MapleAcres

It hovered between 31 to 33 today.    If it had been 10 degrees warmer we would have had a good sap run.  The sap is moving in the trees.  But when it hits the cold air coming out the spout it freezes.  Some of the trees were dripping well.  Others you could tell the sap was flowing, but it was freezing in the spout and backing up not able to get out.   We did pickup 270 gallons of sap.  Dumped ice too or it would have been more.  Still dumping the ice should make the sap sweeter.  

The wind is now coming from due North at 25-35 mph.  Its not snowing yet, but should start in a few hours.  The weather folks have now settled on a forecast for 4-6 inches of snow for us.

It was about 37 today.  Froze over night.  The day started sunny. And the sap starting flowing.  There will be sap to pickup tomorrow.  We are planning to pickup in the afternoon as we will need time for the ice to thaw.  It will freeze tonight again.

The big event everyone is watching is a coming snow storm.  This morning we were forecast for 3-5 inches.  Now we are forecast for 8 inches.  It will all depend on the final track of the storm.  It is supposed to start snowing tomorrow evening.  So we want to complete the sap pickup before the snow.

Mostly sunny and up to 47 or so.  Sap dripped a little.  We are planning to collect either Friday or Saturday before the storms.  The forecast is still for snow on Saturday late afternoon.  Maybe 3-5 inches but it will depend on the track of the storm moving in from the plains states.  Around Denver, CO they are getting 18 inches and blizzard conditions.  

Came across old maple syrup production records from 1946-1972.   The paper is old and getting brittle.  The writing is fading.  Transcribing the records to preserve them or they will be lost to the ages.   Looking at the records shows that the season has pretty much shifted to start a month earlier.    Even into the 60s the maple syrup season was the end of March and mostly through April.  Now the season starts and ends pretty much in March.   And the production numbers seem suspect.  In the late 60s 100 buckets would be put out and 35 gallons of syrup made.  That seems way too high.  100 buckets would make about 15 gallons.   But the records reflect what they did at the time.   The syrup was likely not made the proper density so they were able to stretch the amount made.

There was nothing happening in the woods today.  It was cloudy maybe 42.  It did not freeze last night so no sap.  Officially we had .13 of an inch of rain.  We visited two other local maple syrup makers.  They were boiling today to finish up the sap they have on hand.   Both are having the same type of season we are having and a little under a normal crop.  

The weather forecast for tomorrow and Friday is back to freezing night and sunny days.  If there will be more sap it will come then.  If there is nothing we will know its over.  And Saturday we may get a snow storm.

Today was cloudy and about 40.  It drizzled a little.  It looked like it would rain, but we have not had the 1 – 2 inches originally forecast.

We were in the woods by 9:00 am.  We used our new pump to move yesterday’s sap to the storage tanks.  This pump is quieter.   The instructions to the pump say it is self priming, yet there is a big caution label on the pump saying it must be filled with liquid before use, i.e. primed.  Since the pump has a fill plug we are priming it.

The state inspector came today. They check for basic cleanliness and food handling procedures.  We have some concern that they are getting stricter and stricter and will drive out small maple syrup producers. Maple syrup is not a good vector for harmful organisms given the amount of boiling it takes to make maple syrup.

By 6:00 pm the storage tanks were empty and we had bottled another 18 quarts of syrup.  We have 196 quarts now, just under 50 gallons.

Today was cloudy. Got up to 40 or so. But the sap did not run. With rain forecast for the next few days we planned to pickup the sap there was so it would not spoil. Set out about 1:15 pm. A Wintery mix of rain/snow started falling. This was not expected this early. Fortunately it did not fall long or hard so we did not get wet collecting. There was not a lot of sap. Some buckets were completely dry already. We did get about 175 gallons. There may not be any more sap this season. Unless the weather turns favorable with a return to sunny days and freezing nights, which are not forecast, we may well be done.

We setup to pump the sap from the collecting tank to the storage tanks. Our pump struggled to start. It has had problems all season. We could actually see the electric motor burning up. And then it quit and would not start again. This pump was 25 to 30 years old so it gave us a good run. So we made a trip to Fleet Farm to purchase a new pump. We have a replacement pump now that is almost identical. It is rated at 1450 gallons/hour. Doing the math, it should empty our 200 gallon collecting tank in just under 10 minutes. The pump cost $110.

Started boiling early again at 4:00 am.  By 8:00 pm the storage tanks were empty; the 400 gallons collected yesterday were boiled through.  Bottle twice for a total of 35 quarts.  We now have 178 quarts, 44.5 gallons of syrup for the season.   We will get more then the 2007 season when we only got 45 gallons for the entire season.  We will collect again tomorrow, Monday.  Rain is still forecast for Tuesday, maybe up to 2 inches.  

The day started cloudy, but turned sunny by afternoon.  Got up to about 45.  The snow is disappearing.

It snowed overnight. We got a little over 1 inch. Everything was snowy white this morning again. By 9:30 am the sun came out and that snow disappeared fast. It got up to about 45 today. The sap was dripping. Still not too fast though. We were waiting around this morning waiting for the trees. We did go out to collect at 2:00 pm. Brought in about 400 gallons of sap. So our storage tanks are full again. Tomorrow we will boil it down.

Its still forecast for rain starting Monday.

It was down to 17 last night. It warmed slowly during the day and only reached about 35 with clouds coming in this afternoon. The sap started running slowly late in the afternoon, but not enough to collect. Tomorrow should be warmer and we are hoping we can collect.

Next week rain is forecast and no freezing nights. That has us wondering if the season will come to an abrupt and early end.

It was cold over night. Down to the low 20s. Everything was frozen up this morning and most of the day as the temperature only got up to about 33 later this afternoon. With the storage tanks empty and no fresh sap we did a bit of cleaning today.

Cleaned the syrup pan on the evaporator. The sugar in the sap starts to coat the bottom of the pan and disrupts boiling. While we are not exactly sure of the interaction that cause it, the results are that syrup is prone to boiling over even with a low fire under that pan. With a slow day we had a chance to take the pan off and clean the coating before it got so bad as to cause a problem. And we washed some of the stickiness off the floor and washed out he collecting tank.

We also brought back from the woods the finished syrup and brought four milk cans of water to the woods.

And we had snow flurries. Nothing that accumulated but after two days of warm temperatures it was surprising to see. Today turned out to be much colder than was forecast even yesterday.

We now have 144 quarts, 36 gallons, of finished syrup for the season so far.