Spring Harvest 2023

[Amber Gold]

Pump is now back in business. Drain back orifice was clogged. Everything seems to be working well.

Got the pump going at about 1230 and spent a couple hours in the woods and got the vac. up to 25". Went back to work for a couple hours, and drove to the woods to haul a load of sap out...woods tank had 900-1,000 gallons in it. That is sap that's been collected while tapping in and some vacuum run time.

Last night, cleaned all the tanks and started picking up the sugarhouse.

Tonight, clean the evaporator and finish picking up the sugarhouse. I'll be concentrating tonight, but not sure if I'll boil. I have a late afternoon meeting that's in the middle of when I'm busy getting stuff done around the sugarhouse. Same deal tomorrow.

[Amber Gold]

Checked on the pump at lunch and still good. Vac. at 26.5". Pulled a load of sap out while I was there.

Last night, swapped out the RO membrane and did a rinse. Cleaned/prepped the evaporator. New pan gasket this year.

Tonight, will be the first boil of 2023. We'll have the two truckloads collected so far, plus 150 gal from JD, and whatever comes in today. It'll be a big night, but need to get caught up before the freeze up.

[Amber Gold]

Checked on the pump at lunch and still good. Vac. at 26.5". Pulled a load of sap out while I was there.

Last night, swapped out the RO membrane and did a rinse. Cleaned/prepped the evaporator. New pan gasket this year.

Tonight, will be the first boil of 2023. We'll have the two truckloads collected so far, plus 150 gal from JD, and whatever comes in today. It'll be a big night, but need to get caught up before the freeze up.

[Amber Gold]

Yesterday, I brought another load of sap to the SH and left ~400 gal in the woods tank with the sap still running. I had a 2-hr late afternoon meeting that delayed the last of the sugarhouse prep (mainly cleaning/putting together the evap) and it took a while for the RO to run the first pass. Sap temp at 35F and running 2C/5.5 to 6P at 320 psi. Started the evap. About 1030 and shut down at 0215. Sweetened the pans and made about 20 gal of syrup. Everything went well on this end.

Dealt with a yo-yo problem in the flue pan. Foam levels go up, pan level goes down. Fought with it for about 30 min before it settled out.

Also, it never fails that every year on the first boil that as soon as the flue pan starts to boil, it rapidly foams up. I was prepared for it this year (usually I forget about this), and it still happened. No mess this year which is good.

Since we missed the first 7+ days of the season, I’m taking this year as a mulligan. We get what we get, and it is what it is.

[BAP]

You never know, it might even out in the end for you. It’s easy to look back and see what you should have done but at the time it isn’t always what you can get done.

[red maples]

back orifice was clogged? where is this back orifice?

[Amber Gold]

Finally back on trader. Not much going on. Last Friday, my power was turned off at the woods. During one of the winter storms, the utility pole came down and I didn't find out until the day before I was going to tap. I still had power, and everything looked good, so I was hoping to get through the season with it, but someone called it in, so the power company had to turn things off. Saturday, a rush trip to Lowes to get lumber and concrete mix, and everything was reset by day's end. Power turned back on Monday afternoon. Thankfully, this happened during a cold snap, so no lost production, but just one more thing to add to the list this season.

I added a second security camera in my pump shed. This will allow me to monitor the vacuum pump and its oil level, and the tank level gauge when I get it set up on Saturday.

So now, I'm just twiddling my thumbs waiting for the sap to start running again.

BAP, that is a good point. You can always woulda, shoulda, coulda, but in the end, things are what they are, and who knows what the rest of the season will bring.

Brad, in the pump head, there's the chamber that you fill with oil and have the oil level gauge. On the left side, there's a second chamber that has the exhaust filter and second oil reservoir. This is for oil that gets trapped by the filter and drips down into this reservoir. For some reason, there's a float to maintain a set oil level in this second chamber, and when the float opens, it allows oil to drain through a port from the left chamber to the right chamber. MES took out the float and the plunger that seals that port, so once the oil level gets to port opening, it just automatically drains back into the main chamber.

I'd recommend ordering a spare exhaust filter, so you have one on hand. He doesn't stock a lot of them.

[Amber Gold]

Quick update.

Boiled for the second time of the season Sunday night. I got a stomach bug (thanks kids...) Saturday night, so it made Sunday fun. Processed about 1500 gallons total collected and made about 30 gallons of syrup. SSC ??...I keep forgetting to check it.

The drain pipe from the perm. tank cracked but was able to get through the night. RO room breaker popped three times...assuming a bad breaker and swapped it out a the end of the night. Breaker was getting warm, but not hot.

Last night, I walked the woods and found a new deer chew that dropped my vac. levels to 20" for the day. Also set up my tank level gauge. Initial impression isn't positive...it's in metric (but I can deal with this) but the worst thing is the screen contract is terrible. I can't read it on my video camera...work in progress.

Plan is to boil every other night unless there's a big run. Sunday after boiling, I hauled a load out of the woods, and yesterday, I grabbed another 650 gallons. Today sap flow is OK, so not sure how much more I'll have to boil tonight.

[Amber Gold]

Almost a week since my last post...not very good.

Sap flow has been OK. Been getting a truckload out of the woods every day and boiling every other day. SSC peaked at 1.8-1.9%, but it's been hanging lately at 1.6%. We boiled Thursday and Saturday nights.

I've been making AR all season...this has never happened. Usually, the first batch will be AR, but then it'll cross the line to the dark side. I didn't get a sample bottle of the first batch, but I think it was 65% TC, and the lowest I've had since has been 50%. Flavor has been excellent.

I spent Saturday boiling syrup down for cream. Cooked down 10 gallons of syrup (5 batches), and it took all day, which isn't productive for other maple related things. I also made a batch of candy. I followed the Cornell instructions on making candy, which meant cooking to a higher temp than I usually do, and then cooling the syrup down (which I don't usually do), this made a mess. I couldn't get the syrup through the trough fast enough...the second batch of candy, I met it in the middle. Didn't cook quite as high and didn't cool quite so low, and things went smoother. TBD if candy quality is better than my normal method. Cream making was a bit of a mess. The cream was setting up in the funnel faster than I could bottle it. Before, I'd occasionally have this issue, but it was terrible yesterday.

Yesterday, after making cream, we emptied the bourbon barrel...fantastic flavor! Very happy with the barrel ages syrups we're making. That was a bit of a mess too. Pumping 40+ gallons of cold syrup takes forever, and then when you get two cases into bottling and realize the syrup didn't filter...turns out the end plate was upside down. That set me back like 1.5 hrs. Glad I caught it though before I got too far into it.

However, it didn't make for a good weekend to get out in the woods. I know the sugar woods line has some leaks on it, but I just can't get out there. I'm still pulling 26", so that just sets it lower on my priority list.

[red maples]

I tried doing candy that way too. went to one of the classes he did at one of the bascom's open houses back before covid. and it was a mess. just jammed up the spout and almost bent the worm. and shut it off had to pull it apart quick because it was turning into concrete. that was a waste. so I just do like I always do. the burbon sounds fun though. been reading a bit on that. the infused syrups seem to be catching on as well. let me know how the sales go for that bourbon aged syrup.

sap flows have slowed here a bit too. not sure why except maybe snow ice around the base of the trees blocking the roots... I am not sure there have been some colder cloudy days too. atmospheric pressure? this is a very low pressure system coming in to curious to see how things progress. but weary of how long this season will go I would be I will run out of freezing nights before long.