Galena,
Trust me I agree that this idea is crazy but calling people names is not the way to make your point. These threads never end well. We Canadians are better then that.
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Galena,
Trust me I agree that this idea is crazy but calling people names is not the way to make your point. These threads never end well. We Canadians are better then that.
Hi Clinkis, I know, I blew a fuse or two last night. But I've seen that single-minded mentality in place before, and nothing good ever comes of it. Please don't ask for examples, I have far too many and have a busy night ahead. Maybe a bit later on.
I'm boiling today. Started out with about 185 gals of sap /ice. Lost the first hour thawing valves and the block in the evaporator.
Now I have a good boil going but I'm having icing issues in my feed line. I'm watching the trickle at the float box carefully and have had to disconnect and remove ice plugs several times already. Still. If I don't get everything I can out of the tank today it will even harder tomorrow.
My other problem today? Where to place my chair. Too close to the arch door and I roast. A bit further back and I freeze. Just doesn't seem to be a good spot today. :)
I have the same problem with chair position, I'm boiling right now too, my back and butt are cold but my front and legs are roasting. I should be thankful that I'm out of the wind. I had 100gal to boil alot of it is ice.Quote:
Originally Posted by Big_Eddy
Just finished getting through 240 gallons of sap I had collected earlier in the week. Nasty cold windy day. Luckily I have heat in my Sugar Shack (an old milk house) so no ice but have windows and doors open for ventilation so still having to deal with wind and cold. Syrup is very dark and robust today which is odd for me especially this early. Perhaps because sap has been sitting for a few days. Looks like we have a week here to get all cleaned up and ready for the next run. Winter is back.
Ya i mdae 10 gallons of syrup this week even though its early in the years it was Dark amber
Ty for the distract.
Hi Greg
I just tapped last Sunday (late to the game this year) and boiled on Thursday night. Made 52 litres, love my RO. All golden syrup so far, hoping for another 2 weeks after this freeze up is over. Glad I added more taps, I even put out 50 buckets. See you at the festival
Ooh it's cold out there!
Boiled another batch. 288 litres of sap made 9.3 litres of the darkest syrup ever! Sugar content 2.8%, ratio 1:31
Check this dark stuff out!
Attachment 16010
wow that's dark. What's flavour profile like? If I start getting stuff that dark it's got some maple but then noticeable (but not unpleasant) brown sugar/ molasses notes.
I was out an about yesterday EDDY, Thought about coming by and seeing you, but wasnt sure if you were home, then I was going to boil the sap I collected the other day, and it was frozen and the wind was just stupid crazy anyhow, so I brought it inside and will boil it later today.Quote:
Originally Posted by Big_Eddy
We had the same issue in the county last weekend. Start at 5, fight the lines with a hair dryer trying to ensure we didn't burn the pan while we got the ice plugs out. Saw the same forecast yesterday and decided we would stay in instead of fighting again. Hope you found your warmth by the end.Quote:
Originally Posted by Big_Eddy
Hey - just tasted it. Definite brown sugar flavour. Still very sweet but I prefer the light vanilla taste. However, my husband prefers this. Hopefully after this cold snap we will get some more light.Quote:
Originally Posted by Galena
Darrell Glad you got your R.O. up and running saves a lot of time doesn't it. i have one of my new posts running still trying to figure how to pipe in the other. Pretty cold this weekend not looking to let loose until next Fri/Sat.
Hey guess what? Apparently I have magic syrup...it made itself! I put about 7l of nearup (from 85l of sap) into a pot on the woodstove a couple nights ago and left it to reduce down a little more. When I got home much later that day I saw that it had reduced to about 3l. It was still warm, so on my hot/cold Quebec hydro it was halfway between the two Bri marks. So I left it overnight. This morning I checked it and...absolutely dead perfect, spot-on Brix at cold. Needless to say I'm overjoyed that I don't have to stay up all hours finishing it, and right now it's quietly dripping away through fresh coffee filters to get out the nitre. Looks like I'll have around 3250ml again.
Thats awsome! I should try that, im to scared to leave it on a hot surface over night
Well, I make sure that my finishing pot is always a heavy copper-bottomed stainless pot, and that it was all cold nearup from the fridge. Had it been warmed in any way, I would have put it to the side of the stove and not on the hot plate in the middle. I am really surprised at how well it worked, even though I was only intending to nearup it down a bit more til the sap ran again. But hey not complaining :-)Quote:
Originally Posted by c0ps
Sap started running late today!!!!!!!!!!! Depends on when the temperature drops tonight as to how long it will dribble into the tank. It was late enough that I didn't bother starting up the vacuum pump
Hmm better go take a look at my trees. I already saw some frozen sap thawing out earlier, and scooped out handfuls of snow before they got into the frozen sap as it melted. Not holding my breath though. And supposedly more snow on Saturday...*groan*...Quote:
Originally Posted by Bruce L
Tapping Today:)
We finally tapped in today. Put on 65 buckets. 2/3rd's were running by mid afternoon. I think we were on our second or third boil by this time last year!
Attachment 16118
My quality control analyst says "yep, it's sap dad..."
Attachment 16119
Sunny today and +6 in forecast, no wind so the trees should be starting to wake up! I collected 1g frozen from all of them yesterday. Definitely a few sapsicles.
It seems lke I took the right week off work to boil ,weather looks great for next 4 days.
Went out yesterday and built a small fire under my sap tank to thaw about 90 gallons of sap that had been frozen since the cold snap set in then added another 100 gallons that was collected yesterday.
The cold snap might have been the best thing this year I tested the sugar content of my combined thawed and fresh sap and to my amazement it tested at 4.2brix ( has anyone seen this kind of spike in sugar content) my sap usually runs around 2.5 to 2.9
I thought this was wrong so I went around to my 4 collection sites and tested the sap sugar content at each main line, I noted readings from 2.9 brix to 4.5 brix. I have never had sap run from the main lines over 3brix ( has anyone ever seen this kind of spike before not sure how to explain it or why )
Today I'm going to start my boil to rip through the almost 200 gallons in tank and hope to collect another 100 or more gallons by end of today cause the weather looks to be perfect for sap flow . I hope the sap runs over 3 brix or more for the rest of the remaining days .:)
Just finished tapping for this year, ended up with 80 total, trying a different section of the bush. Fewer trees than where I had originally planned but they are more concentrated for easier collecting. The twelve early test taps I installed for the warm spell in Feb only gave up 60 litres of sap combined to date so I haven't missed much. Things are just starting to flow here, hope for a good season.
*Jeopardy theme* sittin here twiddling thumbs waiting for my trees to realize that the big freeze is finally over. Going to take a couple more days or so of nice warm weather for thebig ol' beasties to thaw out after being froze up for well over a week.
I'm not sure where we are in relation to each other (my bush is right beside Balsam Lake Provincial Park), but...Quote:
Originally Posted by Galena
10-11am sap flow rate was 12gph
11-12pm sap flow rate was 15gph
12-1pm sap flow rate was 20gph
1-2pm sap flow rate was 21gph
So, keep an eye on things...;-]
I think mine are a little slow at unthawing too. They are running ok but not great. Was expecting a little better today. But should still collect over 200 gallons.Quote:
Originally Posted by Galena
I'm just outside of Kemptville, some 70km SE of Ottawa. And I'm not worried about my trees, I know they tend to start late anyway and this freaky weather has only made it even later. But a couple more weeks and I'll have the floaties on :-)
Not an exceptional sap flow day for me, starred to run about noon. On 125 taps I got about 50 gallons. Seemed like the taps in the sun were running today but ones in the shade were still froze. Had a couple taps yesterday that I had to reseat because they froze solid and pushed out a bit. First time I've ever seen that. Supposed to be warm tomorrow so hopefully the floodgates open up.
Another headache today due to the prolonged cold snap. Started vacuum pump in the main bushes just after 12:00, still frozen pretty hard to get much sap. Drove up the road to our remote bush,started vacuum pump there,but releaser wouldn't work as there was a layer of ice in the bottom. Played with it for awhile,got it to thaw out,then sap was coming in good. Came back to main bushes,everything okay,so time to go to a wake for a neighbor who died tragically going through the ice. Got home 2&1/2 hours later,went to collect the sap expecting tank to be overflowing,found a puddle on the ground in front of it. Sap had lifted the large chunk of ice in the tank,also lifting the plunger in the bulk tank,allowing the sap to run on the ground. Plastic cap that was a backup had split from the cold,so it didn't hold the sap back either. Figured we would rob the metal cap off another tank at home only to find we couldn't,because that plunger had also been lifted,allowing sap to leak slowly out of that tank. Pumped what sap we could get up into the head tank for evaporator,left it for the night,figuring that 500 gallons can wait till morning,enough problems today without running into trouble feeding the evaporator tonight. Probably need the torch in the morning to thaw out the feed line,ice can melt anytime now
Word from Scotch Corners is 25-30 gallons collected today. This is our first collect since tapping in the afternoon on the 17th. I'm hoping we have 100-120 gallons by the weekend but who knows.
I collected 50L yesterday, mine were running really well mid afternoon, I will go back over tonight and collect again. Yesterday morning I finished off the Near-Up I had, it was dark, and by the looks of the sap I collected yesterday and started boiling, it is going to be a light colour.
I was able to start making my new Barrel Evaporator yesterday which was fun. My wife told me to put it in the forest and then I can spend my weekends this time of year over in the bush with the boys. Not sure about that just yet though
@ Bruce...OMG ouch, ouch, and then more ouch. Hope things get sorted out!
@ Al, pretty good amount of sap, how many trees are you tapping?
It didn't really start running hard until late afternoon yesterday but that only lasted a few hours. It was frozen hard for a week and a half so that's not a surprise. We managed to get all but one section of woods checked for leaks and we've got acceptable vacuum levels. They still need one more walk to get all the micro leaks.
It's not a surprise to hear some of you are getting high sugar content now. The tendency it to get high sugar % the longer it's frozen up during the season.
Oh cool so there is a benefit to an extra-long freezeup! Woohoo! Well, three of my trees are starting to go well, the other three are taking their sweet time (harhar). But not worried. Going out to collect now, looks like about 2 g out there. Better than nothing!Quote:
Originally Posted by ennismaple
So I apologize for trying to participate, bye.
Huh? What's up, Bugtrap?Quote:
Originally Posted by NTBugtraq
I think he's upset no one commented on his earlier post. He made similar comment in another thread.
Don't take it personally Bugtrac. Lots of posts don't get commented on but that doesn't mean people don't read them and find them interesting. Ive been reading your posts and paying attention to what u are doing, as I do with all the Ontario people, but often don't feel the need to comment.
I agree with Clinkis. It isn't that I don't find Bugtrap's posts interesting, but as I am a very, very VERY small-time hobbyist on pails and he has a much more serious setup...I just can't relate when he discusses gallons per hour, or talks about chamber drop flue. I don't know what it is, so on such matters I choose to be silent and thought a fool than to open my mouth and prove it.
And not everyone responds to my posts, I certainly don't take it personally when they don't. If I really want to get ahold of someone, I PM or email them. Everyone here has their own lives. I own and operate a small business, have a household and property to take care of all on my own. Then I have my li'l ol sugarbush and am working on becoming a teacher in a very specific realm. And am working on carefully cultivating a new relationship with someone very special. So to me sites like this are where I go and spend time when I have some to spare.
Hey Folks,
My trees are going again after the big freeze, just like everyone else's. Question I have though has to do with the whole "buddy" issue. I've heard that when the trees break bud, the sap will get bitter and it's time to wrap up. I've got some that are getting those buds starting to get fairly robust, but on the fence. When is it time to call it a "wrap"? So far the season has been great, I've been able to restock our family's syrup supply for the year already and am now in for bonus bottles.
Good luck everyone,
TurkeyJohn