Spring Harvest 2022

[red maples]

oh man... sorry. if you figure it out let me know so I do the same thing!!!

[Amber Gold]

Still don’t know what happened to the pump. It’s been running fine ever since. No drop in oil level (still full), and since yesterday evening, it’s been pulling 27-28” with the sap running. I guess it's all set??

The trees took most of Saturday to thaw out…not much sap in the woods. Spent the day making sugar and installing air bags on my truck (huge difference BTW this morning hauling sap). In the spring, I like to make what I need for the year, so I’m not trying to make it in the summer when it’s more challenging to get it to come out right. A friend let me borrow their sugar making setup, and I’m now able to make 2 gal batches…huge efficiency improvement in the process.

Things didn’t really start running well until mid-afternoon Sunday. I got to the woods around noon to start my leak check and took care of the two mainlines that had a drop line come off. Brought vac. From 15” to 22”. I spent the rest of the time until 5pm walking the woods and finding all the small leaks. Finished with the woods with 27”+ at the releaser. Two of the mains have leaks that I can hear at the booster but can’t find the leaks. Hauled ~500 gal out of the woods and left a big block of ice in the tank. Trees were really pumping sap out at this point. JP dropped off 30 gal, and it tested at 3.5%...I did a double take…JD has big shoes to fill now!

This morning, I hauled another 700’ish gallons of sap out of the tank to make sure there’d be enough room to get through the day. Vac. Levels now at 27.75” at the releaser.

[Amber Gold]

Haven’t boiled since Monday night. Because of no freeze since Sunday, Tuesday it ran OK, and I hauled home ~500 gal of sap. Tuesday night was cold, and Wednesday was cool, so it didn’t run much on Wednesday, so I let it sit. Today, sap is running well, but vac. at 18”. I probably have two drops that fell off which I’ll fix at this afternoon’s haul.

Through Monday night, syrup produced is ~60 gal. Through Tuesday night, sap to the sugarhouse is 4477 gal. SSC has been 1.7% all season.

Boiling tonight. It should be a good night since it’s been a while.

Been making maple sugar every chance I get. It takes about 4 hrs to make a 2 gal batch from start to finish. The process is greatly improved this year when I borrowed a mortar mixer from a friend.

Vac. pump still running good.

Next week's forecast is looking a bit warm...

[red maples]

yes worried about the forecast and lack of freezing nights. glad your pump is running good.

[Amber Gold]

Quick update before I get ready to head out.

Sap is finally running well. It took until late Wednesday for that to happen, but it ran hard. Collected 1400 gal yesterday (700 still sitting on my truck because no tank space at sugarhouse). Sap SSC is at 1.7%, so typical. Produced ~130 gal of syrup so far.

It actually froze last night, but no freeze until early next week. However, unless it's a mid-20's freeze, does it really matter if the temp falls to 31F vs 34F?? Just a thought.

It's been a mad scramble getting things ready for maple weekend. Spent a couple nights bottling, made 70 lbs of cream Sunday, 100 lbs of sugar last week (this is my supply for the year), 2 batches of candy, maple nuts, and maple kettle corn. Hope we have a good turnout and it sells. Three season's since we've had one, so who knows. Next year, I need to do a better job of getting product that I can make before maple season, made before maple season.

[Sugar Bear]

Quick update before I get ready to head out.

It actually froze last night, but no freeze until early next week. However, unless it's a mid-20's freeze, does it really matter if the temp falls to 31F vs 34F?? Just a thought.

Perhaps not so much for generating a decent sap run the next day. But for bridging taps to the next substantial run, if there is to be one, yes.

[Russell Lampron]

Quick update before I get ready to head out.

It actually froze last night, but no freeze until early next week. However, unless it's a mid-20's freeze, does it really matter if the temp falls to 31F vs 34F?? Just a thought.

The way that my woods was layed out there many times that the temp at the house was just around freezing and everything down at the releaser was frozen solid. This season at Theron's there was as much as a 9* difference from one releaser to another. He has 5 of them. So 31* vs 34* can mean 24* to 27* in the woods. I hope that you get the freezing temps that you need and have a good turn out for maple weekend.

[red maples]

I got a jump on making stuff in February so I am pretty good shape as far as that is concerned. bottled 20 to 25 gallons back in Jan. and bottles another 25+ gallons last weekend.

sap still coming in but I think its only because there is so much ice in the swamp its been over cast and frost o the ground. not much sugar in the sap anymore either.

So I have a theory on your pump oil dump. after using this pump for a bit under different conditions now.

So what happens is when the pump is running under warmer conditions any suspended moisture that is in the air (that you can't see) and is not caught by the moisture trap ,which really only collects liquid moisture, Is heated and is evaporated by the pump and is sent off through the exhaust hence the white vapors that come out of the exhaust.

now when its running under cold conditions and the pump is running cooler its gonna take in that same humid air moisture but since the pump isn't running hot enough it collects in the oil. this type of oil doesn't mix with the moisture for the most part it stays separated because thats what it is designed to do. so the oil level will climb and when it gets too high (above the top oil mark) it will seep out of the seals at the back of the pump since the oil floats on water only oil is coming out. it will push all the oil out if there is too much water in the oil. Then once it starts to heat up it evaporates the water over heats the pump and hopefully doesn't f-up your pump.

thats why you had oil on the floor and nothing in the pump. luckily it shut down or it could have been a real problem.

[Amber Gold]

Maple Weekend went really well. I held Friday’s sap to boil (about 1400 gal) and held Saturday’s sap for Sunday (~1000 gal), so I was able to run the RO both days. Downside is both days, I misjudged concentrating and ran overtime on both days. Saturday’s crowd was surprisingly good (pancake breakfast does help for sure) but it was still pretty good post-breakfast. Sunday was dead in the morning, but really picked up at lunch and stayed busy the rest of the day. Our Maple Weekend team (friends and family) did a great job talking with people and running the sales table. One of the greatest things about this weekend is now that it’s been 3 years since we’ve had an open house, the kids are now older and seeing how much more their involved in the weekend...pretty awesome! Made about 47 gallons of syrup over the weekend, 45 of it went into kegs. Even with the hot temps, and slow boil, the weekend’s grade didn’t drop that much(45% TC to 33% TC)…really surprised. It makes me wonder if more goes into syrup color than what I thought. Last week’s mad dash, and maple weekend, left me exhausted by Sunday night.

Because of the heat wave, and no freezing nights, sap flow is poor. It took 36 hours to get 0.75 gpt. I was able to haul a load out yesterday evening. Hopefully last night’s freeze (barely) gets sap moving again. This week’s forecast is looking pretty good.

Yesterday, I got a surprise…the vac. pump decided to dump its oil out again. Fortunately, I caught it before it ran out, but I have no idea what’s going on. Since the first time, I’ve been checking it daily, and it’s been running with no issues. I had enough oil to get it up to the min. level and ran over to GZ to get some more vac. oil to top it off. Brad, that’s an interesting idea, and it may be right. Yesterday was warm though when it dumped oil.

Sugar Bear, that’s a good thought on temp’s.

[Amber Gold]

Saturday, we took advantage of Maine’s Maple Weekend being on a different weekend than ours and was able to visit sugarhouses to see how others do things and chat with them. Had a good time. One sugarhouse had a great selection of maple taps and buckets.

Been puttering along here most of the week. Started the week getting 0.75gpt of sap per day and the past couple days have been 0.5 gpt. Sugar is holding steady at 1.3%...not great, but not terrible either.

As of yesterday’s haul, we’re at 15,700 gal processed this season, 14,400 of which is from our woods which is 16gpt of sap. Goal is 20-25gpt. If this freeze-up kicks the trees back online, we should reach our goal, but if they continue to putter, I doubt it. A theory I have is when you get extremely warm temps during the season, it permanently affects the tap hole, and they never run well again. We’ll have 3 days of nights around 20, so if this doesn’t work, nothing will.

With all the warm weather, sap is getting harder to boil. Foam is harder to control in the pans and using a lot more defoamer to keep it in check. For next season’s upgrade, I’m considering an auto-defoamer to control defoamer use.