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We are obviously small time compared to most of you. But we use organic safflower oil with great success on our 3x8. 1 drop in the front pan is amazingly effective. And usually 1 or 2 drops in the back per firing keeps the foam down
I dont know anyone else who uses it? But I believe it is within organic guidelines (we are not certified, but not interested in commercial defoamers)
We have done really well with the Trans0580 - Up until our boil on Tuesday. Then all hell broke loose twice during the boil. It came back under control fairly quickly but not until overfoaming all over the sides. We'll be boiling tomorrow and plan to stick with the TransO using our LaPierre auto defoamer. And yes, we are certified organic starting this season.Quote:
Originally Posted by DrTimPerkins
Ken
Are you serious? Do you have that much storage capacity?Quote:
Originally Posted by Ultimatetreehugger
I am dead serious. I have 5500 gallons capacity. My sap buyer had to start sending me to another buyer with a bigger ro in order to keep up. I was pulling 1000 gallons out as quick as I could and I didn't start to make headway until it froze yesterday morning. Lots of catnaps.Quote:
Originally Posted by TapTapTap
I've been quite happy with organic canola oil. Boiling raw sap, I use probably a pint, pint and a half over a season to make 400+ gallons of syrup. Dr. Tim, are the commercially produced organic defoamers considerably more effective than vegetable oils? Does it really only become an issue when boiling concentrated sap?Quote:
Originally Posted by chep
Well done sir! Impressive to say the least, always a good problem to have especially on a year like this one!Quote:
Originally Posted by Ultimatetreehugger
Hoping for a good run today. Got down to 15 degrees last night so it might be until this afternoon before i turn on the guzzler.
Ultimatetreehugger- that's the best post I have read all season. I had to get my calculator out for that one. Awsome runs only come as a result of hard work, and sometimes they still don't come despite hard work.
Just took a cruise through the woods. Discouraging... Many red maple flowers are about to explode. Tomorrow? Monday? And sugars are suddenly looking pretty plump. Not sure I will make it through the week. Fingers crossed.
Thanks guys. It was a tough couple days lol 😆
I used some safflower oil this year. Boiling good sap at around 15%, it kept the foam down in the steamaway pretty well, but still left a fair amount along the sides.. Worked in my old dripper well, too. Took more than Atmos as expected. But if I added a little trans o every couple minutes, it did a more complete job of eliminating the foam.Quote:
Originally Posted by chep
A large organic producer friend has used safflower for years successfully.
So after the hard freeze Friday night into yesterday, sap jumped up to 1.75% at my place and then a remote site I collect from had bumped up to 2%. Sap a pinch of cloud to it but still excellent tasting dark syrup. Hoping to get a few more days in to salvage the season!
We called it a season today ! the the sap has run pretty good the last two days after the freezes but it was just two late . The sap was a hard two filter I call it cheesy , sugar was still at 1.5% but when I did a test boil this morning it stunk bad . I want no part of that not going to make garbage. Time to clean up and pull taps. Them 8 days with out a freeze and all them 60 degree days kind of killed it anyway.
Still running strong and clear here. Saps between 1 anand. 1.3%. 3000 gallons so far today. Probably got 1500 in the tank.
Decent couple of runs over the weekend totaling over 2 gal/tap. Sugar bumped up a little in one bush to 1.7, but still 1.4 Brix in the other. Only a slight chance for a freeze tonite, so the end is likely close. Not likely to hit our minimum target this year.
real solid run yesterday starting about 1 in the afternoon through the evening. still running a bit now. no freeze in the future here either. my red maples are really swollen up. some in town have budded. sap is still crystal clear, but testing 1.5. syrup is really hard to filter and have to switch pans every other hour to avoid a disaster. syrup is coming off in batches rather than continuous. Frogs are singing in the ponds... the end is really close!
Hardest run of the year yesterday, guess you'll have that when the frost is finally gone and get freezing nights all roots can pump water!!
One 1900 tap bush was flowing 260-300 gph. Sap averaging 1.3%. boiled off 4-5000 gallons yesterday and made about 65 gallons of dark amber.
Overall it's been a battle cleaning tanks and collecting nonstop to ensure good sap quality.
No off flavors yet which is hard to believe given the swelling of the buds. Back to near amber color yesterday
Tomorrow likely turn the pumps off. Should top out at about 1900 gallons - nothing special but I guess have to pay the Piper at some point!
Running hard here today, sap at 2%, but guessing that today will be it... Plan to boil what I have and call it good. Not the best year, but if this batch is not stinky I will possibly get close to normal. New R/O has been an incredible time saver this season.
Sap is hammering into the tanks today/tonight. Really wish I had vac to capitalize, was about 1.75GPT on 3/16” and by far the hardest run of the year. RO doing the heavy lifting this year and thankful I added that. I do t see us lasting past Wednesday. Good luck everyone!
We threw in the towel yesterday after the flavor went off. I probably could have managed it better towards the end but I had my covid vaccine last week and it knocked the crap out of me for a couple of days. My doctor friend that helps me boils tells me that's what happens to people with great immune systems - go figure.
Pulled taps in our upper bush today. Lot's of sap dripping but I can see the cloudiness in the clear taps.
Time to start planning for 2022!
ken
Tonight will be our last boil. it's taking roughly 65 gallons of sap to make a gallon of syrup... Sap is still crystal clear, but weak! my syrup is tasting great, however we started noticing a little different flavor in it towards the end of last night. we'll be around 1/2 a crop when all is said and done. so, not a total loss, but surely the worse we've had it since we started.
We got another 6,000+ gallons of 1.5-1.7 Brix sap overnight before it froze up. Concentrating today and sending it to the refrigerated bulk tank until the crew can boil. Hoping we get another decent run today and tonite, then that's likely the end. Will post final numbers when we get there, but definitely not a banner year for sure.
I too had to dump yesterday's run. Off smells when I tried to boil it. Off taste when I sampled the syrup pan. These are north facing sugar maples. No reds. Peepers are loudly declaring Spring.
Color came up a lot over the last 2 nights which was nice. SCC has just been a steady 1.6 to 1.7 all year but it is running alright. Hoping another week will help out a bit and turn it into an alright year.
Has anyone been reading up on the new VMSMA sugarhouse certification program? Last years sample program was palatable, but to me if they pour gas on that and light it on fire. If that gets pushed through about 75% of the sugarhouses in Vermont will not be able to certify. Probably wont hurt VMSMA will all their influx of cash though.
VT sugaring suffered this year as brix dropped fast and days were few.
In CT they had a 3 month season. A record year across the boards.
I did burn my pan slightly on my last boil-foamed up so bad couldn't see the depth.
Canola oil didn't help much and then I smelled the burn under the boil.. Immediately dumped
h2o in middle compartment and then I could see it. Bummer. Season over and used some
diluted vinegar to get it off. All cleaned now so no worry but the middle of the pan did belly down a little
but pan is level-so pan is still good. phew. Buckets and taps pulled. Now it's clean up time for the RO,
taps, buckets, lids etc.
Oh well, wait a year and see how the next season goes.
Total for me was 6 gals of great sugar-and 2 gal cooking sugar. so, 8 total. I'm okay with it but it's not
enought to fill my orders. I'll be selling all but 2 gal.
Made 3 qts of infused strawberry sugar. It's just so ... so good.
*wipes drool from mouth*
See you all next season.
I've got mayflowers poking up too.Quote:
Originally Posted by billyinvt
Dr. Perkins, what is Proctor's target in GPT?Quote:
Originally Posted by DrTimPerkins
Our minimum target each year is 0.5 gpt. Our average production from 2004-2020 is 0.6 gpt. Have fallen below the minimum target only one other season (in 2012 we got 0.46 gpt) since 2004 when we retubed the entire woods and changed to high yield production. This year might even fall below 2012.Quote:
Originally Posted by jrgagne99
There's still a slim change we'll hit our minimum target, but I'm not holding my breath. Should know in a few days.
Last boil for me tonight. Making some dark to maybe very dark syrup but the flor knock on wood is still very good. I can’t image it running much longer given the warm nights in addition to the sap sitting so warmly, was sad to lay the mainlines out of the tank. Good luck to everyone finishing up, I’ll see you on the other side!
Finally caught up yesterday from the Thursday Friday Saturday run. Sap had stayed cool until yesterday, the sun is jist too much and it will be worse today. R.O slowed way down with the last few push's so made some of the sap sub par while it waited to be run thru. Time for another vessel!! and syrup filtering quite hard. Probably could have made another 100 gallons of non table grade syrup but decided not to.
Overall it was a difficult year, not a good one for an expansion!!. I almost thought it was over a week and half ago when we were at the same production as last year with 1900 more taps- thank God it didn't end there, would have been hard to keep the moral up. We did finish out last night with about 1995 gallons I was hoping for 2000 as a minimum so we're there as far as I'm concerned. Sugar ended around 1.3 and the syrup had just started the Sourish smell and taste but not as bad as I've seen in past, Made a big difference having the extra taps, no waiting for sap to boil so was always able to collect fire up keeping things fairly fresh.
Time for cleanup and preparation for next year, and finish the other portion of the current expansion. I pulled a bud apart and looks like may be a seed year, seems every 3 years I see masting here- not really helpful for next year.
Hats off to a year that hopefully doesn't repeat anytime soon!!
Turned out the sap we collected over the weekend was ropey and unable to be completely processed. One of the drawbacks of measuring every drop of sap (for research) is that we are unable to fully drain some collection tanks. Once ropey gets in there, that section is done for the season. Final tally is just over 2,000 gal, or 0.37 gpt, which is the lowest by far since 2004 when we retubed. That is 62% of an average crop for us. Combination of very low sap sugar content and poor weather.Quote:
Originally Posted by DrTimPerkins
Sap still running fairly well due to good vacuum and good sanitation, but definitely way slowing down. With the dry soils we can't collect enough to prevent sap from going sour in the lines....so we are DONE!
Gotta go...it may have been a poor season, but still lots of data to go through.
All wrapped-up.
11.26 gallons of sap per tap... first time under 12. .23 finished GPT.
Can't all be record-breakers ;)
See ya next year!!
Shipped a load today around noon. Got a text from buyer at 5pm to shut it down, turned off pump and couldn't believe we had gotten another 3000 gal in 5 hrs, it was hammering...but...too late. Looks like we are right around 4lbs/tap. Enough to pay the mortgage and taxes but not much more, but thats ok. Let's hope we get some rain this summer, these trees need it.
Turned off the pumps today. Still running hard but the quality was gone. 65000 gallons of sap and 900 gallons of syrup. Hardest year yet. I'm completely exhausted. 😴
Amen on the rain brother!!!Quote:
Originally Posted by GiddingsHill
Well if everyone wasn't done beginning of the week the 75 degree and sun had to of sone them in! Crazy weather hopefully this isn't a new trend!
Wasnt going to but we decided to boil out pans wensday and made another 12gals or so, that put is at 2007 gallons or .39 per tap. 118,000 gallons of sap. Here in valley sugar was highest I've seen on average in 3-4 years. I think we had just enough freezing and thaw to bump It Up, sounds like the higher elevation trees never had a chance to make much sugar because they went from Frozen and locked up to Summer like weather in 2 weeks! Nice to be on the other end of spectrum for once! It was a bad year and the numbers showed it, but on the flip side we know our potential is way higher so that offers some positive outlook!
Hey Ultimate,Quote:
Originally Posted by Ultimatetreehugger
I'm confused. I thought you sold sap from your recent post that you collected 18,000 gallons and overwhelmed your buyer. How do you get 900 gallons of syrup if you sell your sap?
Ken
Sounds like an extended April fools day joke noone ever caught on to!
He said he got a 5gpt run in 48 hrs, but only made 900 gallons on 3300 taps. Maybe boiling on a 3*12 with no ro and selling extra sap? Yea something doesn't add up......
I’m trying birch for the first time, but unsure on when to tap. I’ve read all the recommendations but unlike maple they’re kinda vague. It's mid April and despite highs of 70 +/- in northwest VT, still not “consistently over 50” as is recommended by some. Seems like if I wait for that it’ll be late April and highs will be well into the 70s. Did a couple test holes in golden birch and barely a drip. Am I missing something, or do I just have bad trees/dry soil/bad year?
My sugar content never got above 1.7 (corrected because I mis spoke) this season averaging 1.2 percent. I don't boil at all. Yes that run was a substantial part of my crop. I calculate approximately what would have been made based on sugar content. I'll recheck my chart to make sure I didn't miss something.