25 overnight.\u00a0 Sunny and up to 42 today.\u00a0 While the trees were dripping, it was not a big run.\u00a0 That’s unusual.\u00a0\u00a0 Could mean we are getting toward the end already.\u00a0 We will see what happens tomorrow when we collect.\u00a0 Upper 20s tonight and 40’s tomorrow.\u00a0 But rain is forecast for the afternoon.\u00a0 Longer range, next week it gets colder again.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Boiling sap with the evaporator is a well choreographed dance.\u00a0 You have to get into a rhythm to push the sap through.\u00a0 Bring in wood.\u00a0 Saw or split if necessary.\u00a0 Fire (add wood to the fire.)\u00a0 Check the sap level in the pans.\u00a0 Adjust the flow if necessary. Watch the boil.\u00a0 When it starts to loose its intensity,\u00a0 open the damper fully to allow more air flow.\u00a0 In between, bring in more wood because the fire is always hungry.\u00a0\u00a0 When the boil looses its intensity the second time, fire again.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Repeat until the tanks are empty.\u00a0 In between all of this we have to skim the foam when needed from the evaporator.\u00a0 And check the levels in the tanks.\u00a0 Sometimes we have to pump out a tank too which involves setting up the pump then breaking it down when finished.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
You can tell from bubbles in the boil when a batch of syrup is getting close to done.\u00a0 The bubbles are small and golden in color.\u00a0 Then we monitor with the hydrometer.\u00a0\u00a0 It comes off the evaporator at 29.\u00a0 (Finished syrup is 32.)\u00a0\u00a0 We have to monitor the fire and sap levels closely when a batch is almost ready.\u00a0 Don’t want the fire too hot, yet we can’t let it die down completely.\u00a0 And the sap level in the big pan has to increase so there is enough to replenish the syrup pan after drawing off.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
The draw off is very will rehearsed.\u00a0 Use the fire gloves to take out the siphon out.\u00a0 Its filled with hot sap and you will burn your hands unless using the fire gloves.\u00a0\u00a0 The fire gloves are then set on a near by chair.\u00a0 The gloves need to be handy and positioned so we can grab them as we walk past to replace the siphon.\u00a0\u00a0 The milk can goes under the valve on the syrup pan.\u00a0 Before opening the values, close the damper completely to keep the fire intensity down.\u00a0 Also stir the syrup in the pan to bleed off excess heat.\u00a0 When the valve is opened,\u00a0 keep stirring the syrup in the pan to keep a liquid layer on the pan bottom so it does not burn.\u00a0 When the flow from the valve gets low, reach for the brick on a ledge on the wall.\u00a0 Pick up the pan on the side opposite the valve and place the brick under it so it tilts toward the value.\u00a0 While doing this maneuver you have to move fast because you have stopped stirring and a portion of the pan will lack liquid and could burn if not covered quickly with liquid.\u00a0\u00a0 As the pan empties into the milk can you have to increase stirring.\u00a0 You have less and less liquid to keep the pan covered.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 At some point you can no longer keep the pan covered with liquid because its just been emptied.\u00a0 Then you reach over with the scoop to add sap to the pan.\u00a0 Two scoops then close the valve.\u00a0 Four or five more scoops then take out the brick to level the pan.\u00a0 The brick goes back on the ledge on the wall so you know where it is next time.\u00a0 Now move the milk can away from valve and replace its cover.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Change gloves.\u00a0 Regular gloves off,\u00a0 then pick up the fire gloves (positioned on the nearby chair earlier)\u00a0 as we walk around the smoke stack to the other side of the evaporator to replace the siphon.\u00a0 Back to the front of the evaporator so we can fire again.\u00a0 The fire has gone down and needs more wood to get the intense boils back.\u00a0 Open the damper.\u00a0\u00a0 Then its back to the regular fire, watch\u00a0 and monitor cycle.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
You have to be agile, mobile and have stamina because you do this for 8, 10, 12, or 14 hours at a time when boiling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
25 overnight.\u00a0 Sunny and up to 42 today.\u00a0 While the trees were dripping, it was not a big run.\u00a0 That’s unusual.\u00a0\u00a0 Could mean we are getting toward the end already.\u00a0 We will see what happens tomorrow when we collect.\u00a0 Upper 20s tonight and 40’s tomorrow.\u00a0 But rain is forecast for the afternoon.\u00a0 Longer range, next […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-season96"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/mapleacres.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345","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=345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/mapleacres.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/mapleacres.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mapleacres.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mapleacres.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}