Collection & boiling schedule

[berkshires]

I am feeling more comfortable with tapping, lines and collecting, but when to start to boil is an unanswered question in my head. I plan to boil almost everyday and try and keep the sap only 24 to 48 hours old. But in the example you gave, boiling when you get 5 gallons or more of sap, you would only end up with a half quart of syrup.

I was thinking that when the sap starts running, I would wait until I had 40 gallons of sap (80 taps, 67 on lines) before I boiled, at least you ideally would end up with a gallon (4L) of syrup. That would justify starting up the boiling, finishing, filtering and bottling process.

The key phrase you may have missed in the post you are quoting (LMP boiling every time there are 5 gallons to boil) is "when the season is in full swing". Start of season is a different kettle of fish. Typically it will be cold with a few small runs at the start of the season, and the sap in the buckets freezing between runs. When the sap is frozen, bacterial spoilage is not a concern. Dr Tim is always saying "think of sap as you'd think of milk". The analogy holds here: You can keep milk a long time in the freezer, but if it's sitting in a bucket in the sun at 50 degrees, you better sterilize it (in this case by boiling) pretty quick!

The other thing is that when you're starting from scratch, you'll want enough sap to run your evaporator for a couple of hours, and you won't have any saved sap, you will have only what you've collected.

Put these two things together, and many seasons it might take a few small runs before you fire up your evaporator. Looking over the last six years, four out of six of them, it's been a week or more after I tapped until my first boil. Some years it has been several weeks!

Hope that helps,

GO

[Brian]

I think it was me that said think of sap as if it was milk, I have been saying that for years!!

[Swingpure]

The key phrase you may have missed in the post you are quoting (LMP boiling every time there are 5 gallons to boil) is "when the season is in full swing". Start of season is a different kettle of fish. Typically it will be cold with a few small runs at the start of the season, and the sap in the buckets freezing between runs.

GO

Thanks that keeps things in perspective. It was the start of the season I was concerned with. Your advice has really helped. I am feeling more comfortable with that part of the process. The way my mind works, is I go through each step of the process, from start to finish until I hit a roadblock. One more roadblock removed.


A unrelated question: when I watch people on you tube, transferring sap from pan to pan, they always seem to take a small potful of fresh sap and put it into their least dense pan, call it pan number 1, then take a scoop out of pan 1 and put it into pan 2, etc.

That always struck me as diluting a pan before you transferred it. It makes more sense to me if you have let’s say four pans, is to take a potful from 3 into 4, immediately take a potful from 2 into 3, etc. The only reason I’m can think of why you would not do that is that the pans are already shallow, making it hard to get much sap into the pot and that even though it might only be for 10 seconds, the now even shallower sap could burn.

Thanks

Gary

[Aaron Stack]

Last year was my first real year with 50 taps, but only 34 real producers. I had a plan to boil on weekends, but like almost everyone says, that was thrown out fairly quickly when nature decided to give me way more sap than a 10+ hour boiling day could handle because I had a couple days with over well over 75 gallons collected. In the end I had to dump 50 gallons of sap that went bad so this year I'll be planning three boils a week (Tues, Thurs, and Saturday)... lets see how that plan works out. Insert that quote about God laughing when we make plans here.

I haven't really thought about a minimum gallon requirement for a boil, but I have a small 20x30 that churns out about 14 gallons an hour so I'd guestimate a good 30 gallons = a boil on a work night.

Skipping the 16 taps at Dad's this coming season and tagged 27 trees for 47 taps last weekend at the main site and can easily reach the 50 mark after I clear a lot of brush to access the trees. Something about that 50 mark driving me batty.

[berkshires]

Nice to see you back here Aaron. Maybe we can manage to see each other's operations this year, though there's always so little time when the trees start doing their thing!

You boiling in Westfield?

Gabe

[Aaron Stack]

Hiya Gabe. Boiling in Westfield again yes, and it would be great to see your setup and giving a tour of mine when time permits. I've been checking the site all along for tips but the new job had most of my focus while getting up to speed. Spoiled myself and picked up a small 8x14 sugar shack this fall. The stove is inside and the next couple weekends will be devoted to getting the chimney right since I had so much excitement with that last year.

[berkshires]

Enjoy boiling inside, and good luck sorting out the chimney Aaron!

GO

[Swingpure]

So if you had the option to either collect the sap in the morning or late afternoon, which is best?

[Aaron Stack]

I did both depending on the day. Weekdays between 3 and 5pm then weekends in the morning. Tended to see ice in the mornings due to the cool nights, but in the afternoons none so I'd say late afternoon.

[aamyotte]

I usually collected in the evening. On the real warm days near the end of the season I would collect at lunch so that I could get it cold to reduce spoilage.