Made the decision to shutdown the season due to low Brix in the sap. It\u2019s uncomfortable because the sap is still running and the weather patterns are favorable. But with sap at 1 Brix or a little above, there\u2019s a lot of water. With the R\/O, it\u2019s feasible to cook this sap, but we\u2019ve had an above average crop and made our best syrup ever with the Grade A, Golden, Delicate. We shouldn\u2019t feel disappointed. Even though we will dump sap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is another new for a season: sap running, but low Brix. The sugar likely moved during the February runs. Last season, it was deep frost that delayed the season until March 28. Climate change is likely at the root of both events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Into the woods by 4:45 AM to cook. Three batches into the milk can. Back to the farmhouse by 10:30 AM.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Checked the buckets at Noon. Nice sap and dripping well. But then checked the sap with the hydrometer: all around 1 Brix. Tasted the sap. Difficult to detect any sweetness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The day cooking
5:05 AM R\/O start
6:00 AM concentrate
6:20 AM batch
6:30 AM -5 PSI
7:15 AM R\/O done
7:15 AM 6.5″
8:00 AM 5.25″
8:30 AM batch
9:00 AM 2.5″
9:50 AM batch
10:00 AM .25″
10:15 AM done<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Next, we get into cleanup mode.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Made the decision to shutdown the season due to low Brix in the sap. It\u2019s uncomfortable because the sap is still running and the weather patterns are favorable. But with sap at 1 Brix or a little above, there\u2019s a lot of water. With the R\/O, it\u2019s feasible to cook this sap, but we\u2019ve had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2023-season-106"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/mapleacres.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/mapleacres.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/mapleacres.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mapleacres.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mapleacres.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1689"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/mapleacres.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1689\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1692,"href":"http:\/\/mapleacres.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1689\/revisions\/1692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/mapleacres.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mapleacres.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mapleacres.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}