Willow Creek Sugarhouse 2019

[red maples]

oh yes I held on to it it is a runner. the BB2 is older version. bullet proof. I think Russ runs an sp22 if I am not mistaken. I have just shy of 600 on vacuum so had to upgrade.

635 gallons to process today. squeezed it to 16% made 14+ gallons of syrup sugar jumped a bit. a little of that was my syrup pan was VERY sweet. somehow got all but the last 2.5 gallons of syrup through the press too so quickly broke it down quick rinse of the plates and got the last bit through and filtered the syrup pan.

time for just finishing up the wash on the RO and time for bed have to get up at 4am for work.... blah... but I got off on friday.

Oh yes one last thing I wanted to thank WMUR for letting everyone there is no syrup this year!!! yes thanks we are struggling a little bit, they called me and I didn't want a negative story about maple 4 days before maple weekend.

[Russell Lampron]

Yes I'm running a reliable old SP-22. When I got it I was told that you can't run high vacuum with it. I've been running 25" plus for several seasons now and it just keeps on sucking. The trick is to keep the oil full, but not overfull and I use Castrol EDGE 5W-30 motor oil in it and change it at the start of every season.

WMUR has done that to us in the past too. They tell everyone there's no sap or syrup and the people stay away in droves. I do what I have to to have enough sap to boil and I do have enough syrup to sell and will take orders for larger quantities.

[Amber Gold]

That's awesome...thanks. I haven't seen it. I guess it makes news. They called to talk to me, but I guess I didn't get back to them in time.

[red maples]

I am tired.... not a winer but tired... always am afterthe first day friday night is always late wind kicked out but yesterday trying to set up tents. Put me behind at the start. Pretty slow yesterday guessing people were afraid of the weather. wasn't bad wind sucked though man. always something. expecting to get crushed today.

syrup sales pretty good value added not so much and they always do just as good. surprising.

anyway time to get to it. goodluck.

[red maples]

Alrighty!! been a while been extra busy!!! with everything!!! so this will be a little long winded.

Maple weekend lighter crowd and lighter sales. I think a few factors, First negative sap reports on WMUR starting 4 days before maple weekend hurt I am sure. Had a couple that come every year said they were surprised to see I had syrup on my shelves since the news had been saying it was such a bad year. So wonder how many people didn't come out this year. second, Maple month people can visit sugarhouses every weekend. Its very tough for me to be open all month because my kid has basketball every saturday and sunday and my wife pretty much works a second job on weekends. My daughter who now drives, works weekend as well. So I am loosing out there as well. Saturday Weather was bustery and chilly I think it held some folks back.

but sap still tough to come by. and this warm up doesn't help. bud's are popped yet and the smaller folks are pulling buckets??? next week isn't great but still a chance for sap with a possible freeze everyday. guess they are tired of making syrup??? I am only at 50% of a crop if I finished my evaporator out right now. but I have 325 gallons in my tank here and 100 gallons across the street and maybe 25 gallons in buckets and sugar is still 1.25 on my reds on vacuum here so thats good means the ground is still cold. there is still ice in the woods too. we'll have to see what happens.

had 2 tours yesterday girls scouts. smaller tours but still fun. had 1 more scheduled homeschool group but many came down with the flu so they had to cancel and couldn;t do it again until mid April but we will be done by probably next weekend I am guessing maybe next year.

Still getting sap on the high vacuum. although percentage wise it is less per tap over over 24" it is still coming in even on the over night and we haven't had a freeze since wednesday night. running a constant 27+/-" has definitely helped this year.

made some very dark good tasting syrup (19 on the checker) over maple weekend as usual simmering all weekend. took 2 boils to get that worked out. filtered out the back pan and syrup pan rinsed out the back pan and scrubbed a bit and got it back up to (39 on the checker)

What I did this time was moved over 15 gallons at 10% to get the evap started and get it hot. finished the concentration recirc to about 16-17% then moved that over and boiled that out and then added the sugar rinse over for the cool down. I usually add the sugar rinse to the concentrate in the head tank then boil. it ended up going faster since I was able to draw off more syrup in a shorter time spend in the evap. It lightened up the back pan and front pan. so that will be the new process from here on out. since the first draw is always darker anyway.

have basketball championship game and awards today so saving everything for tomorrow light freeze tonight I hope and flow will pick back up. hoping for 600+ gallons to boil monday. Vacuum working overtime been on steady since thursday!!!

good luck everybody!!! keep chugging away

[Russell Lampron]

I didn't take a head count but I think the number of visitors was down for me on Maple weekend but the sales were good. I set a new record by almost $200. I got the Square and started taking cards this year and I think that made a big difference. I know some people bought that wouldn't have and some people bought more because they could use their cards.

The trees have been going crazy here since Wednesday. I boiled 800 gallons Thursday night and 600 gallons last night and have 500 gallons and counting for tomorrow night.

[red maples]

I haven't been blessed with that much sap. it got down to only 32* last not enough to get things going at all. tonight supposed to be in the low to mid 20's so hopefully its enough to get things going. I believe you guy up there have had better night temps than us. just guessing this will be the last week. but we'll see.

[Russell Lampron]

I'm surprised that you weren't getting good runs earlier in the season when Josh was. It seemed like everyone around you was getting sap while you were still froze up tight. For me it looks like it's going to warm up on the weekend again and then cool down again next week.

[red maples]

Josh was only 1 run ahead of me. I started collecting that run but I had so much ice around the trees that I really didn't get much, not enough to boil anyway. then shut down for 2 weeks. he was getting crappy runs like me. he's got alot more sugars than I do. I have mostly reds. not sure if trees ever really got going this year.

It has been a very strange year to say the least.

Had 540 gallons to boil last night sugar has dropped so only made 8 gallons. Foam was a big issue and steam smelling not so good anymore. started with borderline dark /very dark 25 then ended with 43. tasted again this morning and its not terrible but has a slight bit of I think metabolism. hint of wet cardboard. Had first boil one year before I knew what it was and dumped it. its not buddy yet. scrubbed one of my collection tanks on sunday the other yesterday. pretty nasty after the warm weather. went to seminar about buddy sap, metabolism, slight off flavors and making sugar. basically if you have metabolism you can bring it up to 250* and then add RO perm back to it to proper density and it flavor is gone but it will go to very dark when you do that. never tried it. will make some good sugar though.

pulled 5 taps from around the yard of very swelling buds on reds. the rest seem to be tight. Was hoping for more sap today but only managed about 125-150 gallons total. need one more freeze to keep going but aint gonna happen tonight. too bad. sap is still coming in pretty good at 8pm when I went out to check.

now here is the weird thing I still have ice in the swamp and far back in the woods but I heard a lone peeper at dusk. strange year!!! I am in a cold spot. the other end of my street I heard more peepers and just outside of Exeter there is a pond called brickyard pond and the peepers were quite loud. I was up in portsmouth at a basketball turnament with for my son sunday and the peepers were VERY loud up there. but the buds on all the reds in the parking lot were very tight. go figure.

[Russell Lampron]

I had 700 gallons last night and made 12.5 gallons. I collected another 400 gallons today and should have a pretty good amount for tomorrow night. The temps usually run about 5 degrees colder here than what the forecast says. Last night was supposed to be a low of 24 and it was 19 when I got up this morning.