Off topic...but.. It's Maple Season!

[ArtR 0]

Maple Syrup Season is on again in Vermont.

Feb 16, I drove 106 miles to Hardwick, VT,  to my nephew's maple sugar operation. He had finished tapping 3813 trees on Tuesday and I got there in time to help set up to make sugar.  He has 5 large SS tanks (2x2000gal, 1x1600gal, 1x1300ga, 1x1000gal), that all needed 'spring cleaning', basically washing the dust out. Once those were all cleaned, the vacuum was turned on and sap began to flow to the two 2000gal tanks. Back at the sugar house, We installed membranes in the RO and got that all plumbed and ready to process sap. After that was putting the evaporator back together, which also has a lot of plumbing. It was a very busy afternoon, and by evening we were hauling sap, which is held in the 1300 and 1000 gal tanks while it waits to go through the RO. The concentrate from the RO is pumped to the 1600 gal tank.  Sugar content for this first sap run was low, only 1.4%, which equates to 63 gal sap to make 1 gal syrup. By Friday, we had hauled and processed through the RO 7000 gal of sap, which yielded just under 1600 gal of concentrate. At 2pm we started a fire in the evaporator, and by 7pm we were all done, and cleaned up. We made 111 gal of 100% Pure Vermont Maple Syrup. The earliest run that we have had since he started to make syrup in 2005.

Here is a little known fact:  100% Pure Vermont Maple Syrup is the sweetest!  Vermont Maple Syrup production is regulated by the State, and   as such, at 66.9Brix it is nearly 1% sweeter than any other 100% pure  66Brix maple syrup from any other state or Canada! While Canada is the largest maple producer in the world, Vermont is the largest producer in the U.S.

 

[WHIG 0]

Reminds me of one of my favorite cartoons....

 

 

[ArtR 0]

Reminds me of the story my cousin's husband tells, of when he first was introduced to his future father-in-law after having just moved to VT from KY. The future FIL was taking his future SIL on a tour of his sugar woods, when suddenly the SIL went missing. A while later, the SIL reappeared and commented on "How really friendly and hospitable Vermonters are! The hang a  convenience on every tree!"

Or this one:

[Ed Johnson 0]

I guess we need some good laughs now and then. Thank you both for the cartoons.....I will pass them along to some of my "sick" friends. 

BTW Art....how can I order some? I got screwed up last year.  ej

[ArtR 0]

And the news from Hardwick.  Hope not to bore you.

Sort of a mid season report. We boiled the one time in February, and then things froze up solid until a week ago. There was about 2000 gallons that had flowed and was in the storage tanks at the time of the freeze. Then off and on over the nearly 30 days, another 1000 gallons was collected (2% sugar).  Then on the 13th my nephew and a friend boiled that in and made 70 gallons of the lightest grade, (Golden-Delicate, a very light golden color, with very delicate maple flavor). Then, last Thursday, it appeared sap might flow agan and it did later in the day and again all day Friday, I drove to Hardwick again on March 18th, and when I arrived I picked up 2500 gallons of sap, after my nephew had picked up 2000 gallons (2.1% sugar). After running it all through the RO, we boiled and made 120 gallons of Golden-Delicate. We then  had a couple days of good freeze and then Tuesday-Thursday we got another 6000 gallons of sap (1.9% sugar). We boiled that in yesterday and made 141 gallons (Amber-Rich, Amber color, Rich maple flavor). We are off today as it cooled down and sap flow really slowed down. We may have enough by Saturday or Sunday to do another boil.

So far this year, we have made 431 gallons. Small by some standards, but large by others. We have some friends who  tap 120,000- 150,000 trees. One friend friend, who taps about 40,000 trees,  can boil in one night what we make in a full season.

While we can boil with less than 4000 gallons sap, we do not like to as it takes so much wood/fuel to get the rig up to temperature before shutting down.  There is a ton of firebrick inside which slowly warms and becomes hot. It takes the best part of an hour to an hour and a half to get to a full temperature through out the evaporator. When the 'arch', (the complete evaporator rig) is up to temperature, when we do shut down, we can literally boil and draw off syrup for almost 1 hour after the last wood/fuel has been feed into the burner. So, needless to say, the longer we can boil, the more efficient we boil.

[WHIG 0]

A ton of work but it sure sounds satisfying! Thanks for the summary.

[ArtR 0]

A ton of work, and a year around operation. A few years back (3/3/2012), a local fellow (Buzz Kuhns) wrote a 13 minute poem about maple sugaring, and he recited it from memory before a local audience at the Ripton (VT) Community Coffee House. He basically describes 'how to make maple syrup' with a little satire. Enjoy.

BTW, as weather in VT is very fickle and totally unpredictable, and after we decided at noon it was too  cold for sap to run, it warmed ever so  slightly and nearly 2000 gallons sap was collected!

[eb in oregon 0]

Yo, Art, I almost had a heart attack laughing at the poem. Well done. And being somewhat mechanically and agriculturally inclined I can truly appreciate the expense of such efforts.

I'm sure your syrup is excellent, but we don't often have pancakes or waffles for breakfast. It's a rare thing in this house.

Those cartoons were pretty good also. It would have been interesting if Gary Larson had approached the subject.

[Ed Johnson 0]

I bought some of the syrup. It goes well on Vanilla Ice Cream. And unfortunately......it tastes damn good !! 

[matconcrete 0]

Maple syrup and bacon, what else does one need.

[ArtR 0]

Eb and others...

The 'subject' of that poem is a tale that is often told among serious sugar makers. Sadly, we often pass along Buzz Kuhns poem, as it rings so true to so many tales. The number of burnt kitchen pots & pans, peeling wallpaper, rusting nails showing through sheet rock, and other casualties of 'the back yard sugar maker" abound.

Today's update: we boiled 3200 gallons of 1.7% sugar content sap and made just over 70 gallons Amber-Rich syrup, putting our year total to 501 gallons. "How Sweet It Is!"

[ArtR 0]

Hi

Still in Hardwick, VT. Since I last reported, we have boiled 3 more times, adding 310 gallons, for a current total of 811 gal.

Yesterday we woke to 28F. While it was below freezing, it had not stopped the sap from flowing in the woods at the old quarry, and it dribbled into the tanks  about 20 gallons per hour overnight. It did not warm until noon. When it did, it shot to 58F by 3PM, and then slowly cooled down. That got the sap to running into the collection tanks, starting just after noon. By 5PM, sap was flowing into the tanks at almost 500 gallons per hour. The temps slowly began to cool, and were forecast to be below freezing again by midnight. But the sap kept running, so we trucked 2 x 1000 gallon loads back to the sugar house, in hopes that the sap flow would slow and the tanks would not overflow.  It did finally freeze up and the sap stopped flowing about 5AM. Today, we will haul the balance of the sap and process it through the RO, and boil sometime after noon. With luck, we will make another 120-130 gallons today. (Note: the blue temperature line is about 8 degrees cooler than the air temp in the woods as the sensor location is at the low point in the valley.)

[matconcrete 0]

I have alot of friends that like to boil the sap, but you guys are serious!

phil

[ArtR 0]

I ended up hauling and running through the RO another 3000 gallons of sap, and we boiled just after 2PM and made 115 gallons. That is good, but the last 4 boils, we have been getting niter build up in the pans  (minerals which precipitate out from the sap).  This is not unusual, as this normally occurs towards the end of the season. We are somewhat worried, as the season, by the calendar, is only 1/2 over. On average we boil through April 18th. Maybe we are running out of luck this year.

As for serious, sort of. While we have 3800 taps, we are larger than some, but smaller than some as well. The Glenn Goodrich, who we buy much of our equipment and supplies from, has two locations.  Glenn is featured in this video. Where his store is in Cabot, VT, he taps about 30,000 trees, so that is bigger than us by a factor of 8. However, he has a newer, more modern facility in Eden, VT, where he taps close to 117, 000 trees. At his new Eden facility, they also do what is called HIGH BRIX concentration. That is, they use reverse osmosis (RO) to remove more water from the sap, until the concentrate is about 36% sugar. And they boil using high temperature steam produced from heating fuel.  We only concentrate to 10-11% and heat with wood. In Canada there are some larger operations.

[ArtR 0]

Final update: Since I last posted, between April 3 - 13, we hauled another 31,000 gallons of sap, ran that through the RO, boiled, and made another 594 gallons of syrup before having issues with off flavors. The weather had warmed considerably and with forecasts of daytime highs in the upper 70's and  low 80's, we knew that the end was near. But, at the first hint of 'butterscotch', my nephew declared 'victory' and called it a wrap. Our total of 1520 gallons of syrup, while not stellar compared to other years production, it was above average.  Production per tree (tap) was down as well, at .4 gallons per tap vs a good year of .5 gallons per tap,  but as with anything to do with agriculture, you take what you get and call it a day. I will return to Hardwick soon and help with the post season clean up, but for now, I am enjoying a few quiet days at home.

[WHIG 0]

Congratulations on a successful season and thanks for the education. We tapped a few maples when I was a kid and boiled it down to a few ounces. Your large scale operation is quite impressive!

Thanks!