LMP Maple 2022

[UB29]

LMP,
Not too far from you. Completing final setup in the woods work (setting Shurflo systems, collection tanks) over the next couple of days. Flushing/washing RO and test boil this weekend and will probably start tubing taps early next week. Will hold off on buckets for another couple of weeks.
Good Luck all for a great 2022 season.
Thanks, Bill

[red maples]

good luck on your season!!!

[LMP Maple]

Tapped today. 83 taps all Sugars. 48 on a shureflow. Rest 3/16 gravity. I think I am going to be buried but that is why I bought the R/O. Took the last two days off to get things ready wish I had tomorrow off as well. Was running later today and should let go tomorrow. Still don't feel ready but at some point it is go time. Everything working well so far with the exception of my cell connection monitor to keep an eye on it. Cant seem to get the sim card to work but that will have to wait until the weekend. Here we go ladies and gentlemen! Not sure how I am going to handle being at work tomorrow think I will sneak out early.

[raptorfan85]

I put 100 taps in today as well. Will try to get the rest tomorrow. I only had a few holes running but my woods is quite cold. It doesn't matter how much you prepare, you never feel ready! Hopefully you get the remote monitoring figured out. It's definitely go time. Tomorrow and Friday should be good runs. Good luck.

[LMP Maple]

It has been a busy couple of weeks for me. Glad to have what looks like a week or so off from gathering etc given the temps. Eight inches of fluffy light snow today. Last check it was 18 degrees here. I have boiled 4 times so far. I have made around 4 gallons of syrup I would say although it is all in my stainless draw off containers at the moment and it is pretty hard to put a total on it. I am planning on taking the day on Sunday to put it through the vacuum filter and bottle it up so I will have a much better idea on my totals then. This is by far the earliest that i have made syrup and I tapped a full week early and probably missed one minor run. It is good looking stuff and light. Loving the R/O took me a bit to understand the batch process but using this I can get the concentration up to around 6% which makes for some short boils which is great. Easily the best investment I have made in the operation. I still am shocked by the amount of water that is coming out that I do not have to boil. I find myself checking the permeate often thinking really there is no sugar in that and low and behold there is not. I do need to run some soap through it tomorrow and put it in a non use state with citric tomorrow as I don't think I will be concentrating until next weekend. Sap has all been testing at 2% for me. I hope everyone is there or better. Early indications are that this could be a good year for us in NH. Although we live and die at the hands of mother nature so who knows!

[LMP Maple]

6 Gallons 32 ounces made so far. Canned it all up today. A very good start for me. My goal is 20 gallons this year. It was a long day for me longer than what I expected. I am not 100% sold on the Vacuum press. This year with the press I drew directly off the evaporator with only a light filtering. Today I heated up all my syrup to 180 and added DE then put it through the press. It started out well but seemed to get plugged up quickly. Its better than gravity for sure but not as good as I expected. I cannot have another day of canning like today again. I am going to try using the press at drawoff right off the evaporator without the DE of course to take out one of the steps. It will be interesting to see how it does without the DE in there. It will be hot coming off the evaporator so I am hoping that will help. This way my syrup will be filtered and be ready for canning without reheating and filtering and only reheating once to can.

[ecolbeck]

Disappointed to hear about the vacuum press, I had big hopes for it. I guess it sorta makes sense because the amount of surface area on the press is far smaller than on a cone. I haven't tried mine out yet. Keep us updated on how it goes.

[LMP Maple]

Will do. Please do the same when you use yours. As with most new 'toys' could be some operator error or just trying to find what works best. It was my first run with the unit so I am hoping things improve. At the least I am going to switch up my procedure to see if I can improve it. I will gladly take any advice you or others have on how to best maximize the unit. For me the logical next approach is to try to use it at draw-off. I don't draw enough to justify adding DE so I will try to filter it through straight and see how it goes. Lots to think about, waiting on the next warm up! Just had 100 gallons of oil delivered, ouch! Should get me through a few seasons particularly with the RO.

[BAP]

How much DE are you using? I run a 12” CDL vacuum filter without problems. Filter hot with DE. You need enough DE so that it builds a layer on top of the prefilter at least 1/8” thick. Also I found that dumping off the built up layer before filtering the next batch works the best.

[Russell Lampron]

I agree with you on the reds. They are finicky on buckets and it's usually not worth the effort to tap them. On vacuum they all run and depending on the quality of the tree they can produce a lot of sap.

Before you try filtering at the draw off try heating your syrup to 200 degrees or more before you filter it, 180 is too low. Hot syrup is easier to filter than cold syrup and the goal is to have the temperature at or above 180 after filtering to sterilize the container that you put it in. Always use the filter aid. The amount of filter aid will depend on how dirty the syrup is. If they gave you instructions with the filter use that as a guideline.

Good luck with your season and with the filtering.