Had another 500 gallons this morning waiting for me. Was pretty cloudy. But did a little boil in a pot and it smelled normal. Came in nice and clear the rest of the day. Will Probley have another busy day tomorrow.
Was astonished. I made lighter syrup today then I made the past 2 weeks. Borderline on dark and amber. So I’m still gonna label it as dark. Still got sap comming in. So one more boil tomorrow and that will be it.
600 taps on vacuum
Lapierre mechanical Releaser
CDL electric releaser
2.5 x 10 CDL Venturi ( new for the 2024 season )
Home made modulating auto draw off
Homemade RO 2 x 4" membranes
CDL 16 x 16 bottler
Wesfab 7" filter press
Delaval 73 vacuum pumps
12 hives of bees
Still going strong
Collected 600 gallons from 400 taps yesterday and collected over 700 today. Sap is still very clear and the few Red maples I have tapped still haven't turned. First time I have ever seen what looks to be queen ants in the sap buckets.
Looks like the CDL venturi will be running on high tomorrow!
Collected another 300 gallons today. Sap cleared up and sugar content back up slightly. Likely will run the pump tomorrow and see what happens but thinking I could be done. Currently sitting at .8 litres per tap. Don’t see me making it to 1 but a lot better then things were looking a couple weeks ago.
Maple Rock Farm
www.Maplerockfarm.ca
400 taps on Vacuum
18”x60” Lapierre propane evaporator with Smokey Lake auto draw off
Homemade 3 post RO with MES membranes
Ford TS110 tractor sap hauler
I think the thing that saved my season this year was just letting the pump run steady on those above zero nights and the nights where it only went to 0 even. Think I went 3 days in a row without shutting it off. Only briefly to add oil. Burnt a lot more fuel this year. And went though a couple more jugs of vac oil. But was able to salvage 1 L per tap. So was worth it.
One thing I did learn is that mechanical releasers freezing with vacuum on all night can reek some havoc.
Bent my float rod pretty good and sucked some sap into the pump. Did the same thing last year but didn’t learn from it I guess. Just getting better and quicker at straightening it out and getting it back up and running.
600 taps on vacuum
Lapierre mechanical Releaser
CDL electric releaser
2.5 x 10 CDL Venturi ( new for the 2024 season )
Home made modulating auto draw off
Homemade RO 2 x 4" membranes
CDL 16 x 16 bottler
Wesfab 7" filter press
Delaval 73 vacuum pumps
12 hives of bees
This week has been the saviour for me. Finished a 13 hour boil of about 260L collected since Late Wednesday and continued to top off with what was coming during the day today.. started off the morning thinking I had an 8 hour boil and just kept going.. LOL... My buddy came over for the day and ended up splitting a bunch of wood for me so I think I have enough for a short boil tomorrow.. sap was kind of cloudy but still tasty.. dark syrup again this boil.. surprisingly my silvers are still giving up good sap.. even the one in the front that had fuzzy flowers showing on the top. Tomorrow will be the last as I definitely will be out of wood.. and personally out of steam! I think I may have actually come out ahead of last year by my very rough estimates, so I'm pleased!
______________________________
2023 -30 trees -24 vacuum, 6 buckets. ~1,845 L sap; Syrup count: 49.25L
2022 -30 trees -24 vacuum, 6 buckets. ~1,530 L sap; Syrup count: 48.65L
2021 -29 trees -23 vacuum, 6 buckets. ~1240 L sap; 34.5L of syrup
2020 -30 trees 32 taps. ~900 L sap; 27.1L Syrup.
2019 -27 trees 31 taps. ~725 L sap; 22.2L Syrup.
2018 -19 Trees 20 taps. ~750 L sap; 18 L Syrup
2017 -4 trees 4 taps. ~60 L sap; 1.5 L Syrup
Sapageddon
Biggest pull yet, 289 L from 90 taps plus 165 L yesterday. Sadly only 1.5 Brix down from 2.5 last week.
Eastern Ontario (Lanark Highlands)
http://www.espritdanslaforet.ca or http://www.spiritintheforest.ca
Canada's First Provably Net Zero GHG Emissions Maple Syrup Producer
Waterloo 18" x 5' wood fired evaporator
2022 - 121 taps on gravity lines, 1150 L online + 600 L offline storage
2021 - 92 taps on buckets & gravity lines, 750 L storage
2020 - 75 taps on buckets, 750 L storage
2019 - 34 taps, 400 L storage
2018 - 12 taps, 100 L storage
Had a good day yesterday. Collected 90 gallons of nice clear, add that to the 70 from Friday and Saturday and we had ourselves a boil and finished 4 gallons of dark. May have a short boil today but I think that’s it, temps are going warm 24/7.
Some trees are drying up entirely. Some have 1 or 2 spiles still going. I think I'm basically done for this season.
Been tapping since 2008.
2018 - 17 taps/7 trees...819l sap, approx 28l syrup
2019 - 18 taps/8 trees...585l sap, 28l syrup...21:1 ratio
2020 - 18 taps/8 trees...890.04l sap...gave away about 170l, 30l snafu'd....23l total for me from approx 690l
2021 - 18 taps/8 trees...395l sap, 12 l syrup
2022 - 18 taps/8 trees....7 sugars 1 red due to #2 having surgery so had the season off....582l sap, 18.5l syrup
2023 - 18 taps/8 trees...all sugars again. 807l sap, so far approx 14l syrup
Looking at the weather, looks like we are done in Lanark.
Eastern Ontario (Lanark Highlands)
http://www.espritdanslaforet.ca or http://www.spiritintheforest.ca
Canada's First Provably Net Zero GHG Emissions Maple Syrup Producer
Waterloo 18" x 5' wood fired evaporator
2022 - 121 taps on gravity lines, 1150 L online + 600 L offline storage
2021 - 92 taps on buckets & gravity lines, 750 L storage
2020 - 75 taps on buckets, 750 L storage
2019 - 34 taps, 400 L storage
2018 - 12 taps, 100 L storage
Collected about 60 gallons this morning, a little cloudy but we had about 30 left in the tank so we decided to try one last boil. Got the evaporator rocking and the steam smelled buddy. That’s it, our season is over here in PTBO.
We have enough sap to flood my pans though, and plan to do so and just leave it. I hear it’s a great way to clean pans... anyone else do so, and how long did you leave the sap before draining and rinsing ?
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote