No just good vacuum and woods management. Susquehanna county.
No just good vacuum and woods management. Susquehanna county.
I tappend the trees on Feb. 1st and fired the evaporator up two days later. We pulled the taps on March 15, but probably could of gone another week.
Looks like maybe one more run after the freeze Sat night. May have sap Monday? We are getting tired. Gathered every day this week and boiled several times too. Have reached the .25 gal of syrup per tap average. 170 gallons of finished syrup. Grade has moved down to dark robust. Flavor is great and the hard maples still look good. Taps are about done. Still trying to keep up fixing things as we go. Replaced the SPA blower for the steam away. and got the old one fixed to have as a spare. The thick rubber heat shield had failed. Tore my Oberdorfer gear pump on the filter press apart and found the gears to be worn. It is very noisy! Just ordered a replacement set of gears. Received some new plastic hose from Bascom's for the suction and bypass lines on the filter press. 5/8 I/D, very nice product!
Regards,
Chris
Casbohm Maple and Honey
625 roadside taps + Neighbors bring some sap too!
3x10 King, WRU, AOF and AUF
12" SIRO Filter Press.
2015 Ford F250 PSD sap hauler
One Golden named Maggie, Norwegian Forest Cat named Lucy
Too many Cub Cadets
Ford Jubilee and several Allis WD's, and IH tractors
1932 Ford AAB ton and a half, dump truck
www.mapleandhoney.com
We pulled the plug on Thursday. No sap to speak of. Boiled out the evaporator, filtered and bottled some syrup made on the
previous Thursday and Sunday. Evaporator is soaking in vinegar water. Concentrate from syrup pan is in 2 pots and a half full bucket.
Worked all day yesterday and today flushing tubing. We have about 50 buckets to wash yet and finish cleaning up the evaporator.
Looks like a little over 60 gallons for the season. Will know for certain syrup total after cooking down and bottling what's left out of the evaporator.
Kind of thought my season would be better! Two things I think need done for next year.
Putting buckets out earlier: Last year and this I tried to time my buckets for the perfect weather. I don't think that worked.
Second: I need to change all my drops this year: Some have gone way too long, and I think I'm paying the price for it in lower production.
Also: I am changing my 3/16 drops over to 5/16 . Some of my 3/16 bushes are less than 30 feet elevation change, and I believe the 5/16 drop on 3/16 tubing
might not back up as much.
Overall; Things went really smooth! No disasters, or massive sap dumps from not turning a valve.
Already thinking about how to go about things more efficiently next year.
115 red maples on vacuum
100 taps on 5/16 gravity
35 taps on 3/16 gravity
50 taps on shurflo vacuum
about 60 buckets on giant roadside sugars
neighbor bringing from 45 taps
30'x 8' Aof/Auf Evaporator
Homemade 125gph Ro
Lots of Homemade Equipment!
http://s848.photobucket.com/albums/a...%20Sugarshack/
Collected a couple of gallons yesterday. Hopefully we'll get a couple of more tomorrow after the last night of cold temperatures here in Columbia County. That's all folks. It's gotten very very buddy!
Total sap this year: about 240 gallons
Total taps: 12
Finished syrup: about 6 gallons
Based in Murrysville outside of Pittsburgh and our season has been over for a solid week or more. My last boil was on the 20th. Already looking forward to next year and making improvements. Thinking about vacuum lines and scaling up the RO!
But in the meantime... Maple Festivals!
https://www.sugartree.run/2019/03/20...son-recap.html
D. Roseum
www.roseummaple.com
~100 taps on 3/16 custom temp controlled vacuum; shurflo vacuum #2; custom nat gas evap with auto-drawoff and tank level gas shut-off controller; homemade RO #1; homemade RO #2; SL SS filter press
2021: 27.1 gallons
2022: 35 gallons
Finished the season at 5 taps per gallon of syrup. I had really low sugar content all season, averaging 1%.
The RO, AOF and AUF, auto drawoff and front pan float box we're all great improvements. I want a on demand hot water heater for next year and to expand the RO. Planning to double my taps again next year if we can sell all of the syrup. And I am definitely going to start some thinning around my maple trees.
Good luck to everyone still boiling, have a great rest until next season. I think that I'm going to try to make a few gallon of birch syrup and a couple batches of birch bear.
Matt,
Minehart Gap Maple
Finished my syrup bottling tonight: 61 gallons 5 pint 3086 gallons of sap.
115 red maples on vacuum
100 taps on 5/16 gravity
35 taps on 3/16 gravity
50 taps on shurflo vacuum
about 60 buckets on giant roadside sugars
neighbor bringing from 45 taps
30'x 8' Aof/Auf Evaporator
Homemade 125gph Ro
Lots of Homemade Equipment!
http://s848.photobucket.com/albums/a...%20Sugarshack/
Folks,
No sap today, at least not yet. Still cold. Should have sap by Tuesday night! Everyone is invited to my place to watch sweet water boil!
Regards,
Chris
Casbohm Maple and Honey
625 roadside taps + Neighbors bring some sap too!
3x10 King, WRU, AOF and AUF
12" SIRO Filter Press.
2015 Ford F250 PSD sap hauler
One Golden named Maggie, Norwegian Forest Cat named Lucy
Too many Cub Cadets
Ford Jubilee and several Allis WD's, and IH tractors
1932 Ford AAB ton and a half, dump truck
www.mapleandhoney.com
Folks,
Pulled the lines from the tubs. Gathered that last of the sap, !60 gallons of 1.8%. Will boil that in tonight and start to pick up the 30 gathering stations in the next few days. Then flush the short run tubing systems with water and bring them back to the sugarhouse till next year.
Regards,
Chris
Casbohm Maple and Honey
625 roadside taps + Neighbors bring some sap too!
3x10 King, WRU, AOF and AUF
12" SIRO Filter Press.
2015 Ford F250 PSD sap hauler
One Golden named Maggie, Norwegian Forest Cat named Lucy
Too many Cub Cadets
Ford Jubilee and several Allis WD's, and IH tractors
1932 Ford AAB ton and a half, dump truck
www.mapleandhoney.com