Ulster County Catskills

[Ghs57]

I'm pretty sure my season is over for this year, even though this week's weather may set up a good run or two for those who tapped later. We have been below freezing the past few days, so nothing has been running anywhere. Taps have been in over 6 weeks and are mostly on gravity, but two areas are on vacuum. My local lines on vacuum have not produced a drop in several weeks and appear to be done. My remote lines on vacuum seem to still be running, but it only includes a small number of the taps there. Unfortunately, we went for several weeks without freezing temperatures, which really cut my production numbers.

On the positive side, my modified RO system has preformed above expectations. Adding a second post and recirculation now means I can fill the head tank at my evaporation rate, which saves time not having to wait for the RO before firing up the evaporator. I can even generate concentrate at 8%, and sometimes a little higher, which really cuts down the running time. Because of the warm weather, I drained and filtered the syrup in the pan and flooded the pan with permeate. I was hoping to collect enough to run again.

Time now to begin taking down lines and cleaning up. I still have to reheat and filter the bulk of my new syrup, and bottle a decent amount for my regular customers. I have work to do on the barn, and some new equipment to consider for the next season.

[Ghs57]

We had light snow overnight. First snow of any kind in over two months. If only we had this weather a month ago, same for the cold we had at the end of march, it would have been a different season.

My lines are all down, and I will filter/bottle some today. It felt colder when I was taking down than when we put them up. Still need to pressure wash out tanks, but will wait for warmer weather.

Anyone going to watch the eclipse on Monday 4/8? I will be heading to the Rochester area this weekend, and hope for clear weather. I'm sure many of you are already in the totality zone, so don't have to travel at all. I also went to Tennessee in 2017 for the last one. it's a wonderful natural phenomena that should not be missed.