had cousins from MAss. up yesterday so boiled most of the afternoon- pushed the 450 gals we got over the last two days (was 1.4% by the time I started the RO) with one pass and only 350 psi it was up to 7%. Russ- like the concentrate a whole lot...boiled in 150 gals of raw sap yesterday at the end of the boil and kept thinking "whats taking so long?"
took the digital refract. out when Heide and I were doing buckets yesterday- highest reading was 3.6 and lowest was 1.7. ITs funny b/c the 3.6 was from some trees that have hardly produced all season and the 1.7 was on a tree that we have been getting over 2 gal/tap per day. guess it all equals out.
had a close call with the syrup pan yesterday- went from 5 deg. over to 15 deg. over in about 45 seconds- I think we just saved it- will drain pan and look it over today..but the silver lining is when we added the heavy syrup to the already made syrup in the canner it mixed to make a really nice "smoke and butter" grade B....with this season I'm always looking for the silver lining...
best of luck to all still at it...
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