Steam in Salisbury

Just going over my list of what I need in the AM,,,gas for the pumps,,oil for the pumps,,gottta pump the swill out of the Hoit road tank (just in case it does run),,,,,,,COME ON BOXCARS,,lets see 4 straight days of full tanks,,,GOOD LUCK

parker, what's your elevation? guys in the flatlands are done here.

The elevation of the Hill bush is 900' rte. 11 is 750',,hoit road the same putney around 675',,,all pretty low,,all the reds have huge buds,,the sugars are starting to swell,,I think the sap I get today will be a little buddy but I am going to try,,I hate to quit,,,,,,I pick up 800 gallons of real cloudy sap yesterday,,I figured to 2 inline sap filters I have would clean it up a little,,ran it into my empty and clean evap and started boiling,,,got the bait shop smell right off the bat,,dumped the sap recleaned the evap,,as I was picking up sap yesterday I really washed the tanks so the sap that ran yesterday is nice and clear,,will try agine today,,the hill tank had around 600 gallons last night ONE MORE TRY,,GOOD LUCK I do have to say with the return of sugaring weather BOTH putney hill and Hoit road started to run fairley well agine,,I guess the spile extensions are working ,,MY MISTAKE,,,only a dusting of snow here,,but good temps

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Collected 900 gallons from hill and 200 from Hoit road,,got 450 from rte.11 but it looks like applejuice,,holding that seprate,,the 1100 made 8 gallons of fancy,,with one hell of a robust maple flavor 8O 8O ,, there is 250 up in Hill and 150 on rte.11that is crystal clear,,still have the 450 of apple juice to run thru last thing,,kinda want it to end at this point so I can do a Vermont road trip but Ill hang in there as long as I can,,,,Good luck

I had the same kick in my syrup yesterday. I think it was from the stuff left on the rig. what do you think?

Parker,
Are you making apple syrup. Does it require any extra cleaning of the pan afterward. I wanted to boil a gallon or so of cider, but I didn't want to use my 2x6. For one thing it's too big. I suppose I could run water in the back and just use the front pan.
Gary

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Medium? Funny, bascomes bought it for fancy,,,,nothing I would eat,,but I guess they make something out of it,,,How much syrup did you make this year Kevin?
I am calling it a year,,made 20 gallons or so last night,,,same poor tasting,,smelling,,guess I wound up with 326 gallons,,,most of the people I have talked to said they made 1/2 to 3/4 of a crop this year,,,with the expansion I would like to do in Hill and the thinning I would like to do in all the woods I would like to think one year I could make 700 gallons,,definatly need a steamaway or RO to speed it up a littel,,would be tough to handel over 2500gallons of sap a day for a few days in a row,,,definatly better than last year and room for improvement,,,,I am headind to Lamoile and Franklin counties in VT on monday,stay over mon night head back tues. nite,anyone going to be around?

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Mountianvan- I really dont know exactly what caused it,, it was very warm here and the buds all started,,then this last bit of sugaring weather,,I think it is the tast of the trees being done with sugaring sap and getting started on there leaves,,,but,, I really dont know,,,how did you make out this year?
smallopperator,,I dont know what apple syrup is,,probably the stuff I made the tail end of it,,pretty poor tasting stuff,,,the pans really did not get that dirty from the last bit we boiled,,I probably could have made some more but it is time to stop the madness,,How was your year?

parker, my syrup went back to normal today, no extra strong flavor. 20 here tonight and 40s tomorrow.MORE SAP!!! the strong stuff is already sold, had people waiting for it! I think the strong flavor may be a bacteria or yeast that only thrives in very warm temps working on the syrup left in my pans. got that smell as soon as I started up yesterday, definitely came from the syrup pan, flue pan was fresh sap. I have a customer who's a bacteriaoligist, spelled it that wrong, I'll ask him next time he comes up.Neighbor is head forestry guy for the catskill preserve, I'll ask him too.

Could well be as the sap I collected towards the end of the season was cloudy and a little green but did not have a bad taste to it,,in the past I have tasted sap that just tasted awful,,but this stuff really did not,,,,,BUT my pans were empty and washed befor I started boiling the last of the sap,,and no sap sat in the tanks for more than 12 hours?,,,,I did notice that my flue pan would have a bunch of stuff floating in it thru the sight glasses,,,(suspended solids),,and I would like to figure out how to avoid this in the fucther,,only happend 3 times this year,,but when I see that I know I have to clean the pans,(or no matter what kind of sap I put into the evap. I will be making commercial syrup),,just hate to dump all that sap (200-300 gallons) to wash them,,a fellow told me that not skimming the flue pan is the cause of the floaters,,I have a flat hood on the fluepan so no skiming,,I do have 2 felt filters that the sap goes thru befor it enters the evap,,,and we washed the tanks after every boil???

Parker,

I never skim my evaporator period and I have never had floating objects in it like that. :?

maybe this subject falls under my general philosophical view of maple sugaring." maple sugaring, sapflow, weather, etc. is like a woman, you never know what it's going to do." some things were not meant to figure out!!

Brandon-when you look in your flue pan at the end of the season there is no "stuff" floating around in there,,kinda like floating sugar sand??,,,do you have a sight glass tube on your flue pan? Curious,,I know I have seen this ealsewhere,,,I think if I could figure this problem out it would save me alot of time washing and make my syrup lighter {allready is the best tasting,,well,,most of it} 8O

Parker,

I don't have sight glasses and after six weeks of boiling the last two years, the flue pan looked fine and I never cleaned it any during the season. Had a layer of sugarsand everywhere in it this year and never had before due to an enormous amount of sand the latter half of the season this year due to the low quality sap. I am going to try to start cleaning it and the syrup pan every week that I boil a good quanity of sap next year and see what that does and filter what I take out and put it back in after cleaning. :)

Yes, just draining the evaporator between boils through prefilters makes a huge difference. Especially since I use gravity filtering 95% of the time.

Even my float boxes get sugar sand in them by the time the season is over.

just got back from lamoile and franklin counties in Vermont,,made 10 stops in 2 days,8000-50000 tap opperations,,and a 700 tap opperation,just amazing wacting 120-150 gallons comming off an evaporator in an hour,,,,,learned alot,,toured some butiful woods,,my how the rockies grow up there

Parker-

Where those guys still going pretty strong, 50K?

I'd like to check that out too, seems pretty neat but not sure if they are done or getting done soon?

lemme know, might take a ride.

everyone we stopped to see was still having good runs but they all thought thursday would be the end of it,,their trees were starting to bud,, I was very suprised that the elevation of lake champlaine is 90' above sea level,,and most of franklin county is relitivly low in evevation,,when we stopped at Goodrichs(other side of the state) he said the evevation was 1000' at the sugarhgouse and the woods were all higher that that,,,I do have to say Glenn has some absolutly amazing woods,,,fantastic looking maples with amazing crowns,,they just grow diffrent in Vermont...

I collected my last batch Monday afternoon. I ran about 75 taps this year all rock maple but one red. I also missed the January run and one in March, but I made 7 gallons total, which is up from 5.5 gallons last year. Next year I'm definitely using a vacuum. I use my truck manifold vacuum hooked to an old 100# propane tank to clean my lines with, and using that it definitely pulled some sap thru at the end that wasn't coming out with gravity. My lines are on a good slope at the top, but they go almost level for some distance. I'm running a 2x6 Small Brothers with shiny tin pans. It's really too big for the amount of taps I have. I'll also see if I can get more trees. It's funny how people have 2x6's with an RO, but it makes sense. It must save a lot of time boiling and you can handle more taps.
Gary

Dang Parker, You should of stopped in an seen my 131 bucket modern operation in Fairfield. You would of been astounded to see my 40 cup water heater and my ladel used to measure syrup level in the front pan. :lol: :lol: Next time your in the area give me a call. Can't wait until the 29th. Took the day off it's our Maple Festival and also all the big dealers open houses. :D 8) All within 20 miles.
We're finished now and so is everyone else except for my neighbor. He has 10'000 buckets. 8O Takes him awhile to get to the ones on the mountain.
Take care,

I picked up my releasers yesterday,,was surprised to see the 1,000 gallon tank in Hill running over (with no vacume) rte.11 had 500 gallons,,hoit road 350 gallons,,for a few seconds I was planning on firing up the 2 ton and collecting-boiling,If I collected eveything I would have had over 2,000 gallons,sap was pretty gross,cant stand the smell of that stuff boiling,came to my senses,,NEXT YEAR!!!

Al I could not remember the name of the road you live on,,we did not see any sines for pumkin village, :) ,I bet we drove right by your place to boot,,are you neighbors the Horrigans? On the way from Coreys to Brannons we shot down Buck Hollow road a ways and saw were I spent some time in the spring of 1983-1984,, Small opperator how do you pull sap thur you line and not get it going into your engine? are there more taps available to you? This sugaring is a horribal illness that gets in your blood and grows,,,I bet you will be up to 5,000 taps with a big RO on that 2x6 befor you know it!!!