Ridgeland Farm 2015

[Ridgeland Farm]

Well this being my first year up and running as my own farm I figured Id get an early start on the 2015 updates. This weather has been odd. Almost went out and tapped a few trees earlier just to see. Never did though. Just Finished walking and cleaning up the woods. There was quite a mess out there. Now we are on to adding taps this week. My releaser tank is 1500ft from the road so the past 5 years I have been using a generator to pump the sap out. Finally this year we are running power!!! No more generator and I can have my vacuum right at the releaser now. Very excited about that. I am using clear cv's again this year for all my old drops and regular clear spouts for the new drops. For me I have been very happy with the cv's. My gal/tap has been very good I think. Especially for my vacuum being 1500ft from the releaser. I just cant see trying something new when I am very happy with what I have. It is funny though because a producer just a mile from me has a hard time with the cv's. More than half their spouts pop out in the beginning of the season and they have to go reseat them. The only thing different for them is they are 100ft higher in elevation. I am just waiting for the roof jacks to show up and the sugarhouse will be complete! We are getting very excited for the season. Glad to see cold temps coming!

~Stefan~

[Ridgeland Farm]

Well its been a while! Been very busy! Had our first boil a few days ago. had enough to sweeten the pans and draw off a few gallons. Its been fairly slow going so far. A few cold days ahead and hopefully we get into so more seasonable weather! Its been nice to have a slow start to iron out all the little issues that pop up! Hope to boil tomorrow. Well keep you posted.

[Ridgeland Farm]

Had an issue with the RO on the first run. Just got it back together. Hopefully all is good now. We will find out later today. Got 1100 gal + whatever runs today to boil tonight.

[Ridgeland Farm]

Just checked the sugar at the releaser. 2.6! That's the highest ive ever seen it. Ill take all I can get of that stuff!

[Ridgeland Farm]

Made 30 gallons last night. On the border of dark and very dark and hard to filter. Had to change my press after 20 gallons. Sitting inside today thinking of all the limbs and trees I will have to clean up tomorrow!

[n8hutch]

Sounds like it was windy everywhere last night. I thought I might get blown away while collecting yesterday afternoon, packed snow around my buckets so hopefully they didn't blow away. I finished 3 gallons last night & there was virtually no niter/sugar sand. Syrup went through the flat filters nicely. Ofcourse I'm not doing the volume you are.

[Ridgeland Farm]

glad to hear it filtered good for you! Im sure it will get better for us once we start to get a good run. I am not looking forward to walking the woods and assessing the damage from this wind. Hopefully the trees were kind to me. Looks like we will be cutting it close to get sap for maple weekend. Hopefully next week is the start of some good weather!

[n8hutch]

Checked out your Website. Very well done. I have a friend that raises/breeds pigs. He loves it, so do his girls, they have a Big 4H swine Club now. Its kinda Funny how things change. When I was in grade school 20-25 years ago it was not cool at all to be a Farmer. Now its Trendy. What will Happen next. Hope you have A great season.

[Amber Gold]

Hey Stefan. I was trying to figure out who Ridgeland Farm was posting on Russ's thread and went to your website and realized it was you. Glad to see you're in action. Good luck this spring.

Josh

[Ridgeland Farm]

Hey thanks Josh! Excited to finally be on our own. Stop in any time your driving by. n8hutch, I never would have thought I would have become a farmer back in high school! Funny how things change. I love what I do!

[Greyfox]

I recently switched from farming to art. I have just completed a three-acre, 1000 foot long 5/16" ice sculpture. I'm afraid it may be on display for a while. I've entitled it "Where's "Global Warming" when we need it."

Doc

[red maples]

Thats Funny!!! I got one too!!!

[Ridgeland Farm]

Well the cold has gone away and some decent weather looks like its in the near future. FINALLY!! The wind didn't do to much damage to me, but the cold did. Found a few cracked manifolds yesterday. Did a quick patch to get them working. Out today to replace them. One can on my releaser was solid ice. Not sure how that happened. And it was so cold the water line to the vacuum pump froze while it was running! Everything is back together now. Hopefully today is a little more relaxing! Looks like sap for maple weekend. Now just need to make some syrup to have for maple weekend!

[Russell Lampron]

Hey Stefan,

It's good to see another maple producer from Loudon here. Like you I'm hoping for some sap weather. This cold has lasted way to long. Good luck with the rest of your season.

[Ridgeland Farm]

Thanks Russ! Still slow goin here. Only getting about 800 gal/day. Once we get a good freeze thaw it should open up! For now were saving sap for tomorrow. Made about 25 gal yesterday. Checked sugar last night around 9 and it has dropped to 1.7. Really wishing it froze last night. It right around 32 at my releaser. Next week looks better.

[Russell Lampron]

We've had some good looking 10 day forecast for most of the month and they have all turned into the deep freeze. I'm thinking that next week is the week though. I don't want to jinx it so forget that I said that if the forecast turns to crap. Where are you located? I'm going to have to stop by and check things out.

[BlueberryHill]

Yeah, it feels like for the last 2 months almost, "next week" is the week that it's gonna break open.

[Ridgeland Farm]

Im on loudon ridge. Just after the church. 1st driveway after Gilmanton rd on the right.

[Ridgeland Farm]

What a great maple weekend! It was our first maple weekend so we had low expectations and we were blown away at the turnout! Surprisingly Saturday was a much bigger day for us than Sunday. We made 25 gallons Saturday and 15 on Sunday. Still not much happening in our woods. maybe 1000 gallons yesterday. Made dark all weekend mainly because I only concentrated to 7%. Now its time to concentrate on getting the woods in top shape! Was able to maintain 25.5'' for the weekend. Now work on the tiny things to get us back to where we should be. Not much will happen today. Still frozen here. Time for some good sugaring weather to come our way.

[Russell Lampron]

I didn't get much sap here today either. I got more between 4 pm and when it froze last evening than I did all day today.

You are up on the ridge where all of the Maple Weekend traffic goes. I catch some of the people that are headed to or from the ridge here. By the comments I was getting about how my syrup tasted the best I would say that the crowds had already visited the ridge when they stopped here. I heard some good comments about your syrup too. The syrup that I heard the most negative comments about was from Maple Ridge.

[Dill]

I drove over the Ridge rd this afternoon. Swung by around 3:30 didn't see any steam so I didn't stop. Only Windswept was boiling. I forgot how that road is maple central.

[blac]

Dill, hopefully we can have them running the ridge over here next year! Nice talking with you the other day.

Derek

[Ridgeland Farm]

Its been a while! What a crazy week. Crazy year really. With the addition of a newborn this year (well 4 months now) I havnt been able to spend as much time in the woods as I like. My vacuum suffered a little the first week or so and problems that come up don't get addressed as quickly as I like but oh well..... that's just the way it is this year and I have to make the best of it. Im at 530 gallons right now. Didn't boil last night. Strange day yesterday. blue lines were all thawed by 9am but wet dry lines and releaser were froze solid. Didn't start running till 2pm. By 7pm I had 2500 gallons. The hardest run of the year so far. Slowed down overnight and actually froze for a little bit at some point. Went to the tank at 630 thismorn and the vac line that switches canisters when the float comes up was froze so there was no vacuum to the piston switch. So sap was going right up the vacuum line. Luckily I don't think it had been running long. Now its running hard again. Going to be a big day and they are calling for a slight freeze again tomorrow night. Going to be a busy weekend I think. Hope you all are doing well out there. Its not over yet!

[Russell Lampron]

I had a similar problem with my releaser last night too. Went down to check it this morning and it had overflowed into the moisture trap. I think the dump valve switch must have been frozen and the releaser didn't dump when it was full.

[Ridgeland Farm]

When the trees still want to run the weather cant stop them! Ran really good here the past few days. Got a good freeze last night. Will be interesting to see how it flows today. It could be a big few days. Sugar is way down now. Pulling 1.4 last night. I don't think the freeze will help the sugar at this point. Except for roadside trees not to many buds pushing yet. The next few days will push those buds. They are saying 33 tonight. hopefully that will drop a few more degrees for us. We are at 626 gal right now. about 100 behind last year.

[Ridgeland Farm]

Another freeze last night made for another gallon per tap day! Sugar has dropped right out. 1.1 today. Made 33 gallons. sap looked pretty cloudy but syrup was still great. no off flavor at all. Reds are pushing sugars still have a ways to go. Will be interesting to see how long we can last. Calling for another freeze Wed night! We'll see what happens!

[Ridgeland Farm]

Ran pretty good last night. Weather now says freeze tonight and hard freeze tomorrow night. We'll see if the sap is still good!