Checking what VT sugar makers are doing

[John Lazelle]

We gathered 145 gallons from our 145 taps last night in Wilmington, Vt. 😄


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[spud]

I got 1 GPT yesterday. Kinda of a disappointment for the last three days. I'm about 50% right now. Still a lot of time left. I normally go till April 20th. I sure hope this is one of those years.

Spud

[sweetvt]

Well Natures RO was helping me out last night, collected some super high octane 3.7 % sap and lit a fire to it and was drawing nice syrup in no time.. Will finish up after work today and drain things again to get ready for the deep freeze part 2. Looks like it may be too cold until the end of next week. I remember my grandfather and the old timers saying that the best sap runs in March won't happen until after the full moon has come and gone. Think this year it is on March 12 so will shall see.

Drain the pans, wash them up again, and cross your fingers folks, the best is yet to come.

[DrTimPerkins]

We finished off another 165 gal of AR last night. Got another 3,000 gal of sap overnight before it finally froze up. Altogether not a bad run, but certainly not as good as some have been. We're at about 45% of a minimum 0.5 gal/tap crop...which is great for the time of year. Not sure whether we'll concentrate and boil today or let it freeze and wait for the next run....new membranes being installed later this morning, so that crunches us a bit for time.

[GeneralStark]

Had a good run from Tuesday afternoon until Thursday afternoon. Over 2gpt in that period with most coming in Tuesday night and Wednesday afternoon. Sugar at 1.9%. Boiled it all last night and made another 25 of AR after sweetening the flue pan again since I boiled and washed it out last week before the big freeze. The first 10 gal. were right in on the edge of DR and the last 15 right on the edge of GD. Great flavor.

Spending the afternoon cleaning up and getting ready for the next big freeze. Starting to look like we will have some real winter before spring really kicks in gear.

[MJPJ Sugars]

A wee bit nippy this morning... backyard weather station reading -3 with a -17 windchill (Georgia, VT). Nice day to be nestled up close to the arch .

Please be careful if you're in the woods today!!


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[drewlamb]

7 below this morning here in Calais. Also just checked the model runs - looks to be a doozy Tues-Wed. Maybe enough (20"?) to have to clear the haul roads again for gathering.

If I may, I'd like to get back to the discussion from early March on pan cleaning. I too use vinegar on the syrup pans with great success. Doesn't do as well with the nitre on the sides which for some reason (??) is much more difficult to remove, even with acid pan cleaner at the end of the season.

My question is for folks with reverse flow capability... How often do you clean during the season? My old 3x8 had two syrup pans and I had an extra that I would switch in before each boil. Lots of plugging, pan draining and so on. My 4x10, new last season, is also cross flow but has reverse flow capability. I run about 600-700 gallons of non-concentrate sap through, depending on the sand situation, then reverse the flow. The sand lifts off the final compartments of the pan beautifully and leaves the whole system pretty clean. I'm just not feeling the need to clean my pan(s), and am wondering how others with reverse cross flow or parallel flow with either side draw-off do or don't do the cleaning.

Thanks for the input!

[woodfordmark]

It warmed just enough today here in Bennington to get things going again. 8pm, 34 degree's and still running strong. Tested 2.1

[markcasper]

7 below this morning here in Calais. Also just checked the model runs - looks to be a doozy Tues-Wed. Maybe enough (20"?) to have to clear the haul roads again for gathering.

If I may, I'd like to get back to the discussion from early March on pan cleaning. I too use vinegar on the syrup pans with great success. Doesn't do as well with the nitre on the sides which for some reason (??) is much more difficult to remove, even with acid pan cleaner at the end of the season.

My question is for folks with reverse flow capability... How often do you clean during the season? My old 3x8 had two syrup pans and I had an extra that I would switch in before each boil. Lots of plugging, pan draining and so on. My 4x10, new last season, is also cross flow but has reverse flow capability. I run about 600-700 gallons of non-concentrate sap through, depending on the sand situation, then reverse the flow. The sand lifts off the final compartments of the pan beautifully and leaves the whole system pretty clean. I'm just not feeling the need to clean my pan(s), and am wondering how others with reverse cross flow or parallel flow with either side draw-off do or don't do the cleaning.

Thanks for the input!

I have a 4x12 with a 4 foot syrup pan and I switch sides at about 50-60 gallons of syrup. More than that and I will have problems. I have a 2nd pan that I switched out last year after 400 gallons of syrup made, but there was so much in the flue pan that it just came in and coated the front pan after one boil. Before last year, I never cleaned the pan the whole season. By the end though it was getting pretty bad.

[madmapler]

7 below this morning here in Calais. Also just checked the model runs - looks to be a doozy Tues-Wed. Maybe enough (20"?) to have to clear the haul roads again for gathering.

If I may, I'd like to get back to the discussion from early March on pan cleaning. I too use vinegar on the syrup pans with great success. Doesn't do as well with the nitre on the sides which for some reason (??) is much more difficult to remove, even with acid pan cleaner at the end of the season.

My question is for folks with reverse flow capability... How often do you clean during the season? My old 3x8 had two syrup pans and I had an extra that I would switch in before each boil. Lots of plugging, pan draining and so on. My 4x10, new last season, is also cross flow but has reverse flow capability. I run about 600-700 gallons of non-concentrate sap through, depending on the sand situation, then reverse the flow. The sand lifts off the final compartments of the pan beautifully and leaves the whole system pretty clean. I'm just not feeling the need to clean my pan(s), and am wondering how others with reverse cross flow or parallel flow with either side draw-off do or don't do the cleaning.

Thanks for the input!

I have a reversable 4'x4' pan and it could use a cleaning at about 400 gallons or so as well but I concentrate to about 20%. My brother in law doesn't ro and he simply reverses flow all season. Basically the same setup.