Maple Syrup 2019

[Corley5]

Sugar bush to the north of us ran 355 gallons of sap on 400 taps yesterday.  He's pretty sheltered.  We had a cold wind here most of the day.  It ran late and enough to flush the lines.  We tracked down and fixed some leaks.  Vacuum still isn't as high as it should be.  We'll get that figured out this morning.  Should run today and tomorrow then cold again for a couple days.  We need 900 gallons to sweeten the rig.  Hoping to get that done Thursday evening.  A lot of snow in the woods.

[Chuck White]

We gathered 400 gallons yesterday morning, ran it through the RO and started the boil, didn't get a draw but it was really close.

During the afternoon the run really broke loose and we gathered another 800 gallons, ran that through the RO and fired up again.

I headed home and my Brother and his SIL continued the boil!

Now, we'll see what the day offers up!

[Chuck White]

Sap was all gathered when I arrived at the sugarhouse and the boiling soon started!

Boiled from about 8:30 to 3:00 and ended up with 25.8 gallons produced today! 

Tomorrow we'll clean the pans and gather, then fire up again!

[Backyardmaple]

Anyone on here ever think of using a sous vide to pre heat maple sap. If unfamiliar it is a portable water heater used by chefs to control temps down to 2/10 of a degree.

[maple flats]

Mine on Wednesday and Thursday ran the hardest I've ever seen in the 17 seasons I've been doing maple on a bigger scale. The best part could have been even better. At my lease I'm just running on a vacuum tank and even then, only at 16". New engine and pump and been so busy I couldn't even take the time to adjust the engine up a little to get 19" and give it time to monitor to be sure it doesn't go over 20", I've seen pictures of tanks that imploded (I trust that tank at 19"). Most of all, I have a releaser stand I built to mount on top of the tank and then that pump should get maybe 23-24". Maybe early next week. That change will take about 5-6 hours and we are going full tilt just keeping up with what we have.
This weekend is the first of two Maple Weekends. In the past we have had to slow the boil and sometimes even boil water on Maple weekend, not this year. Right now I have about 1200 gal stored at 3.1% (it started at about 2%, I RO'ed it just to 3.1 just to hold it, I'm hoping I didn't go too high to have it spoil. I've never even lightly run the RO before, just go to 8-12% shortly before boiling. This morning I also have the tank at my lease that likely has 900+ gal more to haul, and around the sugarhouse it ran all night, for the 3rd night in a row now.
Syrup anyone? Got to go boil now, I'll take that sap to 10-12% and boil. If I wasn't looking to cut back I'd be looking at an RO that can go much higher, mine only does 12% well, and can do 15%, but it then needs to be watched and may need a permeate rinse every few hours or it plugs up.
I see some are now going to 35%, all I can say, is Holy Smokes.

[Chuck White]

We gathered the sap and made another 13.8 gallons of syrup today!

The run was pretty-well shut down at the time we gathered!

[Stephen1]

Well out to the barn today and all we have is snow and more snow. Half a tank, 50 gllonas of sap and real cold tonight. We might get a run on sunday but tomorrow is cold.  We will put out the 25 buckets around the barn. 

[SwampDonkey]

Rained here all day yesterday @ 34F and then snowed a little over night. No sap. I don't think it has done much up here at all yet. Lots of snow on the ground though.

[maple flats]

I collected at my lease yesterday, it finally slowed, only got 435 gal in 22 hrs. That is much more common most years for 24 hrs.
At my sugarhouse when I got there yesterday the pump was pulling against a full moisture trap. The 545 gal tank  it was dumping into was full, and that floods the releaser just enough that it can't dump (no place for the sap to flow). I ran the RO and had that vacuum able to start back up in about an hour, but it was still about 30 F. It warmed to 34 about an hour later and the pump was restarted.

[Chuck White]

It started snowing yesterday morning and it's still snowing!

Won't be much going on at the sugarhouse, except bottling syrup!

[Corley5]

800 gallons of sap banked.  We're having our first boil this evening.  Froze up hard last night.  40° for later today so it'll run some but it's going to take a while to loosen up.

[Ed_K]

 Boiled in 400 gals yesterday and while Rita tended the firing I caned 5gals all in qts. What a pain doing qts without overflowing you really have to pay attention.

[Mapleman]

We boiled in what we had yesterday, we've boiled three times and have made about 70 gallons or around 1/6 of a normal crop.  So we have a long way to go.  Tomorrow is looking good, as well as the latter part of next week.  It could still be an OK season, but time is running out for things to turn around, that sun is getting stronger every day!

One good note, our sap has been much sweeter than usual - we usually run around 1.8 to 2 %, this year we've been testing out at 2.4%!  That makes a big difference for us as we don't have an RO.

Dave

[dustintheblood]

I need some help fellows.  First run tonight with my brand new RO and tonight I didn't do the unsugaring process right after I ran it.

Temps are now too low to run the unsugaring and rinse and wash.

The unit is moved into a warm space until morning

Am I okay to do the unsugaring and rinse and wash first thing in the AM, or did i wreck the membrane?

The manual (which I read carefully but didn't notice) says "5-min after concentration do unsugaring and rinse and wash".

HELP!!!

[Chuck White]

I don't know much at all about the RO, so I'll let someone more experienced give the advice!

Yesterday the temps got up to near 50°, so we have lots of sap to gather this morning!

[Corley5]

  We've got to close to 25 gallons of finished syrup now.  We're setting the canner up today.  We ran out of clean buckets last night with about 130 gallons of sap left.  Boil off rate was good last night.  Pulled 21 gallons of syrup from raw 2% sap in 6 hours.  Got to get the RO setup ;) ;D. 
  It'll run a little today with the sun.  It's cold but the edge trees will produce some.  Another 150 gallons of sap and we'll fire up.  Tomorrow should be alright and Wednesday looks good.  Not supposed to freeze Wednesday night.  Friday and beyond look good if you can believe the extended forecasts.

[SwampDonkey]

Too cold here today, was 12F this morning. ;) Although ,melting in the driveway on bare gravel. But I have not seen anyone next door boil yet. Definitely late up here. Last year, the day I dug all the foundations (June 3rd) for the new buildings it was 92 F. By the look of it, it will do the same this year, cold then wham, summer's here. :D I'm laughing as I type here, the sun is so powerful in the windows that it is 83F and no fire on. One of them windows is 7' by 9', lots of glass. ;D Been that way since Mid Feb on sunny days. :D

[Chuck White]

We had a good run here yesterday, so we gathered this morning and started the RO and then fired up the evaporator!

We drew off 18.5 gallons today, mostly light amber (delicate) and that brings our total this season to 89.8 gallons.

Hard to believe the forecasts anymore and all we can do is process what we get!

We'll be bottling more syrup tomorrow!

[Stephen1]

I am afraid of summer showing up to soon. We still have winter here, the lines are thawing in the sun but not a lot of sap yet. We pumped up and gathered in a snow storm sunday night, before the big freeze -18 C . We still do not have enought boil. Yesterday it wram up to 1C in the sun and hopefully warmer today, the vacuum is set up and we all ready to go. 
We are just praying we will get a spring before summer.

[SwampDonkey]

No sap here today, cold @ 10F over night. If we don't get 20's F at night, no sap coming the next day. Just came from the woodlot, still 2-3 feet of snow. Any warm spring that never froze last winter, you can sure tell the snow depth around it. Big sink holes and snow higher than your hips around it. :D

I gotta laugh at times. Someone will say they have 4 feet of snow and they get 3 days of warm weather and come back and say the snow is all gone. I never seen that happen here that quick in 52 years. Their 4 feet would have to be light stuff and the days was 75 degrees. :D Hard compacted snow piled up 4 feet with mild spells between to compact it, doesn't melt out here for weeks. :D

[Chuck White]

We got a small run sometime yesterday afternoon, but not enough to do anything with!

We bottled up 6 gallon, and 8 half gallon jugs this morning and filled one of the 15 gallon kegs!

We're likely to get another small run this afternoon, we'll see what tomorrow brings!

[dustintheblood]

Full steam ahead here for the past few days!

Got my RO setup figured out and loving it!!

Pics to come shortly

[SwampDonkey]

Been too cold here, yesterday was another 10F morning. It is finally going to warm up today to mid 40's and it was 24F this morning for a change. ;D

[Chuck White]

Sap ran good yesterday, Jack and I were both "under the weather" so that left Ken and he did the gathering and collected near 700 gallons and the rest will be gathered by us this morning!  Ken found a couple of helpers! 

We'll go over 100 gallons today, that's only 1/3 of what we made last season!  But, we also need to remember that we can only get what mother nature allows us to!

[petefrom bearswamp]

Another ignorant question from a former producer.
Is there any flavor difference in RO produced syrup and other products?
We buy ours from my wife's cousin who boils the old fashioned way.
With the temps predicted here should be a good run today in CNY