MapleAcres

Still too warm.  It did not freeze last night.  It was sunny and about 50 today.  But without a freeze the  sap was not running.

We were able to empty our storage tanks from yesterday’s collection.  Into the woods around 9:00 am.  By 8:00 pm we were done, all the storage tanks empty.  We took four batches of syrup off the evaporator, but we doubled up the batches so we only bottled twice.  16 quarts around 1:00 pm.  15 quarts around 6:00 pm.   31 quarts total.

Tomorrow and Friday are forecast for freezing nights, about 25,  and highs in the 40s and sunny.  That is what we need.  The long range forecast says rain for next week.  That is not a good sign.  This season may end early.

Last season we were running the syrup through the filter press twice in order to get clear syrup.  That was a lot of work.  We spoke with some other maple syrup producers at the annual meeting about it.  We were bottling too hot.  We need to be at 180 degrees to 185 degrees.  We were typically bottling around 210 to 215 degrees.  This was causing the particles to precipitate out of the syrup again and making it cloudy.   Now that we are holding 180-185 degrees we are able to filter only once.  Saves a lot of work.

It was up to 66 today. It did not freeze overnight. This is too warm for sap flows. Tomorrow is also forecast to be warm, mid 50s. Wednesday night and Thursday its forecast for more normal: 20s at night and 40s during the day. If it stays in the upper 50s without freezing night we could be ending the season early.

Water from the melting snow was running all over the place. This was the big thaw.

Out to the woods about 4:00 am again to finish up the sap collected on Sunday. We ran out of LP gas which we use for finishing the syrup and bottling. Last season we picked up an extra tank of LP gas so we should have been OK. Nope. That tank was empty. It must have leaked. So we had to make trip to the Coop to get LP gas.

We did collect. Picked up 325 gallons. Help came by 1:00 pm and we set out. Some buckets were half full to three quarters full. Others were almost empty.

And bottled 19 quarts today.

No new sap today.  Working on boiling what we collected yesterday.  Out to the woods about 4:30 am.  Boiled all day.  And the storage tanks are almost empty. 

Bottled 15 quarts today.  We have 92 quarts total now.

Collected 340 gallons of sap today.   Started at 1:00 pm.  Finished up by 4:30 pm.  We had trouble with the pump again.  Its getting old, over 20 years already.  Fortunately we got it running again, but we may need to replace it.

And we bottled 12 more quarts of syrup today.

Things went better today.  We were successful getting the pipes on the storage tank thawed.  Then we boiled down the sap and emptied the storage tanks.    Worked on the tractor and got it running again.  Then we could get water.   Today is Friday the 13th, but it sure seemed like yesterday was with everything going wrong.

It stated warming up today.  We expect sap this weekend again.  And we bottled 11 more quarts.

Today’s Count

11 quarts 1 pint of syrup bottled.

Into the woods about 4:00 am again.  There is still sap in the 150 gallon storage tank.  But it was cold overnight.  And the pipes froze. Or maybe there are just plugged up with twigs.   Tried a small torch to thaw the pipes without luck.  Needed sap in the evaporator as it was running low.  Tried to pump from the storage tanks to the evaporator, but the pump did not work either.  And the tractor would not start.  Tomorrow is supposed to be Friday the 13^th, not today.  Some days things just don’t go right.   By 1:00 pm we gave up and went back to the house.  It had already been a long day.

Went into the woods about 4:00 am to starting boiling down what we collected yesterday.   The temperate had dropped and was already freezing everything.  And it continued to drop to 12 degrees around 8:00 am.  Tonight it could reach 0.   As hard as it was collecting yesterday, it would have been a waste for all that sap to freeze in the buckets. 

By 9:30 am we had a batch of syrup finished.   Got that bottled.  And kept working on getting the sap boiled through.  We actually bottled two more times during the day.  Stayed until 9:00 pm to empty the large 250 gallon storage tank.

Today’s Count

38 quarts, 1 pint of syrup bottled.

When the sap is ready to run, it will run. Today was rain, drizzle and fog. But it did get up to 37 degrees. Yesterday after the snow storm the sap started to dip a little because it was sunny. It did not get very cold over night and the sap must have run over night. We collected 450 gallons of sap. And we were not expecting to collect.

We did not check the woods in the morning. We went out for a leisure lunch and did not get back until about 3:00 pm. Went to look at the buckets, but did not expect there would be sap to collect. Wrong. Half to three quarters full with some running over. So get the tractor and head into the woods. It was still drizzling and foggy. No sun, but it was about 37. The snow we had on Sunday made walking in the woods very difficult. While walking from one tree to the next there were a lot of places we encountered knee deep snow. Now carry two five gallons pails of sap. It gets real difficult. We were able to get one person to come help which was wonderful.

Night was approaching and we still had trees to visit. But the collecting tank was full again so we had to go back to empty it. While waiting for the collecting tank we filled all the five gallon pails we had so when the tractor came back we would have another section of woods collected. It was about 8:00 pm and dark when we finished collecting from the last tree. But we still had to empty the collecting tank. We topped off the storage tanks then filled four milk cans yet.

And finally we had to prepare for colder weather moving in. By morning its forecast to be 20 degrees or even colder. We had to setup heating tapes and heat lamps on the pipes from the storage tanks to keep them from freezing. It was about 9:00 pm when we finally got back into the house. That was a hard six hours.

Today’s Count

450 Gallons of sap 

The snow stopped around 10:00 pm last night.  But it continued to blow and drift.  The temperature dropped to about 10 degrees overnight.  This morning broke sunny and cold.   And the work of digging out began.    The fields were bare and brown yesterday.  Today they are again white with snow cover.

No activity in the woods today.  The maple trees were not dripping, they don’t like storms, although by the end of the day it warmed enough that the spouts were wet.   After five days of hard work in the woods it felt strange not doing anything today.

Tonight another storm is forecast.  This time its pretty clear we will be on the warm side of the storm and freezing rain and rain is expected to begin after midnight.   So its going to get sloppy.   But then the rest of the week turns colder.

Today’s Count

6-8 inches of snow 

Started the evaporator at 5:15 am. By 10:15 the large tank as empty. By 1:30 pm or so we had our first syrup of this season bottled. Total bottled was 14 quarts and 1 pint. By 6:00 pm all the tanks were empty and we were back in the house.

But….at 11:30 am it started snowing. We only had a brief period of sleet, so the line of cold air was farther south then expected. Yesterday’s forecasts gave us a longer period of sleet and rain until late afternoon before turning to snow. But we had just about all snow. The wind picked up too. We were snug and warm in the syrup building boiling away. We had to go out to get wood and occasionally check the level of sap in the tanks. But mostly we were warm and content. When we came out of the woods we realized it was quite a storm. The roads were drifting over. Visibility was low because of blowing and drifting snow. It looks like we will end up with 6-8 inches.

Today’s count

14 quarts, 1 pint of finished syrup

6-8 inches snow