MapleAcres

We were in the woods until 11:00 PM last night.   Into the woods by 8:00 AM today to start cooking for the day.  Got over 200 gallons boiled through.  We hope tomorrow to get the tanks empty.  

The weather could not make up its mind today.   Started raining around 8:00 AM.  Then turned to snow, sleet, thunder and lighting,  a brief appearance by the sun, then back to cloudy.  It was about 36 or 37.  If the temperature had been colder we would have had a few inches of snow.

We bottled another 30 quarts.  It is a little easier doing the larger batches because cleanup of the finishing pan and filter press is the same no matter the size of the batch.  Larger batches mean less frequent cleanup.

We are changing our plans to return to Washington DC.  Originally we went back tomorrow April 4.  But we will not be done by then.  We are now planning to return April 13.  That does mean we start cleanup for the season by this Friday the 8th.

Advances in technology have allowed us to write and post this article to the website right from the woods.  No, we do not have an Internet connection in the woods.   Rather we tether our smartphone to our netbook and use the Internet connection on the smartphone to post to the website.  Or do other Internet work.

It did not freeze last night.  Today was mostly sunny and into the 50s.  The forecast was for cloudy weather.  Got that wrong.  Tomorrow rain is forecast.

Into the woods by 8:00 AM for what we knew would be a busy day.  Got our pan cleaned and had a fire going by 8:30 AM.  Checked some buckets: mostly full, as expected.   Pushed hard on boiling because we knew we would need the storage tank space.  We also had to bottle: we had a milk can full of syrup.    By 10:30 AM the syrup was on the finishing pan.  The stage was set, would we get help?  By 11:30 AM we were still alone.

Between 12:30 PM and 1:00 PM all kinds of people showed up to help.  Still not sure where they all came from.  One was experienced at driving tractors, so that assignment was easy.  There was a family with two boys.  A nephew also came.  And two sisters.   So now collecting, cooking and bottling were all happening at the same time.  Much different from earlier in the week when this was a solo operation.  It was nice not to collect. 

We bottled 30 quarts and 1 pint.  We also collected 585 gallons of sap.  All our storage tanks are full.  We have about 30 hours of cooking ahead of us.

And visitors came.  Three or four families.  The kids seemed to enjoy playing in the mud.  Gave everyone the tour.  They enjoyed it.  We enjoy having visitors.

Down to the 20s overnight, but again warmed to the mid 40s.  Sunny all day.  We were expecting clouds to move in after noon.  Into the woods by 8:30 AM to start boiling.  Boiled down over 200 gallons.  About that much remains yet.  Took four batches off the evaporator.   The milk can is full of syrup. 

Tomorrow and Sunday will be busy days.  Tomorrow we have to cook, collect and bottle.  We have now about 8 gallons to bottle.  We expect to collect over 400 gallons of sap tomorrow.  We should maybe have collected today but we couldn’t get help and did not feel like collecting the woods solo again.  And we have to cook down the 200 gallons we have plus the fresh sap we collect tomorrow.    It will be a full scale operation of all phases of syrup production.

It was down to 13 again last night.  But warmed quickly.  By 10:00 AM puddles appeared.  Past days it took to 11:00 AM for puddles.  It got up to 45 this afternoon.  Sunny all day.  

We had a lot to do today so it was constantly moving to get everything done.  

Cleaned the evaporator pan first thing this morning.  Then got the milk can of syrup into the finishing pan.  When the syrup is finished we put in through our filter press.  Unfortunately we got two of the pieces of the filter press in wrong.  We had to take it apart to correct the problem and then re-filter the syrup.  Wasn’t the complete batch.  We caught it early because we noticed the press was pumping hard.

We bottled 26 quarts.  Used our new digital thermometer to monitor the temperature in the bottling pan.  The syrup should not boil.  We keep it between 185 and 200 degrees.  

Cleaned our collecting and storage tanks.  We don’t want fresh sap in dirty tanks.  We knew we would not have help to collect today again so tried to get an early start.  We also knew a lot of sap was in the woods.  We got started by 2:30 PM.  By 5:10 PM we had the first 200 gallons.   Emptied into the storage tank then back out.   By now the trees and an extra three hours to drip and melt.  A lot of the buckets were now full.  We ended up with 430 gallons.  We had to carry in the last 30 because the tank was full.  

We now have 2320 gallons of sap collected.  There should still be another 400 to 600 gallons coming for the season.

It was down to 12 last night again.  It did warm quickly to 35 and later in the day reach 38.  We had some melting of the snow.  

Cooked through the 230 gallons of sap we collected yesterday.    Had to thaw the evaporator first.  It was not quite solid ice.  It took about an hour to slowly warm it and melt the ice.  Quite unexpected for March 30th.    The heating tape on the tank’s pipes worked well.  There was even a puddle of melt under the pipes.   Sap flowed to the evaporator as soon as we open the valve.

Hopefully not as cold tonight.  Tomorrow should reach the 40s.   We expect sap.  

Here is the day’s cooking.

11:00   20 ½”
12:00   18 ¾”
2:00    15 ½”
3:00    13 ¾”
4:00   13 ½”
5:00    11 ½”
6:00    9”
7:00    7”
8:00   4 ½ “
9:00   2 ½”
9:20   empty

It was cold again last night.  Down to 12.   It warmed quicker today.  Reach about 36 or 37.  That allowed the ice in the buckets to thaw and the trees to start dripping.  It was right around 11:00 AM when puddles appeared.  32 is really a magical temperature. 32 and below, ice.  32 and above liquid.  And the transition is fast.

We had to take care of the paper work to renew our state food processing license so it was 3:30 PM before we got into the woods.  Of course the sun needed time to works its magic too and thaw the ice.  We had no help today so set out alone to collect.  Have to pace yourself.    By a little after 7:00 PM we had 200 gallons.  There were still about 20 buckets to empty but it was getting too dark to see and the temperature was dropping.    We pumped sap into the storage tank.  We put a heating tape on the tank’s pipes.  Its forecast for the lower 20s.  Hopefully we don’t get into the teens overnight. 

Tomorrow we will boil again.   Our evaporator is completely frozen up too.  Its been a long time since the end of March has been this cold or had this much snow on the ground.

The sun is warm.  It starts to thaw and melt during the day.  But its getting so cold at night.  Last night was down to 3.   We checked the woods today.   Some buckets have a quart.  A few are almost full.  But its all ice.  It was dripping because of the warm sun.  It did get up to 33 or maybe 34.   5 to 7 degrees warmer and we would have a nice run.  The sap is moving in the trees.   Tomorrow should be warmer and later in the week we should get even better sap weather.

Last year it was warm weather that paused our season.  This year its cold weather.   Tomorrow is forecast to get above freezing.  But tonight is in the low teens again.   Tuesday is warms more.  So we are hopeful.

Down to about 8 overnight.  Up to 28 during the day.  Tried to be sunny, but around 10:30 AM lake effect snow started.  It snowed pretty hard for a while.  Might have gotten an inch.   The forecast is still calling for warming starting Sunday and going into next week.  We may however need to change our return days.  Originally scheduled to return to Washington DC on April 4 but we are not going to be finished by then.

Down to 5 last night.  Made it to 27 today.   The sun rays are warm and did form a few puddles of melt by 3:00 PM.   

Went into the woods with the tractor this afternoon to clean snow from the trails.  We also brought syrup back.  And the milk cans of water.   There was no point letting the milk cans of water freeze solid with the cold weather.  

Next week it is forecast to warm.  The cold is not as harmful to the season as the warm like last year.  Warm weather starts to close the tap holes.  Cold delays the onset of closing the tap hole.