Sweet and Sour Dill Products 10

[Dill]

Ok since I dug up last year's info, thought I'd do it right for a change


So tapped in Lee 2-12, planning on collecting it all tonight.
Got a test boil done last night, the preheater leaks so the hoods off for now. I'll have to patch that up and get it back on later in the season. I also have to make the front more airtight, when I cranked the blower I couldn't even stand in front of the arch. And the pan therms seems to be broken I'll have to replace those once I make some money.
But it does boil hard, filled the whole sugarhouse up with steam, not sure if that's a good thing or not.

Planning on tapping my 3 Northwood spots this weekend.
Bring on the maple madness.

[Dill]

I also want to give a local business a plug. Lindquist Machine on rt 4. They will weld anything. One the hinges on the door was half broken off. They cut it the rest of the way off, made a new one out of mild steel and welded that to the cast iron door. It fits like factory new, done in 2 hours for 30 bucks.

[Dill]

Just boiled down the first 110 gallons of sap for the year. What a difference with the fancy 2x6. Fired up at 7:30 and shoveling snow into the fire box at 9:45. Kiddo was so excited to gather sap she fell asleep in the truck and slept through me trying to figure out the water bug sap pump.
I need to fix the hood, the steam was a bit much. I still spent most of the boil outside, guess I'm not used to the is fancy sugar house thing yet.

[Dill]

We got Amber Gold's sugar bush tapped this morning. Got home after lunch and got most of my buckets hung. Had a neighbor up the street stop to ask me if I'd tap a big tree by his house. I've never seen a tree this big, hung 5 buckets and probably could get away with another 4.
The saps running great, 47 degrees and sunny isn't bad weather to work in.

[Mac_Muz]

Dill I sent you a pm a while back, did you get it?

I am tapped all 35 trees as of yesterday, and some trees are running and some are not. No idea why not.

[Dill]

I did get that PM, sorry I must have forgot to hit send on the reply. I haven't heard of a Jim Dill, or the Muster in the Mts, is it a revolutionary reenactment group?

I took a long lunch and tapped one of my other spots, 65 taps on nice fence line trees. With 1 red oak for "hints of Oak flavor". I thought the bark was odd when Josh and I where running lines, but looking up there where maple buds. So I popped a drop into the line. Unfortunately those buds are not attached to that tree. Josh use a neat trick of a hollow core rope to hold 5/16 tubing, picked up off another trader, its slick.
I have one more bush to tap, where we also ran lines sunday. I've gone from 20 taps on tubing to burning up my 3rd roll for the year.
Has anyone used a homelite waterbug pump? If so what's the secert to getting it primed?

[Amber Gold]

Glad to hear there were that many taps there. Those will run nice and sweet.

Last year I managed to tap a black oak (first in NH I've seen), a dead maple, and 1-2 other non-sap producing trees.

Is there a spot in the top where you can pour water into the pump head? Mine does.

[Mac_Muz]

Dill np, just wonderin is all the folks I mention were Alton located pretty much as far as i would know.

That oak outta spice things up good..... :lol:

The other day all the trees were begining to look like sugar maple to me too.

[Stickey]

I confess, I'm part of the oak tapping club too. Took me 2 days of empty bucket to figure it out:emb: . Got this other tree, swear it's a maple, it doesn't produce a drop.(could be dead?):confused: Hows your first batch, Alden?

[Dill]

I can't get it to sweet up. Maybe I not moving it around enough if that makes sense? The odd thing with the perpendicular (cross flow) front pan is the front channel is the one that boils the least. I know the flue pan is boiling like mad, I wonder if its sweeter in the back? Its level, and I've boiled down 130 gallons of sap? Must be forest elves putting water in my buckets.

[Dill]

The front pan is starting to look like weak syrup, still not bouncing the hydro. Boiled off another 70 gallons of sap last night I have a suspicion that 20 gallons or so was rainwater.
Also I got the hood and preheater back on. The preheater had a split pipe that I had to mend. I have to say boiling with an open flue pan is more exciting, watching the jumping sap and furious boil. But the steam was vented better this way. And the sap was between 120 and 160 degrees which must help. I need to add a vent to the feed line, I got one bubble that almost did me in, good thing I've been running deep cause it didn't feed for 10 minutes.
Tapping the last bush saturday, and probably grabbing some standing dead pine from the woods, cause the blower eats wood.

Oh and in the rain in late Feb the sugarhouse is a palace. It was nice to be dry and warm.

[Dill]

Tapped another 75 or so, sunday at 3. It was cloudy and maybe 35 but the sap was running hard. Boiled down 110 gallons of semi watery sap. I didn't think to test the buckets until after I had dumped 3 of them into the tank. Next time after I get 2 inches of rain, all the buckets get dumped no exceptions.
Still no draw off but man the whole sugar house smells maplely now.
The only other problem is I'm blowing through wood. I'll have to start cutting a pickup load or 2 this weekend.

[Dill]

Still no syrup at 420 gallons of sap. The whole rig is dark and looks just shy of syrup. I can't get the front compartment to boil enough to finish. My wood has to be the limiting factor but everything is soaked from the 3 plus inches of rain. Not only my piles of slabs but anything in the woods is equally soaked. Guess I'll have to go find that pallet place.

[morningstarfarm]

just watch those They burn like rocket fuel..cut one up the other day and added it in to an already good fire...stack temp jumped 250 degrees and the pipe which was running around 160 started to glow almost instantly. I'm glad I always keep a bucket of sap in case I need it...I did:emb: almost roasted the finished before I could draw it off.....

[Dill]

Wahoo finally. Got 2 gallons of dark amber off the evap. It tastes like sweet success. My father brought up a pickup load of standing dead pine. Got the thing up to full boil in 30 minutes instead of an hour and half. Guess I spend tomorrow in the woods. Looks like Bigsapppp coming.
Hey one question how do I clean these fancy flat filters?

[Stickey]

Can't beat that standing dead pine, it's probably what the natives used. I look for the stuff with the bark falling off. It's all over the ground after last weeks storm. Congrats on the success.

[Dill]

Got 190 gallons of sap off my 285 gravity trees in less than 24hrs. Finally we've started.

[Dill]

3 gallons of syrup all in one giant pull that just kept going. Probably could have got more but I was afraid my drawoff pail would overflow.
I need to figure out some sort of block between the syrup and flue pans. I lost density at one point today. dropped from 52 to 45 brix. Guess the flue pan burped.

[Dill]

Left work at noon. And I spliced a gate valve in between the syurp and flue pan which helped to say the least. Still got huge hard to control draws. Picked up the rest of the tanks from yesterday's run. Got 200 or so gallons dumped 60. Most of my buckets were yellow. So I dumped it. Hopefully it straighten back out.
Made 8 gallons and 1 pint tonight. Still Dark Amber but starting to lighten up. Which is funny I have lots of orders for B.

[Dill]

I reamed the holes in Lee. Actually got some sap out of the bucket taps after the reaming. Nothing like a last ditch effort.

[Russell Lampron]

Alden you're reaming taps already! It is only March 13, it seems like it is much too early to be doing that.

I boil my Leader aluminum hookless bucket spouts and they will run for 6 weeks. From the date that I tapped they will get me to the middle of April if it runs that long without reaming.

[Dill]

Made 2 gallons of B last night. The sap was still running good when I picked up at 5 last night. So I might have enough sap to boil tonight. Sugar's at 1.5, but its so clear that if it wasn't tubing on covered barrels I would have guessed it was rainwater.