Anyone collect today? I thought it was an ideal day, temps got up to about 5-6C, I was hopeful, but only got about 4 gallons from 60 taps. I was disappointed. I know it's just starting, but I really thought it would've been better than that.
Anyone collect today? I thought it was an ideal day, temps got up to about 5-6C, I was hopeful, but only got about 4 gallons from 60 taps. I was disappointed. I know it's just starting, but I really thought it would've been better than that.
Geoff
Big Daddy's Sugar Shack
2014 - 4 Taps
2015 - 8 Taps
2016 - 12 taps, propane boiler 6L
2017 - 100 Taps, 24L
2018 - 100 Taps, 100L
1.5x6 CDL Econo Evaporator
The ground's thawing; it'll gush soon.
Things are starting slow here, the only sugars i have (15 taps)are flowing some ~10" in the bottom of a 55gal barrel in a week. My reds are slowpokes but it will come at some point....
2014 - 6 buckets, 4 coffee cans and a propane burner - almost 40L of sap and 1.6L of syrup
2015 - 103 taps on gravity. Homemade oil tank arch and a Smoky Lake 2' X 5' hybrid. - 2.66 gallons of syrup
2016 - 101 taps, 550 gallons of sap, ~10 gallons of syrup all dark.
2017 - 138 taps, 225 gallons of sap, 5.55 gallons of dark syrup, still procrastinating on the vac.
2018 - ~150 taps, I lost track of the sap it was incredible!, over 20 gal of syrup, all dark.
I had 51 litres, about 14 gallons on the 14th. I ended up with a total of around 33 gallons for the week. I boiled it down and left about the 5 gallons in my pans. But now I'm worried that it will either spoil by the time I can get enough to boil again or that these cold temps coming up over night (-10 C) will freeze it too solid and damage my flues. I'm going to try a light bulb in the firebox and hope it keeps it just warm enough to save it from busting.
It sudden freeze too hard if you boiled the sap for a while, a light bulb is a good idea though.
We are going to boil today for first time, got around 300 us gals of sap ahead of us, probably won't get anymore until Thursday so want to get it processed. Just started collecting late Friday afternoon,
missed the best run on Thursday.
It's going to change soon, maybe short season!
Murray
Somewhere around 800 - 900 taps on Atlas Copco vacuum
1 Sap Ladder & 1 can
2 1/2 x 10 Waterloo/Small, with Piggyback & hood,
Air over & under fire
CDL autodrawoff, Homemade drawoff/filter tank with pump,
Lapierre Sirofilter, modified steam pan bottler
Maple Lady,
My math sucks when it comes to concentration of sugar from 33 gal to 5 gal, plus it depends on your starting percent sugar but I would guess ~8% It will have a lower freezing point for sure but to what degree i don't know. the light bulb would help at least in the flue area, just plug the stack so the heat stays under the pan.
Rob
2014 - 6 buckets, 4 coffee cans and a propane burner - almost 40L of sap and 1.6L of syrup
2015 - 103 taps on gravity. Homemade oil tank arch and a Smoky Lake 2' X 5' hybrid. - 2.66 gallons of syrup
2016 - 101 taps, 550 gallons of sap, ~10 gallons of syrup all dark.
2017 - 138 taps, 225 gallons of sap, 5.55 gallons of dark syrup, still procrastinating on the vac.
2018 - ~150 taps, I lost track of the sap it was incredible!, over 20 gal of syrup, all dark.
My trees were running good today. Hoping to boil Saturday.