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All tapped in Canton, a good workout breaking trail in over a foot of fresh snow. Glad I got new snowshoes this year! Looking like it will be a good week. New to us 2x8 H2O evaporator to fire up soon!

The places that sell the barrels (the good ones anyways) purge the barrels with inert gas like nitrogen to keep bacteria from growing while in storage, so maybe that would work for a partial barrel?...

Ran pretty well today, although a late start letting the snow melt off the trees first. Sugar is low, about 1.3%. RO really earns it's keep now! Hoping for a strong run tomorrow. I'll hang on as long...

Good run today, at 2% which is normal for us. It's about this time when our season "usually" starts to take off. The snow is melting fast and we seem to be in a spot that starts later but also ends...

Put about 300 taps in Friday afternoon and finished the last 100 today. For once I think I'm ahead of schedule! I guess that means something will probably break soon, usually how it goes.

My sap tank is stacked on pallets behind the sugarhouse so it's 5ft or so high. (500 gallons) Inside I have 2 totes, stacked. The top is the concentrate from the RO/head tank and the bottom is the...

I burned maybe 3 cords at most and made 61 gallons on a homemade 2x6. But I'm cheating because I have an RO ;)

I was really hoping for one last hurrah today with a frost last night and tight buds on the trees but no dice. Just a trickle. Guess I'll shove it through the RO and boil in a big pot considering...

You can never be too safe, but you'll want something to shield the rafters in my opinion whether the code says it's required or not. Evaporator stack temps can get pretty high!

Same here, waiting it out. I pushed all the sweet out of my pans and letting it soak in permeate just in case it doesn't run. Not too bad overall though, made 60 gallons as of yesterday. Was shooting...

Currently have a 12x16 "sugar shed" but it is 100% for syrup considering I have a 2x6 evaporator and RO and keep 2 totes in the corner for concentrate and permeate, no extra space. When I build the...

Made over 10 gallons of syrup today from the last 2 days of sap. Sugarbush is still buried so it's not quitting time anytime soon.

One of the major points of the water jacket is that it doesn't get too hot and boil the syrup, which causes more niter to form. I would think using oil and going beyond 212 would defeat the purpose...

I bought them online, etsy to be exact. Kind of a random thing to buy from that site, but it's not too easy to find 5 gallon barrels. They were pricey as well, $165 each after shipping. I'll probably...

I forgot my 2 membranes (4×40) in the sugarhouse last fall in the storage tubes, and didn't remember they were out there until a week of subzero temps. They were frozen SOLID but let them thaw and...

I've done 2, 5 gallon barrels. If the barrels aren't very fresh they will most likely leak from drying out, so a soak may be needed. 4 months was the aging time I used and worked great with the 5...

You can definitely move syrup (or near-up) with defoamer. Leader has a great presentation they put on at their open houses a lot about where and when to use it. I add a drop or 2 in the flue pan...

I normally use permeate from the RO for heavy syrup so distilled is the same idea. Sap works fine as well just make sure it's clean if you add it after filtering. You need to heat it up to bottle but...

Seems crazy that today was the first hard run we've had this year. Really coming down the hill today! Thankfully that means I can boil something for friends and family. Didn't try and publicize maple...

The best thing I've found for preventing wildlife problems is making sure the lines are pushed as far up the tree as possible during spring cleaning. It allows everything to walk under during the...

This is the winter that just won't end! :-|

Finally got enough to run the RO and sweeten the pans. Had just enough sap to get one small pour and made our first ever golden delicate! The rain forecasted will help a lot, I have a handful of...

I'm not surprised by the slow start, there's 3-4+ feet of snow in my sugarbush. I sank to my waist yesterday when I broke through a void space next to a piece of ledge, and I was wearing snow shoes....

I've got a lot of set up left to do, but definitely have some time with the 10 day forecast looking pretty cold. I know of a handful of branches to pull off of lines but otherwise it looked pretty...

I use crimps but that's only because I have high tensile fences on the farm. 2 should be fine, 3 would definitely hold up. I do like the looks of those fastlok splices though, they look super simple...