got some very dark to spice it up lest 5 gallons have never made golden on this evaporator
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got some very dark to spice it up lest 5 gallons have never made golden on this evaporator
I did an oops yesterday and forgot to run 250 gallons through the RO and boil it. Did that today and made 4 more gallons to bring the ratio to 74 gallons of sap to make a gallon of syrup. Still not good but better than 100 to 1.Quote:
Originally Posted by Russell Lampron
I thought I was the only one boiling for ever. I am in the fight of my life to keep the 22 acres hear in Deerfield. 750 taps on 19" no ro = boiling for ever.
Made a lot of syrup. Money for the land before a good flue pan and ro. The only thing working for me is the blower.
I wasn't boiling forever. I ran it through the RO and sweetened it to 14% first. I boiled for less than 2 hours. On Sunday afternoon I had some guest in the sugarhouse and after I ran the concentrate from the first 550 gallons to the feed tank I was supposed to start concentrating the 250 gallons that was in the bulk tank and boil that too. Boiling alone and keeping guest entertained I forgot all about the 250 in the bulk tank. I woke up in the middle of the night and thinking something wasn't right. The permeate tanks should have overflowed and they didn't. I figured out why yesterday morning.
Went down to the woods this morning to find 400 gallons in the tank. Pumped that up to the sugarhouse and got the RO going. Made 7 gallons of.......are you ready for this? Amber/Rich !!! The sap looked almost like milk but finally made something darker than golden. The flavor is fantastic too.
I'm now at 118 1/2 gallons and counting. Speaking of counting, I went down to the tank at 9:00 to find 250 gallons in it and the sap is still coming in. I hope it doesn't run over before tomorrow morning.
Sounds like your issues are problems everyone would love to have
I've suffered through not being able to make any lighter colored syrup and as much as I complain about it would rather have the problem I've got now.Quote:
Originally Posted by adk1
Is this your first year with an ro and how do u like th3 ro u have
This is my 11th season with the RO. I like the one that I have but really need a bigger one. I believe that I was the second producer in town to get one when I got mine. Now all of the big guys have them and a lot of the small guys do too.
I went down to the woods this morning to find 450 gallons of sap in the tank and the sap was still coming in. Went back to the sugarhouse and quickly pressure washed the bulk tank and then went back down to the woods and pumped the sap up to the sugarhouse. Before I was done I got another 25 gallons to make a total of 475. I am planning to save this sap for maple weekend but may have to boil some if I run out of storage space. The buckets are running too even though all we got was a light frost.
Good for you... No sap here since Sunday... Thank goodness for clouds and rain trees haven't progressed... thank goodness just need to get through today!!! but will definitely be boiling water on Sat.
Ive got nothing in over a week now :-( I guess its really over in So NH. Im jealous you guys are still getting some!
Found 375 gallons in the woods tank this morning and it is still coming in but real slow. It looks like I will have enough for both days of maple weekend. The buds are swelling but don't look like they are ready to open yet. If I make it through today it looks like some good sap weather starting with tomorrow nights freeze.
I feel bad for you guys south of me. The customers really like it when you are boiling sap. The wood pile suffers too when you are only boiling water to make it look good.
I am in a cold spot I have a few trees that are really swelled but not popped I might have a couple that popped. Reds that is. sugars are really tight still (wish I had more of those) So I am gonna do a quick walk though and pull all the taps that the buds are really swelled up. and then hope for the best!!!
You were up late, or should I say early Brad. I don't think you have to worry about the buds until the trees flower. Even my reds with big buds haven't done that yet and in the past I have made good syrup until the trees flowered.
I don't know how cold it got but everything is covered with frost this morning and it wasn't supposed to freeze here last night. I hope you guys down south got it too. Looks like another sap day here. So far I have over 1000 gallons of sap for the weekend.
Good for you Russ! over here by Shaker Village it is 29 degrees- while accuweather says its 39 at the moment, and it wasnt supposed to frost last night im really hoping my trees can hang on until tomorrow- and then we will be back to running weather for a good many days! ( im all on buckets and gravity drop tubing) i boiled off the little sap I had collected this week last night so that it wouldnt spoil - debated pushing all of my sap from rear pan and near syrup/gradient from the front pan through with water last night in case i didnt get any more sap
but then i figured that even if it runs again for me- i may not get enough to sweeten the pans again - so i held off and shut down, gradient intact ( and at least boiled what was in the pan to keep it from spoiling) the next few days will see whether i gambled right or wrong!
good luck and have a great maple weekend
Quote:
Originally Posted by Russell Lampron
I last boiled Tuesday night and have been saving the sap since then for the weekend. The sap was cloudy from the start and it has gotten more cloudy since but as of last evening it still tasted good. It isn't supposed to be as warm today and I think last nights frost helped with the bud situation.Quote:
Originally Posted by NHguy
My Weather Underground app said it was 31* on Loudon Ridge and my Weatherchannel app said it was 35* when I got up this morning. My thermometer at the house died and I haven't replaced it yet. It is always colder in my woods than it is at the house.
NHguy; you say you're by the Shakers? I'm up the road from you. I know what you man about the temps up our way. I turn off 106 at the Beanstalk, and the thermometer in the truck always drops five degrees when I get to the top of Hills Corners. That, and my woods face North.
Russ, I'm thinking that this will be a great three days coming up here. A good number of my trees have red buds, but they're still holding tight. I gathered and boiled a bit that limped-in yesterday and I found a few moths, so maybe this will be the last hurrah. I'm taking the day off from work tomorrow to go to the Trappers Rendezvous, so I'll try stop by to say hi.
Doc
Hey Doc! - im not far up the hill from the Beanstalk you can probably see some of my buckets as you drive up the hill. Since we moved here in '07 - we laugh every year about how much lower our temps are than the forecast, and how much more snow we get than what is predictedQuote:
Originally Posted by Greyfox
Im REALLY hoping my trees can hang on until the weather returns to perfect tomorrow..... i more than doubled my taps this year, and picked up a 2x4 flat divided pan arch set up (from steam table pans on cinder blocks last year)
now im desperately needing more sap!!!!
I learned alot this year- ( tapped too early, and i think when frozen - i think most of the sap i should have gotten ran down my trees and not through my spiles)
learning as i go - and really hoping i can get another 50-100 gallons....
It will be good to see you again Doc. Anyone that wants to stop by is more than welcomed to.
I'm as ready for maple weekend as I am going to be. Got to go shut the RO down in a little bit and then get a couple hours of sleep. I hope the valve on the sweet tank doesn't freeze before I need to start concentrating again in the morning.
I sent a couple groups up your way today Russ. One is a longtime Trader lurker, said this is the best time to understand the bubblemaster.
I don't know if they showed up or not Alden. I didn't use the bubblemaster today. I didn't want added the noise in the sugarhouse and needed to make the boil last longer.
The first day of maple weekend started out kind of slow in the morning but kicked into high gear in the afternoon. I'm making maple cream and maple butter now to replenish the supply. We almost sold out.
Thank you for stopping by Doc and thank you for the boiling soda's. It was a pleasure to show you around.
Another maple weekend is in the books. It wasn't a record year but it was better than last year. There seemed to be fewer people this year but fewer free loaders as well. Most of the people that came bought something and the maple butter was a big hit.
Alden your friends were here this morning. They were pretty impressed with my set up and with the bubblemaster.
The sap didn't run as well as I thought that it might today but that means that I get a night off tomorrow and boy do I need that!!!
At 138 1/2 gallons I have officially passed the poor season total of 2012 when I only made 135 gallons of syrup with more taps. It looks like another week or more of sap weather if the buds don't pop.
I finally made some dark syrup today!!! It was close yesterday but still amber. We will see what comes in this week.
It was great meeting you today russ. My wife is enjoying some of your maple cream as we speak. All in all enjoyed my trip down loudon ridge rd this afternoon with my kiddo picked up lots of mental notes for my sugar house build.
Also got a chuckle over the house on your road with all the trash in the yard and the brand new bmw in the driveway.
It was nice to meet you too. I was up very late Saturday night making that cream and was happy with the way that it came out. You're going to like that RO when you get up and running.Quote:
Originally Posted by prettygoodatmakingsugar
There's a lot of sugar houses on Loudon Ridge. That's where the biggest ones in town are.
That house at the end of the road is the eyesore of the neighborhood.
The sap ran pretty good today. Most of my buckets were half full or more. I had to dump 2 of them because they were yellow and still got 40 gallons out of 24 buckets. I also got 400 gallons out of the woods tank and it was still coming in good at 6:00. It looks like the sap should run all week I just hope that the trees don't bud before it stops running.
The sap ran pretty good here the last two days. I'm in the process of boiling the 950 gallons I collected yesterday and today. The syrup I made Sunday was finally dark but has a strong almost bitter taste. I decided to dump the contents of the evaporator and start over with fresh sap. Lit the evaporator at a little after 7:00 and had the pans sweetened and first draw off before 8:00. The result.... The lightest syrup of the season with no after taste or off flavors.
How do the tree's look down your way?Quote:
Originally Posted by Russell Lampron
lost about half of the tree's here to flowering mostly the reds and yard tree's.
got my fingers crossed the rest make it to the weekend, would really like to get one more good boil before calling it.
Why'd dumping the evap. bring the flavor back? Did you actually dump the evap, or just set it aside for later?
The trees are starting to look scary. The reds have swelled but no flowers yet. The sugars are still tight.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sinzibuckwud
I dumped what was in the evaporator because the sap I had saved since last Tuesday had gone bad and I didn't want to make more syrup that tasted like crap. Started over with fresh sap and making good syrup again.Quote:
Originally Posted by Amber Gold
Still getting sap here. Collected 300 gallons tonight. It looks like some decent weather for the weekend. I hope the buds don't pop before I make 22 1/2 gallons more. The grade went back to amber and the flavor of the syrup is still good but not as good as previous batches.
Been going through a lot of wood because the membrane in the RO is getting slowly clogged. I can't seem to get it clean and get my flow rates back. The past 2 nights have been long ones but we finally got caught up last night.
Hope it holds for you - here on the other side of town sap ran good past two days, didnt run today, cloudy and 35 degrees all day. they are calling for an overnight low of 34, but its already 29 at my house. Hoping if it freezes and then gets warm tomorrow with the rain that I might get one more good run.Quote:
Originally Posted by Russell Lampron
If not - I'll settle for the boil I had today: bottled a gallon of slightly darker than 2 weeks ago, but much better flavor. Wishing I had been able to collect more this year!
Best - Jim
Yesterdays sap was nice and clear at 1.7%, today's sap a a tad bit cloudy. The temps look pretty good over the next week but the buds look very swollen.
The buckets didn't run here yesterday but they ran pretty good the 3 days before that. They will probably run again today.Quote:
Originally Posted by NHguy
Dave Clark already called it a season over there, said the sap smelled buddy. I was wondering if anybody else did too.Quote:
Originally Posted by 325abn
All good here Russ; no buddy issues yet. Sugar content is WAY down here though, around 1.4% average. I think the next few days will be "it" for me this season.
Doc
vacuum line when bad 3/16 still clear made 6 gallon very dark wensday
Collected 450 gallons yesterday and today. Everything is running, even the buckets.
Keep it up Russ! I'm heading out to pull taps but I'm glad to know someone down here is still going. Odd weather yesterday probably helped, forecast said 60 never got above 40 here with ice covering most everything. You boiling this afternoon? Maybe the daughter and I will swing by.
Sugars are still running a bit. Collected around 25 gal while pulling taps. Had a friend drop of around 40 gal this morning. The little half pint will be Getting another work out. Keep it going Russ.