A good season.\u00a0 Weather cooperated.\u00a0 We could have actually waited to start tapping until after the March 9th snowstorm.\u00a0 But the cold weather kept the taps fresh so we were not penalized for the early start.\u00a0 The clutch problem on the tractor was expensive.\u00a0 The week of cold weather gave us another two part season, although the cold was better then last year’s warm weather.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 March 29 to April 2 was our big run.\u00a0 We had more long work days this season than in recent past seasons.\u00a0 About three 15 hour days.\u00a0 Quite a few 10-12 hour days.\u00a0 But that’s all part of the season and getting the crop when nature says its ready.\u00a0 Nothing we were not prepared to do.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
73 gallons and 1 pint is a good season for us. Yet we feel a tinge of let down because we collected 3340 gallons of sap and were expecting 77 to 78 gallons of syrup.\u00a0 Since we only got 73 1\/8 gallons our sap this year was less sweet.\u00a0 It took 45.7 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup (45.7:1) which is getting high.\u00a0 Normal is 42:1.<\/p>\n
Doing the math using the Rule of 86 , we can determine our sap was 1.88% sugar this year.\u00a0 Last year we were at 2.01% sugar<\/p>\n
3340 gallons of sap from 401 taps yields 8.3 gallons of sap per tap.<\/p>\n
73.125 gallons of syrup
293.5 quarts of syrup
587 pints of syrup<\/p>\n
587 pints of syrup from 401 taps yields 1.46 pints per tap.<\/p>\n
Next up is filling the wood shed for next season.\u00a0 We do want to be more disciplined about cutting wood to about 3 foot lengths.\u00a0 Cutting down the wood this season seemed to reduce the amount used and still give us good boils.\u00a0 Shorter wood keeps the heat in the firebox and not up the smoke stake.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
We go to MI this year in October for annual North American Maple Syrup Council meeting.<\/p>\n
We plan to be back here the end of February or early March 2012 for season 94.<\/p>\n
Tapping
Date\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Taps
2-6 \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 2
3-3\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 50
3-4\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 25
3-4\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 50
3-4\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 49
3-6\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 50
3-8\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 50
3-11\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 12
3-12\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 13
3-13\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 75
—————-
401<\/p>\n
Collecting
Date\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Gals.
3-8\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 100
3-11\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 300
3-12\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 200
3-15\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 500
3-16\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 325
3-19\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 235
3-29\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 230
3-31\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 430
4-2\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 580
4-6\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 330
4-8\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 110
——————
3340<\/p>\n
3-16\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 60 from neighbor<\/p>\n
Bottling
Date\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Qts\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Pts\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 500\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 250
3-13\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 24\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 3\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 1
3-15\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 17\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 1\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 0
3-16\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 11\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 6\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 14\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 12
3-17\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 21\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 10\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 1\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 0
3-19\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 16\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 16\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 12
3-22\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 6\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 8\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 17
3-31\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 12\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 11\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 16\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 6
4-2\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 25\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 11\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 0
4-3\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 10\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 20\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 0
4-5\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 8\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 11\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 9\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 12
4-8\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 17\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 20\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 8\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 0
4-11\u00a0 \u00a0 8\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 40\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 1\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 2
—————————————————–
175\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 141\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 65\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 62<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A good season.\u00a0 Weather cooperated.\u00a0 We could have actually waited to start tapping until after the March 9th snowstorm.\u00a0 But the cold weather kept the taps fresh so we were not penalized for the early start.\u00a0 The clutch problem on the tractor was expensive.\u00a0 The week of cold weather gave us another two part season, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2011-season-94"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/mapleacres.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278","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=278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/mapleacres.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/mapleacres.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mapleacres.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mapleacres.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}