Back to the farmhouse by 6:45 PM.  R/O from 7:20 AM to 1:40 PM.  6° Brix.  Seven batches into milk cans.  Filled one milk can with five batches and two into another can.

28 overnight.  Sunny and nice most of the day. After 4:00 PM a cold North East wind picked up. Temperature up to 36.  Trees dripped some.  We could have collected maybe a tank full, but wouldn’t have finished cooking if we stopped to go out collecting.  We made cooking the priority.  We might have ice in the buckets tomorrow and not be able to collect.  Forecast high is 33.