Spring Harvest 2016

[Amber Gold]

Well, I guess it's time to start the 2016 Spring Harvest Maple Farm thread. Really wish I was tapped in right now. It's been some great sugaring weather as of late, but we missed it so we could get the woods tuned up right.. Last weekend while everyone was making syrup, I was swapping out drops. Foolishly thought I could get it all done in a weekend, but decided to do repair work as I went along. Got about 300 of the 600 I want to get done. I've got a 3-day this weekend, so plan is to finish repairs/drops on Saturday and tap Sunday/Monday. It's looking like another warm-up the end of next week.

No big changes this year. Ordered a bigger sap tank for the sugarhouse. Got it installed a couple weekends ago and will plumb it up this week, so I can fire up the RO. Swapping drops out in the original woods to hopefully boost sap production. Buying sap off a new guy this year, who should be bringing me 6-700 taps on high vacuum. We'll still have our 900'ish taps on high vacuum. Mark out of Lee will still be hauling sap over, and I think he's around 300 on gravity. Dill's in the process of building a sugarhouse, so he's moving on...appreciated the sap over the years and the big help on Maple Weekend.

Here's to a good season and good luck everyone!

[Russell Lampron]

Good luck working in the woods this weekend. It's going to be cold here. The daytime high on Saturday is going to be 12* with and overnight low of -9*. Sundays high? 9*! I won't be working in the woods this weekend and I'm glad I got my taps in last weekend.

A trip to Bascom's is planned for Saturday morning and flushing the RO is on the schedule for Saturday afternoon. Sunday keep the woodstove cranking and do my taxes. Good luck with the new season.

[Dill]

Russ I was just thinking saturday would be a Bascoms day. I wish they were open past noon. Should be a cold weather special.

[Russell Lampron]

If you want to go to Bascoms with me I'll be leaving my house between 7:30 and 8:00 tomorrow morning. I'm picking Richard up in Concord on my way so maybe we could meet somewhere in Concord and ride together.

[Dill]

Probably see you up there. Sounds like we are making a family pilgrimage up there. Pretty sure I saw you heading back down 123 when we were bouncing up. Busy day at Bascoms for sure.

[Amber Gold]

Spent the long weekend in the woods. It was cold, but got some much needed work done. Now I've got all drops replaced in the original woods except for a 70 tap mainline. Got about 500 taps in, and should get another 250-300 done tomorrow. Working with rigid tubing at 0F, or lower sucks. It's extremely unflexible, it's a bear to get on fittings, and it's brittle. Semi-rigid tubing turns into rigid tubing at those temps. It's amazing how much differently this stuff behaves when it's say at 15F and above.

The trees will have today/tonight to thaw out. Turning the pump on for the season tomorrow morning. Hope to get sap tomorrow...probably not enough to do anything with until this weekend, but hoping for a surprise.

[Russell Lampron]

I turned my pump on this morning and tonight there was 100 gallons in the tank. Some of that was from 2 weeks ago. I'm hoping that it will run better tomorrow and that I can boil this weekend.

[derekp]

Hey Josh,
Hope your season goes well!!Goodluck!

[Amber Gold]

Thanks Derek! You too. I checked out your website. Sweet looking rig.

Took yesterday off. Plan was to get the vac. pump going and the tapped mainlines done by lunch and the last big mainline tapped/walked in the afternoon...that didn't happen. I had broken on 2"L PVC nipple for the releaser pump...didn't realize how hard it was to find one until I needed one. Wasted most of the morning tracking one down. Didn't get the vac./releaser going until after lunch and woods tight on the three tapped mainlines until 3:30. Vac. pump's only pulling 20" and using lots of seal water. Need to figure this one out before the season really starts...20" is unacceptable for my high production woods:)

[Russell Lampron]

It sure does suck when things don't go as planned. I hope your vacuum pump issue is an easy fix and you can get that vacuum level where it belongs.

[Dill]

I have a vac gauge that always reads 26 if that helps. You could bend it to 27 if your OCD really kicks in.

[Amber Gold]

Dill...you're a funny guy...

We'll get it figured...hopefully. I have another pump to throw in if needed. Wondering if there's an issue with the plumbing, so starting there. Tomorrow morning, will do some quick tinkering w/ the pump rechecking the seal on all fittings, and then tapping the remainder of the woods and then go back to messing with the pump. I'd rather have 850 taps running at 21" than 550 taps at 21".

[Russell Lampron]

That's what I would do too. Get the taps in and work on the pump later.

[Amber Gold]

Actually, didn't mess with the pump at all today. Got to the woods at 9 and sap already running, so didn't want to shut the vac down. Also, it was pulling 23.5" when I got there, so why mess with it?? Good enough for now. Got the last big mainline done and online by 3:30. Since it was a rush tapping job, I found I missed about 15 taps, but got the woods back to 23" before I called it a day. Have 600 gal in the tank heading into tonight's...going to mean a trip first thing in the morning to haul a load out. The good thing is we should have 12-1500 gal for the first boil of the season.

Sap was running OK considering how warm it was.

[Amber Gold]

Pretty decent weekend. Spent Saturday getting the last big mainline tapped in...almost 300 taps on it. Got that online and tight around 4pm, so was able to take advantage of the overnight flow. I went into the evening with about 700 gal of freeboard in the tank, and went there before breakfast to find the tank overflowing Sunday morning. Ended up bringing home about 1400 gal of sap over three trips on Sunday, and tapped in the last mainline. No final tap count yet, somewhere in the 850-900 range. Sean brought over another 190 gal, and we concentrated it all to about 15%. As usual, the inaugural boil of the season started off as a bit of a cluster (who needs defoamer...), but we got through it and didn't break anything. Sweetened the pans and made about 15 gal of syrup. Guessing it's a medium. Niter seems high since it prematurely plugged the press.

With the woods all tapped in, the pump's maintaining ~23" of vac. Walked the woods and got it pretty tight. Might be missing something. Late yesterday, I replumbed the pump, so the tank level's the same as the pump. Found that you can't use standard PVC tubing for a flexible water supply hose (wall stiffness isn't there, so need to use something else that's flexible.

[red maples]

Tiger Flex tubing I think its called. I think Mike moore usually has some.

[Amber Gold]

Good day yesterday. Brought home 970 gal and Sean brought over another 150. Haven't tested sugar yet...digital refractometer's currently AWOL. Made somewhere between 20-30 gal last night. Between the two nights, we filled a keg, fill 10 gal in containers, and left syrup in the canner. Sugarhouse is running smooth. Vac. is holding steady at 23" and pump is working fine other than the lower than I'd like vacuum levels.

Thanks Brad. Will check it out. I have some old filter press hose that I was thinking of using. Also, I tried your idea of wetting the press papers when putting the press back together...works great. First time I'd heard of that.

[red maples]

yeah it works good. Glad to hear everything is running smoothly.

[Russell Lampron]

I tried your idea of wetting the press papers when putting the press back together...works great. First time I'd heard of that.

I've been wetting my filter press papers for a few seasons now, I'm surprised that you hadn't heard about it before. Adapting my hand pump press to an air/diaphragm pump created a whole lot of problems and wetting the papers was one of the things that I did to make them seal better. I also double them up on the end plate to keep the syrup off of the ceiling.

[Amber Gold]

The guy I bought it from, would stick dowels into the holes to keep everything lined up. Worked fine so that's what I stuck with. Turns out, wetting the papers works just as well. I did have Bill make me a press stand in the off-season. I like it a lot. It's really nice being able to easily move the press around, and these cast iron presses aren't light.

I generally don't have issues blowing syrup everywhere...can't say I've ever blown a paper either.

[Russell Lampron]

The guy I bought it from, would stick dowels into the holes to keep everything lined up. Worked fine so that's what I stuck with. Turns out, wetting the papers works just as well. I did have Bill make me a press stand in the off-season. I like it a lot. It's really nice being able to easily move the press around, and these cast iron presses aren't light.

I generally don't have issues blowing syrup everywhere...can't say I've ever blown a paper either.

The hand pump presses aren't built as rugged as the ones with gear pumps. The end plate is like a waffle plate on one side and flat on the other. There is a flat plate that goes over that then washers and nuts to tighten it. It is hard to get it tight enough to withstand the pressure of a real pump. When I got it it had papers with it so I used them. When I bought replacements I found out that there is such a thing as heavy duty papers. I was blowing papers all the time with the light duty papers and haven't blown one since with the heavy duty ones. There were times when I wished that I had sold it and bought a gear pump press. Now that I have it figured out I have a good set up that cost a lot less than the gear pump press.

[red maples]

I have a gear pump full 7" press with 1/2 the plates. I have to watch the pressure I can only tighten it so much with one hand (other arm still not good yet) I bought it used with 1/2 the plates long story... anyway I just put in a bypass with a Y connecting it back into the intake feed line so I can adjust the pressure works great. The guy I bought it from said he kept blowing through papers too. I am still happy with it. once its hot I have to remember to go back and retighten it. I always keep a towel on top as per Glen goodrich who said always keep a towel on top or you may have syrup everywhere especially at the worst time like when you are giving a tour.....

[Russell Lampron]

I put a towel over mine too for the same reason. It's easier to wash a towel than it is to wash the ceiling and walls.

[Amber Gold]

Interesting. Generally, we'll have some syrup drop down the bottom, but rarely do we have issues with blowing syrup everywhere. It does happen once in a while.

Checked the tank on the way home. 3-400 gallons in it, so plenty of room for the overnight run. Will haul a load out in the morning. Hoping for a big boil tomorrow night.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I've never had that issue in 11 years and never put anything over mine and basically have no syrup at all come out of it unless above 50 psi might use just a touch.

[TRAILGUY]

[QUOTE=Amber Gold;293981] Buying sap off a new guy this year, who should be bringing me 6-700 taps on high vacuum. We'll still have our 900'ish taps on high vacuum. Mark out of Lee will still be hauling sap over, and I think he's around 300 on gravity. Dill's in the process of building a sugarhouse, so he's moving on...appreciated the sap over the years and the big help on Maple Weekend.

any of that sap coming from New Durham saw a truck with about 500 gallon tank did not look like the boys were boiling on Middleton road

[Risingsweetnesssugarshack]

Yes we are the new guys. We should be boiling this Sunday stop by and say Hi.

[ender1981]

I wanted to tap a few trees around my house. I was on vacation earlier this month, did i miss the window? Or is the sap still flowing? I'm in southern, NH

[MapleLady]

ender1981... Go ahead and tap. The sap's been flowing this week in southern NH and looks to be good this weekend!

[Amber Gold]

Tap away.

Sap tsunami rolled through NH, and it ran wicked haaaaad! It started Wednesday evening and finished up early Friday morning. We hauled in 950 gal yesterday and left 950 gal in the tank. Sean brought over another 550'ish gallons, so last night's boil was about 1500 gal. From startup to shutdown, we filled two kegs and had some leftover. With what's sitting in tanks, we'll have 1500+ gal to process tonight...it's going to be chilly.

Third season, finally getting this evaporator thing figured out. Best fire time was 22.5 minutes and hit that twice last night. Only downside I've found to the evap. is it's hard to keep the preheater up to 180 degrees. It'll get there, then drop back down to the 140's. Not sure if they undersized the piping or something. I think the concentrate level was around 18%, and I was glad to see the roughly 10gal syrup/hr production rate I was hoping for that'll allow us to increase our tap count and still keep this evap.

[Amber Gold]

Bad day yesterday. Got 1000 gal to the house yesterday morning and Sean delivered another 300 gal. RO machine was started up in the afternoon and get a phone call a couple hours later saying the sap tank was empty...can't happen that fast. I got home 15 min. later, and it turns out the valve to wash tank was open, so it was going in the tank and out the drain. First time that big of mistake's been made with the RO machine.

Still have 4-500 gal that I'd left in the woods, plus whatever ran yesterday, and maybe today's run (if any). Will boil it all, plus Sunday's run, tomorrow night.

[Russell Lampron]

I made that kind of mistake here a couple of years ago on Easter Sunday. I pumped 600 gallons down the drain because I forgot to switch valves after I did a rinse.

It was too cold for much of a sap run here today but it looks good for tomorrow. I've got 300 gallons in the tank to run through the RO tomorrow morning and whatever comes in tomorrow during the day to boil tomorrow night.

I polished the float rod on my releaser and sprayed it with food grade silicone and not having any problems now.

[red maples]

Oh dude that sucks... sorry man!!! I have over flowed stuff and lost a few gallons here and there nothing major. I did loose 300 gallons of permeate my first year with the RO. left the drain open on RO and everything siphoned out oops.

[Amber Gold]

Yeah...it pretty much sucked. I think four seasons now and I don't think we've done anything that's cost us any large volumes of sap/syrup, so I guess it was bound to happen at some point. I'll take losing 300 gal of perm to 1300 gal of sap any day:)

Saturday, pretty much froze up all day because Friday night was cold. Things did start to thaw out late afternoon and the releaser dumped a few times. Actually ran OK on Sunday. Trucked home 1300 gal of sap over the course of Sunday. About 800 gal was from Thursday/Friday. Late night, since we decided to bottle up the boil, we had a pretty late night. Idea this year is to bottle as we make it so that we're not putting it in to kegs only to rebottle it a couple weeks later for maple weekend.

Realized last night that I'm pushing the 100amp house service when I popped the main breaker. I was trying to run the RO machine, canner, and whatever was going on in the house. Couple minutes later, I was back up and running, but I think a 200 amp service upgrade is going to be needed for next season. For now, I'm going to disconnect one of the heating elements on the canner to get by this year. These electric canners are pretty handy.

[Amber Gold]

Brought home about 950 gal yesterday and made almost 20 gal of syrup. Sugar's been holding steady this year at 1.8-1.9%. Things running good in the sugarhouse.

Went to the woods this morning and found the pump off. We lost power at the house, but it must've been almost town-wide since the woods is 7 miles away. Power light was on, but no readout on the display. Thought the VFD fried. Ran home to track down a new VFD. On my way out to pick up the VFD, I stopped at the woods and the display was back on...weird. Started the pump back up and away she went. Back to pulling 24". Not sure how the VFD goes from not working to working, but it did....thankfully.

[lpakiz]

Some VFDs have a million parameters you can set. Like auto re-start after power interruptions, and how long to wait before it auto re-starts. For some applications, you would not want it to restart ever without a human finding out the reason, or resetting something else before restarting.
If you have the manual for the unit, or know who programmed it, you could investigate how it is set up.

[Amber Gold]

Thanks lpakz. An electrical engineer friend of mine programmed it for me...these are beyond me. I did have an undervoltage error that was causing it to shut down, but I remedied that by increasing the time allowance for undervoltage and haven't come back to the pump being off since. Because of the power outage/surge, it tripped the GFCI outlet, so the heater wasn't working. I haven't had an issue starting the VFD in the cold before, but the only I did when I left the first time is turn the heater back on and walked away. I do want to figure out how to get it to work with the pressure transducer I got.

Brought home a truckload, and had 290 gal delivered from others. Made about 15 gal of syrup. Grade's hanging out around an Amber/Dark.

[Amber Gold]

Interesting day yesterday. Busy at work, didn't think it was going to run and it was going to be freezing cold that night, and I didn't want to boil, so I put in a full day. I get a phone call at the end of the day reminding me that I held a load of sap over from the previous day...oops...now I have to. Leave work at 5, head home and got the truck to start hauling sap. Got a late start, but we brought home a truckload and left 150 gal in the woods. Sean dropped off another 400 gal, so we processed about 1300 gal of sap total. The sugarhouse reached a high of 32 and the wind coming through on my back was mighty cold. Overall, things went very smooth considering how cold it was. No freeze-up issues. Walked into the house at 1:30am. Made another 20 gal of syrup. Grade's holding steady right at an Amber/Dark color. Syrup total for the year: Unknown. 4 kegs filled and some amount bottled.

VFD off again this morning. It may not like the cold weather because the last time it shut down was when it got frigid the other night.

[red maples]

WOw that is nice sugar content... I will have to go out and talk to my trees see what heck is wrong with them...

[Amber Gold]

VFD officially crapped out Wednesday. I got lucky that it had restarted earlier in the week and got me through the rest of the run. I put the backup pump in yesterday morning and it's pulling about 1-1.5" better than the other pump with the woods half froze. It was nice to see that a pump I haven't looked at since I got it five years ago works great and just plugged right into my system. We'll see how it does when everything's going. I have a backup VFD on the table I'm borrowing if it's not going to keep up.

Sap was trickling, but steady into the releaser yesterday. Hopefully things open up today. Really itching to get back into boiling.

[Russell Lampron]

Same here Josh, I'm hoping that it starts to run better today. Yesterday was a disappointment and I thought that you being south of here would have had a good day. It is starting earlier today which is good and the sun is supposed to be out all day too. It should run pretty good.

[Amber Gold]

Got a slow start yesterday and never ran good. Not sure if the trees are still thawing out, or the high pressure front that was overhead that kept the trees from opening up. Hauled home 400 gal to make room in the tank and left a big ice chunk in the tank. Hoping things run better today.

[wokeupthisam]

Looks a bit cooler today than advertised in last weekend's forecast. Had a decent run yesterday, we'll see what today brings in when I get home from work. Might have to boil some more tonight.

A few pics of the result from the last boil-down - pretty light, typical for my trees and batch method.
1359513596

[Amber Gold]

Busy couple of days. Trees really broke loose. Pulled in 1500 gallons yesterday and should be doing the same today. Had another 800 gal delivered yesterday and made about 35 gallons. Considering how warm it got, the grade really didn't drop, although defoamer use took a considerable jump. Also considering how warm it got, the trees ran amazing. Thought for sure the heat would slow them down, but it sure didn't. Best fire time of the year last night...28 min between firings...who needs a force 5 when you've got an 802maple special.

Wokeup...those are cute glass containers. Do they sell well?

[wokeupthisam]

Hi Josh,
I only make enough for family / friends so can't tell you how they sell. We got a few cases of the Christmas tree and whatever they call that stepped-bottom bottle, at Bascom's last year at a good discount. We just ask the folks we give syrup, to return the bottle when done if they want more next year ; )

[Amber Gold]

Another good run yesterday. Processed 1400 gal from our trees and another 700 gal dropped off. Started the RO at 1pm and got it to 18% concentrate. Filled two kegs and left syrup in the canner in 3 hrs of boiling last night. Syrup's in the middle between the Amber/Dark grades. Haven't been able to pump the woods tank dry since the run started, so not able to get it properly cleaned to clear the sap up.

[red maples]

time for a bigger evaporator!!! 3 hrs is too long!!! :)

[Amber Gold]

Haven't gotten much of anything since over the weekend. Not sure why the trees gave up. Pulling 26.5" at the releaser and dribbling into it. Should be able to pull together enough sap to boil tonight, but it won't be much.

I know, 3 hrs is pretty long. most are under 2hrs, but by the time I get home, haul a couple loads of sap, RO it to 16-18%, eat dinner, play with the kids, get everything in the SH ready, I'm usually firing up after 8pm. It's not often I boil longer, but once I do, the evap's good and hot, and I put the wood in and almost shut the bottom air off completely cause it's catching so fast.

Brad, update your sig. Season started long ago and it's almost over.

[Russell Lampron]

I've got 400 to boil tonight and when I checked at 2:00 I had gotten 125 gallons since 9:00 this morning. The sap is looking clearer today too. I'm planning to save that to boil on the weekend.

[red maples]

Fixed my signature... josh I was just kidding I got kids too!!! maybe you can ask Obama for one before he is run out :)

[Amber Gold]

Sap flow continues to be very sloooow. Sap still cloudy, but was able to pump the woods tank down and brush it out, so hopefully it clears up, and stays clear now that it's cooled down and the skies are cloudy. Hoping with this weekends, and next week's, prime sugaring temps, the trees kick it back into 1+ gpt days. Still have syrup that needs to be made.

Sugar's at 1.3% on yesterday's load. Boiled for an hour and shut her down. Bottled about 27 gallons from the last two boils. First batch of Very Dark is on the shelf. Syrup flavor still good, so trees haven't budded.

Had almost two catastrophic events yesterday. Syrup pan float stuck on the first draw...no idea why. Flue pan float stuck mid--boil...no idea why. Fortunately, Lisa caught it when I went outside to put the RO on a wash cycle. Last week, I ordered a low level alarm for the flue pan and it'll be in tomorrow. $300 is cheap insurance for a replacement flue pan.

Unsure on how I'm going cover sap for Maple Weekend. I need like 1000 gal to run the RO/Evap all day. To do that, I'll need to hold today/Thursday's run (or lack thereof) and boil that Saturday. And take Friday and Saturday's run and boil that Sunday. Not a big fan of holding late season sap that long. If I boil tomorrow night, that'll leave me with more Very Dark to put on the shelves for Maple Weekend, and Friday's run should net me the 300 gal I need to run just evap. all day and Saturday's run to boil on Sunday.

[Russell Lampron]

I hope you get the sap that you need for the weekend. It has been running pretty for me good despite the unfavorable temperatures. I boiled 400 gallons last night and collected 475 gallons this morning. I am planning to save what I collected today for the weekend but may have to boil some if I run out of storage space. My buckets are running today too and I don't know why other than there was a very light frost this morning.

[Ridgeland Farm]

my sap flow has been decent despite the temps. Sugar is terrible, around 1.1 and yesterday and today my steam had just the very beginnings of that "end of season" smell to it. Syrup seemed to be ok. Maybe just a slight off aftertaste but had a few people try it and said it tasted ok to them. The temps look great next week but time will tell if its to little to late. I have surpassed last years sap totals but made much less syrup! almost 100 gallons less! Will be interesting to see what next week holds!

[Amber Gold]

Good Maple Weekend overall. Turnout/sales about the same as last year, so good to see. Added some new products, and even though we did sell out of them, they didn't seem to increase overall sales.

Due to the unknowns of sap production, we ran just the evap on Saturday, and because of a decent Saturday run, we had enough to run the RO on Sunday. Had a bit of a hiccup on Sunday morning with a frozen permeate discharge line. A few minutes with the torch and that was fixed. Made about 10 gal of syrup both days. A mild flavored Very Dark, Strong. Syrup still tastes good, so trees haven't popped yet, and it looks like we'll get at least another week out of it. Hoping the sap flows pick up though. Still only getting about 0.5gpt/day.

[red maples]

thats from the sugars... the reds aint doing nothing!!! I have had the vac on for 3 days now and the reds aren;t running and what is coming out tastes pretty bad I haven't boiled anything yet but not looking good over here. even the buckets aren;t doing much either. not for lack of trying but I think its time for me to call it crappy year over this part of the state!!!

[Amber Gold]

Sorry to hear that Brad. Still making good syrup hear although the sugar content just stinks at 1.2% on yesterday's truckload. Tank was pretty scummy with a lot of buildup, so got those pumped dry and cleaned up. Hoping that clears the sap up and get back to nice boiling sap. Made another 10 gallons last night. Sap flow when I was picking up sap was actually really good, so that makes me feel better about the trees being able to pump out big sap during this the prime sugaring weather this week. We'll see.

[Russell Lampron]

The trees are pumping out sap up here too at a whopping 1.5%. It ain't over yet!

[Amber Gold]

1.5%. Wow! Wish I was getting that.

Put in a full day yesterday at work, so didn't get home early enough to boil Brought a truckload home and left some in the woods. Will boil everything down tonight and see what we get. Was in the woods last night...reds are looking really big.

[Russell Lampron]

The reds are looking scary here too. Might not make the weekend.

[Amber Gold]

Had a good run yesterday. Boiled off about 1400 gal of sap. Syrup flavor strong, but still good. Grade's actually lightened up and sugar went up a touch...think it was 1.4% from a low of 1.2%. Inputted the data into the spreadsheet...we're sitting at about 23k gal of sap processed this year with about 20k of that from us. Sitting at about 23gpt of sap so in the average to good range of a season...pretty happy with that. This'd be a great year if there was some sugar in the sap. Syrup total for the season unknown...need to count the kegs, but definitely over 300 gal, but pretty sure less than 400.

So, I've got a question. The grade's back up to a dark, robust (barely), but it tastes like very dark, strong. Any issues w/ calling it very dark? This seems like one of those times when I judgment call's in order to tell your customer what they're really buying.

[Russell Lampron]

So, I've got a question. The grade's back up to a dark, robust (barely), but it tastes like very dark, strong. Any issues w/ calling it very dark? This seems like one of those times when I judgment call's in order to tell your customer what they're really buying.

Josh check here, I asked that same question yesterday. http://mapletrader.com/community/showthread.php?28304-Color-vs.-Flavor-with-new-grading-system

[Amber Gold]

Thanks Russ. Just what I was looking for.

[Amber Gold]

Yesterday, hauled in the last load of sap...it soured and stunk. Boiled it off and was able to make some good syrup at first before the bad stuff came through. Lightest syrup of the year too. Still need to finish compiling the seasons numbers, so those will follow. The meter's reading 27k gal of sap, so based on that, it's a good season. Syrup total not known, but sugar wasn't there this year. If you'd asked me mid-March if we'd make it till April, I would've said no way, and we did...barely.

Already thinking ahead to next year.

[Russell Lampron]

I think you will be happy with the total gallons of syrup made. I came in at 1 qt per tap and I stopped last Sunday. I could have made more if I had the time to acid wash the RO and get the flow rates back. This is the first year in recent times that I didn't make any commercial syrup too.

In early March I was thinking that I would be done before Maple Weekend. I had sap, although some of it soured, to boil all of Maple Weekend and had the best week of the season with the buckets the week after Maple Weekend.