Ken & Sherry
Williston, VT
16x34 Sugarhouse
1,500 taps on high vacuum, Electric Releaser & CDL Sap Lifter
Wood-Fired Leader 30"x10' Vortex Arch & Max Raised Flue with Rev Syrup Pan & CDL1200 RO
https://www.facebook.com/pumpkinhillmaple/
I'd have to see it, and how it was collected etc, in person to believe it.... something just doesn't seem right to me!! Most sugar content are between 2-5 and this ones at ten???? Not saying I don't believe it however......... Perhaps the old wise tale is correct pure straight syrup used to come out of the tree not watered down sap!!
Last edited by blissville maples; 03-23-2019 at 06:07 AM.
18x30 sugarshack
5100 taps high vac
3x10 inferno with steampan
7'' wes fab filter press
10'' cdl air filter press
D&G 3 post reverse osmosis w/recirculation
200 on 3/16" vacuum plus some buckets
D&G 2x6 7" drop flue wood fired
Lapierre 200gph RO
"We like it sticky"
Long range forcast not looking good. No freezing. Hopefully it changes!
The flood gates have opened. Running 400 GPH and climbing on my 4050 tap woods. I assume my other 4000 taps is doing the same. Lot of foam and testing at 2.2%.
Spud
just under 1gpt and still running testing 3.7% highest ever for us in 15 years!
Running hard here as well. Already about 1 gpt just since it thawed earlier today. It has been a busy few days. Had one of the best sap runs ever for my woods wednesday -> thursday with over 2.5 gpt in 24 hours. Had to run the ro at 1:30 am to make room in tank. Boiled over 2200 gallons thursday and made 55 gal of AR. SC over 2%. Most syrup I have ever made in one boil from these woods. It took about 6 boils last year to make as much syrup as I have in two this year. I think it's going to be a fast and furious season...
It snowed hard all day friday and the sap ran a bit. I was sweating it when the snow really picked up in the evening and started sticking to the trees. Power went out at 2 am and fortunately came back on by 5. Awoke to almost 2 feet of heavy snow saturday am for open house weekend. The driveway wasn't passable til 10:30 as my regular plow guy couldn't plow it with his truck. A neighbor was fortunately able to get it open with his tractor... Anyway open house was pretty slow, but made some good sales. Didn't boil as we barely had enough sap and attendance was so light.
Spent today clearing limbs off lines and digging out. A bunch of spouts got pulled out and drops disconnected due to falling limbs and heavy snow loading. Also had to re set a bunch of cv2 spouts. Got vac back up to 27. Back to boiling tomorrow. Looks like it could be a big run later this week...
About 750 taps on High Vac.
2.5 x 8 Intens-O-Fire
Airtech 3 hp LR Pump
Springtech Elite 500 RO
14 x 24 Timber Frame SugarHouse
16 x 22 Sap Shed w/ 1500 gal. + 700 gal. tanks
www.littlehogbackfarm.com
Only a half gallon per tap here but Coming in at 2.5. The highest I've seen from my woods.
Remember to keep on ticking while the sap is dripping.
2016- 50 buckets. Made 4 gallons.
2022- 3750 taps + Smartrek! Made 1300 gallons.
2023- 3750 taps after removing a pump house and connected two woods. Made 800 gallons.
We had our first boil of the season on Friday. Had run the RO and stored (at 25 deg F) the high-Brix concentrate for several days, so had about 920 gal of 35 Brix concentrate to start, then ran the RO all day Friday as we boiled. About a 7 hr boil (first hr was sweetening the pans). Ended up with 14 barrels of syrup -- about 22% of our minimum target season crop (0.5 gal/tap) in one day. We're shooting to only boil when we max out our bulk tank storage, and hoping to boil only 5-7 times all season.
Vacuum still holding well (27" Hg or better) in spite of the wind we had over the weekend. Had to add a CDL Vacuum Protection Valve to the releaser to prevent sap from tripping the moisture trap during rapid flow periods. Seems to work most of the time, but still evaluating.
Decent run Sunday afternoon. Don't have totals yet, but will post later. Concentrating today. Looks like a couple of days off, then we may have good sap runs from Wednesday through Monday (as far out as our reasonably reliable forecast goes).
Afternoon update...total of 5,293 gal of sap from yesterday's brief run...just a little over a gal of sap/tap. 2.6 Brix from both sections of the bush. 390 gal of concentrate @ 35 Brix (about 155 gal syrup equivalent) now sitting in the refrigerated bulk tank for processing. Will probably collect/process sap until Friday, then boil what we've collected til then.
Air temperature is 31-32 deg F, but it started running a wee bit this afternoon.
Last edited by DrTimPerkins; 03-25-2019 at 04:04 PM.
Dr. Tim Perkins
UVM Proctor Maple Research Ctr
http://www.uvm.edu/~pmrc
https://mapleresearch.org
Timothy.Perkins@uvm.edu
we had a good run here yesterday afternoon as well. didn't test the sugar content, but it sure tasted sweet. will be firing up the evaporator late this afternoon. hard to imagine we boiled 17 times to this time of the year last year! tonight will be our 3rd boil!
Awfully thankful for an understanding wife!
“The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary.”
- Vincent “Vince” Lombardi
Good luck to all!