Into the woods by 8:00 AM. \u00a0Cold overnight and all day. \u00a0Down to 24 overnight but only warmed to 33 during the day. \u00a0It was sunny and the warm sun did cause the trees to start dripping. \u00a0 There is now ice in the buckets. \u00a0Where was this weather two weeks ago?<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tonight down to 20. \u00a0Tomorrow 38.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Finished cooking by Noon. \u00a0Then started bottling. \u00a0Trouble with the filter press. \u00a0Finished syrup is not passing through it. \u00a0We actually tore the rubber membrane in the hand pump from applying too much pressure trying to force through the syrup. \u00a0Fortunately we had a spare. \u00a0We only got 2\/3 of the milk can \u00a0through the filter. \u00a0We bottled that. \u00a0But for some unknown reason we did not check the bottles after filling. \u00a0 At the end of the batch we noticed the syrup was cloudy. \u00a0We always check the first bottles to make sure the syrup is clear. \u00a0Can not explain why we did not check this. \u00a0 The batch was about 6 gallons and all cloudy. \u00a0 \u00a0The faulty filter press may have caused it. \u00a0 We can not control the color of the syrup, but we can control the clarity by filtering it properly. \u00a0 We suspect there was change in the filter aid that is causing our problems. \u00a0 The new filter aid is sightly pink in color and a very fine powder. \u00a0The filter aid we are used to was white and a little coarser. \u00a0Seems to take 2-3 times as much. \u00a0We were used to using 1\/3 cup per gallon of syrup. \u00a0Have to use about 1 cup per gallon with the new filter aid.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
We finished and bottled another batch of syrup. \u00a0That too had trouble going through the filter press. \u00a0We made it a smaller batch to compensate. \u00a0 But it was clear.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
At 5:30 PM we made the decision to re-bottle the cloudy syrup. \u00a0Emptied all the bottles in the finishing pan. \u00a0 Diluted a bit, then heated and brought back to proper density. \u00a0 This took some time. \u00a0Filtering worked better because we added more filter aid. \u00a0We not did start \u00a0re-bottling until 7:45 PM. \u00a0 And it was getting cold outside and in the syrup building. \u00a0 \u00a0The end result was worth it. \u00a0The re-finished and re-bottled syrup is clear.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Back to the farmhouse by 8:45 PM.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Into the woods by 8:00 AM. \u00a0Cold overnight and all day. \u00a0Down to 24 overnight but only warmed to 33 during the day. \u00a0It was sunny and the warm sun did cause the trees to start dripping. \u00a0 There is now ice in the buckets. \u00a0Where was this weather two weeks ago? \u00a0 Tonight down […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2015-season-98"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/mapleacres.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424","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=424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/mapleacres.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/mapleacres.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mapleacres.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mapleacres.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}