Spring Harvest Maple Farm 2010

[Amber Gold]

It seems like everybody's going for it now and I can't be left out. I'm amazed the season's a week early...almost two weeks as I could've tapped last weekend and would've gotten something most of this week.

It looks like with the weather everything should run for the forseeable future. I should have enough to start boiling Sunday night.

Still some last minute items to get done, which will be tonight. Tapping first thing in the morning with the help of Dill. I'll be heading over to his place Sunday to help him out. The rest of the weekend will be getting more mainline and tubing run to get another 50-100 trees online.

Tomorrow I'll have all of last year's 370 taps online and coming back to the SH via a 2-pipe sap ladder. If that works as designed, this will be a great year...no trucking sap. The big issue is I'm completely reliant on vacuum, which I'm not 100% confident in my pump. It's still making noises when it dumps. I'm still getting 20"+, so as long as it makes it through the season, then I'm happy. After the season I'll take it apart and see what's going on.

All I can say is bring on the BIG SAP because I have an RO to buy for next season and they don't come cheap.

[red maples]

yes it is early. I am still learning my stuff. this year will be a big learning curve for me. trying to get everything dialed in. I don't think I will expand much for next year. except for a stainless tank and a few other things. after next year we'll see.

sap's not running to much today wind is killing the run. but the rest of the weekend is looking great perfect weather!!! good luck...pray for big sap!!!

[Dill]

good luck...pray for big sap!!!
This just made me chuckle, Josh's sugar bush and sap ladder is right next door to a church. Does that mean it runs more on a sunday?
The wind is cold, but the sun is strong, the forecast should be for big sap.

[michelle32]

Josh sounds like your almost there. Just came home to see if its running and it is. Turned pump on and back to work till 1:30 tonight. Wife will shutter down later. We will be boiling all day tomorrow from the looks of the tank. Michelle run pump till 11:00 last night when it stopped running.

Dill good luck over there sounds like your just about ready also.

Havent heard from red roof maples (home of the boiling sodas)on tapping yet. Always liked to read your blog Russ. Keith

[Amber Gold]

Dill, I didn't pick up on that...pretty good.

I got word from Russ that he'll be tapping tomorrow afternoon after work. I don't know what his official tap count will be. Last I heard he had 70 more than last year ready to go.

Keith, you need to get a bigger rig if you're going to spend all day boiling...have fun putting the pallet wood to her. If you're going to wait until mid-day to turn the pump on, I'd leave it on 24/7 so you don't miss a drop of sap.

[red maples]

my lines froze up at about 2:00am last night and turned thepump on as soon as the cloud broke and melted everything. its running but not as much as yesterday.only got about 100 gallons today!!! SO far.

[Amber Gold]

Lets start with how my weekend ended, I have burned my pan again...fortunately not bad and just needs a cleaning to get back in shape. The syrup pan valve where the float was wasn't working properly so I was regulating flow with the valve on the opposite side. I think the bubbles coming into the float box were confusing the true height of the sap. Also, I used the fiberglass type gasket and I don't think it compressed evenly keeping the pan level.

Back to the rest of the weekend. Alden and I got me tapped in Saturday with everything online around 3pm. I spent the rest of the afternoon finding vacuum leaks and making repairs to squirrel chews. By the end of the day, I had 21" at the bottom of the ladder. I hope to get the rest online and more this weekend.

The sap ladder is working beautifully. At least on Sunday it thawed out about the same time as the trees do. I'm thinking I'm going to walk down at night and drain it. One thing I found odd is I get better vac. transfer w/ a single pipe than 2. Running a single pipe I lose about 1" from releaser to bottom of ladder, with both open it's about 5".

Sugar content is low. I measured 1.6% last night. I ended up with about 300 gallons over the weekend and filled my pans and boiled off about 120 gal...still some more left in the tank. With everything dumping into the 850 gal tank, it's hard to measure daily totals.

[Stickey]

It wasn't my fault this time, I wasn't even there! I drove by a few weeks ago and saw you standing on a ladder working on lines. I was tempted to stop in but I had my kids and figured you didn't need any distractions. I might have to swing in to see the hollow core rope trick, I bought some tubing to play with this year.

[Dill]

You didn't buy that tubing over at Gooches did you? I ran out saturday and remembered they had some there. 20 cents a ft is a bit much. Hey Josh gave me some used drops that aren't being used by me either, swing by and you can have them.

[Stickey]

Nope, ordered it up from Bascoms for about half that price. Now I just need to figure out how to use it. I'm not sure I got the right fittings, just taps and tees.
Why wont you guys use em?

[Amber Gold]

I have a spreadsheet worked out now so I can relate depth of sap to gallons in my 850 gal tank. On Sunday when I boiled I had approximately 300 sap in the tank. That night I processed approximately 170 gal of sap between filling the evaporator and boiling.

When I got home last night the sap was still trickling in at 9:30pm. When I checked the tank this morning I had approximately 420 gal of sap in the tank, so to date I've collected approximately 590 gal of sap over 2.5 days.

My sap ladder is freezing and takes a bit to thaw out, particularly on days like this when it's overcast. When it's sunny it thaws out about the same time as the trees run. I may start draining it, but on nights like last night when it's still running after I go to bed, that doesn't help me out much.

Tonight I'm going to go home and boil and hopefully not screw things up again. Need to clean my syrup pan, move the back ramp further back in the arch, and going back to heavy cream. The rest of the week looks pretty crappy so I'm not sure how it's going to run.

[Dill]

Wow everyday but 1 on the 10 day forecast is calling for cloudy/snow. It will be interesting to see how much more sap you end up with on vac.

[Amber Gold]

I took yesterday off and clean up Sunday's fiasco. I spent about 4 hrs cleaning everything out of the flue pan...what a PITA that was...never again and went back to cream. What was weird is the defoamer stuck to the pan was foaming really bad during cleanup...maybe a bad batch of defoamer??

I did a quick walkthrough of my lines and found a mainline that was shutoff since Sunday morning...bummer. I was doing some mainline work on that line and shut it off and forgot to turn it back on. I'm figuring I lost about 350 gal of sap as it had ~160 taps on it.

As of my last report I've collected approximately 250 gal as of last night.

I started the evap. up yesterday about 2pm and finished at 10:30. I figured it was about 650 gal through the evap, plus another 50 gal to fill it, so I averaged 73 gph including startup/shutdown. My best last year was 65 gph. I'm going to move the back ramp even further back because the back half could boil much better...maybe 6" from the stack collar.

I made about 5 gal of medium amber.

It looks like we won't get much for sap the next few days, so Saturday I'll be able to spend time in the woods. I found some vac. leaks I need to fix, I'm going to run some more mainline and laterals which should get me up to 430+ taps.

It's nice this year having all this storage because when I get a lot of sap I don't get nervous about boiling it down or trying to find a home for it.

[red maples]

yeah I have that storage problem. I'll fix that for next year but for now it is what it is right. boil it or move it!!!!

[KenWP]

What is this cream your talking about using. Normal cream for coffee.

[Amber Gold]

Brad, first year you get the swing of things, second year you make improvements, third year things should be pretty well ironed out.

heavy cream

[Amber Gold]

Sap flow has pretty much stopped. I only got another 20 gallons yesterday. Need some cold weather. It doesn't look like we'll get it until early next week.

Did a quick walk through the woods this morning. Some branches on laterals is the most of it. I do have a red oak that split about 15' up that is leaning against 3 sugars, so hopefully I can get that down without doing too much damage.

[michelle32]

Hi Josh, sounds like you where as lucky as us. Just a few branches down over here. Both roads in and out closed for most of the day. Saps still running here snowed off and on all day.

[Amber Gold]

I got another short mainline tied in on Saturday which shortened up some long laterals and added in some more taps. Tap count Saturday night was 366.

Ran more laterals Sunday mid-day and now I'm just shy of 400. I think I may stop here. We'll see how busy I am next weekend.

Sap collection for Friday and the weekend T.B.D. Before I started boiling I had 580 gal in the tank and the releaser dumped 22 times while I was boiling, so whatever that works out to would be my total through Sunday night. Anybody know the volume of water a Lapierre single 500-1200 tap releaser dumps each time?

I boiled off about 500 gal of sap sitting around since last Thursday...sugar content 1.35%...sucks. Lots of bacteria which I found odd because it's covered and on the north side of the building. Boy what a difference in the syrup pan once that stuff worked its way into the syrup pan...darkened things right up. I have 200 gallons of this stuff to work through, then I'm caught back up to clear sap. It did make great tasting syrup though.

I bottle up the syrup from last week. It was right on a MA, last week, but when I reheated it, it put it a touch over. Almost thought I had some MA there...would've been my first batch of anything lighter than DA. Yesterday's syrup ran 1/2 way between MA and DA...going to get darker now unless I bottle it up first.

Last night's boil averaged 54 gph...couldn't get it to boil as hard as last week. I'd get it going good then lose it, spent most of the night with boil going up/down...made for a long night.

It looks like the weather's going to cooperate this week...should be a busy week.

[Maplewalnut]

Josh- keep plugging away, at least your into the sap!

[Dill]

I'm surprised that your getting bacteria. Your tank is covered, and you have the roof over it. Plus it never hit the air until its released in the tank at the sugar house. Out of all of us you should have the lowest bacteria.

[Maplewalnut]

Josh- keep plugging away, at least your into the sap!

[red maples]

I posted my weekend... suck still no power and some pretty good damage but back up.

glad to here you guys did get much damage. I don't think I have ever seen such wind...except after some really good chili!!!!:lol:

[KenWP]

Was it the first sap through the lines. It might have picked it up from there. Just go for it and hopefully it improves.

[Amber Gold]

Alden, I think it's because of the rainwater that got into the tank. I cleaned the tank after that batch and all the sap coming in is clear.

Spent time last night and got some things done around the SH. Partially built a float gauge for my feed tank, built a stand for my drawoff bucket, and bottled Sunday's batch which came to 7.125 gal.

My first batch came out to 3.125 gal. Total for season is 10.25 gal

I made some changes to the arch. I moved the back ramp right up to the flues and back another inch. Hoping to get it to boil better in the back.

Tonight I'm running the defoamer laden sap through the syrup pan and will make commercial if anything (I'd hate to see flue pan concentrated sap go to waste) and will finish running the bacteria laden sap through the flue pan.

[Amber Gold]

This turned out to be a great day.

I processed the rest of Sundays sap and super sweetened the flue pan with it. I ran the defoamer laden concentrate through the syrup pan and have that boiled down to near syrup...need to finish it off in the canner. If I can get the oil out maybe I can save it??? I haven't tasted it yet to see...if anything it's a few gallons of mersh.

Made some changes to my arch and lowered stack temps and got a better boil. See "Rear Air Gap" thread for details. More changes can be made with an air tight front.

Found out that my pump is actually pulling 27" and cooling fans work much better on high.

Drained sap ladder so hopefully will get full suck in the lines first thing in the morning.

Got another 140 gal of sap today...with the warm temps I was hoping for more. The temp's are right, but I'm not sure how well things will flow the next 2 days with the snow/rain.

Now that things are getting ironed out I want the big sap.

[red maples]

Josh

what I did was to bring the syrup up to a boil and then let it rest this will bring the oil(defoamer) to the surface and then let it cool until it is cold and thick outside overnight. then take a paper towel and lay it across the top pull it up and it will bring the top layer of syrup with it along with the oil. you might lose an oz or 2 of syrup but the rest of the batch will be saved

[KenWP]

They also make a gizmo you find in the cooking utensils isle of a good store. It looks sort of like a long bristle brush and its made to remove the oil off the top of other liquids. The bristles are some kind of soft feathery things.

[red maples]

Josh did you try the paper towel trick yet? just wanna see if you were able to save it!!!

[Amber Gold]

Evaporator still not performing well. Making more changes tonight. See rear air gap thread for details.

Tuesday night I concentrated my flue pan and got it up to 9.5%...pretty cool making about 4 gal in <2 hrs on Wednesday. Total for Wednesday's boil was about 8 gallons of syrup...will know tonight when I boil. Tuesday night was 140 gal of sap in the flue pan and 40 gal of defoamer sap in the syrup pan. Syrup pan is near syrup and is in the fridge in the stock pot. I need to bottle before I can finish this stuff and run it through the filters, taste test, then decide what to do...probably tomorrow. Oil has been skimmed off...still tastes funny...we'll see after it's filtered. Wednesday's boil put 480 gal through the evap.

Last night I had 420 gal in the tank. Should run pretty good today and this weekend. Should be a busy weekend boiling...hopefully evap. improves. This trial and error stuff is a PITA.

[red maples]

good luck fine tuning...I 'm still working on it. I have a drop flue so the level n the pans is consistent through out. unlike the raised flue where you can better controll the level in both pans with out mixing!!! I am having trouble with the mixing part when I open the door to fire there is more sap sap coming in and sucks condensed sap out of the syrup pans and back into the flue pans then when it starts to boil hard agin it goes back into the syrup pan diluted. I 'll get it trying a few different things!!!

good luck this weekend!!!

[Amber Gold]

That shouldn't happen...you're probably spending too much time with the doors open. Or your wood could be too big. If it's too big, you lose heat igniting the wood. Try firing one piece per side every 3 min. Also keep the wood wrist sized. I've been doing this and if I stay on top of it, I maintain pretty consistent stack temps.

[Dill]

Oddly enough its not running hard yet today. It was cold last night and its 44 out now and sunny. But I checked the tanks at lunch, I'd say don't panic yet.
And I'm doing the one side or the other routine, its not as big a deal as the big rigs. But even with a 2x it seems to keep a better boil and I don't have to kill the blower every time.

[red maples]

thats pretty much what I do. I try to keep firing between a 6-10 count. and every 3-5 minutes depending on other maintence checks and things and draw offs filter changes whatever I have a little timer to remind me. and I only ever open the right door the fire box in a 2x is quite small I can get to the other side easy through 1 door. but what 3rdgen maple said what he did was put in a 1-1/4 90 degree elbow in the hole leading out of the flue pan I tried it and it works but the syrup pan was dangerously low so I'm working on it.

Sap should run good today!!!!


That shouldn't happen...you're probably spending too much time with the doors open. Or your wood could be too big. If it's too big, you lose heat igniting the wood. Try firing one piece per side every 3 min. Also keep the wood wrist sized. I've been doing this and if I stay on top of it, I maintain pretty consistent stack temps.

[Amber Gold]

Boiled 240 gal friday night and another 360 yesterday.

Sap ran great yesterday. Total gallons collected unknown, but this is the hardest I've seen it run. Chipa was right, when it runs hard vac levels jump. I've been running around 27" day to day, at one point yesterday I was running 29.5".

Got my sap ladder straightened out and the sag taken out of my high line, but still only getting 21" at the bottom of the ladder. I may be adding a dry line next year, maybe I'm not getting enough vac. transfer??

Spent 5 min. in the sugar house this morning and the pump crapped out...wicked pissa. Not sure why. VFD apparently not working. Electrician friend coming over today. Hopefully get it running, but not hopeful. Pump and VFD are for industrial use and meant to run 24/7 so that shouldn't be it.

[KenWP]

What make of VFD are you using anyways. I am used to useing one from Holland up here not much else we can get that works.

[Dill]

uh Wicked Pissa is a good thing.
"That syrup on those pancakes is pissa man".
You unfortunately have got a case of piss poor luck.
This has been an edition of how to speak south eastern NH native dialect.

[red maples]

:lol: :lol: :lol: you got it dill Pissa!

Hope you get that thing running hell of a time for it to quit!!!!

[Amber Gold]

Dill, you would be correct. I was fired up and not thinking properly. I wanted to say I was p*+-ed off, but didn't want to put it...wicked pissa was the first thing that came to mind.

Electrical engineer friend confirmed the VFD is shot. Calling the supplier this morning. Hopefully it's covered under warranty (should be) and they'll overnight a new one so I'll be back in operation for Wednesday.

Sunday morning I bottled up another gallon jug and a 5 gal drum and probably have another 6+ gal in the canner.

Boiled the remaining 250 gal left in the tank...would've had more if the pump was running. Evap.'s running better 60+gph.

[Amber Gold]

New VFD arrived this morning and I should have it hooked up tonight. Sweet!

I put my tank out at my ladder in the hopes of getting sap by gravity today. Temps actually got below 30 last night. From others I know with gravity systems, I haven't missed anything, and much hasn't been collected on vacuum either...too warm.

Should be modifying my arch again tomorrow night and will hopefully have enough sap to test boil.

[Amber Gold]

Back in business. VFD installed last night and pulling 28.5" this morning.

20F this morning so we got a good freeze...hopefully the trees recharge and run hard today. Extended forecast looks crummy unless you're on vac. It looks like things we may get some freezing nights again early next week??

I'm only at ~6 gpt of sap so far, last year was ~18 gpt...long ways to go and not sure if we'll make it.

[red maples]

yes good thing your back up because today will be the last good run for a while!!! I am hoping for a light frost tonight but I don't know. I'm at about 8 gpt but I tapped about 4-5 days before you.

[Russell Lampron]

Josh glad to hear that you've got your suck back. I think that I would be looking for a single phaze motor in the off season so that the vfd could be eliminated.

I am close to 10 gallons of sap per tap so far on the vacuum. Last year I got 19.2 for the season. May the weather gods smile on us and extend the season until the end of March or longer.

[Amber Gold]

Thanks Russ and Brad.

I wonder why you're getting so much more sap than me. I've processed 2725 gallons out of approximately 400 taps...that's 6.8 gpt. Last year, you and I both produced about the same, I think I was around 18gpt. The big difference for me this year is the sugar content is staying higher so I've almost produced as much syrup. If things run good through the weekend and the sugar stays constant, I should be around 55-60 gal of syrup...more than I made last year.

[red maples]

Imissed a few days with that wind storm too. no power for 4 days.

Got another 150+ gallons today. and I found the cloudy sap culprit. a few little spots of bacteria build up on the tank my releaser dumps into. so Iwill empy it first thing in the morning and sanitize and rinse it out good.

[Amber Gold]

Collected 330 gal yesterday and already cloudy the same day. Odd. Sunday the wife and I cleaned the tanks and releaser. Guessing there's bacteria buildup in the lines due to sap sitting in them for 3 days. Hopefully that clears up.

Sugar content's down to 1.3&#37; though which sucks. Not hopeful that it's going to come up like it did last time.

Glad to be back in business. Everything's running strong so far.

Going to start buying sap from a local farm. 90 taps on gravity pipeline and 10+ buckets. Sugar content to date is 2.5% and they have 250+ gal for me to collect tonight.

Getting behind now so I'll be taking tomorrow off to boil and hopefully catch up.

Put up 15 chord of wood and only have gone through 3-4 chord of it. It looks like I'll have plenty leftover and if I buy an RO for next season, I won't need to process any wood this year.

[red maples]

glad to hear!!! I got a bunch of sap yesterday too and its still running! not alot but got another 50 gallons on the overnight last night.

So I have some commercial syrup is it worth anything and does bascom's buy it and is worth the drive? I have a guy that likes commercial syrup but I got a couple of gallons. its not bad its a slight off taste. or can you sell as ungraded for a reduced price.?

[Amber Gold]

So Friday I took the day off and boiled 300 gal of sap in 5 hrs. 177 of which came from the farm. It was nice boiling 2.5% sap for a change...actually made some syrup. Friday night I went to Russ's and watch 700 gal of sap disappear in 1.5 hrs...I'm jealous and see an RO in my future...time to find more trees, because my 450 taps won't cut it with an RO.

Got a freeze last night and got about 300 gal of sap. It looks like it may freeze tonight. Maybe another 300 gal tomorrow?? Not sure what the farm's done since Friday, but hopefully 100+ gal there tomorrow, we'll see.

I boiled 500 gal today in 9 hrs of sap collected from Wednesday's to Friday's runs. Family came in sporadically during the day and finally getting customers coming in so hard to keep a consistent boil going...resulted in lots of back mixing and large draws...almost burned my pan on one of them, but added a bit of water in time to keep it from burning. Can't wait for an RO to concentrate the 1.3% I'm getting.

Syrup total to date is 43+ gal plus whatever I made today...about 7 gal. I don't think I'll hit a quart per tap this year...I was really hoping to hit a 1/3 gal per tap...not gonna happen.

Evap's running pretty good, hard boil in first 1/2 to 2/3 of pan...still want a hard boil the full length.

The last 3 boils I just start making syrup to draw off as my feed tank's running out. Tonight I decided to feed the flue pan with sap buckets to get the draw out...finished off the night with a 2.5 gal draw.

[Russell Lampron]

Josh think positive. You are going to make that 1/3 gallon per tap. It is still early and the weathermen are never right when it comes to the extended forecast. Fortunately you have vacuum and that will get you sap when gravity won't.

I could make my evaporator boil harder but as you can see I don't need to. It runs at a comfortable level now and I get lots of syrup in a small amount of time.

[red maples]

I am with you josh...I calculated mine although its approx. .126 gallon per tap...blah..I was expecting way more especially with early tap start. my goal was way more than that! wanted to hit like 60-70 gallons this year(.25 gpt)!!! and that was my low ball number!!!

I had finally had some visitors last weekend and I like to have visitors in the sugarhouse but it is hard when your by yourself. As soon as I see someone coming down the driveway I put some emergency raw sap in the syrup pan so avoid the burn but I was bringing in some wood when my neighbor came over on wednesday and bam quarter size scortch easy cleanup wasn't too bad but just enough to make everything suck!!!

I couldn't even imagine not having a vacuum this year I would have nothing!!!!

[PerryW]

Brad,

I find that a single visitor is worse than a whole sugarhouse full of guests. Once you have more than one visitor, they pretty much can entertain each other and I can concentrate on making syrup.

[michelle32]

Josh And Brad right there with you .118 per tap here.

[Amber Gold]

Extended forecast shows 50's and 60's this week. It's hard to stay positive. If I can get decent runs this week I should be able to finish out the weekend with ~80 gal for the season which wouldn't be too bad.

Boiled another 400+ gal yesterday, 70 of which came from the farm. Made around 8 gal of syrup so I should be pushing 60 gal of syrup to date. Everything all weekend is B and I don't see it coming back.

Russ, you're right with the RO next year the evaporation rate is really inconsequential.

Surprisingly I had more customers show up on Sunday. I wasn't expecting it with the weather. People are finally thinking about maple season.

I inadvertently found out that provided there's sap in the flues, the flue pan won't burn. Customers came over about the same time my feed tank was running out. Got talking to them and forgot about it until I saw there was no sap over the flues. Fortunately got some water and sap in there before anything was ruined. Could've been a real bad day.

[red maples]

I don't know I think I am done for this year!!! don't want to be but the rain pretty much washed me out!!! I have 1 1/2 cords of what was dry wood floating around!! the swamp came up 5 1/2 feet over the normal level and and is about 6-8 inches from going in the sugar house. SOOOO that might be it !!! lost 100 gallons of sap. but the sugar content being what it is its really not a big loss. only a 1 to 1.5 gallons. and very ltille dry wood to work with and not good maple temps I just might call it a season....just a crappy way to end the season.

[Dill]

This week looks awful. Noaa.gov is calling for right around freezing and they are generally "colder" than accuweather or weather channel. But I'm going dump water out of my tanks and buckets tonight just in case. I'm afraid its going to be a cold april. But too late for sugaring.

[red maples]

Josh do you get any business from the Seacoast harvest guide I just signed up to get in there and was just courious if you ever get calls from there??

The next one is being printed the end of the month.

Its free so it can't hurt and help gets the word around right!

[Amber Gold]

Sap's still flowing...slow and steady. No big runs, but average runs every day. It actually froze last night and word from the wife is things are running good. I was home at 9am and things were just starting to thaw out and at noon I've already collected 100 gal...not bad...maybe today is this year's big run.

I've been able to maintain 27" at the releaser all season. Noticed over the weekend that it'd dropped to 26.5". Did a quick walk and found no major leaks, some minors that were mostly loose taps. Looking at the releaser this morning and it's pulling 24.5". Now that leak is big enough that I can hear it at the releaser. Not sure where's coming from, but it looks like I'll pull the releaser apart tonight and grease everything and hopefully get it sealed back up.

Brad, I don't think I have yet. Most of my business is from surrounding towns that know about me and friends. Maple weekend will get people from a wider radius.

[PerryW]

I had a mild freeze last night and things are running but not too good. The 7 day forecast does not look good, but I am still hoping to salvage the season. I'm sitting at about 60% crop at 78 gallons.

[Amber Gold]

I boiled off 200 gal Tuesday night and 300+ gal yesterday. On my way to pick sap up from the farm and parking brake on the F250 came apart. Fortunately I was only 1 mi from home so I turned around and nursed it back home. Took it apart last night, pulled out the offending pieces, and put it back together. The service brakes are OK so the truck is still operational and I'll deal with it after the season ends.

Over the weekend I was boiling and burned some syrup just outside of the drawoff...about 2" in diameter. Cleaned the pan Wed. morning, scrubbed out the burned spot, and proceeded to burn the pan again in the same spot on the first draw. It ran fine the remainder of the boil and hasn't affected the syrup flavor so I'm leaving it. If a pan gets burned, does it tend to burn there again?

Sap flow dropped off noticeably yesterday. It's still flowing, but not much. Hopefully things cool down so the trees will pick back up.

Season total is 4250 gal of sap (11 gal per tap) and 67 gal of syrup (0.17 gal per tap). It looks like I'll hit 0.20 gpt and may get 0.25 gpt if things hold out. Last year I collected 16.6 gal per tap and produced ~0.17 gpt. This year the sugar content has stayed higher, longer and fortunately it has not dropped as low as last year. Sugar is still holding at about 1.3%.

I've been making GR B since last week. I cleaned the tank and releaser again and will hopefully bring the grade back up to GR A.

Someone came in yesterday looking for GR C. Apparently they use it for baked beans and other things. Has anybody heard of such a thing? She wants a quart when I make it.

[michelle32]

I have a woman that gets 2 gallons every year from me. Wants just the last stuff of the year with flavor. Not sure what she uses it for. My niece does the weather for the space shuttle for NASA. She say's we have a cold from that is triing to move in for the middle of next week. Looks promising she says for below average temps.

[red maples]

yeah I got a guy that wants 2 gallons C says doesn't care what the flavor is said fine he said he likes it real strong. I got some actually got plenty. sugar went through the floor today. .5 % and buds are swelling. and sap is extremely cloudy and has a woody flavor to it. I have 25 gallons in the tank 50 in the head tank. and buds are swelling I think thats it might hit 70 on saturday!!! 65 today!!!

So pump is off.!!!

[Amber Gold]

Kieth, that's good to hear. I looked NOAA's website and they're claiming mid-20's early next week. The cold snap should keep me going through maple weekend.

I boiled off another 175 gal last night. Stuff is coming in cloudy, but not yellow. Sugar's down to 1%, but I'm still going for it. I still have 7 chord of wood left so I might as well use it. The bud's on the trees are still nice and tight on the sugar's, I haven't checked the red's yet, but the syrup flavor is changing. It's not bitter yet, but doesn't quite taste the same. The flue pan is also darkening up as well. Last night's boil put me over 70 gal.

[Dill]

Accuweather is calling for cold next week as well.
I just dumped yesterday. I might collect tonight.
It was 65 at lunch time yesterday. I fired up the bikes not really sugaring weather.

[red maples]

my flue has been very dark for a while. I haven't boiled since thursday but my reds the buds are really big now. the sap I got I just dumped and I am gonna dump my head tank as well. sap was so cloudy it was milky. and not yellow in the tank but put it in a white bucket and its yellow. gonna empty the flue pan and fill with water and finish every thing up and clean out tomorrow and tap some birch trees and boil that out to clean my pans. then let it sit for a few days. and boil some water for next weekend!!!! or birch sap it still smells good when your boiling that. but I don't care for the birch syrup flavor...very strong.

have to go get somewood for a chicken coop the chicks are in at dodges agway so gonna get a dozen Rhode Island reds + a rooster.

[Amber Gold]

Sap's been pretty cloudy since Thursday. Sugar's still at 1%. I boiled 180 gal which was Friday and Saturday's run. Going to boil another 60 gal +/- this afternoon just to keep the bacteria at bay. Syrup is getting a very strong maple flavor. Bud's haven't broken yet, but sap is starting to get a slight smell...same with syrup...niter is through the roof...about 1/2 gal of syrup per prefilter.

[Amber Gold]

A run yesterday morning to get bacon at the local general store turned into having an award/commemoration ceremony for a local sugar maker on Saturday afternoon at my sugar house...big surprise for me. Aside from having all those people there for the ceremony, Foster's and the Union Leader will be there as well. It looks like this could be a big weekend.

I packaged Thursday's and Saturday's boil and was just able to fill a 5-gal jug. Syrup is definetely turning into commercial which is odd because the buds haven't broken yet, but it tastes funny. It looks like this week's weather should bring in some good mersh weather.

[Dill]

I didn't think yours had an off taste saturday. I gave Jamey and the kids tastes of my last batch and they thought there was bit of an after taste with mine.
That's why you never stopped by for the bacon.

[Amber Gold]

I should rephrase that. By my last draw, Satuday's sap had finally worked it's way through the system, so the last 1/2 gal draw had a slightly funky taste...fortunately it wasn't enough to ruin the entire batch in the canner.

[Amber Gold]

Vac. pump is still on and collecting some sap. More to make sure the pump doesn't freeze (cooling with water) than to collect sap. I also want to make sure that any sap that does flow stays away from the tap hole...maybe this will keep it cleaner and producing longer??

I think I've collected about 80 gal of milk since Sunday. I'll boil that off tomorrow for the kids. Tomorrow I have a group of preschoolers coming over so that should be fun. We're going to have syrup samples for them and ice cream with syrup.

I found out that I may get a visit from Senator Jeanne Shaheen on Sunday. Apparently she's looking for SH's in the Seacoast area to visit. We'll see.

This is shaping up to be a busy weekend. Hopefully the cold weather brings me in some good sap. I'd like to be making good syrup this weekend. This week I'm canning all the syrup I have made this season and will turn the remainder of the light syrup I bought into candy and cream.

[Dill]

I've heard the same thing about dignitaries Josh. Hodes and Shaheen are traveling with the Sec of Ag and some state people. The only one I don't know well is Hodes. I went to high school with a couple of the senators daughters and used to hang out at the sec of ag's farm way back in the preschool days.
Anyway too bad I'm not an open sugarhouse,with all the political hoopla this year in town I had to stay closed.

[Amber Gold]

Didn't realize it was going to be a political entourage. I just figured it was her wanting to visit SH's and get some face time. This weekend is getting more interesting. I wonder if I can get a photo op. out of it.

I met Hodes briefly at Calef's a month or two ago...buying bacon.

[Dill]

Man I should be selling bacon. I've heard that some politicians can't get enough of the pork.:lol:
Are you getting any runs yet? Going to get cold tomorrow night, I'm going to dump out my tanks today. If I get more of that 1.75 watery sap I'll save it for you this time.

[Amber Gold]

Funny.

I have about 100-150 gal in my tank since Sunday...boiling that tonight. It's still trickling in. I think the first 80 gal of tomorrow's run is going to end up on the ground so all the garbage in the lines gets flushed out...sugar was at 1.0&#37; so that's only a gallon of syrup. Debating if I want to flush my rig out and start over with this new sap run...maybe make some quality syrup??

If you get any of that watered down 1.7% stuff, send it over...I like boiling water.

[Amber Gold]

I boiled off 140 gal of 1% milk sap last night. PITA trying to keep it in the pan. I used about as much defoamer last night as I did the entire season and it still foamed over the syrup pan about 5 times and made a mess of the pan and arch.

Sap is flowing good today. Hopefully it comes in good sap. The first run is getting dumped on the ground and then I'll start collecting. If the rest of the sap this season comes in like yesterday'sI'm done for the season...not worth the risk of burning the pan and making a mess.

[Russell Lampron]

Josh the stuff coming in at my place today looks good. Just working through the mersh sap now and will save the good stuff for Saturday.

[Amber Gold]

Glad to hear it. I still have 6.5 chord of wood and I want to use it. Can't make syrup (money) unless I'm burning wood.

[Amber Gold]

I didn't get much of anything over the weekend, so I shut the pump off last night. Wondering if that was a great idea. I've heard things are running well today.

Weekend went very well. Lots of people...more than last. Syrup sales are in the 25 gal range (about the same as last), but we did sell out of candy and cream. I'm making more this week for people coming back.

[PerryW]

It's running really sluggish here in Littleton area. I expected to get something yesterday, but I ended up with only 120 gallons of sap. With no freeze, it continued to trickle out overnight, but real slow. It is now finally starting to run 1 drip per second from some of the buckets. I can probably pick up 200 gallons of sap if I gather now, but was hoping for a 300-400 gallons since we had such a hard freeze. Probably wait an hour or two and then hopefully have some sap to gather.

No freeze-ups predicted and 60 degrees forecast for later in the week. will probably pull taps when things stop dripping. At least I have a enough sap now to make another 5 gallons and hit the 100 gallon mark.

[Amber Gold]

Boiled off 120 gal of milk last night and made a couple of gallons of mersh. I missed most of Sunday night's and Monday's epic run when I prematurely shut the pump off. Figured if it didn't run Sat. and Sunday when it was above freezing, why would it then...boy was I wrong.

I'm up to about 5 gal of mersh for the season. Running the flue pan through the syrup pan and should make another 5 gal of mersh tonight. Last boil of the season.

[Amber Gold]

I ran my flue pan through my syrup pan last night and will finish it off in the canner. This end of season stuff doesn't filter worth a **** and tastes like crap. I should make another 5-gal of mersh out of it for a total of 10 gal this season. I never would've thought I'd be making mersh for 2 weeks and still boiling in April...not much but it's something. Somehow yesterday I managed to get about 80 gal of sap. I'm not going to boil it, but will use it to clean my pans.

Now it's time to start planning for next season. Putting together an equipment list and it's going to be another expensive year. I've located a possible orchard by satelite images and will be walking that next weekend...size T.B.D. I've also got a possibility on a 2200 tap orchard in the next town over. Hopefully that one works out...I should find out in the next few weeks...imagine going from 400 taps to 2600 taps in a season...crossing my fingers.

I hope everybody had a good season and have fun getting ready for next.

[red maples]

now that would be a jump to say the least!!! I went from 25 to 300 but 400 to 2600 wow big investment!!!

[Amber Gold]

If it works out, I figure 2 years until I have the capability to collect/process that much sap. I think next year 1500 taps will be achievable with the funds I'll have available for equipment purchases. Next season, I'll produce much more syrup and should be able to finish the major equipment purchases. I was planning on this year being my last year of major equipment purchases, but this will extend it another two years.

I finished off what was in the pans and made another 2.5 gal of syrup. Season total is 82 gal of syrup. Total sap collected is 5275 gal of sap, 5031 gal of which came from my woods. The trees produced 0.20 gal of syrup per tap (assuming 400 taps, total coming tomorrow) with a season average 1.3% SSC. Overall an OK season. Still made more syrup than last, I added a few more taps, and had higher vac. I actually collected more sap last year and made less syrup...go figure. I hope that these past 2 years have just been low SSC years and things pick up to 2% for next season. I will have an RO so it won't be as big of a deal, but it would be nice to get better ratios.

Lines were all flushed over the weekend. Going to suck them dry next weekend, then close them up. Based on what I saw over the weekend, I think I can easily get another 50+ taps out of these woods for next season.

I walked the farm over the weekend. Just a quick 45 min. walk to see what was there. There are a combination of reds and sugars there. Amount TBD as I didn't have time to walk the entire limits. About the same density as my current woods, so guessing ~500 taps. The maples follow a band along a stream bed right to the road so tubing it will be easy as everything will flow to the stream. I need to walk it with the property owner to see where his property limits are as I ended up in 2 neighbors backyards. This will be my backup woods if the 2200 orchard doesn't pan out. If it does pan out, maybe I expand into these woods in a couple of years.