Into the woods by 5:15 AM. Goal for the day was to bottle two milk cans. Bottling went well. We\u2019re getting the hang of working with the new bottling equipment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Turn on the bottler at the same time as lighting the burner on the finishing pan. \n\u2022 After adding syrup, turn up the thermostat 200 or 210 to heat the syrup faster, then decrease the thermostat to 185-190 during bottling. \n\u2022 Don\u2019t place the cover on the bottler. The cover will cause condensation that can dilute the syrup below density. <\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nTwo milk can bottled by 12:30 PM.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While bottling, we debated collecting today or waiting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The argument for waiting was 1.) we are tired after over a week of 12+ hour days and 2.) rain and snow was forecast making collecting uncomfortable. Starts as rain the changes to snow with 1\u201d-3\u201d possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The argument for collecting 1.) the sap is fresher. 2.) some buckets were \u00bd full. 3.) rain and snow are forecast so it\u2019s better to get the sap before that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We decided to collect. Out by 1:15 PM after fueling the tractor. 4 hours. Solo. 225 gallons with 30 taps uncollected. Snow started by 4:00 PM and hands got cold. Decided we were done either when the tank was full or all taps collected. The tank filled first with 30 taps uncollected amounting to 40-60 gallons. We\u2019ll get them tomorrow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Back to the farmhouse by 5:30 PM. Another long day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Into the woods by 5:15 AM. Goal for the day was to bottle two milk cans. Bottling went well. We\u2019re getting the hang of working with the new bottling equipment. Two milk can bottled by 12:30 PM. While bottling, we debated collecting today or waiting. The argument for waiting was 1.) we are tired after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2025-season-108"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/mapleacres.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2126","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=2126"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/mapleacres.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2126\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2127,"href":"http:\/\/mapleacres.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2126\/revisions\/2127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/mapleacres.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mapleacres.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mapleacres.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}