North East Ohio 2019

[heus]

Jason- you had an RO back then, right?

How's the Leader Micro RO working out for you? Just fired up the mini hobby CDL 100 last night and went from .9% to over 2%- I'm doing handstands.

John the Micro2 has been ok. Its hard going from a "pro" RO with all the bells and whistles to a minimalist one such as the Micro. I average about 180 gallons processed per hour going 50/50. The painful part is waiting for the wash cycle. It doesnt have a high temp shutoff so many nights I am done boiling but have to wait around for the wash cycle to finish.It is what it is, a very inexpensive hobby ro.

[johnallin]

The CDL 100 is my first RO, so no issues with bells and whistles here. It's a great setup for what I'm doing and a good friend just picked one up yesterday after seeing mine.
In two 3 hour stretches yesterday (I had it on a timer while at work) it removed over 300 gal of water leaving me with about 80 gal at 6%. In my excitement, while pumping it up, I forgot to close the drain valve on the head tank...I guess you known the rest of the story. Another RO plus, is having 160 gal plus of permeate for washing concrete floors.

By the way; my hat's off to Fred in Chardon for his level of service and response to calls, even if he's jealous of my Leader Clear press.

[Honey maker]

Watch it! Fred’s ego is big enough! But the service him and Jen provide is outstanding!
How do you like the air injection?

[heus]

Went through about 400 gallons of real cloudy sap this morning. It still smells good while boiling, which tells me that I am good to go for this next run. I have been making dark but it still doesn't have the old grade b taste that I like. I always make some real nice very dark syrup at the end of each season where the steam stinks. I have not got to that point yet.

[johnallin]

Watch it! Fred’s ego is big enough! But the service him and Jen provide is outstanding!
How do you like the air injection?

You're right about those two. Fred is first class when it comes to answering, or returning phone calls. I could not be happier with the service at Richards.

The air injection is working as advertised...so far all light syrup and pans clean up easily.

Now if I can only remember to close tank valves I will be able to make more syrup.

[heus]

Had my last boil of the season tonight. Turned the vac pump off earlier in the evening. I need to filter and bottle a little more syrup but I should be close to 90 gallons made on 262 taps. Seems like nothing compared to when I used to make 300+ in a season. Syrup was still smelling and tasting good, and really dark which is how I like it for my personal use.

[Sugarmaker]

Jason,
Good job squezzin those 260 taps! At some point I am going to scale back just not sure when. My neighbor had a small syrup fire in center pf syrup pan last night. I stopped to see how he was doing and he was hoping to be back up and running this morning. The older style Marcland head was not down on the stem and the plunger valve would not operate. Syrup got a little too hot. At 87 he is planning to redo his vacuum next year. Maybe I have a few more years in me after following him around for a couple hours!
I have to boil a couple hours sometime today. Plan to pull the lines out of the tubs today and begin to gather up tubs and pallets. Heard the peepers really strong last night! We will be near 180 gallons for the season and made some very dark syrup last boil. All in all I was very happy with the results. Hoping to get my new gears for the oberdorfer syrup pump today. I would like to get those in for the last syrup filtering.
Regards,
Chris
(just across the line)

[johnallin]

With the time spent setting up new the new vac system and air injection; it was a short season over here.
Although I did get about 275 gallons in since Wednesday, I will be turning the vac off tonight.

Still have about 100 gallons of concentrate that I will boil off tomorrow. I've made nothing but light syrup so far (a good thing) but I'm thinking of boiling without the air injection tomorrow - just to make some darker. I'd like to experiment to see if it's real dark, as I would expect, or just a tad darker due to the air injection.

There is no dark nitre anywhere to be found in the pans. What is there is more of a light tan color. I've been draining, cleaning and filling the syrup pan with permeate after each boil , so there's nothing in the syrup pan at all. In previous years I was not so meticulous....

The CDL Hobby 100 GPH Reverse Osmosis is turning out to be one of my favorite new toys. Named it "Ralph" He's a real hard worker, just turn him on, set a timer and can go in to work or go about whatever I need to do. When I return - he's filled a 165 gallon vertical tank full of water! He's really stingy with the wood too...fact is , I don't think he has used any at all!

Between vacuum pump, releaser, booster and air injection system (topped off with a late dash to CDL New York for "Ralph the RO") it's been a whirlwind 3 weeks. Did not have the time to put out the taps I had planned, but we made good syrup and learned more this season than any of the past.

[heus]

Final tally for me: 91 gallons on 262 taps. About .35 gal per tap. Not the best I have done, but surely better than last year's miserable figure of .15 per tap. Didn't make any off-flavored syrup. Sugar content never dropped below 2%, which is a first for me, but I tapped 99% sugars this year as opposed to 60/40 sugars-reds in the past when I had 1000 taps.

[johnallin]

All cleaned up over here with 18 3/4 gallons made off of 178 taps - not too good... as this year was all on the 3/16 lines with mostly reds and about 25% sugar maples.
A late start didn't help anything.

Sure would like to have all sugar maples like Jason and some of you, but our syrup is always good and with the new RO, boiling is now closer to 18 to 1 instead of 100 to 1!

There are and additional 140+/- taps in another woods on our property that I didn't get to, with another 50-60 in a ravine area I've never tapped.
Those areas are closer to 50% sugar maple. With the vac I hope to reach all of those and should do better next year.

It's been a good winter/spring - now it's time for boat "stuff".