MapleAcres

Evaporator, finishing pan and bottling pan are all cleaned. Inside of evaporator cleanup was easy. The residue wiped away. All tanks also cleaned. The floor is next to clean. Then get the tanks into the building and bring the R/O back to the farmhouse.

Into the woods by 8:30 AM. Back to the farmhouse by 12:30 PM.

Into the woods by 9:00 AM to clean the evaporator. Syrup pan clean. Bottom of flu pan is also clean. Working on interior. We’ve had to scrub harder in some places on the bottom of the flu pan. It cooked 3745 gallons of sap so it’s not surprising it’s taking effort to clean. The interior should be easier to clean.

It was sunny today and up to high 40s. It was pleasant this afternoon cleaning the pan.

Back to the farmhouse by 4:00 PM.

Late start. Into the woods by 2:00 PM. Disconnected the R/O hoses and brought back to farmhouse. Washed with bleach and flushed with water.

Back to the farmhouse by 4:00 PM.

Into the woods by 8:30 AM to get the buckets and covers. It took longer than expected because of tractor problems. The tractor just stopped like it was out of gas. We didn’t check the tank but instead went to get 5 gallon can of gas. When we returned with the gas to the tractor in the woods we checked the level. 3 ½’ of gas in the tank. It’s not out of gas. Got the tractor running but it sputter a few more times. We’ll need to check the fuel line for obstructions. Buckets and covers are stacked in the garage. We’ll wash them over the summer.

Back to the farmhouse by 2:15 PM.

Into the woods by 7:45 AM to bottle the last batch. It was just under 2 gallons but all totaled we have 74 gallons for the season. It’s an average crop. We’re happy with the result.

Worked on the spouts and buckets and covers this afternoon. All the spouts are out. We’ll collect the buckets and covers next. Also drained the R/O this afternoon in preparation for getting it in from the syrup building. Brought the membranes in yesterday.

35 overnight. Sunny and up to 70 this afternoon. This is nuts for March 12.

Back to the farmhouse by 3:00 PM.

But no tree pressure so no sap run. Producers on vacuum may be getting sap. It was 25 overnight. Sunny and 47 today. This is sap weather.

Into the woods by 7:45 AM to finish and bottle. It was cold again in the building. Ice started forming on the water in the evaporator. Done bottling by 10:45 AM.

We were taking out spouts and gathering up buckets and covers this afternoon.

Back to the farmhouse by 3:15 PM.

Into the woods by 8:00 AM to bottle. Five gallons. Two milk cans remain. Anticipating we end up with between 73 and 75 gallons of syrup.

Cold north wind today. 30 overnight. Sunny and up to 37 today. Evaporator clean up should go well based on the sample we checked today. The cleaning solution did its job.

Back to the farmhouse by 11:30 AM.

Snow overnight. Less than ½” but everything was snow covered. Sunny, but a little colder today, only 37. Had second thoughts about taking down the buckets because it felt like there should be sap today. Of course we were correct to take down the buckets. No sap. A few trees tried to run, but nothing significant.

Into the woods by 7:30 AM to empty the evaporator and finish all the sap. Had the pans emptied, rinsed and back on the evaporator by 9:30 AM. There was 15 gallons of sap to finish. It took until 1:45 PM to finish cooking it. The last batch was about 2 gallons. Bigger then expected. We isolated it into a separate milk can again because it’s much darker then the other syrup. We’ll bottle it separately.

Back to the farmhouse by 2:00 PM.

Into the woods by 6:45 AM to cook. Getting this cook right makes finishing up easier. Three batches into the milk can. Then simmer until we have a very low level of sap left in the evaporator. Looks like we nailed it. Should have less than 20 gallons to cook. This goes into the milk cans. The big flu pan is filled with water and cleaning solution while using the syrup pan to finish.

The day cooking.
8:00 AM 8 ¼”
8:45 AM batch
9:00 AM 6 ¼”
10:00 AM 4 ½”
10:35 AM batch
11:00 AM 2 ¾”
11:30 AM 1 ¾”
11:50 AM batch
12:00 PM ½”
1:00 PM done simmering to low level in evaporator

Running another wash cycle on the R/O even though we didn’t use the R/O today. This is to prepare the membrane for the off-season. We’ll again send the membranes to professional cleaning.

As forecast, it started raining this afternoon.

Back to the farmhouse by 1:15 PM.

Unless something spectacular happens, the season is ending. After two nights of upper twenties and sunny days, the trees aren’t dripping. We went out collecting at 3:00 PM. Picked up sap that looked good dumped the rest. Got 70 gallons. We won’t use the R/O to cook it. Rain forecast for tomorrow. Weekend forecast shows freezing nights again, however we aren’t expecting sap because we didn’t get sap the past two days. Our season is ending. The season isn’t over until all cleanup is done.

Into the woods by 9:15 AM to bottle. This was the batch from the isolated 2018 milk can. The syrup looks good. We have 64 gallons now. Still approximately 5 gallons in the milk can. With the sap from the evaporator and what we collected today, we’ll finish with 72 or 73 gallons.

Back to the farmhouse by 4:30 PM.