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Processed 700 gal yesterday and left 60 gal of 5.5% to simmer for the school kids today. Sap was slightly cloudy but grade held at 54%, to my surprise. Orchard tanks are empty and still look pretty clean. Only need .8 gpt to hit my annual sap average and still plenty of wood.
Kids loved the new observation balcony. Froze last night so there should be a squirt today. Going to be an above average crop and slightly darker than last year. Sugar is still averaging above 2% and grade above 50%.
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Going to pump Thursday and Friday results this morning, should be about gpt, and run it through in front of any adventurous guests. Probably be a dark robust. Get the system cleaned out before the new run. Weather now looks pretty good for the next week. Can't hear any peepers yet but pretty sure I can hear first discordant sounds of panic. what an interesting season.
Yes it's an interesting season for sure. I found my woods tank overflowing yesterday morning. I had emptied it Thursday evening. The trees liked the rain.
At this time I'm going ahead with maple weekend plans but with all of the public event and school closings I don't know what to expect.
Collected 650 gal Saturday morning of sap from Thurs and Fri. Puts the season above average. The evaporator had idled 4 or 5 hours on Wed with all the school kids, so the first 5 gal was 33% but then went up to 40%. Give me a little dark inventory. Only 29F this morning but some sharp freezes are coming. A couple visitors put most folks are busy hoarding TP.
Think the trees are recharged but too cold to run. Wed is supposed to be sunny and 50F. But if I get a poor flow or the sap is so-so, I think I'll pull the taps.
Pumped 600 gal of 1.9% and the sap was only a tinge cloudy. Tested 38% but the flavor dropped well into Grade B. I'm going to pump this morning and unless the boil tells otherwise, pull the taps and start the clean up. Looks like the volume will be 15%+ over my seasonal averages.
It's a 180 turnaround. Pumped 500 gal of nice sap and it looked so nice I cleaned the pan while it crunched. Boiled this morning and the grade jumped back above 40% and the flavor improved. No sun on the buds today and a couple of good freezes coming up so it looks like a couple more boils.
The buds are still tight here too. The sap had cleared after the last freeze but got a little cloudy again today.
Pumped 400 gal of 1.65% yesterday morning. Slightly cloudy. A little foam. But low SSC. Double crunched it and boiled it through. Surprise. 52% and tastes rich. However, can tell I'm reaching the end of the season. Wasn't paying enough attention at the shutdown and had a minor scorch. Had to drain the pan and fortunately the burn came right off with acid bath. Will see this morning if I got a warp. Close call! Fortunately the blower was off. As the feed tank empties the head pressure drops... Going to be a record year in everything but gpt as my SSC has continued to climb annually so I'm getting more syrup while handling and processing less sap.