{"id":1765,"date":"2024-02-01T20:01:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-02T01:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mapleacres.com\/?p=1765"},"modified":"2024-02-02T06:22:08","modified_gmt":"2024-02-02T12:22:08","slug":"14-%c2%bd-hours","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/mapleacres.com\/?p=1765","title":{"rendered":"14 \u00bd Hours"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Into the woods by 5:00 AM. Back to the farmhouse by 7:30 PM. We were determined to boil the sap we collected yesterday. Setup is a lot of work. We hoped to be prepared this season by taking a week in February to get ready. Mother Nature had other plans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cooking syrup on February 1st is unusual, but in the woods it looks and feels like mid-March with the melting snow and sun. This isn\u2019t a January thaw of only a few days.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Cooking
Cooking sap February 1, 2024<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Setup and configured the R\/O. Added insulation and a cover to the wash tank in hopes of solving last years problem with not reaching 113 during wash cycle. That took 1 \u00bd hours. We\u2019ll see if it helps. It\u2019s the type of insulation used with hot water heaters. The R\/O manufacturer claims heat lost from the wash tank causes the low temperature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Started the fire under the evaporator by 11:00 AM, but didn\u2019t get to focused cooking until 1:00 PM when the R\/O was ready and running. R\/O finished by 5:00 PM. Went 6 Brix to 7 Brix.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It takes several hours to get finished syrup when starting from raw sap or concentrate. Two batches into the milk can. Batches were ready by 5:50 PM and 7:00 PM. The syrup looks good but may not be Golden\/Delicate like last season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fast centrifugal transfer pump is repaired. A small pebble was lodged in the impeller.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still some issues with the new R\/O feed pump. It won\u2019t reach 25 PSI during the concentrate flush cycle. It\u2019s a short cycle meant to capture concentrate in the R\/O before washing. We\u2019ll loose some concentrate by omitting this cycle, but we don\u2019t think it will hurt the membrane. Overall we\u2019re still skeptical this new feed pump is suitable for our R\/O. We have a single 4\u201d membrane. That pump may be more suitable for R\/Os with 8\u201d membranes and multiple membranes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Puddles were frozen overnight, but the air temperature was 34. Mostly sunny and 45 during the day. Forecast for upper 20\u2019s tonight and next night. Trees dripped some, but we need a good freeze again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We accomplished the goal of cooking the sap, but it was a long day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Into the woods by 5:00 AM. Back to the farmhouse by 7:30 PM. We were determined to boil the sap we collected yesterday. Setup is a lot of work. We hoped to be prepared this season by taking a week in February to get ready. Mother Nature had other plans. Cooking syrup on February 1st […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2024-season-107"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/mapleacres.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1765","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=1765"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/mapleacres.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1765\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1768,"href":"http:\/\/mapleacres.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1765\/revisions\/1768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/mapleacres.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mapleacres.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mapleacres.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}