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That a boy Theron. You are experiencing the fine art of Mersch making. Why does mersch not come up in the dictionary??
When terms as "stink, stench, cottage cheese start showing up, then you will be done in the next 4-5 days is my guess. Watch the curds and whey sap very carefully! Last year I had 1000 gallons of that 9PM, By 9 am the next morning, it had developed pan soaking namonia. It was useless for boiling. Get it ran through pronto!!
Boiled another 1500 tonight. Been doing that everyday. Sap ran today 1000 gallons off the whole 3600. No freeze in sight for a week. Im thinkin I might be almost done. Gotta couple more 1500 gallon evenings and that might be about it. Keep ya posted. Pretty well had my fill of it anyway. Theeeeron
:) Looks like Im probly about done down here in Bigsap country so Im going to give you guys a rundown on the season excitement as it happened. Thought a lot about it before I did it but started tapping in second week of January. Pretty much have run the vac pump steady ever since. Matt and Russ came down and helped me get the bushes nice and tight and got me started boiling. Jerry and Mike came down the next weekend and made some huge improvements on my evaperator and my R.O. All the help I got from all four of my friends was invaluable and I cant thank them enough. Took me 4 weekends to tap everything in. Ended up with 3600 taps on the pump. A lot of them are super nice trees. Some of them are very small cull trees in the young stand. Also in the mix across the road I put in 150 taps that are tubed right but none of the mainline is on wire just laid on the ground. Also on that bunch is a 70 tap lateral I just used 5/16 on to use it up and hooked it on the mainline. The lateral is 1000 feet long. Real cool to watch. Flows like crazy. Totally wrong but what the heck I was having fun and out of time. Also put out around 150 buckets I think. Anyway thats the taps. Got a lot of sap becouse of a lot of runs. Only had a couple times got huge runs. Had a couple days got 5000 gallon on a daylight day without the buckets. Seemed to usually be around 6000 gallons behind after started getting the big runs but it usually didnt sit long enough to get too bad. Once it ran like that could not keep up with the ro and had to pretty much destroy the membrane to get the sap into barrells. Had to give up on it and called cdl and they overnighted me and back in business. Just had to run it for so long at a time I think its pretty well clogged up. Boils were easy most of the season. Recirced the sap normally to 20%, fill headtank, take off 20 gallons per hour. Usually make around 80 gallons. Had virtually no time to keep the woods up but did maintain high vac. Had to do some work to keep the pump cool. At some times I ran the coolant loops through my row boat and cut ice chunks out of my pond with the chainsaw and threw them in. Baby sat the releaser across the road every morning. Sometimes take it out and back to the house to unfreeze it. Got up every 4 hours max in the night to rinse ro unless I was pumping sap at night then every 2.5 hours. Thats pretty much the story. Made an honest 1300 in the barrells right now and probly will be another 50 when its said and done. Had a hard time mastering boiling the mersh. Got mad one night and was going to hang it up and dumped 3000 gallons and thought better of it and kept going on. Dumped an evaperator worth of syup and and 20% sap becouse of R.O. soap but didnt think twice about it. Right thing to do. All in all such an all consuming season Im not even sure I can believe its over. Hope you guys like the story. Cant wait till next year. Theee(bigsap junky)rooon.
far out sugaring coolness
Well, I for one have really enjoyed following the stories on this thread. It's great for a newbie like myself see the struggles, and triumphs of people that have a lot more going on than me. This is only our second year of boiling, and we only had 30 taps this year, 12 of which didn't produce enough to make tears for a mouse!
We ended up with 2.5 gallons this year of really great stuff. We didn't have to work REAL hard for it, other than staying up late a few Saturday nights. We just didn't have enough heat. If things go right, we may have an evaporator next year, but time and the economy will tell.
I have especially loved watching the Theron saga unfold....gave me a few laughs, scared me a little too!
Thanks to all who share on this board, your info is invaluable to guys like me!!! Hudson(barely enough sap to make a cup of coffee)Hawk
I'll be putting up some pics of this year soon..........
Well had my big sap for the year today. Every tree ran some more then others and collected about 80 gallons of sap. The weather man says theres no chance of anymore cold weather so will wait it out untill bud break and then start washing up. Have a bit of boiling to do starting tomorrow.
Theron,
Best part of story is "can't wait til next year"
Doug
Im a nut. Theron
BIG T,
Cheryl thinks I have a problem!
Next year! Right ON!
Wow that's a lot of syrup you produced!
Chris
Chris- I have mixed feelings about the season. Im really happy with the syrup Ive produced. Im not even close to my ratio of last year but I knew going in that I probly wouldnt hit that with the cull trees and buckets etc so that doesnt bother me one bit. I was after volume this year and I got that for sure. My mixed feeling is one of elation that it is all most over and actually a little sadness like what happens now. Ive been totally consumed with this since last fall when I started running the more taps. Im talking I dont care about anything else. I am totally consumed. Guess you have to be to be willing to do everything involved. Ill be darned if it ran about 1700 gallons yesterday again. My main bush is really slowing down. Maybe 700 on 2600 taps but across the road on the north bush it ran a gallon per tap again. Looks like no freeze till first of the week then some good weather. I think they may keep going. What Im doing now is pretty easy. I pump up 1500 gallons to the sugarhouse at night. Put it on recirc in the morning and have my mom kick it off at 1pm. Then I get home and shoot it in the headtank. Takes two hours to boil and I make about 20 gallons of syrup. Been doing this everyday for a week. Gonna just keep doing that. Sap is real bad of course. It runs right to the top of the pans and even slops over the side. I through some butter at it now and then and just let it make a mess. Get it to density and in the barrell. As long as I can do that Im going to. What if that stuff is worth 4$ this fall. thats 800$ a night. Seems rediculous but what the heck. I have a lot of money in equipment and its all dirty anyway. My pretty wife came out last night and just couldnt believe the smell. I told her Parker says you gotta WANNNNNNN IT, and, THERES NO SUCH THING AS QUESTIONABLE SAP! Parkers a very wise sugar maker and kind of a hero to me so I try too pay attention to his wisdom. On the barrell now thatll make 1350. Gonna try to fill it and if it keeps running next week Ill see if I can hit 1400. I dont think itll happen but what the heck never know. Theee( yuck, this stuff smells!)rooon:mrgreen:
I might have a problem now. It froze last night again. If it set up the trees like it usually does I will have sap coming out my ying yang.
help this ignoramous out...
Mersh, what is it used for? Who buys it?
Where did that name come from?
So it goes something like this?:
Fancy
Light amber A
Medium amber A
Dark amber A
B
Commercial
Road tar
Mersh
Mersh=Pennsylvania Fancy
Now Mike, you shouldn't pick on an entire state just because we make the best syrup!
Jeff- fancy, light, medium, dark, b, commercial, roadtar, mersh, what Im making now. Theeeron
Yeh don't pick on the whole state -some of us made HIGH GRADE mersh this year!
It is my understanding that true MERSH can only be produced in the fine State of Maine:)
comMERSHal grade syrup- and yes I believe a certain producer in Buxton ME has a lock on the Mersh market...
That Buxton wanna be sugarmaker has a new toy now. No more Mersh for him, gonna leave it all up to Theee( making syrup so dark that when compared to black it makes it look white)ron.
BIGSAP UPDATE- Boiled again last night. Put ro on recirc and went to work. Must of run it a little to long. Got home and my 1500 gallons of sap was pretty much gone. Checked it with my 10% refractometer and the screen was blank. Got out the big guy that goes to 30 and it was at 28%. Wow, not a lot of boiling to that stuff. Boiled that and some other up. Cant keep it in the pan now at all. Actually used 4 whole sticks of butter boiling last night and still had about the same amount of quality product coming over the side of the evaperator as came out the draw off valve. Might have to think about quitting soon. Got a little left to go to finish this barrell and then might have to do a scene assessment or have a round table with 802 to see if Im missing any tricks or if its time to hang it up. Gonna go to an association pancake breakfast with dad this morning and a bunch of fellow producers and trade some lies. Keep you posted. Still going. Theee(cant keep the stuff in the pans)rooon. :lol:
Theron,
Nice to follow your BIG sap posts. I guess I DONT WANT IT THAT BAD!:) cant keep it in the pan. No wonder if you ran it in the RO any longer you wouldnt have to boil at all!:) Save the boiling just put the 28% sap in with some mersh call it low density and sell it by the pound!
1400 gallons ! wow nice year for you and what a lot of work and time you have put into it too!
Were you able to look those pancakes in the face at the breakfast with your dad?
Regards,
Chris
Chris- We had a real nice breakfast and had fun visiting with everyone. Took the day off today and rode 4 wheeler around the woods with the kids and shot pop cans in the pond. Just having a fun day off. I didnt mean to do the 28% thing. Kind of a mistake. Didnt think the stuff would go that high. Got another 1500 gallons to boil in the morning and Im all cought up. Im just wondering with freezes starting again tonight if the bush across the road will run more. Might not matter if it wont stay in the pans. Gotta quit sometime. Need to clean up all the mess. Terreble. Theron
Low 20's at night and mid 40's during the day should get some FLOOD RUNNSSS SOOON !!!!!!
Theron,
Can you slow the fire down a little under the pans and help keep it in the pans some vs burning it as hard as you can??
Towards the end, everytime I fired I added defoamer where the sap enters the flue pan as some have suggested. Had alot of success with this. Kept the boil in check and had my most consistent draws of the season. Than again, I'm not boiling 28% sap in my flue pan.Quote:
Originally Posted by WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER
You guys are right about less fire. I have been doing that. Pretty much boiling with the draft door shut and I have been running the pans deeper and only concentrating to 9 or 10%. That 28% really was a mistake. Real shocker, pretty funny though. I think its that the sap now is just to where its pretty unmanagable. Its real cloudy right from the tree and by the time its R.O'd it looks like milk and smells like vinigar. Its got so no amount of butter will keep it in the pans. Time to pull the plug. Just hated to stop with sap still running but I guess it gets like that. Never tried to go this long. Theron
What does the finished product taste like, or have you not been brave enough to try it.
Van- I havent dared. Its to density and it came from a maple tree and thats about all I can say about it. Theron
Last year I made some pretty special stuff at the end of the season,,,I dipped my finger in it and tried a SMALL tast,,,,pretty nasty,,,,,brought over to Bascomes,,as they were weighing it Bruce came along,,I told him it wasent the greatest tasting stuff,,he took out a turky baster, FILLED it, and as I was saying NOOOOO,,he squeezed the whole thing out in his mouth and sucked it down,,,,,,,,thought I was going to Barf,,,,he looked right at me and said "not the worst tasting stuff I have ever tried",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,GAG,,,,I would not want to be a syrup taster over there this time of year!!!
we seem to have a reprieve here in central Ontario it might never end. No buds and it looks like winter is back for the next week or so.
Budding should slow down here also. I have to put winter cloths back on and they have 15 degrees forecast for night time temps here this week.
I'm also wondering what they use Mersh for. People keep asking me and my best answer is it's used in anything with maple flavoring. I don't know for sure. Does anybody know?
I always thought they add an eyedropper of Mersh to the fake syrup so they can call it Maple.
Also, they use it to flavor chewing tobacco. Probably for maple-flavored bacon too.
Looks like we may get some sap today after a 6 day break. The bucket near my house is running pretty good, so I expect around 200 gallons to boil tonight.
Looks like some more cold nights ahead so things look good for a few days.
Help. I have buckets over flowing almost already. Its not all that warm and they are pouring sap like it was 50 degrees out side. Finally. I have all my taps moved to the old sugar bush I found and running today.
That's frightening. You're at the same latitude as we are and the temp is the same right now. It may be a long day tomorrow!!!Quote:
Originally Posted by KenWP
been freezing up hard for the last two days and SNOW didint get that warm today or yesterday and 20's at night and for the rest of t he week and 40's during the day BIGGGGGG SAPPP coming hopfuly and alot of syrup
MONSOOOOON SAAAAAAP UPDATE: My cousing who helps run pumps and gather when we're not able to be in the bush started the pumps for us at 1:00 p.m. One of our bushes with 650 taps and a 500 gallon Zero tank (I know, it's too small!) ran over in 3 hours!!!! We think the Surge 22 pump's OK. The rest of our tanks are also almost full. We've got well over 2,000 gallons waiting for us tomorrow morning and he pumps have been shut off because we're worried the tanks will run over and ruin a pump. The biggest problem we have right now is not enough storage for syrup!!! I likely need to buy another 3 drums tomorrow or we'll be putting syrup in a stocker tank until we find more drums! Trust me - I'm not complaining... this is the season I've waited for my whole life!Quote:
Originally Posted by ennismaple
Looks good here for the weekend for me too. I might have long arms carrying 5 gallon pails but it beats not haveing anything to do. Hard work never killed anybody.
I'm still hoping for a good freeze tonight but the temp. is only down to 31 now and too windy.
Took off a couple gallons on Grade A dark amber tonight (still no grade B!) for a total of 88 gallons (88% full crop). .
The next week will make the difference between an average year or a good (great?) year.