MapleAcres

Into the woods by 8:15 AM to bottle. Small batch of 3 gallons. We’ll bottle another milk can tomorrow of about 5 gallons.

29 overnight. Sunny and 45 today. Tree pressure showed -5 PSI this morning indicating the trees are drawing up moisture. Similar temperature tonight. We’ll see if this leads to a sap run.

The weather forecasts this season have attempted to indicate the future weather, but they rely too much on historical weather data and aren’t accounting for this season’s weather pattern. The three day forecasts are more accurate but the 10 days forecasts show favorable weather for sap, but as the days progress the forecasts are revised to show less favorable sap weather for the three day window. After three days, the forecast relies too much on the historical weather data. March weather is always volatile, but this year is especially challenging because of the strong El Nino and effects of climate change.

Back to the farmhouse by 10:45 AM.

Into the woods by 6:15 AM. 42 and rain overnight. Sunny and 45 today. Actually, a thunderstorm overnight but we didn’t hear the thunder. Folklore says thunder over an open woods means more snow will come.

Nice syrup today. The maple aroma returned and the syrup looks lighter. Glad we isolated that batch from last week.

The day cooking
6:30 AM R/O start
7:00 AM 2 ¾”
8:00 AM 5 ¾”
9:00 AM 7 ½”
9:05 AM batch
9:25 AM R/O done
10:00 AM 8”
10:15 AM batch
11:00 AM 5 ½”
11:20 AM batch
12:00 PM 3 ½”
12:30 PM 2 ¾”
12:45 PM batch
12:45 PM 2 ½”
1:00 PM 1 ½”
1:15 PM done

We need freezing nights again. Forecast is for 32 tonight but that may not be cold enough. We are in a holding pattern. If the season ended right now we’d have approximately 70 gallons. Our target is 75 gallons.

Back to the farmhouse by 1:30 PM.

Into the woods by 7:00 AM to bottle. Finished bottling by 10:30 AM. Then cleaned the syrup pans and tanks. Also cleaned the concentrate hose on the R/O. And cleared the transfer pump because leaves got into it on Saturday. But didn’t clean it well enough and had to take apart again because it didn’t work when we tried to empty the collecting tank. The impellers are stainless steel, but they are very thin with tight tolerances. They don’t like debris like leaves, twigs and bark.

45 overnight. Sunny and up to 50 before clouds moved in after Noon. We noticed a good amount sap in buckets so decided to collect. This was unexpected. The trees dripped slowly yesterday and all night. Rain was forecast to start between 4:00 PM and 5:00 PM. We started collecting at 3:00 PM and finished by 4:00 PM just as it started to sprinkle. We need the rain. It’s dry. The rain may recharge the groundwater the trees need for sap.

We have a few cold nights forecast for Tuesday and Wednesday so hoping there is another run. With this collection we will approach 70 gallons for the season. Or target is 75 gallons.

Back to the farmhouse by 4:30 PM.

Into the woods by 7:00 AM to cook. It was an easy day.

The day cooking
7:15 AM R/O start
8:00 AM 3 ¾”
9:00 AM 6 ¼”
9:15 AM batch
9:50 AM R/O done
10:00 AM 8”
10:15 AM batch 2020 can
11:00 AM 5 ½”
11:30 AM batch
12:00 PM 3”
12:30 PM 2 ½”
12:40 PM batch
12:45 PM 1 ¾”
1:00 PM done

The aroma changed. The maple aroma is hidden now by the steam while cooking. That happens as the season comes to an end.

Back to the farmhouse by 1:15 PM.

Into the woods by 8:30 AM to bottle. Finished by 11:45 AM. When to get gas for the tractor then prepared tanks and cleaned syrup pan. Sometimes it takes an hour of effort to clean the nitre from the pan. Today it just flaked off with little effort. Can’t explain why.

Collected at 3:00 PM. Picked up 210 gallons. We had a lot of help with collecting and finished in 45 minutes. That was nice.

It was 32 overnight. Sunny and high 40s today. Trees dripped into he night and dripped today, but not a big run. We expected more after recovering from the cold spell. This was the 10^th collection. We typically get 9-11 collections a season so maybe we are coming to the end? Its three day until the next freezing night is forecast.

Cook tomorrow. Should be an easy day with 210 gallons. But we’ve had “easy” days become challenging days.

Back to the farmhouse by 4:30 PM.

Into the woods by 12:45 PM to bottle.

33 overnight. Sunny at 42 today. Trees starting to recover from the cold and drip. Trees may drip into the evening. Not sure if we can collect tomorrow.

Back to the farmhouse by 3:45 PM.

Into the woods by 5:30 AM to cook. It was 10. As dawn broke, the temperature dropped even lower. We knew the pipes would be frozen, but hoped the heat gun could thaw them. But as it got colder, the heat gun lost effectiveness. The temperature was forecast to rise as the morning went on so we returned to the farmhouse by 6:30 AM to wait until it got warmer. It was sunny and the tanks are on the South side of the building so they would also warm from the sun as the morning progressed.

Back into the woods by 9:45 AM. Temperature 23. The heat gun was effective now. By 10:15 AM the R/O was going.

With the obstruction removed from the pipes, the stream from the tank to the evaporator flows freely. It was much easier cooking.

The day cooking
10:15 AM R/O start
11:00 AM 3”
11:55 AM batch into 2018 milk can
12:00 PM 6”
1:00 PM 7 ¾”
1:00 PM R/O done
1:15 PM batch
2:00 PM 5 ½”
2:25 PM batch
3:00 PM 3”
3:30 PM 1 ¾”
3:40 PM batch
4:00 PM done

We’re separating this day cooking into its own milk can. It’s a darker grade because we used the tank heater. The sap was about 50-55 F for over 24 hours. It didn’t freeze in the tank, but the elevated temperature causes darker syrup. It’s still good syrup but a grade darker: Robust instead of Rich. We noticed the R/O temperature was about 10 degrees higher too. We isolated this cook and hope the grade rebounds for the next.

Also resolved the unexpected R/O shutoff during the wash cycle from two days ago. We have a tank heater on the wash tank the heats the water to 100 F. When starting the wash cycle the temperature surges to 106-108 F. The pump streams the water through quickly with little loss to the vessel or membrane. After a few minutes heat is absorbed into the vessel and membrane and the temperature recedes to the mid 90s. Over the next 6-7 hours the R/O slowly heats to 113 F before shutting off at the high temperature mark. It was close to 70 that day so the R/O was already warmer then normal. When the heated water started cycling through, the temperature reached the auto shutoff value. By the third attempt the water had cooled just enough to keep the temperature below 113 before receding.

Back to the farmhouse by 4:00 PM.

Into the woods by 5:30 AM. Temperature started dropping after 1:00 AM. Then snow flurries and it continued getting colder. 25 at 5:30 AM. 15 By 10:00 AM but it did get sunny.

First task of the day was investigating the pipes into the evaporator and why they ran slowly. Took them apart and discovered the ¾” pipe that runs down the side of the evaporator was obstructed with leaves, bark and twigs likely going back years. We clean it by flushing water after each season, but it doesn’t have enough pressure to flush out the sediment.

Made a makeshift snake to clean the pipe. It had a lot of stuff. This picture is after discovering the blockage. A lot more came out. The pipes are now clean and we expect it will flow freely.

While cleaning the syrup pan, we started investing the R/O temperature display and monitoring. Yesterday during the wash cycle it unexpectedly shut off twice. We saw a light on the display we didn’t recall. Unplugged the R/O and check the circuit breakers. All looked good. After restoring power the light was out. The manual doesn’t provide documentation on the display so we called our equipment dealer. While waiting for a reply, we ran a rinse cycle. Worked as expected. It’s possible all is well and we just reacted to unexpected behavior.

It’s now 9:00 AM and we tried to run a concentrate cycle. The pipe from the tank is frozen. It was warmer at 5:30 AM and the pipes may not have been frozen then yet. We had a heating tape on the pipes, but it wasn’t wrapped well enough to keep it warm. Spent an hour trying to thaw before realizing we could skip cooking today. We aren’t getting sap for two or three days and it’s cold enough for the sap to keep. We actually deployed the sinking tank heater into the tank to keep it from freezing tonight when it gets into the teens. And we re-wrapped the heating tape on the pipes to better warm them. We’ll still likely need to thaw pipes in the morning but we’ll start earlier.

We expected an easier day but did expect to cook. But we did fix the pipes running slowly so that’s a win. Back to the farmhouse by 10:30 AM.

Collected 240 gallons today. Trees ran all night because it didn’t freeze. This is part 2 of the big run from yesterday.

Into the woods by 5:00 AM. Needed to cook down the level of the evaporator before starting the R/O. A challenging day cooking. The pipes are aligned but the stream into the evaporator is still weak. We are cooking faster than the stream can keep up. We used the stainless steel bucket from bottling to scoop concentrate into a 5 gallons pail then added to the evaporator as needed. It allowed us to continue intense firing but it adds yet another step to the workflow. We were adding two 5 gallon buckets approximately every 1 ½ hours. We plan to take apart the pipes tomorrow to check for obstructions. It’s hard cooking this way.

By 11:00 AM it became clear we needed to collect. The weather turns cold tonight: into the teens. And only 25 tomorrow. Liquid today, ice tomorrow. Started collecting at 3:00 PM. But we weren’t done cooking. We would have finished by 5:30 PM, but collecting interrupted that. Finished collecting by 4:30 PM. Then back to cooking. Finished by 7:15 PM.

The day cooking
6:45 AM R/O start
7:00 AM 1”
7:20 AM batch
8:00 AM 2 ¾”
8:20 AM batch
9:00 AM 4”
9:15 AM batch
10:00 AM 5 ¾”
10:10 AM batch
10:55 AM batch
11:00 AM 7 ¼”
11:55 AM batch
12:00 PM 9 ¼”
12:40 PM batch
12:40 PM R/O done
1:00 PM 10”
1:40 PM batch
2:00 PM 7 ½”
2:30 PM batch
2:45 PM collecting
4:30 PM done collecting
4:45 PM 6 ¾”
5:55 PM batch
6:00 PM 3 ½”
6:30 PM 2 ½”
6:55 PM batch
7:00 PM 1 ¾”
7:15 PM done

Back to the farmhouse by 7:30 PM after 14 ½ hours.

25 overnight. But the trees ran into the night before it got cold. Sunny and 45 today. Trees ran well today too. We had a big run and picked up 470 gallons.

Into the woods by 9:00 AM to bottle. We aligned the pipes from the tanks to the evaporator while the syrup was on the finishing pan. We’ll see tomorrow if that resolved our problem with the flow into the evaporator.

After bottling we ran the rinse cycle on the R/O and cleaned the syrup pan so we are prepared for cooking tomorrow. We have about 10 hours of cooking tomorrow. Plan to get into the woods by 5:00 AM.

Back to the farmhouse by 4:30 PM.