It's 69 degrees and overcast. Ron finished th e last of the canning. Ended up with 1 gallon. Better than nothing. Has a good color and taste. Beginning on yard work. Lots of leaves left over.
It's 69 degrees and overcast. Ron finished th e last of the canning. Ended up with 1 gallon. Better than nothing. Has a good color and taste. Beginning on yard work. Lots of leaves left over.
My last boil on new sap was today. The pans are still full, I will now empty the back pan into a barrel, fill the head tank with permeate and boil the rest in the syrup pan. The final bit will go into the finisher for getting to final density. I also need to boil off one partial barrel that was held to the end, it was questionable. Then I have some to pack from barrels to balance my stock and I need to fill my next barrel of bourbon barrel aged maple syrup, this one will be a 15 gal barrel.
Then comes tubing cleaning and tap pulling along with shrooming (Morels grow in part of my bush). Love-em.
We also need to bottle more bourbon barrel aged maple syrup, need to order more of my larger size bottle first. I never guessed how popular the bigger size would be compared to the smaller one. Sold out of the larger size too soon.
Dave Klish, I recently ordered a 2x6 wood fired evaporator from A&A Sheet Metal which I will be converting to oil fired
Now have solar, 2x6 finish pan, 5 bank 7x7 filter press, large water jacketed bottler, and tankless water heater.
Recently bought another Gingerich RO, this one was a 125, but a second membrane was added thus is a 250, like I had.
After running a 2x3, a 2x6, 3x8 tapping from 79 taps up to 1320 all woodfired, now I'm going to a 2x6 oil fired and a 200-425 taps.
4-8
Finished off just about 7 gallons last night. I had more niter and foam on this boil than any of the previous ones. It took every prefilter that I owned to get through this batch. Last week I did just about 10 gallons with 3-4 prefilters.
I ended up with just about 21 gallons off of 90 taps, plus I dumped a questionable 55 gallons that was getting cloudy. (It probably would of been ok). I learned a few things again which is important. I did my first run of tubing, 15 taps in a area where it would have been difficult to carry buckets from. I will probably run another additional 20 tap line next year. Also converting most of my bags to buckets for next year. I will still keep a few bags so my trail cameras can show me when its time to make the trip to empty.
As everyone knows, now there is a lot of cleanup to do for next year.
Putting the pier in and going Walleye fishing is on the near horizon.
25% Amber, 75% dark - very dark this year.
IMG_9680.jpgIMG_9678.jpg
1960 - 1970s 70 taps on galvanized buckets with Dad and Grandpa.
1970s - 1985 Acted crazy!
1986 - 2005 20-30 buckets.
2006- 2017 70 buckets and bags
2017-2019 100 bags and buckets
2020 Finally retired!!! 75 buckets, 50-75 on tubing. RO Bucket, New 12 X 16 Shack and a 42X42 flat pan.
2021-Adding another 125 taps along with a second RO bucket.
2022- Shooting for 350 taps, with 100 on lines.
Lots of Family and Friends and dogs named Skyy and Nessy!
Wonderful to read your stats for the 2019 season Trapper2. I'm not looking forward to the cleanup phase of sugaring either, whenever that comes. There might still be some sap to come around here in a few days. Right now I can catch my breath.
~ Karen ~
2012 - 10 taps, 1 turkey fryer - 169.5L sap 4.2 L syrup
2013 - 23 taps, 2 turkey fryers - 748.5 L sap 17.56 L syrup
2014 - 22 taps, 509 L sap 12.5 L syrup
2015 - 28 taps, 1093.75 L sap 25.1 L syrup
2016 - 25 taps, 1223.5 L sap 28.25 L syrup
2017 - 21 taps, 518.5 L sap 12.7 L syrup
2018 - 28 taps, 2 turkey fryers & Denali 3 burner propane stove - 798L sap 16.9 L syrup
2019 - 28 taps, 1409.5L sap 40.12L syrup
Sugar, Norway, Manitoba, Silver and Freeman Maples
We had our last boil of 40 gal on 4/6/19. We are in the mid-michigan area. This was our first season and had a ball. We learned so much this year from this site and a little trial and error. Thank you to all who post on here you info was invaluable!
2019 - First year! - 15 taps / trees on buckets - homemade 2' x 4' evaporator - 612gal sap / ~ 5 gal sweet - Total for first season 2019!