Sugar Sand

[twigbender]

How are the rest of you guys in Mn/Wi doing with sugar sand this season? The last three or four batches I have drawn off the pan have had a horrendous amount of sugar sand in them. The prefilters are just full of really ugly black gunk. Far more this year than I've seen in the past.

Anybody else seeing this in your filters?

[maple flats]

My late season syrup had much different sugarsand than I have ever had before. It stuck to the bottom of the syrup pan and I had to clean the pans daily with 2 gal of wht vinegar (2x3 syrup pan), soak a couple hours and then brush lightly and rinse clean. If I didn't the evap rate dropped down because the sugar sand insulated the bottom of the pan. In other years my sugar sand was always rather loose and I even rigged a pump to vac the bottom, discharging thru a cone pre filter to remove the sand and only cleaned the pans at the end of the season.

[Jim Powell]

I'm so new at this I can't really offer an opinion. I do store my syrup in one gallon jugs until i filter it, and the 3 gallons I made yesterday all have about an inch of sediment in the bottom, if that gives you some perspective.

[Jim Powell]

Are you still collecting? Any hint of buddy yet? I sent you an email about saving me some buddy sap, but I have a feeling you are working your celebreties off and don't have time to check here!! ;)

JCP