Hop Kiln Road 2022

[red maples]

yeah we need this freeze hopefully it will reset things and we can keep going for at least another week. still getting a little sap but really not much coming in only at .25 gpt since yesterday. after the little freeze we had the other day it was up to .5-.6 gpt. We'll see!!!

[Hop Kiln Road]

Another .8gpt of 1.5% yesterday. Made LT 30. While I'm at 118% of average for sap, I'm only just hitting average for syrup. This season is the lowest sugar I've ever had, and the lowest grades. I'm actually quite impressed with the taste of the lower end of the DR's made in the last couple days. I suspect the low sugar might be due to my orchards flooded with water last summer and fall, 13" in July alone. Still have some ice in swamps but the forecast is again too cold followed by too warm to produce good runs.

[Hop Kiln Road]

Pumped .5 gpt this morning from Friday night and Saturday, 1.5%, cloudy but not milky and still LT 30. Boiled about midday and visitors showed up for all over: Venezuela, Brazil, Louisiana, Boston, not sure how they found the place unless it was the steam! It’s fun to have folks who have never seen maple syrup made and then taste it right out of the canner. Forecast is a good freeze and maybe sap Wednesday and Thursday.

[Hop Kiln Road]

A little chilly here so I watched another movie with that nice lady from Proctor Research. She went out and bought whole bunches of golden maple syrup only to discover – egads! - none of it was golden. Wait, not a one? Well, I’ve always thought them some foolish to banish Fancy to Canada. Then the video got a little confusing and she started channeling that great NH poet:

Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

Huh. Ok. I mean I was there with the transitory explanation, but geez the Lusitania sank from just one torpedo! But then she goes out and buys bunches of Dark Robust, and, what…most of it ain’t? Hang on. So now I’m beginning to think it’s all a spoof, like the night before cousin’s Wilson’s wedding when we gave the Major the ole 22 with the cockeyed sight, I mean about 2 feet to the left of the barndoor was the best he could do and of course we all aimed two feet to the right. We told him it was the jitters.

[Hop Kiln Road]

Got a little bit overnight and a light flow right now, but my fluepan is still frozen and my couple of buckets are ice chunks so the trees must be pretty stiff.

[Hop Kiln Road]

Pumped .85 gpt from since the freeze. Slightly cloudy and 1.8% which is about normal this season. Boiled easily and the grade jumped to LT 38, but flavor just isn't quite as good. Forecast says more sap for the next three days but volumes will probably drop off.

[Hop Kiln Road]

Only pumped .58 gpt this morning and it was milky so it's over here. This year, sap volume above average, SC below average, grade below average and taste above average. Overall, yield was above average: a lot of weak sap. Long season but temperatures bordered on bizarre. Clean up doesn't look too bad.

[Russell Lampron]

I'm glad that you had a good season. Some of the people in PA finished around 50% crop and for a couple of them that's how they make their living. For them the sugar was low too. I'm not sure about color. Theron was close to 75% and still going early last week. I've got to talk to him to find out if he's done and how he did.

[Hop Kiln Road]

Thanks, Russ. Hope you're kicking back in NC! Going to contemplate my RO situation over the off season. First time I've had to deal with sugar under 2 and it's a different ballgame. I suspect it's an anomaly from a drought summer followed by a wet summer and the droughted trees sucked up a lot of water and mineral giving the low sugar and darker color. Not sure the overall amount of sunlight varied. Another thing I discovered was the slightly higher wash temp difference makes a big difference. The Manufacturer Rep said membranes are much for forgiving than we are led to believe. Still had some of your LT 72 forced air syrup bottle in glass and used it in the tastings this year.

[Russell Lampron]

I'm not exactly kicking back here in NC. I've been building a deck for my daughter's above ground pool. It's only 10x10 but is a lot of work. Figuring out some of the angles took a lot of time. Thankfully my wife bought me a nice Dewalt 12" sliding mitre saw for Christmas and a stand for it for my birthday. That made life a lot easier. I've also got a good collection of Ridgid cordless tools now so I don't have extension cords all over the place.

How did my syrup do in your taste test? You got that from me about 3 years ago if I remember correctly. The density was a touch light too I think.