MapleAcres

We made Grade A Golden syrup again this season. 2023 was the first season we made Grade A Golden. It’s exciting to make this quality of syrup. There should be two more milk cans of Grade A Golden. The early season sap it always the best, but it still takes quick processing and careful monitoring while cooking to achieve this.

The new equipment we mentioned a few days ago it a new bottler with a water jacket. A 12 gallon tank for syrup is surrounded by a larger tank. The space between is filled with water. An electric heating element warms the water. The warm water then heats the syrup in the smaller tank through conduction.

We had to figure out how to use it and integrate into our workflow. We filled the water tank with too much water. We used 10 gallons. 1.) It took too long to heat: two hours. 2.) We added hot syrup when we turned on the heater because we thought the 3000 Watt heater would quickly heat the water. It didn’t. The cold water cooled the syrup so we waited for the water and syrup to warm. 3.) When the water did heat, it expanded and boiled over. The tank has a clear tube to view the water level. Water erupted from the tube. The lesson is use less water and heat the water before adding syrup. There isn’t any direct heat on the pan to burn it. The heating element only needs to be covered with water.

The water jacket holds the syrup at a consistent temperature. No more micro-adjustments on the propane burners trying to regulate the heat. Another clear tube shows the syrup level in the tank allowing us to better manage how many more bottles we need. Finally, there is a thermometer that shows the syrup temperature. We’ll learn more adjustments to better utilize the new bottler as we gain experience with it.

Low 40s overnight with some rain. The day started foggy, but cleared to partly cloudy by afternoon. Warm and windy. High 50s. Tonight’s forecast is high 20s to low 30s. Next week forecast’s look more favorable.

Into the woods by 8:00 AM. Bottled 22 quarts and 8 pints. Back to the farmhouse by 2:30 PM.

High 30s overnight. Low 40s and cloudy this morning with a thunderstorm by 9:15 AM. Partly sunny this afternoon with temperatures in the low-50s. There was ice on puddles this morning indicating the ground is still cold.

Into the woods by 5:15 AM to cook. R/O going by 5:30 AM. By 6:00 AM there was 2” in the concentrate tank. Easier cooking when there is a buffer amount in the tank.. Held around 3” all day in the concentrate tank.

Syrup is definitely a grade darker. Warmer weather causes darker syrup because of changes in the sap.

Waiting to collect until yesterday was the right call. We got the run and didn’t have to collect two days in a row. No sap today.

We’re getting by with the R/O, but it’s processing 60 gallons/hour. R/O ran for 8 hours to process 470 gallons of sap.. We should get 90-95 gallons/hour. The R/O would finish in 5 ½ hours. The FilmTec membrane in use now is 12 years old. While it’s professionally washed during the off-season, and the cleaning report says it’s back to 100%, it’s not preforming at 100%. The MES membrane is effectively dead. As we noted the other day, it preformed at a very low level and couldn’t keep up with cooking. We’ll replace the membranes for next season. Membranes are the soul of the R/O and must preform.

8 batches into the milk cans. We have 5 full milk cans now and must bottle because we don’t have any more milk cans for syrup.

Back to the farmhouse by 3:15 PM.

The day cooking.
5:30 AM R/O start
6:00 AM 2″
6:50 AM batch
7:00 AM 3 1/2″
8:00 AM batch
8:00 AM 3 3/4″
8:55 AM batch
9:00 AM 3 1/4″
9:55 AM batch
10:00 AM 3 1/2″
10:55 AM batch
11:00 AM 3 1/2″
11:50 AM batch
12:00 PM 2 3/4″
12:50 PM batch
1:00 PM 4″
1:30 PM R/O done
2:20 PM 2 1/4″
2:50 PM batch
3:00 PM 1/4″
3:15 PM done

27 overnight. A small layer of ice formed in the buckets. We needed a freeze to stimulate sap flow. Sunny and high 40s today. Late this afternoon we reached low 50s. Overall, it was a good weather for maple.

Into the woods by 9:00 AM. Letting the syrup pan sit overnight in the cleaning solution made is much easier to clean because the solution loosened the nitre. The cleaning solution needs time to act.

Worked on assembling new equipment. We’ll write more about that later.

Sap ran well today and supplemented the sap run from yesterday. We collected at 3:00 PM. Picked up 470 gallons. We’ve collected 1785 gallons so far this season.

We’re using a strainer with the collecting tank to catch twigs, bark, leaves, bugs and other debris that gets into the buckets. It works well. Another small change that makes the operation better. Too bad we didn’t think of it years ago.

Back to the farmhouse by 5:30 PM.

32 overnight. Ice on the puddles because the ground is still cold. Sunny and 42 today. Nice that it’s cooler. Sap is dripping slowly and steadily. Now we have to decide when to collect. Temperature forecast for 30 tonight so the trees will drip into the night and it’s not cold enough for ice to form in the buckets. We decided to wait until tomorrow to collect because we’ll get most of the run and have the sap collected before it get warmer on Friday and Saturday.

Into the woods by 8:45 AM for maintenance. Had a 220 V electric outlet installed and a cord attached to the heater for a new piece of equipment. Also changed the orientation of the 220 V wall electric outlet for the R/O. The cord faced up when plugged it which put unnecessary stress on it. Now the cord faces down to eliminate stress. It’s a small change, but even small changes improve operations.

Ran the rinse cycle on R/O after the pH wash and cleaned the wash tank. Also washed the cloth wraps used with the Blue Water filter.

Started to clean the evaporator’s syrup pan. After 10+ hours of use it had a buildup of nitre. Heated water and added cleaning solution. We’ll let it sit overnight. The nitre should be easier to clean off because the cleaning solution works better when it has time to work. We don’t need the pan tomorrow. Usually we are rushed to clean the pan in the morning before we need it to cook that day.

The Filter Press plates are cleaning in the dish washer so the Filter Press will be ready to use. We must bottle in the coming days because we have four milk cans of syrup with only one empty milk can for new syrup.

Back to the farmhouse by 3:00 PM.

Into the woods by 5:00 AM to cook. There was a higher level of sap in the evaporator than normal. We left a valve open from the storage tank to evaporator yesterday when we pumped the first tank of sap. About 25-30 gallons flowed into the evaporator before we noticed.

Started R/O by 6:45 AM. When starting at 5:00 AM, the R/O would typically start by 5:30 AM. As a result of the later start, we didn’t have a supply of concentrate in the tank. All day we cooked as fast as we concentrated. We were cooking on the edge of R/O performance all day with little margin of extra concentrate. We kept a bucket of permeate nearby if the concentrate ran out.

No leaks on the pressure vessel cap. Our effort to carefully and evenly apply the food grade grease yesterday paid off. Spare O-rings did arrive today.

45 overnight. Sunny all day. The temperature dropped all day. 34 now with forecast of 30 overnight. We’ll see if that’s cold enough to stimulate another sap run. We have high 50s again at the end the week.

We have four milk cans of syrup now. Three of the cans may be Grade A, Golden. The color did drop today because the of the warmer weather.

Running a pH wash on the R/O. It ran 8 ½ hours today. Back to the farmhouse by 4:30 PM.

The day cooking
6:45 AM R/O start
7:25 AM batch
8:05 AM batch
9:35 AM batch
10:40 AM batch
11:55 AM batch
12:55 PM batch
1:35 PM batch
1:55 PM batch
2:00 PM 8” of sap remain
3:05 PM batch
3:20 PM R/O done

Up to 60 today. Sunny. Upper 30s overnight. Trees started running yesterday after Noon and ran all night. We considered collecting yesterday, but thought if we waited until today we could get the complete run. Checked the woods by 11:30 AM. Buckets had a lot of sap. A few overflowing. We divided those into other buckets with less sap.

Started collecting at 2:00 PM because we knew had had a lot of sap and it takes about 45 minutes to empty the tank with transfer pump. Our fast transfer pump in currently broken. Finished collecting by 5:30 PM.

Into the woods by 9:30 AM. Worked on pressure vessel cap. We did get new O-rings ordered from Grainger. Cleaned the syrup pan this afternoon before collecting.

It doesn’t freeze tonight, but tomorrow is cooler. Forecast is around 40.

We hope the R/O will work tomorrow without leaks and good performance from the membrane. It will be a long day of 10+ hours with the R/O. Much longer without the R/O. With the problems during the past two times using the R/O we have some apprehension.

Back to the farmhouse by 5:45 PM.

Into the woods by 5:15 AM to cook. Evaporator going by 5:45 AM; R/O going by 5:50 AM. 32 overnight, but ice on puddles because the ground is cold. Sunny and up to 60 today. That’s getting too warm.

The R/O wasn’t preforming well. It couldn’t process at the expected 90-95 gallons per hour. We ran out of concentrate. That shouldn’t happen. We stopped the R/O at 7:45 AM to change the membrane. We have an extra membrane. In past seasons we used the FilmTec membrane from DOW Chemical. This year we used the membrane from Maple Expert Solutions (MES). We have both membranes professionally washed each off-season. Both come back with a 100% flow rate. The MES membrane should have been fine. But it wasn’t preforming. The FilmTech membrane is about 10 years old. The MES membrane is about 5 years old. Took close to an hour to switch membranes because we had to run 100 gallons of water through the membrane before use.

While the membrane was rinsing, we collected the remaining sap from yesterday. 35 gallons. Total run from yesterday was 295 gallons.

The FilmTech membrane preformed okay. It processed more concentrate then we were cooking which is what we expected. We had about an hour of cooking once the R/O finished.

The leak on the pressure vessel cap returned. It was OK before we switch membranes. We’ll check the seal tomorrow again. But we must find the correct size replacement O-ring.

We got 7-8 Brix on the R/O. That’s good.

Had to take out three pieces of wood from the evaporator at the end because the fire was too hot for the amount of sap in the pan. There are still a few snow banks to quench the burning wood.

The sap will run overnight. Should be big run to collect tomorrow. Considered collecting today too, but by waiting until tomorrow we should get the complete run.

The day cooking.
5:50 AM R/O start
7:00 AM batch
7:45 AM change membrane
8:30 AM batch
8:30 AM 35 gallons of sap
9:00 AM 5 ½” concentrate
9:40 AM batch
10:00 AM 5”
10:55 AM batch
11:50 AM R/O done
11:50 AM batch
12:00 PM 3 ½”
12:50 PM batch
1:20 PM done

Back to the farmhouse by 1:20 PM.

Cold overnight again. 21, but dropped to 18 at dawn. That causes a lot of ice. Mostly sunny today with temperature up to mid 30s. It took until 9:30 to start melting but the temperature rose slowly. It was after Noon before the PSI came up and the trees started slowly dripping. We waited until 4:00 to collect to give an extra hour for ice in the buckets to melt. There was still ice to dump, but the extra hour did help. Pickup up 260 gallons, but there is approximately 40 gallons still in the woods because we didn’t have extra collecting pails to haul it in. We’ll get it tomorrow. It’s forecast to be warmer overnight.

Into the woods at 11:00 AM to put the cap on the R/O pressure vessel. Then back into the woods by 3:15 PM to prepare for collecting. Done collecting by 6:00 PM. Pumped the collecting tank into the storage tank. Back to the farmhouse by 6:35 PM.

Mid 20s overnight. Sunny and low 40s during the day. Started melting by 10:30 AM. Trees warmed slowly and started dripping by Noon. Not enough to collect today, but hopefully tomorrow we can collect. There is ice in the buckets. Trees will drip into the evening. Low 20s tonight so ice will re-form. We’ll need to evaluate the ice situation tomorrow.

Into the woods by 8:30 AM to fix a broken spout and replace the zip tie on a sap-sak. Also brought the top cap of the pressure vessel to the farmhouse for maintenance. The O-ring has a larger cross-section than the spare O-rings we have so we couldn’t replace it. But the O-ring looks OK and is pliable. We removed the buildup of food grade grease to restore good surfaces for the O-ring to seal against. Also replaced bolt with burr on the threads that could affect how it tightens down.

A note on food grade grease. This grease isn’t the type used to lubricate other machinery like vehicles, engines, other other equipment. This grease is specifically designed and blended for use in the food industry where it could have contact with food. If you ingest this grease, you won’t get sick. Don’t eat it, but incidental contact isn’t harmful. It conforms to FDA Regulations CFR 21 Section 178.3570 for Incidental Food Contact. It’s also: NSF H1 Registered; Halal Certified; and Kosher Certified. With the R/O, we use it as a sealant for the O-rings where it is exposed to incidental contact with sap in the R/O.

Tomorrow’s forecast is partly cloudy and low 40s. Monday and Tuesday’s forecast is low 50s. That’s warmer then we like.

Low 20s and wind overnight made it very cold. The day was sunny and up to mid 30s, but it didn’t start to melt until after Noon. Trees tried to drip. Later in the day they likely produced some sap.

Big swing in the weather. Yesterday it was cloudy and rainy. Today, sunny but colder. The rain did melt most of the snow.

Into the woods by 9:00 AM to check on the evaporator and get the size of the nuts and bolts for the R/O pressure vessel top. Then went to pickup extra nuts and bolts, food safe thread seal, an extension cord, and metal bars to help support the evaporator pan.

Tomorrow we’ll replace the O-ring on the R/O pressure vessel top and perform other maintenance including replaced a broken spout and sap-sak.