Maple Syrup 2024

beenthere · February 08, 2024, 01:59:58 PM

peracetic acid is one used in the dairy industry. May have different brand names.

DbltreeBelgians · February 10, 2024, 08:10:02 PM

So I tapped 20 tree's last Tuesday afternoon. On Wednesday afternoon I went to the woods to check on my buckets and pulled 45 gallons. On Thursday afternoon I got 25 gallons. Got way to warm the past few days. Ran the 70 gallons through my RO and took out 50% of the water. What a great time saver that is. I'm almost finished with my first boil.

Brent

thecfarm · February 11, 2024, 09:24:10 AM

When at the hardware store we had 2-3 different cleaners for milk rooms.
Has to be something in your area.
Some maple producers would come in and buy it from us.

Stephen1 · February 14, 2024, 07:46:25 AM

Quote from: DbltreeBelgians on February 05, 2024, 09:55:45 PMI'll be tapping tomorrow here in NW Ohio. Might have missed out on some good sap flows as it's been pretty mild lately. Rather odd for this time of year in this area.
I'd like to asks the people that know what is the best sanitizer to use to clean my buckets, taps, poly tubing, etc, etc? I hang 5 gallon food grade buckets on stainless taps with a short length of poly tubing poked through a tight hole in the lid of the bucket.
(tried adding a picture but I can't figure out how now)

I've used a little dawn dishwashing liquid and bleach to clean everything but it takes a lot of rinsing to make sure I don't have any residual smell and I'd hate to have off taste syrup because of that.
Your thoughts and advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,

Brent I was told a long time ago to never use soap on any sap equipment. I have always used a very small amount of bleach and a scrub brush for the buckets and just soak to small lines in the barrel. ( 1-2 cap fulls in a 45 gallon barrel, amount of bleach) This is the 1st year all we ran thru our lines was water . We normally used Alcohol to sanitze the drops and stopped that this year. I notice walking the bush last week that no mold in any lines so it must work.

Chuck White · February 14, 2024, 10:38:03 AM

We don't allow ANY soap in our sugarhouse.

As far as sap and/or syrup goes, it can easily be cleaned up just using warm or hot water.

Looks like we're taking the boiling part off, this season.

I'm still limited with the sciatica issue, and my brothers wife fell and cracked her right humerus near the shoulder.

We're tapped and still going to gather, my brother worked out a deal with another brother (he has a sugaring setup) to boil on halves.

We gather, he boils.

Hope next season is better!

Magicman · February 14, 2024, 12:19:59 PM

Probably her Humerus near the shoulder or Femur near the hip?

Chuck White · February 15, 2024, 08:44:44 AM

Thanks for the heads up Lynn, fixed the post!

My mistake, it is the HUMERUS, right at the point where it starts to round out at the top to form the ball.

Magicman · February 15, 2024, 09:08:55 AM

Sometime it is humorous (pun intended) chuckling at us old farts stumbling over simple stuff.

Chuck White · February 16, 2024, 11:07:03 AM

Sorry for sidetracking this thread, but here is the only place I've mentioned the problem.

I do believe that I'm "on the mend" with my sciatica attack!

I start PT at the clinic on Monday, that'll help a lot, or so they say!

I've been doing the stretches that the ER Doc suggested, and my last muscle relaxer ( 500 mg Methocarbamol) pill is going down at 4:00 today, script was 1 pill, 3 times a day for 5 days!

I'm feeling well enough that I went out and plowed 4 driveways with my JD 1023E this morning.

SwampDonkey · February 16, 2024, 01:06:42 PM

Glad your coming along with the sciatica. Muscle relaxers and steroids never did a thing for me. I've had it 3 times bad over the last 15 years. Seems to get worst each bought. Oh well, we're a tough lot. Gotta keep moving. Just came in from kick sledding 3 miles. :D

Chuck White · February 18, 2024, 02:50:18 PM

Mine started getting bad on the 7th and there's still a little discomfort once in a while, but mostly gone!

ER visits on the 9th and 11th.

Therapy starts tomorrow afternoon!

BeeBazaar · February 19, 2024, 12:20:30 PM

I was looking for a forum to join for sugaring and this one popped up. Didn't realize there was a yearly thread.

This is my 1st time sugaring. My daughter house has ~10 large red maple. smallest I tapped was ~24" diameter. All trees but 1 have 2 taps. I tapped 7 holes on feb 3rd. They were flowing immediately. I got ~3 gallons overnight from everything. and have got pretty much nothing since. I tapped 5 more Feb 11th and 7 more on the 15th. so I have 19 taps now. granted it got warmish here. (SW ohio) We got some snow and ice this past friday and it been 20s and 40's the last 2 or 3 days and I don't think I got half a gallon. My buddy has a couple trees he has been tapping for 3 years. He has 7 taps and got 25 to 30 gallons this weekend. he is about 40 miles north from my trees. we both use 5/16 spiles and tubing that gravity feeds to a bucket below. I read to drill 1.5" deep into the tree, which I did, but he says he goes about 3" to 4". I'm also about 5 feet off the ground he thinks i'm too far up but i can't find anything to support what he says for either. it was low 20s last night and is 39 as I type this at my trees location. I thought with it being in the 50 the last week or so that it was the reason, but with him getting that much and I got nothing now I'm kind of confused. I will see tonight....

my location and my buddy and his trees are both near oxford ohio. My trees are in Blanchester Ohio, about 40 miles south east of me.
thanks for any feedback guys

Chuck White · February 21, 2024, 08:32:21 AM

Welcome to the Maple Syrup 2024 thread @BeeBazaar!

Lots of good info in these type threads!

Stephen1 · February 21, 2024, 05:45:43 PM

Welcome to the FF Beebazzar, 1.5" is plenty deep enough. Are you on the sunny side of the trees? Your trees could be bigger and have not thawed out yet.

On my side I floated the bobcat in today and opened up the yard and down to the pad where we place the tanks. Pretty warm today and going to rain tonight, then Friday night it's going down -4 F. Pretty darn cold considering its 45F here today. No sure what kind of season we will have. our normal season is the end of March and 1st of April.

thecfarm · February 22, 2024, 05:21:59 AM

I did it on a small scale too, maybe 20 taps. If the tree did not produce sap, I moved onto the next tree.
We had a lot of fun doing it.

thecfarm · February 22, 2024, 05:28:12 AM

This is a small scale boiling operation.
I would get the sap up to about 214° than the wife would take it into the house and finish it off. Bring it up to 218° maybe.
Most times we would not even finish off a quart in the house. Only took a few minutes to do it. Then into the canning jars.

SwampDonkey · February 22, 2024, 05:43:05 AM

Always did a small bunch with grandfather up on his ridge. Got in by skidoo. Live boiled it in an old drum over a fire to get most of the water out, then finished off on a wood fired cook stove. Only did enough for a fresh supply, he gave a lot away. Grandfather was different, only ate it while it was in season. Same with fiddle heads in the spring. After the season was done didn't care for any more.

Used to tap the yard trees a little at the house here. Dad's uncles said the maples down on the lower elevation of the farm never made much sap. There was about 35 acres of sugar maple down there. Not wet ground, just not a ridge and also a lot of balsam fir undergrowth all through it. Dad never got into it much other than a bottle or two because we had lots to do on the farm already. When he wasn't tending cows and selling potatoes he was cutting wood. So who had time? :D Keep in mind a generation ago it wasn't a commercial enterprise. Not in these parts. Government and lobby helped make it what it has become. Government was helping find ways to generate income off woodlots other than wood.

Stephen1 · February 23, 2024, 06:48:28 AM

We set up the vacuum pump yesterday, had to trouble shoot the check valves and replace. Tapped 140 taps , put it on vacuum and only 5in of vacuum. So walk the lines next warm day to find the leaks.

Chuck White · February 23, 2024, 08:46:51 AM

We gathered sap yesterday afternoon and got around 300 gallons from our 900+ taps!

Jack delivered it to the other sugarhouse for boiling!

Plankton · February 23, 2024, 10:17:12 AM

Some sap has been coming in last few days getting ready for what should be a 3 day run starting monday.

Chuck White · February 23, 2024, 05:02:17 PM

We gathered again this afternoon and got about 125 gallons! Now we have a freeze-up coming tonight, lasting about 3 days!

SwampDonkey · February 24, 2024, 04:38:58 AM

I think it should start moving this coming week, looks like 30's and 40's all week except 20's on Thursday and Friday then warmer on the weekend.

Stephen1 · February 24, 2024, 06:26:15 AM

We finally got the 15" of vacuum which is prettier good for our guzzler pump. Sap flowed real nice yesterday and we fixed a few leaks, squirrel chews. We ended up with 100 gallons of sap by freeze up. Looks like a we will see a run the 1st of the next week. We will get the evaporator set up tomorrow and be ready to boil on Monday Tuesday.

WoodenFeet · February 24, 2024, 01:35:34 PM

Last few years I boiled a gallon but ended up emptying some buckets without boiling them because of timing/scheduling. Going small this year: 8 trees, 8 taps, 8 5-gal buckets, but making an effort to boil more frequently and not waste any sap. Hopefully will still get a gallon, we'll see!

DbltreeBelgians · February 24, 2024, 04:59:45 PM

Pulled 90 gallons of sap from 20 taps over the last 3 days. Got a good boil going on right now and I'm pounding through the sap concentrate. I'm on the last 10 gallons of sap running through the RO system and I'll be done for a short while

Brent