Maple Syrup 2018

[Mapleman]

Looks like the season is over for me here.  We had a good freeze last night, and the sunshine this morning warmed things up to 45 or so, but we only got a slight dribble of sour smelling sap.  I think the two weeks of cold weather we had with no sap runs dried up the tap holes.  All in all it was an OK year though, we made over 400 gallons on 1800 taps, not far off our average.  Now it's on to the clean up!

[Chuck White]

When the sap starts to turn yellow or sour, it's time to pull the plug tap!

We have 1,330 taps and now have 285 gallons either bottled or in the barrel!

Last year we got 245 gallons, so this has been a good year, but we thought we might hit 300 gallons!  We did get another barrel though when compared to last year!

[maple flats]

I had to shut the pump off on Monday, when the sap got super cloudy. Besides, I needed the time to finish up before my surgery next Wednesday.
This morning I had a call from an Amish farmer who is at about 1200-1400' higher elevation than I am and he is still going strong, but the forecast looks like he may not get another week or maybe 10 days. He was tapped before the end of Jan. and made over 100 gal in Jan. I think he said he has about 2500 taps, about 700 on mechanical vacuum and the rest on 3/16 gravity vacuum. With the frequent freezes and no flow days he has only made a little over 700 gal, was expecting 1000+.

[maple flats]

Chuck, my best year ever, back when I had 1320 taps I made 428 gal. All taps were on low vacuum, one woods at 17" the other at 19" most of the season, on old dairy pumps.
This year, with only 225 taps (because of health issue) and the late start I'll likely only end up with 100-110 gal, but this is on an even older dairy pump (a BB4) which gives me 26-27" vacuum. I have not yet finished off the end yet for an accurate total. This PM I'll finish what is in the finisher, then I'll reduce what is still in the evaporator as far as I dare, then pump it to the finisher to get to final density. That will likely finish tomorrow or Saturday. Then to pull the taps.

[Chuck White]

Dave; You've been doing pretty good with the sugaring!

We gathered again today and the sap is starting to cloud up a little, we boiled what we had and drew off 2.6 gallons!

We'll go up tomorrow, and depending on how much is in the barrels, we might be done besides boiling off what's left in the evaporator!   We'll just drain the flue pan and flood it with water and just be done!

Wishing you the best on your upcoming surgery, Dave!

[maple flats]

I boiled for 4 hrs in my finisher today, working on the tail end of the season. What is in the finisher is what I pumped there after boiling as low as I dared in the evaporator. I still have more boiling to go, The depth in the 2x6 finisher has gone from 9" deep to 4.5, but the last check at about 5" deep the hydrometer still did not float at all. I think it was barely trying to float at 4.5" deep, but not real sure, if it was it was only by maybe 1/16" or so. I'll boil more tomorrow, I think I can get it to density then. It's beginning to look like my total might end up at between 95-100 gal. Should know tomorrow.
I had a call from the Amish producer who bought one of my leases, he is still going. He is at about 1200' or more higher elevation than I am. He made another 35 gal of Amber today. He thinks he will call it quits later this next week even if the trees are still going. He was all tapped by Jan 30 and no taps were the CV type.

[Chuck White]

All of our barrels are disconnected and buckets pulled as of early this morning!

We boiled, then allowed the evaporator to cool to about 150° (fire completely out) drained the flue pan and pumped it into the feeder tank, then gravity flowed to the front float box!

We flooded the flue pan with water before we refired the arch!

Between yesterday and today (not very much sap) we made 6.9 gallons of syrup, bringing our total up to 294.6 gallons!

Tomorrow we'll boil what's left in the front pans, in the finishing pan, we expect to BARELY reach our goal of 300 gallons!

[Corley5]

Made 15 gallons Thursday and 26.75 tonight.  Winter storming last night, today and supposed to through Monday morning.  Looks like sap weather again next week.  I can't imagine it lasting much past next week.  It's getting late.  We're well over a 100 gallons now but I don't have an actual tally yet. 

[petefrom bearswamp]

If I may put my tongue in my cheek, when you have that higher vacuum are the trees shorter by season's end?

[maple flats]

Just got back from boiling some more on what was in the finisher. It didn't take as long as I thought. I just went by temperature, then I shut down with one channel at 219 and the other at 217.4. In the morning I will warm the finisher to maybe 120-130, then shut down, pump it all to one channel, with the plug in place to keep them separated, then put permeate in that other channel and then finish it off, get to density, grade it and then filter it and pump it to a barrel. At this point it looks like it may end up as Dark, but usually my final finish off ends as very dark.  Looking now like it will be about 15 gal +/- about 1. That would make my total about 100 gal off 225 taps.
The season lasted much longer this year than many in recent years. It's just too bad my health issue caused me to start so late, had I been tapped on 850 taps in Jan. like usual I might have had my best total ever or at least close, even comparing it to back when I had 1320 taps. Well, hopefully there's still next year and beyond. I will not be getting much bigger than 850-900 taps in the near future and after that I'll likely just do my sugarbush and maybe expand that to about 300. The hills on my lease get steeper it seems every year, especially if we get enough snow to require snow shoes. This year I only needed them 1 day, after a 2'+ nor'easter storm. My woods is rather flat, only about 7-8' max difference between the high point and the low area. (thus maple flats)

[petefrom bearswamp]

BTW all the best in coping with your health issues.

[Chuck White]

If I may put my tongue in my cheek, when you have that higher vacuum are the trees shorter by season's end?

Nope, they're just a little closer to the sugar house!   :D  ;D  :D  ;D  :D  ;D

[Chuck White]

Final boil today, in the finishing pan!

Started about 8:15 this morning!

We boiled the last of it down and got 5½ gallons!

We  "J U S T" squeaked over the 300 gallon mark, and got 300.1 gallons, a new record for us!

Now, all we have to do is the cleanup, then off to other things like firewood and lumber! 

[cbla]

Congrats on the good year Chuck!! I pulled my taps on the 14th and did the cleanup. I managed to get 4.7 gallons. The last 2 years have been very strange weather wise here in NS.

[51cub]

Congratulations, Chuck! You both exceeded your goal, and made a new record!

[celliott]

We are still going. Still making golden delicate syrup with good flavor too. This season the weather has been by and large too cold for us. While operators south of us got runs, we were frozen up or just got a trickle. Even with the long cold snap and 45 degree weather it's just kinda trickling in. Weather for this week is low 40's and low 30's at night. Not sure if much will happen. Maybe the trees will finally turn on for us! Or not, this week will be a telling week I'm sure.
We are up to about 10,000 gallons. Not nearly where we would like to be (17,000 is a good production goal)

[Chuck White]

Congratulations to all for the good year!

Good to hear you're still going, Chris!

Chris, how many taps do you figure you have in?

[maple flats]

I finished off the end of my season. Too bad the tap count had to be so low because of my Cancer surgery this Wednesday. With late tapping as a result, and 26-27" vacuum I ended up with 102.5 gal on 225 taps. Still .455 gal/tap is not too bad, If this had been any other year when we were tapped by late Jan. I would have broken the half gal/tap that I keep trying for. Still this was my best per tap ever, by a little.
To top it off, I had 5 lines as an experiment. 3/16 tubing lines from 5-30 taps per line and all pulling from below the main. Two of them pulled from 400 and 475' away from the main from an area that was 5-7' below the main, and they had to climb over a driveway. Each was on 3/16 tubing, as they reached the driveway they went up a tree,across the driveway at 14' over the driveway and then sloped to the main at a drop of 10' and a distance of 30'. Then they tied into the main that was on 26-27" vacuum. I declare that experiment a success.
Next year I will be adding about 4-5 more similar lines, going up to 1000' on the longest one and all but one will be pulling from below the main without a conventional sap ladder.

[Chuck White]

Way to go, Dave! 

[celliott]

We got in approximately 37,000 taps. When I tell visitors to the sugarhouse that last year at this time the building they are in had a Skidder parked between the stakes of the footprint they usually say wow! Wanted to get more in but just too much to do.

Dave, we despise sap ladders and avoid them at all costs. Think we have one over 75,000 taps and I can confidently say we will not have one at the new Eden woods. We do just what you are doing. If you can keep high vacuum, you can simply lift it with a normal tubing run. 5/16 works too but 3/16 is definitely better for it. We figure 25 vertical feet of lift. Looks funny seeing all the tubing running uphill but man it works! 

[maple flats]

Thanks for the input celliott. After the experiment this year I'm thinking my sap ladders may be changed to a bunch of 3/16 climbing the rise. In my small bush around the sugarhouse I only have 2 mains and each has 2 sap ladders, they will be converted to 3/16 lifts. The other bush is leased and it has 5 sap ladders and was originally planned for a sixth ladder. I now think those will also become "lifts" or maybe more like sap ladders using 3/16. Those sections already have mains. At the sugarhouse I run into a 415 gal SS tank which it plumbed to a 545 gal bulk tank if needed.
Do any of yours do that or do you only run a  3/16 lateral up hill to tie into a main and then the wet/dry conductors?
My sugarhouse woods have an old BB4 pump which gives me 26-27" vacuum (I'm at 430' elevation), my other woods has a 1000 gal Surge vacuum tank and uses an Alamo 30, regulated to 19", but the plans for next year are to swap that pump for an Alamo 50-75-100 I own with new after market oilers. Then take the vacuum off the tank, use the double vertical releaser I own and then have it flow into that 1000 gal vacuum tank. There is no power there, the will run off a 9 HP Honda gas engine to get up to the 100 figure if the HP can do it. The 50-75-100 are just originally the number of cows a farm had and the corresponding number of milkers needed at 15" vac based on different RPM's of the pump. Then a year or 2 later I'd put a true maple pump there to get 27+" of vacuum (that bush is at 1550' elevation where the pump will set and it climbs to 1630' at the top).
In your opinion, would the sections with ladders all be better if I ran all 3/16 to get to the mains and the wet/dry?  

[celliott]

We don't have any gravity 3\16, we have probably 20,000 taps on high vac, with wet\dry conductor systems and traditional mainlines. The spots where we have lift lines, we run them per usual into a mainline, with a saddle fitting, just, uphill.

It's hard to say without looking at it, but, I would eliminate the ladders in favor of 3\16 lift lines. You're accomplishing the same thing, lifting sap with vacuum. You could use 3\16 as the sap ladder lines, that works well too. But, one advantage over a traditional ladder is that you don't have to wait for everything to thaw out. As you know, the ladders don't drain properly and will freeze up, stopping the flow and lift from everything on the line. With individual 3\16 lift lines, if one thaws out sooner, it'll go. Don't have to wait for everything to thaw. Plus it eliminates the high off the ground stuff, one less thing to go wrong, less things to leak.

[bill m]

Well we finally finished packaging everything and had a great season. 317 gallons on 1100 taps. Going to try to put vacuum on one of our smaller pipelines ( only 300 taps ) Power is not available so we are looking at a 12 volt guzzler pump with solar and batteries. Now to get ready for the farmers market season!

[maple flats]

Power is best, but a 12V diaphragm pump is maybe next best, or maybe a engine driven pump depending on the scale of that bush. Then you need to fuel it all of the time. On my 6.5 HP remote vacuum pump I use a 4.5 gal gas tank on a stand I built. The tank sets just a few inches higher than where the original engine tank sat. When I set my 9 HP engine driven pump up, I will make a double stand, with 2 tanks at the same height, plumbed together and they will set in the same relation as my single tank sat. If you have any way to reasonably get power, do it. In my case the nearest power is about 2500' away and at my age I can't justify that expense of getting power pole service to pull sap from 850-900 taps max. Thus I burn the gas.
I did not get a quote, but back in 1990 my brother paid over $14000 to get a line extended 800' and in 2012 I paid $7200 to get a pole set, buy another pole (had to be from the utility) and run power toward the sugarhouse. With that cost, the first 100' was free, the next 160' I paid thru the nose.
Now, when I send them power on those same lines from my solar electric they charge me over $26.00 a month line charge.

[bill m]

Engine driven is not an option. This property is a resort with guests staying nearby, the noise would not be tolerated. To get AC power it is over 350 feet away and would need to be buried and in conduit. This is their requirement. Because of the lay of the land, not a simple straight run, this would be very expensive.