Printable View
The sap that I boiled last night was pretty milky looking when it went into the evaporator and even the condensate that came out of the hood was kind of grey and slimy feeling. That's the first time that I had that happen and the foam never got high enough to get into the drain gutter in the hood.
My last few days of sap were foamy too. Sap was a little milky and did not taste great but it was not bad. Syrup came out good. It's dark and tastes great at first. But the after taste is not the greatest. It has maybe a hint of niter, or maybe tastes burnt a bit. Well, burnt is a strong word. I can't put my finger on it. I have been doing this for 5 years and I don't think I have ever made "Grade B" before. I guess I neglected my pan a bit on the last week and it got a pretty good brown film of niter crusted onto it. Maybe that is the culprit? Gotta figure out what to do with this last batch now.
Officially done here. Boiled down the pans last night and started the cleanup process. What surprises me is even with all the defoamer built up on the sidewalls of the flue pan, that it still foams as much as it does. Considering how much syrup we made this year (TBD), the flue pan is in good shape. Niter buildup not bad, but lots of niter in the flue pan sap. Haven't tasted this syrup yet, but it had a sour smell in the foam...not sure if it'll be good syrup or not.
Helping the local school's sugarhouse with their pancake breakfast tomorrow, and then spend the rest of the weekend pulling taps. Hoping to get it all done in 1.5 days, but doubt it.
I'm going to start pulling taps this weekend too and like you I probably won't get it all done. Richard pulled the buckets yesterday. There were only 17 of them this year, down from 100 last year.
I won't even get to pulling taps until monday. buckets are already down, about 70 of those sap sacks so I just need to clean the taps and bag holders. Too much crap going on this weekend Baseball/softball clean up this morning opening baseball game in a little while then its supposed to start raining.... Tomorrow checking some bees in the AM then I have go to a BBQ in the afternoon. Don't really wanna go too much stuff to do.
We got all of the gravity tubing taken down, washed and put away. The buckets were pulled Thursday and we got about 500 of the vacuum taps pulled today. We will finish pulling the rest of the vacuum taps tomorrow morning. The tap pulling went faster than I thought it would and it will be nice to have it all done tomorrow morning. We are having a going away party tomorrow afternoon for my daughter who is moving to Colorado. I should be able to relax for a couple of hours and drink a few boiling sodas.Quote:
Originally Posted by red maples
Spent Sat. morning helping Moharimet Elementary with their sugarhouse's open house pancake breakfast. A really great program that's all volunteer run, and the sugaring program is integrated into each grade level's curriculum to some degree. Spent the rest of the day pulling taps and got it finished Sunday afternoon. Spent the following couple hours cleaning the woods tank, releaser, and misc. items so that's all put away now till next year. I have vinegar water sitting the flue pan waiting for it to take the niter off the pans and well on our way to having the sugarhouse cleaned up. Should be all done by the end of the week.
Keep forgetting to put together final season numbers...everyone's asking too. Need to get this done.
Russ, how was the party? I agree, tap pulling and woods cleanup went quick this year. All done with that end of it in 1.5 days of work.
The party went well Josh. One of the guys that came over wanted to see my doodlebug tractor and a crowd gathered around it. After that they wanted to see the sugar house and that really impressed them too. I like it when people say that the sugar house is neat and clean. I'm glad that I haven't had the time to put the vinegar in the evaporator pans yet to make it stink down there.
I can't say my sugarhouse is clean. We're in full cleanup mode so everything's torn apart and everywhere.
mine is getting there but it smells like salad dressing. still need to get the floor cleaned up!!! its a little sticky!!!