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I'm an hour southwest of the twin cities and I have a foot of snow in the woods yet. I have 150 taps in so far and everything is dry as of 3/1/18 PM. We are on mostly north facing hills and the...

muriatic acid works to clean stainless too. Wear proper gloves and eye protection and in a well ventilated area. Use sparingly and rinse with copious amounts of fresh water.

I use a 900 Ranger with a 65 gallon tank. If you have your shocks moved to the outboard position your capacity goes from 500 - 1,000#'s. That should be the same on a 800 not sure of the 570's. ...

Boondocker: I, too changed my ramp angle this year. It's prolly 60 degrees also created a flat upper deck area by doing this. It made a huge difference in the boil and wood consumption. I used...

I quit about the 24th of march. 6 weeks was enough. took the last of my sap to Maplenutter Butter. Had a real satisfyng season. The dark stuff for me didn't show up until the last week. Got 88...

Thanks guys! I'm usually around 4". Guess I'll be shallowing up next year. :)

I have a pan that is 8" deep. I can maintain a decent boil keeping it at 6" deep, but seems like I may get a better boil when the pan runs shallower. I'm a batch cooker, and I know the continuous...

Pump 20 gallons of hot sap into barrel and agitate. works like a charm.

Grain belt Nordeast in 16 oz. cans. Unless it's batch pulling time then it's coffee. Start of a new batch, just add sap, wood, and alcohol.

Thanks for the replies guys

Sorry I didn't clarify, I meant to say I was adding an extra window leaving all existing waffles in place. I'm trying to think outside the box and in essence make a thicker window. I don't have...

I've got a 7" short bank and got thinking, what if you put two windows back to back and cut a slit in the filter right away between them to "blow" it right away. The syrup will still flow to the...

Funny you should say that. Traditionally that's the way it is, but I've heard of some producers getting a premium for dark because higher demand.

More and more of my customers are asking for dark. I prefer it as well as it has a more nutty, and stronger maple flavor. Once you go dark the lighter stuff isn't as good. The golden stuff usually...

Looking to add plates to my 7" Wes Fab press. Where is the best place to get the windows, waffles, and longer rods? Do they make a thicker window for these presses?

My first year on 3/16. I absolutely love it. I have anywhere from 30-40 ft. of drop, I have a lot of untapped trees on the hills yet because I don't have capacity for them and I have a lot of...

I tapped on Feb. 14th. Earliest ever. Actually missed 3 days of the initial run as I was out of town. Of course the brix was low early, but were steaming along now

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When it comes to vacuum, what are the differences between 5/16" and 3/16". It seems that the way I am understanding it is that you don't have the pressure drop on 3/16" like you do on 5/16"....

This is my first year on 3/16 I put in four runs and am absolutely amazed how much more sap I'm getting. I'm dropping 30-40 feet on all of them. I have on 5/16 run with about the same amount of...

Fellow MN's If you google cottage food laws MN or cottage food producer you should find your way to the info. you need. They have a self certification you can do online and if sales are under 5,000$...

Yikes! That sounds similar to an incident I had years ago when my brother was still helping. Nothing worse than losing a batch :(

Early in the season Feb. 19. the sap was extremely low in sugar. No low range refractometer at that time, but I had a 55:1 first 225 gallons. Been between 2.1 and 2.6 ever since. I bought a low...

Extra virgin olive oil is 72. Use that for calibrating. Once your confident in your calibration. Keep some syrup around that you've tested and record the brix somewhere and that syrup can now be...

Fellas I'm an hour SW of the twin cities. No buds as of today. I too am holding out for another run. If we get through this warm spell we could run for quite a while according to the forecast. ...

Thanks guys! I was wondering about the flat filter vs. cones route as well. Good info.