Maine season in review
Ok, Mainers, how'd you make out?
Here's my totals (approximate) 840 taps, 16,100 gallons sap, 422 gallons of syrup. That's over 19 gallons of sap a tap and a half gallon of syrup a tap. 38:1 sap to syrup was my best ever. 125% of "average" production was equal to last year. Could have maybe held on for another day of 1.5% sap, but my remaining wood wasn't very dry and the buds were worrying me. In hindsight, though, I would have preferred to boil normally for another half day and dump the contents of the evap. rather than try to finish off the sweet.
Biggest lesson learned: An airtight, insulated arch front makes a huge difference. I didn't get mine completely tight, but greatly reduced the huge gap between the doors and went from a boil rate of 80 gph up to 105 gph. Wish I'd figured that out years ago! With all that extra time, I managed to visit 10 other operations so far and still hope to make it to some places north of here.
Steven Abbott
Over 900 taps on vacuum
30" x 10' D&G Woodsaver evaporator with Steamaway
Half acre market garden
2 farmers in training