Southwestern Ontario

[Sugarmaker Dave]

Collected approx 1200 litres of sap today and ran through RO. Starting boiling at 2:30 pm today and boiled to 5:00pm and called it for the day. Will pickup where I left off tomorrow,
Despite temps around 0 degrees today - sun was shinning and sap was flowing. Hoping to collect another 800-1000 litres tomorrow.

[Hkb82]

Did my first boil of the year on Monday. New pans and evaporator worked fantastic. Had a hard boil going right to the back. Was my first boil on it so plays it safe and ran it at 2 inches deep for most the day. Without a sap pre heater I wasn’t sure how that first divided section in my flue pan would boil but it boiled pretty good till maybe 10-12 inches from the float box entrance.
Running the sap collected this week through the ro last night and today and will be boiling again tomorrow. 2023 now officially feels like it’s started for me and it sure tastes sweet

[Sugarmaker Dave]

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Finished with some light amber today. First time using the CDL vacuum filter and was pleased with the results.

[Hkb82]

Great labels and name.

[Sugarmaker Dave]

Thanks! PURE BS (Pure Bennett Maple Syrup). We have some fun with it.

[Hkb82]

Nice little break for me to be able to clean pans and tanks in prep for our next runs. Think I’m gonna do some bulk 20l/5g jugs this year so I can bottle when I'm almost out of a size or have a request for a larger size kinda thing. Every year I seem to run out of one size first and not always the same size. I have had years I run outa 500ml bottles and some people just don’t want the bigger size. Other years I run outa the 1l or 4l jugs and people ask for a deal on buying 2x500ml bottles. I’ll do it but some people don’t ask and just don’t want the 500ml price. I have a retail store at my business and it just shows better with multiple sizes also. I don’t mind having to reheat and bottle during the year. No clue on what I want to use for bulk storage. I love the ss kegs but not the price lol.

[Hkb82]

Things were running today pretty good with the sunshine. Not gonna drop below freezing so pumps will probably run all night.

[Willen]

Good run here as well, collected 850L and left the frozen sap in the buckets. Looks like it will run all night, and likely need two gatherings tomorrow. I’ve now collected as much so far this year as I ever have in an entire season, and we are just getting into the “normal” season. Next week looks really good.

[Sugarmaker Dave]

Same here. Sap running well this aft. Pulled 500L out of the bush and ran through RO.

[Hkb82]

Just finished another boil yesterday. Boiled 300g down in 8.5hrs. I wasn’t able to run it all through the ro so some first few head tanks were concentrated sap and then I was back to pure sap. Could really tell the times between draw off change as I moved to the unconcentrated sap. Hopefully next boil I’ll be able to run all concentrated sap and see what this 2x6 can do. This week is looking like a good one for weather.